How can I improve my voice?

This past year now or so I worked on starting to sing and play guitar, I usually tend to do it with acoustic, I find it easier and real chords, versus R5 or power chords easier to find a note and hang on it whether it be, the root 5th 3rd o flat 3rd if its minor ,etc….

Here somethings I have noticed.

1) I need something to sing to otherwise I have a hard time being in key, how can I improve this? is this normal?
2) My voice tends to be low/deep how can I raise it higher, when I do it just never sounds as good as my chest voice
3)How do I alter the tone of my voice more, I have been recording myself a lot and I feel I improved, and helped me TRULY hear myself but when I start to experiment it goes too far out or weird….