propman
Active member
That's a really cool story. (Maybe that's the same guy who inspired me to drink with abandon and lack of awareness of other's disdain.)
If you could sound like anyone...?
- Thread starter BroKen_H
- Start date
That's a really cool story. (Maybe that's the same guy who inspired me to drink with abandon and lack of awareness of other's disdain.)
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
It's kind of hard to pinpoint the exact trajectory. I sang till I was 11. Then I stopped until I was 22. When I started again, I didn't think my voice was much but I half heartedly worked on it, well, not so much my voice but the parts that I would sing.
I think in the end, I just let go. I home recorded 5 albums circa '93~'94 and I reluctantly ended up having to do most of the singing and I think now and thought then that the singing was the one element that really sank the already struggling to keep afloat ship. I could probably live with the out of tune instruments, lame tracking, distortion, mistimed tape editing, pathetic panning, indisciplined and ignorant use of effects and grievous crimes of mixing had the voice cut the mustard !
Some of it isn't so bad but it's generally unlistenable and if I died and that was all I left, I'd be hanging my head in shame in the afterlife !!
So from 1995 on, coinciding with hearing drunken raucous Steve, I decided to do two things ~ always strive to remain in tune and just belt it out without any pretensions and work on what came out. I really worked on it then, breathing, holding notes for a long time, octave range etc. After a short while, I was able to control my voice and I'd also consciously listen to other singers to see if I sounded like them and found that I just did not have that kind of voice. When I'd do the deep thing, I sounded nothing like Barry White or that guy from the Temptations. When I'd try falsetto, it was nothing like the Stylistics or Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees. When it was gruff, it was nothing like Lemmy or Bon Scott. And I couldn't do smooth and sexy. My London voice wasn't like Mick Jagger, Steve Marriott or Smiley Culture. I couldn't do Gil Scott Heron cool or David Bowie weird. There was no Bob Marley or Peter Tosh third world emotion or Ian Gillan shoutiness. Or even any Bob Dylan warble.
And so on.......
My voice may be whatever it is but it's me whatever it is. And I like that, even though on my stuff I try to get various friends to sing for me. In truth, I prefer to do harmony and backing vocals but it hasn't worked out that way. A bit like rather than wait to befriend people who play sitars, orchestral and exotic instruments, I went down the VSTi route !
Well, Steve's ending wasn't quite so cool. He was found dead in his flat. He was only in his late 50s or early 60s. His heart just gave out.
I remember going to see him in hospital about a year or so before. They wouldn't let him drink and few people visited him {he'd run a lot of people off} so he couldn't get any drink sneaked in. Because he'd cleaned up while in the hospital, he really looked and smelled like a different person. I kept looking at him, marvelling that this was the same guy. He even spoke lucidly and was really articulate and knowledgeable. He could've been a TV presenter !
heatmiser
mr. green christmas
Ok, so no easy feat. That seemed to be the thrust of what you were saying though.
I hear people talking about "finding your voice" all the time and never really know what that means.
I also hear people telling others that a song isn't in the right key for them and never really get that either. How can one tell if something is in the "right" key for their voice?
Myself, I would definitely want to sound like any number of singers other than myself (the grass is always greener, etc...). I have a pretty deep voice, so of course I wish I could sing with a higher sort of whine like Wayne Coyne or Ozzy, or at least Jerry Garcia, John Lennon or the guy from Tame Impala, but alas, it is not to be.
PDP
There once was a note
They probably mean "range" instead of key. I have a very small range, so I try to keep with-in that range of notes, that range could fall in any key, but its still very limited.
heatmiser
mr. green christmas
My advice - smoke lots of cigarettes.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Pretty much. I don't want to be discouraging because some might find it easy. It wasn't particularly hard for me, but I did have to work. Consistently. For years !
Maybe it also means "hitting a tone and style of singing that you can manage and grow to like and feel comfortable with."
By how comfortably they are able to handle the entire range of the song.
I often would come up with the music first before putting the melody and words to it. There's one song in particular, "No direction home", it starts in Em but goes to F and runs through a strange chord progression. I liked it musically and the way my fingers moved through it but it may not have been very logical. I really like the melody I worked out but by the time I get to the chorus, it's getting high and builds up higher. By the time I get to the peak, it's so high that I can't sing it comfortably. I've done two versions of it and when doing the vocal, I've had to record it at 3 semitones lower in order to reach the notes and even then it's a struggle. But on replay at proper speed, I sound half way to Mickey mouse.
It's not right for my voice but I like the music too much so I'm going to have to do it.
But not today.
I've got a deep~ish voice and used to wish I had higher timbres.
But now I like what I have. I've been a bit lazy recently so I need to get the old love muscle back into shape......
robgreen
no face
Yeah, like PDP I always took that phrase as meaning getting to the point where you know how to make the best of whayt you have available to you vocally - singing/writing within your range and to a style that suits your voice, as well as getting used to the basics like tone, intonation, pitch etc.
I like the guy from Tame Impala's voice too. Personally, I wish I had a bit more grit to my voice, but I don't smoke so I'm not sure that's going to happen any time soon. Not Tom Waits level grittiness, but a bit more of an edge like either Jeff Tweedy or Evan Dando maybe? Both those guys sound great. And some more richness to the low end too, like the guy from the National or Richard Hawley...
What's the best mic for Jeff Tweedy vocals for less than $100?
Kevin Gilbert.If you don't know who he is-look him up and listen.One. of the great songwriter's of the 20th century.
dragonworks
Banned
Arthur Brown
guitaristic
prophet of Dave
Could I get the godly voice of slighty less-old Morgan Freeman? Thanks.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
With yourself ? Shocker !
BroKen_H
Re-member
Funny, I originally posted this looking for people's inspirations, not whether or not they liked their own voice. I can hold notes, but am sometimes unhappy with my tone. Realizing I can't switch voices with someone else, and that it's probably unhealthy to imitate others on a consistent basis, I live with what I got. As has been mentioned, church people are very forgiving...and that's where I usually sing. I'm mainly a songwriter, so it's helpful that I have a wide range. I just wish sometimes that it sounded better! 
rayc
retroreprobate
My "singing" voice is so poor & my ability to stay within the confines a tune/key are so far from acceptable that I'm not allowed to hum in my house let alone sing.
Aspirational reference point - probably someone who's range & sensibilities are not to far from my own: Leonard Cohen (though he has a richness and timbre that outshine his note value), Richard Hell or even Rod McKuen, (given that his range was about 4 notes), but I would aspire to doing more than Lou Reed had managed in his time between 1982 and his demise in 2013.
Aspirational reference point - probably someone who's range & sensibilities are not to far from my own: Leonard Cohen (though he has a richness and timbre that outshine his note value), Richard Hell or even Rod McKuen, (given that his range was about 4 notes), but I would aspire to doing more than Lou Reed had managed in his time between 1982 and his demise in 2013.
