Bad and good singing technique...Let's start with the bad.

 

Just a warning, you may want to turn your volume down slightly for this video. You'll see why in a minute. A few years ago my friend sent me this video of this girl singing a cover of Taylor Swift's song "Love Story." She had a bunch of these covers and she really didn't think she sounded bad. She needs a lot of vocal coaching, but I have no room to talk because I sound like a dying cat as well. 

The first thing wrong with her technique is that she looks to me like she is sitting down leaning against a wall when she should be sitting tall with her spine straight. Another issue I noticed was with her breathing. She doesn't look like she is taking a big enough breath, therefore she isn't supporting her voice like she needs to. It looks like she isn't opening her mouth enough for words to come out or to be enunciated. She's trying to imitate a pop singer like most young girls tend to do, but not keeping in mind proper singing technique when doing so. Taylor Swift sings with good technique and has done so for so long that she makes it look effortless. This girl's voice just sounds strained and painful. 

For the example of good singing technique I'm going to promote a friend of mine. When she was a teenager she was signed to a record label and thrown into a girl group. Sadly after 9/11, they decided to shelf the album and the girl group never got to hit it big. However, she still makes all these amazing cover videos and recorded an album a few years ago of original songs. Back to singing technique, even though she is playing the piano while singing you can see that she is sitting up straight. Her jaw is relaxed. Most importantly, she takes a deep enough breath to support her voice. You can hear and physically see the breath she takes. She has a lot of control over it and uses dynamics very well. When a line is about to crescendo or the pitch gets higher, she anticipates it and pushes it over.