After many years of being a pretty ordinary singer, I decided I'd take it a bit more seriously and take a few lessons. The singing teacher recommended to me was a very experienced classically trained guy. He told me to bring my guitar along to the first lesson and sing him a few songs, which I did. He then informed me that, strictly speaking, I wasn't singing. I was "talking" (his words.) He started to go into the mechanics of a "properly" produced singing voice. Holy shit! This stuff is complicated...
And it really is. After all these years, I've actually discovered how _hard_ singing is. I recently bought the "Singing for Dummies" book. Just reinforces that idea. Singing is hard. And I'm slowly beginning to understand where this guy was coming from with his "you aren't actually singing" remarks (mind you, to be fair, by this criteria about 90% of r'n'r singers don't really sing either...)
I was originally hoping for some quick and dirty tricks and techniques to make an untrained hack singer with (at best) a modest natural ability into a slightly better hack singer. But I now think it ain't going to happen. Improvement is going to take regular practice and exercise of the relevant muscles. The good news is that even a few short weeks of practice has led to some measurable (if not dramatic) improvement. Basic stuff, like the importance of warming up...
Just thought I'd compare notes with anyone else who's been down this path. (If there a source of "qiuck and dirty tricks for hack singers" that I just haven't been able to find, pointers are appreciated... )
-Mark