Finding Your Voice

[Tweed335]

I've never really been a singer, however the last year or so, I've been dabbling in home recording. Vocals are always my hardest tracks to lay.

After reading some of the 'Singing' threads, I wanted to ask some of you on the board:

How do you find 'Your' singing voice?

I feel like I can hear and hit a note, but it sounds pretty generic or uninspired when I hear my recorded vocals. I don't know what my singing voice is.

I'm pretty much a bass to baritone, but I feel like I can 'fake' some tenor. Do I belt out of the lower (bass, baritone) registers, or do I constrict to try to get in the baritone/tenor range?

I mean, some of the voices that I love are ones with soul and sound natural. I really dig Stevie Ray's vocals, I know it's rarely mentioned, but he's got great vocal timbre and soul. I can hear and sing those blues/soul type phrases, but it sounds so unsoulful because I don't know where My 'voice' is. Would vocal lessons help? Repitition? Mimicing vocals of who I like? (I can do this, I just can't carry with me with no accompaniment) Maybe timbre is really what I'm really getting at. Where do you find 'your' voice? Where do you find vocal timbre?

Please help me find it!! Thanks

[Seraphine]

Listen and Listen Well.. Good and Well... ready?

Talk with someone who is a professional singer if you can for simple lessons.. Now here is the important bit... Find a place running Karaoke and spend a lot of time singing... Also... Sing songs you don't know... expand the paradigms and don't just sing what you can nail... people get bored hearing you sing your best tunes ALL THE TIME!

Karaoke is the way to go man... You'll learn and or find out quick what you and singing can do and not do... and IT'S FUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tweed335]

Well, that's the thing too, should I try to imitate?

Where does my natural singing voice come from? Practice? Lessons?

I know this is an ad nauseum subject, and probably impossible to explain. Is it a solution that follows somewhere along the lines of 'You either got it, or you don't'?

[RTR88]

I sing better when my voice is a little hoarse.

[Teleking]

I think every singer has gone through this at some point.

The key to singing "well" is to let yourself go. People are afraid to push the emotion and focus so much on the mechanics of it. So many people think of music as notes, and pitch, and melodies.

And all of that is important, but without feeling, none of it matters.

I think this sounds really dumb, but it's really true. You have to get inside the feeling of the song to sing well. It's the mood, it's the vibe, it's the undertone, it's what you're trying to get across.

I just close my eyes and try to feel where I need to be. Do I need to be subtle, do I need to drag a phrase or word out a bit longer to make it interesting?

Mick Jagger doesn't have a great voice, but he's got incredible feel and phrasing. He knows how to get inside a song and bring out the substance in the song. Jim Morrison had that. All great singers have it.

Some over-sing. But the truly great vocalists are those who understanding dynamics, feeling, phrasing.....phrasing is such a big part of it. Stretching a word or phrase or word longer than you feel it should be will really open your eyes.

Some of the very best lyrical lines came from people writing the words first and then realizing they didn't have enough space to fit all those words so they had to figure out a way to make them fit, which is how those lines became so cool to begin with.

I was a terrible singer when I first started. I'm not a "natural" singer now. It doesn't come easy for me like I think it would Robert Plant. But it's real easy for me now as I just worked hard with it. I don't have perfect pitch. I certainly wouldn't last one episode of American Idol. But I do think I have found what I do well, and I think I can bring that across very well.

I had to learn to become a "good" or at least interesting vocalist. It isn't easy, but it can be done. If you spend the time, and I think working by yourself is the best way, you can do it if you really want to.

[edgie]

Some of my favorite vocalists are the ones whose timbres are close to their speaking voice. I'm not a singer but from a listener's standpoint, just like what Teleking said, I prefer to hear vocals that are not contrived(I finde this very prominent with fusion records with vocals), overly modulated, over-souled or just too technical. I like Eddie Vedder, Jim Morisson, Paul McCartney, Maynard Keenan just to name a few. I watched the PJ20 documentary with a friend and we were amazed that Eddie still can sing and scream like 20 years ago.

[Bigsby]

I've been working on singing during my drive to and from work. You look a little crazy to other drivers, but nobody can hear you.

I got a vocal exercises cd, and work on that. I also chose a few songs I like, and I've been working on those the same way I'd approach working on learning guitar parts for a song. Sing along with the record and focus on tone, phrasing, timing, pitch, etc. I really try and match what the singer is doing on the recording. Once I know the song really well, I get a karaoke version off iTunes and work with that.

Anyway, I've been doing that for a year, and someone recently challenged me to get up and do a karaoke song. A bunch of my friends were there, many of them musicians. I did the song I've been working on the longest, and I really cut loose on it. All my friends were blown away and sort of shocked. Even strangers were giving me compliments. It felt really great.

I guess my point is that if you focus on anything and practice over and over, it gets better. I used to hate the sound of my voice, but I decided to stop caring about that. I'm not a natural singer either, but in the space of a year, I've developed it enough to feel good about singing and to really enjoy it.

[Tweed335]

Thanks for the responses y'all! I will absolutely take bits and pieces of the advice and try to combine it.

Once I finish up my undergrad, I think I'm going to take vocal lessons, and guitar lessons just for the giggles.

[Swain]

Just like any muscle, it may take quite some time and a lot of repetition. Regular, everyday practice. I am in the same boat, and find that I am getting better. But, the fluidity you're talking about takes your being much more skilled and practiced, so then you can relax and only have to work a little to do what you're tslking about.

I also find that singing through Mic and P.A. helps tremendously with really hearing yourself as others do.

[snacker]

"finding" your true voice requires a few steps.....your true singing voice is an extension of your speaking voice. Whatever you do when you are singing should be as relaxed as when you are speaking (or even more relaxed). Your natural chest voice will be your powerful range (bass / baritone / lyric baritone), your head voice will be your high and light range and a mixture of both will give you some extended high range that is high and rich but still relaxed. Whatever you do, don't constrict, this will lead to problems. Mimicry can also lead to problems. The most important thing is to find out how to use your voice first and then how to color it later. Feel free to PM me....i'm a voice coach and have trained vocalists in all genres from stage & opera to hip hop and metal. I'd be happy to give you some more pointers.

[FFTT]

My strongest voice is closest to my natural speaking voice but I always tried
to sing an octave above, sometimes sounding fine, sometimes sounding strained
and with some EQ errors that sounded fine solo'd but went into chipmunk land
in the mix.

I'm learning it's better for me to sing the melody I hear in my head where I can
hit all the notes and then figure out where I need to be on the guitar as far as standard
tuning, detuned or capo'd to match.

Control comes from knowing all the parts inside out, so you can concentrate
on delivery, pitch, phrasing, where to breath etc.

Lou Reed and Jim Morrison are just a few examples of how a lower pitched
voice can hold strong presence in a song.