The Idea

I am sure it can be agreed to that most all of us at one time in our childhood either saw or heard someone singing a song and got that feeling deep down in our souls that that is exactly what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives (I saw an Elvis Presley movie and that was it for me). The emotion that was stirred in us hearing that song or seeing that performer was the seed of a desire to have the same effect on others when we opened our mouths and displayed our own special talent, or maybe you just like to make noise. Either way somehow we got the bug. So, how do we go about germinating this seed of desire. Well... you just start singing!! Even if you are no longer a child there is no better time to start singing than right now. Just open your mouth and start singing.
There are two things I recommend that you can do to get an idea of how well you sing with your untrained, natural ability; 1st you can pick a song to sing and perform it for a close friend whom you can trust to give you an honest, unbiased and fair evaluation without offering any unkind or harping or undue criticism. A brief word on asking another for an "evaluation": Remember that you are attempting to create something out of nothing, which is the highest form of creating a human being can possibly hope to attain to. There are people who will ,knowingly or not, attempt to thwart your desire to create by any number of means for any number of reasons. The old saying about "opinions" has never been so apptly applied as it is in the field of creating. Be strong enough to endure and even embrace constructive critisism and be temperate of those who offer the other kind for you are inevitably lookng at a person who has no ability to create within themselves and therefore finds it impossible to see the ability in others. Keep in mind that not everyone will like the particular sound of your voice, this is inevitable and more over relatively unimportant. It would be a fair exercise I believe to have you imagine what possible alternate career choice Bob Dylan may have been forced to had he succumbed to early beatings in regard to the quality of his singing voice. There is way more to being a great singer than the character of ones voice alone. Remember that good and bad are always relative terms.
My 2nd suggestion is, if you find your confidence in public performance still in it's premature stages, to get yourself a simple, inexpensive tape or digital recorder and capture your debut performance in this manner for your own scrutiny (or you may have your friend attend as well). This method, assuming you are not totally tone deaf, will allow you to get a good idea of how you sound to others which will be very useful to you in the future. Trust me, what you hear inside your head is generally a far cry from what is heard inside the heads of others and getting use to the external sound of your own voice early on will alleviate the shock of hearing it for the first time down the road. I am sure you have heard the exclamatory cry of "Oh my , is that what I sound like" emanate from someone hearing their own vocal DNA for the first time. Don't worry you will get use to it and soon it will simply be your own "other" voice.
Next time we are going to take a look at the voice from a physical viewpoint. Just like the reed or bell of a saxophone or the neck and strings of a guitar there are parts to your voice that you should be familiar with which will make it easier to observe and control your voice.
Remember to sing a little every day, if you are just getting started don't work yourself too hard. You will learn that the voice is a congress of muscles all working in unison and like any muscle must be gradually strengthened.
Never lose track of "why" you sing.

"I get the greatest feeling when I'm singing. It's other-worldly. Your feet are anchored into the Earth and into this energy force that comes up through your feet and goes up the top of your head and maybe you're holding hands with the angels or the stars, I have no idea."
Cyndi Lauper