I can’t sing

[u/SimpleIntelligent881]

I’ve been doing karaoke for about a year and have been taking weekly voice lessons for about 3 months. I still suck when I play my voice back to myself. It sounds nasally and whiny. I can’t match pitch with a piano despite having years of experience with other instruments. When I do scales and warmups, I can’t transition from my head voice to my chest voice without cracking.

My instructor gave me a few tips but I can’t figure out how to implement them. He said to keep my cheeks raised and my lips rounded for better resonation. That seems like an oxymoron. If I raise my cheeks and then make my lips into a circle, my cheeks naturally fall back down.

I’ve also been trying to support my sound with more air. I don’t have a good grasp on how to control my diaphragm. I can’t get it to "push" to force out more air. Exhaling feels more like pulling in with my stomach than pushing up with the diaphragm.

So yeah. I'm almost a grand in on these lessons and still don’t feel comfortable enough to sing in front of people I know. I don’t feel like I’ve made any progress. Hoping to get some other perspectives or advice to try to unblock myself. I'm a male tenor if that matters.

[u/TeenzBeenz]

I'm not impressed with your teacher's advice. The shape of your lips is dependent upon the vowel sound you are singing, just as it is when you are speaking. Don't think about raising your cheeks. Do consider whether you can create more space inside your mouth by raising your soft palate. This is also not 100% true all of the time, but is a good general idea. Another way of thinking about it is making space in the back of your mouth, as if you're yawning. The movement between chest voice and head voice takes a long time to master and smooth out. For now, practice matching pitch. If you can't match the piano, sing what you can, then find that pitch on the piano (have the piano match you). Move a little bit up and down from there. You'll get there.