Do You Like (Or Hate) Your Voice?

How do you feel about your singing voice?

  • I love my voice!

    Votes: 95 12.4%

  • My voice is o.k., but could be better.

    Votes: 186 24.2%

  • I have mixed feelings about it.

    Votes: 214 27.9%

  • My voice is not so good, but I live with it.

    Votes: 103 13.4%

  • I hate hearing myself on tape. Sometimes I want to quit.

    Votes: 170 22.1%
  • Total voters
    768
Well I absolutely HATED :mad: my voice initially but I was recording onto a cheap cassette deck which had limited response and was hissy...recently I was asked to make a CD for a friend so I figured I must not suck totally. The recording was on a Roland multi-track unit with a good mic and I was blown away! :eek: Suddenly I didn't hate my voice but merely disliked it LOL. Actually I was amazed at how I was on pitch and I liked how my voice sounded on the higher notes and of course heard EVERY flaw.

So overall I'm still mixed on it all. I get positive feedback from people but when I listen :confused: ...well...maybe we are all our own worst critics.

P.S. Now building my own home studio around a Roland Vs2400CD!
 
I have mixed feelings about my own. It's not due to tone, or even range... but the fact that my sinuses are chronically congested. I was supposed to have had my adenoids removed many years ago... but never did. If it wasn't for that, I would feel a lot better about how I sound. Silly I know.

I tend to improve a little with an audience... incentive to do better than when I am by myself. I have to get over the initial shyness first, and then I am good to go most times.
 
Dislike. I know I can hold pitch because to get around the problem of the tone, I record and mix multiple tracks and the pitch is pretty damn steady from session to session.
 
Mine's shot to hell with constant allergies due to the poor air quality here. Every time I phone family they ask if I have a cold. Chronic sinus issues and my throat is constantly coated with crud. Can't hit any high notes to save my life. I used to be pretty good though.
 
It's one of my biggest regrets that my voice is the worst part of my music. I would love to have a clear, pure, true voice. Instead it is rough, hoarse and gratey. I sing in tune, but my voice has a horrible quality which I can't seem to change (unless I sing in falsetto, then it's OK, but falsetto sounds silly for a man.) People who hear my music say "I like the music, but your voice......."
Has anyone any tips on how to make a hoarse gratey voice sound pure and clear?
 
timtimtim said:
It's one of my biggest regrets that my voice is the worst part of my music. I would love to have a clear, pure, true voice. Instead it is rough, hoarse and gratey. I sing in tune, but my voice has a horrible quality which I can't seem to change (unless I sing in falsetto, then it's OK, but falsetto sounds silly for a man.) People who hear my music say "I like the music, but your voice......."
Has anyone any tips on how to make a hoarse gratey voice sound pure and clear?
Click to expand...


two things come to mind......hormones and air!!

have no idea your age,,,but do something,,if you suspect hormones are out of whack...lots of herbs to get you back in balance

work your horsey gratey as a uniqueness feature by infusing it with air...

the greatest thing i ever did was having a beautiful piano in my home that i sat with alone for hours on end and slowly learned to isolate the registers...for each note,,,up and down the scale

learned to sound each note in pure isolated head voice..the breathy white tone...
and then learning to isolate each note in pure isolated chest voice...then learning to blend both aspects at once up and down the complete keyboard..that is where the magic happens

singing , voice..its a process,,,an introspection that lasts lifetimes
 
Thanks for that. It depends on the type of music you want to do. If I was into heavy rocky stuff or something more bluesy my voice (with more air) might do, but I want to do the sort of music where the beauty is in the sound only, I'm not very interested in words, so my voice is more of a problem. Anyway I shall try more air or even hormones, and those exercises you recommended.
 
Mixed feelings. I got so frustrated with it I finally decided to get coaching. We discovered two things: 1) I was singing songs in the wrong range -- I needed to transpose the songs I was singing up about a fourth or fifth otherwise I get real shaky. 2) I was trying to sing the wrong genre for my natural phrasing. My natural phrasing is more suited to jazz particularly the old standards which actually is fine by me since I like them anyway. Where's a smokey piano bar around here?

timtimtim -- get some coaching. It's expensive, yes, $200 for four 1 hr sessions, but if you get a good coach it's worth it.
 
I sometimes like how I sound but then sometimes despise how I sound it all depends on what I'm attempting to belt out
 
I like it but...

I like my voice, but often the first time I listen to a new recording I don't like it. If it still sounds bad tomorrow, then it really is crap

Oh, and I abhor my speaking voice
 
I'm surprised by how many people don't like their voice. That's unfortunate because most people can learn to sing well. A select number have the natural vocal equipment to be great — but they still practice and train regularly.

I like my voice. I get free training every week and get to sing with a quartet every few weeks. Most people have never heard of us — we are the Barbershop Harmony Society. It is the largest male singing group in the world — about 30,000 members world-wide, I believe. At Chapter meetings we go over things like breath control, mouth shapes, vowel sounds and tuning issues. Of course, we sing a lot of songs too. For the ladies, there are the Sweet Adelines Chapters.

To acquire a pleasing voice, I believe you need two things — regular practice and a good grounding in vocal techniques. Get a teacher, sing in a church choir, join our barbershoppers — anything to give you those two things.

Happy singing!

Bill
 
I just started trying to learn to sing. I don't think my voice is that great but I'm hoping that as long as I can sing on key it won't be too bad.

One thing of comfort is that I've read/heard interviews with people like Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton who say that they really don't like their voices. Even though millions of people love to listen to these guys.

In addition, I love Bob Dylan's singing even though most of my friends think I'm crazy. I think there is something to be said about unique vocals. Nobody can sing Bob like Bob and nobody is going to sing Oneguy songs like Oneguy.

I think the most important thing with singing is to sing on key and sing the right songs that your voice was made for.

Just my two cents.
 
Hello,
newbie here @ HRF. As for me, I can say that most of time I like my voice, but sometimes I have mixed feelings too. I think that it is important to find something that is suitable as well as being on key. My voice is soulful (deep and powerful) and is mostly set to low(sometimes)-med-high vocally. I can almost sound like "Toni Braxton" and or "Millie Jackson"... Well, that is what I am told. LMAO. Anyway, I am not a professional singer and would not mind to better my voice.
 
The more I have been recording it, the more I'm hating it. I sound good live, I really like the way I sound with the band behind it and in a PA at a club, but alone in my basement in headphones I can't stand how thin it sounds. This is probably quite the opposite of the usual pop singer who sounds like shit live (blackeyed peas @ superbowl anyone?) but great on a recording.

Don't know if I can do anything about it, maybe just only ever make live albums?
 
Captain Ego said:
The more I have been recording it, the more I'm hating it. I sound good live, I really like the way I sound with the band behind it and in a PA at a club, but alone in my basement in headphones I can't stand how thin it sounds. This is probably quite the opposite of the usual pop singer who sounds like shit live (blackeyed peas @ superbowl anyone?) but great on a recording.

Don't know if I can do anything about it, maybe just only ever make live albums?
Click to expand...

LMAO, I feel you on this- I haven't seen the super bowl, but I've bet it was hilarious to see and hear...

Guitargodt, I enjoy listening to your recording. Awesome performance! :-)
 
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I like my voice but sometimes I have mixed feelings about it,
I have a very unique sound of voice
It's nasal!
But it works most of the time but sometimes I hate it.

But the most of the time you don't notice the ''nasal-ness'' of my voice
 
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