Do You Like (Or Hate) Your Voice?

[AKR]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but this seems like the best forum.

I have written lots of tunes, but I'm not a strong vocalist. I have recorded off and on with "real" singers on ocassion, and no, I haven't sold any records yet ( ).

Anyway...whether you are a singer or not, have you ever listened to yourself on tape and grown to hate your singing voice? That's where I'm at right now. I've been doing lots of takes on several tunes of late, and I just seem to hate it more and more.

Discuss!!!

[Short poll added.]

I have the opposite reaction. I'm learning to like my voice, or at least, tolerate it more, and that's for several reasons. 1) I wasn't used to hearing my voice coming from a different direction before recording it. 2) I'm strengthening my voice, so it sounds fuller and stronger. 3) I'm getting better at doubling my voice and using the right reverb to make it sound right. Right now, I'd say I hate my voice as a rapper more than as a singer. I think I will continue to get more positive about my voice as I get used to hearing it and my vocal/recording skills improve. I also understand that most people are way more critical of themselves than others, whether it's about their looks or their vocals, or whatever. I'm sure many famous singers have hated their voice at one time or another, and some probably still do. I know Billy Corgan hates his weird voice, but it's part of what makes him stand out from other vocalists.

 

[dream1up]

i hate my voice.

like, i know where I wanna go with my voice, but i'm not getting the sound. i get spurts of moments, but I imagine myself doing a one take session and it's like, this is going to take forever.

check out my youtube channel in my profile. see what i'm getting at.

 

[Lori]

Certainly don't like my voice (singing voice of course) but I don't hate it either. I live with it in peace

 

[spy said one]

i like my voice, and i am liking it more and more as i learn to use it. i tape myself with a little walkman, normally used for recording lectures or just speech i think so it's all high-endy, and i like the way i sound on it.

there are times that i don't like how my voice sounds, and when that happens i just try singing differently. i would like to be very vocally versatile, if you'll excuse the alliteration.

 

[joeym]

let's just say, I have a love-hate relationship with my voice.....with some stuff it works fine, with other kinds difficult.

 

[23cent]

Depends on the song.On cats in the cradle,I can live with it.Purple rain, I hate it . When I'm rapping its dope.

 

[jbonil1]

I love my voice, I can sing a deep mid bass to a mild hi tone a la bon jovi but recording myself it's been a pain in the but, that deep bass is hard to capture and the hi is hard to control. recording vocals (i've read) is the trikiest part of recording even for the pros who own 2000 dollars mic pres and 5000 dollars mics. thats why I've done lots of reading on the topic on almost every recording forum, taken all the free lessons I can, and also been studing what to do with the eq and compression which for me are the fundamentals to recording and editing a good vocal. through time i've trained my ear enough to recognize what compression does and now I'm getting better vocals. but just keep reading and practicing it'll come with time.

 

[eeb]

i've always hated my voice.

I can hear what the melodies should be. but I have a hard time..

My standards are rediculously high though.

I need to learn though because i'm starting a new band where i'll be taking on the vocal duties.. Mind you it'll be a more rock/singing/yelling type of vocals which i'm more comfterable with.

My main concerns are my pitch. I tend to always be just a little too flat or just a little bit too sharp.. Not completely off but enough to know somethings wrong.

I don't know of anywhere i can go for lessons where I live.. not really sure what to do to fix this problem.

 

[Hakea]

I don't know of anywhere i can go for lessons where I live.. not really sure what to do to fix this problem.

My guess is that the answer is the same as always....practice, practice and practice. I think that most of us understand the need to put a lot of hours in on our guitars, keyboard or whatever, but expect to be able to just open our mouths and sing without the same amount of study or training. I plead guilty.

The trick, as usual (whether it's music, exercise, dieting or whatever) is to find some kind of motivation and structure that gets you doing it and then KEEPS you doing it. Easy to start, even easier to let it slide again.

I want to improve my singing too. I bought a singing for beginners book, with CD to follow. I hardly touched it. I tried sitting at the piano and singing scales. That didn't last long either, although it sure helped. Like you, I couldn't find a singing teacher. The only one lived miles away and charged a fortune for operatic style tuition. So I joined a local community choir, whose philosophy is that singing is good for the soul and the body and that anybody should be allowed to sing, with no auditions needed, regardless of ability. The music is pretty varied (some I like, some I don't) but this HAS stuck and I sing every week with them.

I also eventually found a local muso who does a bit of teaching. He teaches guitar rather than singing, but he has 40 years experience in performing (including singing). So I write songs and record some rough tracks in Garage Band. He then records tracks in the same project that are FAR better played and sung. I then try to match what he did, and learn some tips from how he did it. That works too.

