Beginner seeking feedback (nirvana, skynyrd)

Misterblue22

New member
Just getting started, recently begun learning guitar. No great ambitions, just want to be able to sing around a campfire with close frienda and family. Problem is I hate my voice, so I’ve never sung in front of anyone before, ever. But I’m trying to improve it, and get an accurate picture of what sort of voice I have, and whether I will be bale to get to a point where I can sing in front of others.

Just picked up an iphone and recorded these, looking for some feedback. What kind of voice would you say I have (it sounds too high to me, but my little brother overheard me once and sAid it was deeper than I think). Also worried it’s a bit monotone. What should I work on, lean into/away from?

Thanks guys.

YouTube

YouTube
 
Beginner or not, you still have to think like an artist. You are responsible for the sound you want to build for your voice. Style and tone is all very subjective. What one person tells you, another person won't agree with. Best you learn to appreciate your voice, put the package together and sing for the people who like it, and you'll probably even win a few extra people over, starting with yourself! That is what makes it an art. I've seen many people spin and crash thinking its about pleasing everyone.

One thing that is less negotiable is pitch. Pitch is only slightly subjective. In your two examples, I think that you are going slightly "flat" as you ascend in pitch, and when the pitch slides down. It is very common, and it is to do with finding the correct breathing technique. You can google that. There's tons of stuff about it.

Unless you have very demanding friends, I would say that you are ready to join in and play a few songs round that campfire. Just hearing your own friends sing is kind of cool, and kind of makes up for any imperfections (usually, lol).
 
Hey could you sing something by Johnny Cash?
Dunno if you like that genre or artist - but really asking so that I can hear you sing something by him bc thats what your voice made me think of.
Really curious to see how you sound doing one of his.
If you will, most of his songs will do for what I'm trying to discern about your singing.

But one that I thought of was rusty cage.

For that one-
here's how he sings it:
YouTube

Here's how to play it on gtr:
YouTube

And here's the lyrics:
johnny cash rust cage lyrics - Recherche Google
 
Hey - another thing - I recently discovered the awesomeness of a capo
basically I struggled to sing anything that sounded remotely ok in my opinion... Either I would struggle to get my voice to go low enough or high enough depending on the song
Then I put a capo on the first fret and played the same and sang... If it was still hard to sing at different parts of the song, I moved the capo up another fret, continued moving it around until it felt way easier to sing whatever song I was playing.
I recorded one and put it up on here and some ppl told me the probs I could work on, but ppl also said I sounded ok - u were one of them. Thanks for the compliment. Honestly still taking it with a grain of salt tho :)
Anyways - it's amazing bc I didn't have to try very hard once I found the right place to put the capo on! It's so much more enjoyable... Like just fun to sing you know - instead of trying to manipulate my voice to fit and it just feeling like work you know?
So maybe try doing that too? Made it more enjoyable for me. And people didn't completely rip me a new one when I posted on here so, it helped to make it at least good enough to be the butt of a joke at a songswap I guess.

Another thing I figd out - a lot of these "chord" sites have wrong chords.
I watched a live performance on YouTube where I could watch the performers fingers on the guitar and was like what? I've been playing totally different chords bc of some chord website!
So with the right chords from watching the real performer play it live, and then moving a capo around until I found the spot where it was fun and easier to sing instead of work and trying really hard to sing at the right pitch? Or tone? Or whatever it's called - those 2 things did a lot, at least for me. Made it actually fun and a lot less effort.

Maybe you'll find some value in that stuff too
Thought it wouldn't hurt to share my experience at least :)

☮️
 
Hey could you sing something by Johnny Cash?
Dunno if you like that genre or artist - but really asking so that I can hear you sing something by him bc thats what your voice made me think of.
Really curious to see how you sound doing one of his.
If you will, most of his songs will do for what I'm trying to discern about your singing.

But one that I thought of was rusty cage.

For that one-
here's how he sings it:
YouTube

Here's how to play it on gtr:
YouTube

And here's the lyrics:
johnny cash rust cage lyrics - Recherche Google

Thanks mate! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you, I hadn’t logged on in ages and thinking I’d gotten no replies. I took your advice and mucked around with a capo, and I dunno if it made me sound any better but goddamn did it make it a helluva lot easy for me to sing some songs. Cheers for the tip mate you’re a legend. Also, just so happens Johnny Cash is one of my idols. Love bluesy sort of country, like The White Buffalo and such. My favourite voices are the deeper ones (my favourite artist is Howlin Wolf and he sings about as low as they go) but I’m suprised you thought of him, when I hear myself I tend to think I’ve got a very young, kiddish sort of voice. Unfortunately in the last two weeks I found that I was forcing my voice much more than I realised, and while the way I’ve adapted lets me find more notes or whatever, I think it may take any Cash-ness or deepness I had away, as I think I was forcing deepness subconsciously maybe? I had a crack at Johnny Cash with my new approach, and also did Simple Man again so I could compare. Would love to know if you think I had it better before or the new ones are better? Cheers mate, appreciate your insights.

YouTube

YouTube
 
Thanks kickingtone, good advice. I found I was forcing myself a bit and I think my pitch might be better now that I’ve learned to relax my voice a bit, but I’m not really sure. Had another crack at Simple Man here, would you mind letting me know if it’s any better?

I get what you mean about worrying less about pleasing more, I think I’d be a lot happier if I could figure out how to do that but I do struggle with it. Have always lived in other peoples heads more than my own, trying to watch myself through their eyes, but of course you’ll never get an accurate read of yourself doing that. Anyway thanks for your help man, and sorry my reply is so late.

YouTube
 
I think you have a good voice, but something there isn't right. I would say you lack expression or emotion, and sometimes you go out of tune. Either way, you improve this with practice. Try to practice scales. I'm far from being an expert, just trying to help ;). Not everyone has a voice like yours, I think you have potential!
 
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