Dislike the sound of your singing voice?
Love your voice. Here are some great tips to help you build a positive relationship with your voice.
So you don’t really like the sound of your own voice? Guess what, you’re not alone. Students come to lessons all the time saying they hate the sound of their own voice.
Why don’t we like our voice? Well sometimes it’s more a fact of hearing ourselves back in a recording, we’re our harshest critics. Usually, if we think that we’re terrible singers or have self-doubt about our voice, our brain looks for evidence of that, when hearing ourselves back. So be as objective as possible about your own voice and follow these guidelines to help you achieve the singing voice you want.
TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
It’s very easy to look for things we hate or don’t like which makes it really difficult to step back and see our progress. Sometimes singing is a bit like trying to lose weight. It’s hard to see the progress that you’ve been making but others can see it, in this case, hear it. Try recording yourself to track your progress or even ask your teacher to do a recording, particularly straight away. So you can do one later on and compare the differences. If you’re listening back to your singing, try to be as objective and impartial as possible. I always tell people to ignore the fact that it’s your own voice and try to find three things that they did well and three things to work on.
PICK YOUR TONE COLOUR
Vocal tone is the overall sound of your voice, there are different kind of tones, such as bright and dark tone and everything in between. Tone can be the deciding factor as to what musical style your singing. For example, dark-toned singing is usually in a classical realm, middle to dark tone is where Jazz can usually sit and bright tone is a more contemporary pop and rock sound. You can always change your tone from dark to bright, so look at it as paints to a canvas. You are the artist, pick your colours.
VOWEL PLACEMENT
Your vowel placement will determine your overall sound and tone. If you are singing more traditional theatre and classical songs your vowel placement will be really open. Whereas if you’re singing contemporary styles, your vowel placement will be more closed off and improvised by the individual singer. Another thing to brush up on would be the use of diphthongs. Diphthongs are when two vowel sounds are placed next to each other and the diphthong is the second vowel sound. Contemporary Singers use diphthongs to create a more modern feel and less classical rounded sound. So pick and choose the style you’re after, just like ye’ old soft-serve machine at Sizzler.
STYLE
Sometimes the reason we don’t like our voice is because we’re not singing the style or musical genre that we like. For example, I’m a trained jazz and theatre singer and yet my passion is pop-rock music. It was difficult at first to sing the style that I loved and rather frustrating but through training, I learnt the stylistic vocal elements of Pop and Rock singing and how to employ them in my voice. Know what it is that your after and try emulating that style. Each style has different vocal characteristics, some cross over heavily and share elements with neighbouring styles as well. Listen to singers in your chosen genre and study what they do with your vocal coach and emulate their tricks.
Remember at the end of the day you are always progressing in your lessons with your coach even if you struggle to hear it. You can alter or change your style to suit your end goal, it can even help you to become a more versatile singer. Remember to be absolutely objective when listening to yourself back. Don’t let your self-doubt stop you from being the singer that you want to be.