How to Sing Like Ado: Master the Two Key Techniques

You’ve probably tried singing along to one of Ado’s videos before. It didn’t work out like you expected, and your throat got tight. So you figured, “Well, she’s Ado—of course she can do it,” and stopped trying. Or maybe you kept going and accidentally picked up some bad habits without knowing it. One of our students, akvd, ran into exactly this. She was obsessed with Ado and tried to cover her songs solo, but she was unconsciously tightening her throat and opening her vocal cords in ways that created tension. She didn’t realize what she was doing wrong.

I’m going to help you avoid that. I’ll break down Ado’s vocal technique into two core axes. Once you understand the principles, you’ll see the path forward. And once you see the path, you’ll know exactly what to practice next.

1. “Doesn’t Ado Just Have Different Vocal Cords?” — Only Half True

A lot of people who study Ado’s videos say the same thing: “That only works because she’s Ado.” Partially right. Ado’s signature tone and her gritty texture are definitely unique to her. But the technique underneath—the way she shapes that sound—is trainable. When I covered Ado’s “Totto Musica,” I analyzed the exact techniques she used and applied them with my own voice. I didn’t try to clone her voice itself—I understood the principles and expressed them through my own sound.

akvd was stuck at exactly this point. She wanted to sound like Ado, so she watched YouTube and tried to imitate her. But without realizing it, she was building bad habits—tightening her throat, opening her vocal cords in ways that created problems. Bad habits can be fixed once someone points them out.

“I came here because I was an Ado fan and wanted to learn how to sing her songs. I didn’t realize I was unconsciously squeezing my throat or opening my vocal cords in strange ways. Once someone pointed these issues out, they were easy to fix.” — akvd (5 months of training)

2. Why Your Throat Gets Damaged Trying to Copy YouTube Videos

Most people approach an Ado cover by just imitating what they hear. After a few attempts, they think, “I guess I just can’t do this,” and move on to a different song. There’s a structural reason this happens.

Ado’s vocals aren’t made from one single sound. She has an enormous range of techniques and textures. All these different techniques blend together seamlessly in one song. When you try to isolate and copy one small part—just that moment’s sound—you ignore all the foundation behind it and chase the surface.

Here’s the problem: that one moment you’re hearing isn’t a standalone sound. It’s built on layers underneath. The power from her lower register, the direction of her breath, proper vocal cord control, and a thin layer on top of that—it all locks together to create that one moment. When you skip all the foundation and try to copy just that split second, you naturally end up clamping your throat and forcing the sound, which creates tension.

So before you try to imitate Ado’s technique, you need to build your foundation first. If you try to copy the texture without solid technique underneath, you’ll end up like akvd—building bad habits without even knowing what you’re doing wrong.

3. The Two Axes of Ado’s Sound — Soft Tone + Powerful High Notes

When I analyze Ado’s voice, there are two core techniques I focus on. Her range of expression is so wide that I can’t cover everything here. But just by mastering these two, you’ll have access to her approach.

The first is soft-tone expression. The lower register parts of her songs, and that buildup right before the chorus hits. It’s not about belting—it’s about maintaining a thin, delicate tone without letting it collapse. This foundation is what makes the high notes that follow stand out through contrast. Without this softer tone in place, if you just blast the chorus with pure power, the whole song becomes one-dimensional. Ado’s signature tension comes from this balance—you need it.

The second is strong high-note expression. This is where scratchy texture gets layered in—those rough “ha, ha” sounds Ado pulls out. I use this technique myself all the time. But here’s the key: before you add the scratchy texture, you need something in place first. You need clean, solid high notes first. Without that foundation, when you try to add the rough sound, it’s not powerful—it’s just squeezed. It sounds forced, not intentional.

You need both axes because neither one replaces the other. Soft tone is about low-high balance and breath direction—that’s one problem. Solid high notes are about vocal cord closure and using breath pressure correctly—that’s a different problem entirely. So just “singing everything powerfully” won’t work for either one. If you want to sing like Ado, you have to train both.

