Board Thread:Beginning Singers/@comment-27889120-20160229060408

Hey there anyone who reads this haha, I'm relatively new to posting on a Wiki, but I finally decided I wanted to post asking a few things.

Basically; I want to start doing covers of songs really bad, I've wanted to for a few years but just never really felt that feeling of like "I really really want to do this." So now I do, the problem is well, I'm lost. I've been singing since I was like six years old, people tell me I sound really good! Hell I sing for people on skype and they love it; the only issue is...when I don't have another singer in the song, like the original singer or even the person covering it; I sound like a dying animal. As in, I can't sing for the life of me; I hear myself start to sing and cut it off before it gets out, leading to this quiet mumble sounding note that doesn't even resemble an actual singing note. Essentially what I'm wondering is if anyone else who has this issue has any tips for how to help deal with it a bit, since it makes doing it a bit hard.

I've even tried singing to Karaoke, but the moment I start I hear only myself and just clam up and choke. If I hear them even a tiny bit I do fine, but by myself? Nope.

This leads to my second question; when you're doing a cover of a song like this, do you listen to the original and sing along or do you just get the music itself and sing your own way without hearing the speed or pitch of the original singer? Because if I could just listen to it in my headphones I could probably do pretty well. @.@

Last question I promise! Well I think it will be. What do you guys suggest for hardware and software to do recording? My current microphone is not that good since it's a part of my headset, but at the same time I don't have $300 to spend on a studio microphone if I don't even do well enough to buy it.

Thanks for your time, and hope someone can help with the first issue more than the others. :P  