How To Sing Shallow by Lady Gaga - Working On Controlled Belting

If you’ve ever tried to tackle a song that seems simple but ends up being surprisingly tricky, you know exactly what I’m talking about. One of my most requested covers is “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper—and while I love the song, it definitely comes with its own set of challenges.

Here’s what I worked through in my latest self-coaching session:

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Making Structural Changes

The first thing I wanted to do was tweak the song’s structure to make it feel more natural outside of the movie setting. I added a chorus after the first pre-chorus (Brady Cooper’s part). Because I wanted to keep the first chorus still soft - unlike the big belty chorus that happens later - I played around with singing it either down the octave or up in the normal octave, but in a breathy/soft head voice instead of a belt.

I haven’t made a decision yet on which version I want to go with. Instead I will record both versions when I go to “the studio” (I’ll record everything at home) and then see which version I like better in the whole context of the song.

To help me with the structural changes I hired a producer (shout out to Daniel Parks in Nashville, TN!) to create a whole new track for me. If you don’t have the budget to pay a producer to create a new track, you can always use a karaoke track and make changes to that yourself by using a DAW like GarageBand, ProTools, Logic Pro X, etc.

Getting Rid Of Old Habits

If you know anything about my story, you know that I sustained a vocal injury a couple of years ago from pushing my voice beyond its limits. Shallow is a song that I sang before I sustained that injury, meaning it’s full of old, bad habits that I need to somehow work around.

It’s much easier to learn a new skill than to retrain your voice to do something differently. This is what makes this song much harder to sing for me now than another song that’s similar that I didn’t used to sing.

What’s Hard About This Song (And How I’m Working Through It)

The chorus of “Shallow” is quite high and super belty—basically, a recipe for vocal fatigue if you’re not careful.

Here’s what I did to make it work:

• Start the first note with vocal fry or add an ‘h’ – This helps get the cords together without too much pressure. If you are using the “h” (basically turning it into “hi’m” instead of “i’m”, it’s important that the “h” is a flowy H, not a pressy one (squeezing your abs too tightly).

• Taking “sigh” breaks - I know that my tendency as a singer is to squeeze and push too much. To keep my vocal folds from compressing too tightly I like to sigh during breaks to give my voice a reset.

• Use the Train Track Trick – This is a trick I use to keep my mouth from spreading too much, making me use less effort to create the same sound. It also sounds a little less shouty and more controlled.

• Reset the larynx - Sometimes my larynx likes to get stuck up too high when I belt for an extended time. Inhaling through a yawn helps to push the larynx down, giving it a reset and make it flexible again.

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Adding Your Own Flavor

When you’re covering a song like this, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to sound exactly like the original artist. But I’ve found that the more you can make a song your own, the better it feels to sing—and the more it resonates with your audience.

That means experimenting with dynamics, playing with phrasing, and even tweaking the melody if it feels right. Don’t be afraid to bring a bit of you into every note. It doesn’t need to be complicated or major changes, just do what feels right to you.

If you don’t know where to start to make a cover your own, listen to other covers to get inspiration. Also check out this post here to learn more tricks to make a song your own instead of a perfect copy of the original.

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from coaching myself through “Shallow”, it’s that it’s so easy to fall back into your old habits, even though you worked so hard on building new, healthy ones. If you’re ever experience that, just know that you’re not alone and please be patient and gracious with yourself.

Remember, you don’t have to sound like the original artist. In fact, the more you bring to the song, the more it will resonate with your audience. So don’t be afraid to make changes that make the song easier to sing. You don’t have to belt every chorus if that’s too much for your voice. As long as you make it an artistic choice, anything can work.

So if you’re working through a tough cover or tackling a challenging song, give yourself the freedom to experiment, adjust, and make it yours.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be you.

If you want to see how I approached this song and hear the final result, check out this week’s episode of From Singer to Artist – it’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I coach myself through tough songs like this one.

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