4. Perfect Your Technique, Then Layer the Texture — Scratchiness Comes Last

Most people fall in love with Ado’s scratchy texture first. But in terms of training order, scratches come dead last. You build your foundation voice first, then you layer the scratchiness on top. Here’s why the order matters.

Scratchiness isn’t a standalone sound. It’s created by breathing in one direction, projecting the sound in another, adding just the right amount of vocal cord closure (not too much), and layering false vocal cord contact on top. It’s a complex combination. If your clean voice isn’t solid, what you call “scratchy” just sounds squeezed. It doesn’t sound cool—it sounds like it hurts.

That’s why order is everything. First, you establish balance from low to high notes. Once that’s locked in, even a rough “ha-ha” shout comes across as powerful rather than strained—the structure is there. This is the foundation phase. Adding scratchiness on top is a separate layer. Most people who teach themselves damage their voice because they skip the foundation and jump straight to the texture. Even if you do build the foundation, scratches need their own training—they don’t happen automatically.

Ado uses scratchy texture at specific moments, too. At the chorus entrance, at emotional peaks—not throughout the whole song. It’s a targeted technique, not a texture that sits under everything. It’s a point accent on top of solid technique.

Once your foundation is solid and you’ve trained the scratchy layer, the Ado songs you used to skip—the ones you thought were just too hard—suddenly start to make sense. The reverse chorus, the bridge runs, the final high note—before they were “songs I can’t sing,” but now you see exactly how they work.

5. Transformed in 5 Months — akvd and Jung Da-un

Our students have already gone through this process.

5 months of training · akvd

akvd came to us wanting to cover Ado songs. In five months, she eliminated bad habits she didn’t even know she had. The key insight is “I couldn’t tell by myself.” No matter how much you copy YouTube videos, you don’t realize where your throat is tightening or how you’re positioning your vocal cords. The moment someone external points it out, it changes. Then you can consciously correct it from that point forward.

12 months of training · Jung Da-un (Texture Frustration → Scratch Control)

“My original range wouldn’t even reach the top of the second octave. I was singing with a thin tone instead of the heavy texture I wanted, and I couldn’t maintain that texture. Now I can control my scratches and layer them when I want, and I can carry a heavier tone throughout the song—the sound I was always after.”

Jung Da-un was blocked in two places. Her range wouldn’t even reach the upper second octave, and she couldn’t produce the heavy texture she wanted. When both problems stack up like that, if you don’t know where to start, it can take three, five, or more years to see real change. Jung Da-un had already spent more than three years singing in a thin tone that didn’t match what she was going for.

Now she can control her scratches and place them intentionally. When you can “control” scratches, that means your clean foundation is solid underneath. She’s reached the point where she can do exactly what Ado does—add that texture at one specific moment in the chorus, then drop back out.

Both of them share one thing in common. They got their hidden problems fixed. The dream of singing like Ado wasn’t about talent—it was about whether someone could point out the invisible habits that were holding them back.

Once your foundation is solid, you go into a karaoke booth solo and sing the reverse chorus in the original key. When you nail that song all the way through for the first time, you’ll think, “I can actually do this.”

That’s when you finally see what you were missing. All the time you wasted thinking, “I can’t sing Ado songs”. Spending a year just singing along to videos is completely different from getting trained for five months and actually performing Ado’s songs correctly.

Find out where your comfortable highest note is right now in our vocal range test. Everything else becomes a lot clearer after that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I learn Ado’s technique by myself?

It’s possible, but not ideal. Like akvd’s case, there’s a blind spot where “you don’t realize what you’re doing wrong”. YouTube shows you the teacher’s sound, but it can’t tell you what’s off about your own voice. Once someone external gives you feedback, you can take it from there on your own. Start with the vocal range test first. The more rushed you feel, the more important it is to nail your baseline first—that’s actually the fastest path forward.