A version of that would be to copy a WAV file of a favourite song in the key and range that suits your voice, drop it into something like GB and then practice singing as a duet. Play it back, rolling the balance between more of them or more of you, or stick one into each ear, or whatever, and you'll soon find out where you need more work. Then do the work.

I like to take a few lessons at things, just to check the basics, and also see what the alleged 'bad habits' are to avoid. But after that I often enjoy just going my own way.

Don't like my own voice much, but I used not to like it at all. The more I use it, the better it gets and the more I like it. It's a lot of fun when you start to get more control over pitch, timing, breathing, phrasing etc

Good luck with it all,

Cheers,

Chris

 

[eeb]

My guess is that the answer is the same as always....practice, practice and practice. I think that most of us understand the need to put a lot of hours in on our guitars, keyboard or whatever, but expect to be able to just open our mouths and sing without the same amount of study or training. I plead guilty.

The trick, as usual (whether it's music, exercise, dieting or whatever) is to find some kind of motivation and structure that gets you doing it and then KEEPS you doing it. Easy to start, even easier to let it slide again.

I want to improve my singing too. I bought a singing for beginners book, with CD to follow. I hardly touched it. I tried sitting at the piano and singing scales. That didn't last long either, although it sure helped. Like you, I couldn't find a singing teacher. The only one lived miles away and charged a fortune for operatic style tuition. So I joined a local community choir, whose philosophy is that singing is good for the soul and the body and that anybody should be allowed to sing, with no auditions needed, regardless of ability. The music is pretty varied (some I like, some I don't) but this HAS stuck and I sing every week with them.

I also eventually found a local muso who does a bit of teaching. He teaches guitar rather than singing, but he has 40 years experience in performing (including singing). So I write songs and record some rough tracks in Garage Band. He then records tracks in the same project that are FAR better played and sung. I then try to match what he did, and learn some tips from how he did it. That works too.

A version of that would be to copy a WAV file of a favourite song in the key and range that suits your voice, drop it into something like GB and then practice singing as a duet. Play it back, rolling the balance between more of them or more of you, or stick one into each ear, or whatever, and you'll soon find out where you need more work. Then do the work.

I like to take a few lessons at things, just to check the basics, and also see what the alleged 'bad habits' are to avoid. But after that I often enjoy just going my own way.

Don't like my own voice much, but I used not to like it at all. The more I use it, the better it gets and the more I like it. It's a lot of fun when you start to get more control over pitch, timing, breathing, phrasing etc

Good luck with it all,

Cheers,

Chris

my problem seems to be that I know i'm slightly off pitch (some notes I just can't even try to do) and i just don't know how to correct it.. I try to practice but i feel like i'm just practicing the wrong notes.. so i'm basically learning how to be consistenly out of tune.

there must be some exercieses to help with pitch.. I just kinda feel like i'm running around in circles

 

[tojo]

i kinda know what you mean eeb. Whenever I'm recording i just keep deleting takes and doing it again everytime i hear the slightest imperfection.

 

[Hakea]

my problem seems to be that I know i'm slightly off pitch (some notes I just can't even try to do) and i just don't know how to correct it.. I try to practice but i feel like i'm just practicing the wrong notes.. so i'm basically learning how to be consistenly out of tune.

there must be some exercieses to help with pitch.. I just kinda feel like i'm running around in circles

I know what you mean. It's kind of frustrating that you can't twiddle a knob and tune a vocal chord, and nobody can explain exactly what you do to physically to change it.

I'm no teacher or guru, just somewhere between rank beginner and mediocre intermediate, but this general problem has cropped up before.

When I first started playing guitar I learned a few chords. Like almost every other newbie I soon asked the question "Anybody know any EASY songs that I can play now????" I tried a few, and still sounded like crap. The reason was mostly that I still had no 'touch and timing' - all that subtle stuff that turns a plodding chord progression into something with character and quality. But how do you train your fingers in subtlety of touch? Your brain in appreciation of the mojo of rhythm? Well, I'd guess that you just do it a lot until it starts to work.

So for pitch training I just sat there and played a C and then sang "C!" over and over until it started to match more consistently. Then I reversed the order - sang the note first and checked it on the keyboard second. BTW that's another great reason to have an electronic keyboard handy - the tuning stays the same. Try that exercise on guitar and it's pretty worthless if you aren't a consistent and accurate tuner of your instrument.

I also tried playing a note repeatedly, and then deliberately started below it, sang up to it, past it, back to it etc, to get feel for how the controls worked. I tried that by singing into my Korg chromatic tuner too (one I had for guitar). Watched the needle wobble all over the place, and tried to centre it.

