Anyone can instantly sound better when they are singing.

It doesn't matter if you're a beginner or have been doing it for years.

The first thing to think about if you are having trouble singing a song:

Are you singing a song in your for your gender?

Some songs are obviously written for a woman to sing, like the song "I Am Woman." Unless you're going for laugh, and a big one, you probably don't want to sing that one if you are a guy. And women, don't sing something that isn't meant for you, either. It sounds tacky!

Second, think about the vocal quality you need to deliver the song well. Do you sing in an angelic soprano, but want to sing with a raspy vocal like Bonnie Rait or Janice Joplin? Don't! The tonal quality of their voice was paramount to the quality of their songs.

Not every song is suited for every type of voice either. You would never hear the late, great Barry White trying to sing a Celine Dion tune.

To understand this more, you need to look at another issue: your vocal range. I will discuss vocal ranges in more detail below.

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But let's get back to vocal range. Here are the average vocal ranges for the most common vocal types.

Soprano - C4 to A5

Tenor - B2 to G4

Alto - F3 to D5

Baritone - G2 to E4

I've left out bass since there aren't really a lot of Karaoke tunes for a bass unless you ARE singing Barry White.

What you want to do to examine your vocal range is see if you can hit ALL the notes that fall in the above categories. Which notes do you sing clearly, and with minimal effort? Which can you sing with power, which are soft?

Once you find the range of notes that are most comfortable for you to sing, you will know your starting point for your vocal range. Find songs that fall into this range of notes, provided that song was made for your vocal type.

So, the question is, how do you find out what vocal range a song was made for?

Unfortunately, few songs, unless it's church music, will state what range they are for on the sheet music. The best thing you can do is make a note of the lowest and highest notes in a song by going through the music and see what range they fall in. If they fall in YOUR range, there is a good chance that you'll be able to sing it.

Practice a couple of songs each day but never over do it and make your throat sore by singing; you will be surprised at how quickly your voice will develop.

In the next installment, we're going to go over some more song selection tips.