How do I get more emotion into my singing voice?

Feeling an emotion is not the same as transmitting it. In performance (acting and singing), feeling a strong emotion can actually interfere with the transmission and audience reception of any emotional content of the performance. Some suggestions: Focus on your technique. Once you can reliably sing well in a variety of situations (e.g. walking, standing, swinging your arms around, different room sizes and ambient noise levels), emotion is much less likely to interfere with your performance. Read the lyrics aloud, as though performing a spoken-word play. Work on the melodic and emotional content separately, even to the level of singing on a single vowel. Study the text and the context, including the instrumental accompaniment to your singing. Put the emotional content of the song in front of you where the audience can see it, not in your body where it will tend to choke your performance.

A lot of "emotionless" and flat singing comes from poor pitch which seems to be the problem in your case. I don't think you're going to improve much on your own until you enlist the help of a professional who can teach you proper techniques.

Ever done anyhttp://www.theatrgroup.com/Method/sense_memory.html work?

I suspect that any method acting mefites will scoff at this advice, but sense memory stuff never worked so well for me back when I was an actor. What did work was imitating a voice that sounded the way I would like to sound, and then gradually over time making that voice my own.

Read the lyrics very closely and make sure you understand each word, and what it expresses, both on the face of it, and what it might mean to you. Tell it and sing it, to express that. If you mean it, the emotion shouldn't need to be layered on.

Sounds like you need better breath support to me and that's only going to come from technique work. This is best coming from a good voice teacher, but before you start lessons you can practice abdominal breathing. Start by putting your hand on your lower abdomen and feel it pushing outwards (technically this is just relaxing those muscles) when you breathe in and tightening and moving inwards as you sing (and therefore let the breath out). Your voice sounds better when you are singing louder/with a bit more energy. You can try practicing maintaining that intensity when you are singing quieter. There is a lot of technique that a singing teacher can help you with and I wouldn't be too bothered about learning lots before you start because they will inevitably change it all anyway. Maybe learn a bit of anatomy and just see what your voice can do.

Agreed that you need better breath support. The above advice is a good start, and of course vocal lessons will help you improve further. Something else that will help with adding a sense of emotion to your singing is learning to (1) use a little vibrato where appropriate and (2) vary your dynamics appropriately. Improving your breath support will also help with the latter; it's easy to think that when singing more softly you can sing with less support, but in fact you need at least as much support when singing softly as you do when singing loudly. In short, worry about your technique first, and then you'll have the tools to be able to perform with more emotion. Enjoy your lessons! Disclaimer: I have far more classical vocal training than pop training.

" I suspect that any method acting mefites will scoff at this advice, but sense memory stuff never worked so well for me back when I was an actor. What did work was imitating a voice that sounded the way I would like to sound, and then gradually over time making that voice my own" This.

Listen to what people do with their voices when they are emotional. Pitch and timbre convey emotion, amplitude is a much smaller element in comparison. A rougher or less stable timbre or a pitch that won't sit still (a touch of melismata or vibrato) will easily get you an "emotional" performance. Not so much pitch change that you are going out of key mind you, it should be a more or less subtle effect. A little of this goes a long way - it is easy to sound like a campy torch singer or a crazy person if you overdo it.