It sounds dull, but you probably can't beat sitting at the keyboard and singing up and down a few scales every day. Isn't that what singing students do? Maybe a trained singer could help us with some better ideas.

Chris

EDIT: I probably should have done this before I started waffling on..... but Google just found me a site that says something very similar, and if you read down there's a link to some pitch exercises on another page. Might be worth a try.

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/absolute-pitch.html

 

[gecko zzed]

When I was much less old, I thought my voice was terrific, but it really was not that nice. It was pitchy, bland and very wayward.

Over the years my voice has developed a bit of character, and is far less pitchy. It's not all that good, but I've learnt to live with it. I've accepted that it's not a source of fabulous wealth for me, and that's fine.

I have noticed definite improvements, but they've taken a long time. For example, I've been able to extend my range to about two and a half octaves, from a low D (D1) to G (G3) above middle C. On a good day I can get an A, and I can get a C4 in falsetto. I've got better control of vibrato, and improved breath control.

I've done this by doing lots of singing. Importantly, though, I've done lots of listening. Firstly to myself on recordings, and listening to things I don't like and trying to fix them. Secondly, by listening to singers I admire and trying to emulate them . . .singing along with them. My daughter does vocal coaching, so I've got some tips from her, particularly vocal and breathing exercises. However, I'm to impatient to be rigorous about this.

Nevertheles, I am less than happy with what I would call my 'natural' voice (not helped by me having chronic sinus problems which make me sound naturally very nasally), so I tend to either force it in to a whiskey and cigarette roughness (which appalls my daughter), or put on some other affectation (like trying to imitate David Bowie).

If, over the years, I had treated my voice the same way you would treat a treasured instrument, I expect it would be pretty reasonable and in far better condition. Some people have a better start than others with their voices, but if you want to make a career with your voice, then you need to lavish the same attention on it as you would if you were training to be a great golfer or swimmer . . . it involves hard work, and lots of it.

[Edit] Here goes nothing . . . me doing a cover of David Bowie's Sweet Thing, from the Diamond Dogs album:


http://www.box.net/shared/o5fyzfhlkq

 

[stevieb]

I sing both popular music, and choral music. When in the chorus, I pay attention and keep my baritone voice rich and out of my head. But when I sing pop music, I can't seem to disicipline myself to do some of the same. Too much might make me sound like a opera singer doing pop (well, a little bit like that- I am not that good...) but a bit of it would be great. I have considered taking voice lessons so I can get there, can't seem to do it on my own.

If I can fix that, I will probably fall in love with the sound of my own voice...

 

[nzausrec]

Personally, I think it's about confidence and relaxedness.
First times I couldn't sing properly with a full-ish voice because of stage fright.
I don't know if you guys have karaoke where you are but after my first stint in the band as a complete amateur gat player come hippy writer, I changed focus and always ended up semi-wasted in a karaoke bar. One night I was so out of it that by the time I realised where I was there were 400 people in a bar in front of me and I was up there doing Power of Love. Man, I can't do Hey Lewis. WTF was I thinking? Three or two mins of screams and wierd notes from me just went off stage. "So what of it," I said to my 'friends' there aghast at me.
Anyway, after years of sheneagans like that you come to a point where actually approaching the mic is no big deal. But, I want to do stuff that I like, so that means Bojangles ala Sammy Davis or soulish stuff. I like soul. But, nothing in the range of those #1 hit dudes who are born with a massively perfect voice like John McClaughlan (So Close/For You From Me/Beautiful Disaster) types.
So, why not just keep plugging on.

 

[up-fiddler]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!

The thread is over two years old, the original poster hasn't posted anything since October of last year, by admission the original poster wasn't certain where in the forum this belonged, and it has little or nothing to do with songwriting........May I repeat?
AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!


PS I have never been neg repped before.....Perhaps this is my day?

 

[Strat1958]

AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!

Hey up-fiddler - I really like your voice! Was that the scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again", or was it "Whole Lotta Love"???

 

[up-fiddler]

Hey up-fiddler - I really like your voice! Was that the scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again", or was it "Whole Lotta Love"???

"You must spread some rep around before giving any more to Strat1958" is the message.....Other wise I would. Heh, heh, heh.

 

[Walter Tore]

It has taken me years to enjoy my voice and music on playback. It has always been a blast doing it live. Now I enjoy my voice, and playing quite a bit on playback! Walter

 

[Frankie Rage]

I don't have enough of a "voice" to hate.. or love.. but I still think there is a songwriter in me somewhere.. ..managing to hide well though..