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Vocal style issues

  • 17-02-2006 5:39am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭


    I've something an issue with my vocals here.

    Basically, I think people are having trouble looking past the fact my voice at times sounds very much like a well-known alt-rock singer/songwriter.
    It is possible for me to sing in such a way that does not resemble this particular guitarist, but when I try to sing that way, to my ears I sound truly crap and my range falls to pieces. My voice then sounds horribly bland and I just can't hit notes with the same force or conviction; it sounds weak.

    So, given that I personally believe that I sound far, far better with my "unoriginal" voice, than with my non-descript one, how should I deal with the borderline-negative response it seems to provoke?

    I've played some songs to one/two of my band mates and one or two of them have seemed pretty taken aback at the prospect of my sounding so similar to this famous vocalist. Because they originally had heard me singing in my 'bland' voice, they now percieve this vocal style as being kind of "put-on" or "forced", which to a very small extent may be true, but if I'm to ever try to perform half-decent sounding vocals, this style is a must. There's simply no choice - I can't hit the notes any other way. Really it's more "me" than anything else ever could be, because it affords me so much pizzazz(sp?) and conviction when singing.

    I've recorded more than a few demos in with these vocals that I'm more comfortable with, and I'm immensly satisfied with the results. The quality is there, I firmly believe. I may be able to post a link to them in the near future.

    So really, to my mind, it's a question of percieved originality versus genuine vocal quality...

    Which do you think I should opt for and how should I tackle the inherent problems in either choice?

    Thanks v much


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,503 ✭✭✭smelltheglove


    all i can say in my experience especially in cover bands when you sing a load of differnet songs each night which in order for the song to sound good the vocals must be as near to the origional as you can expect and i came up on these problems when i started writting my own stuff i know this my sound horribley corny but you have to "find your voice" by just learning how to use your voice adn your breathing because your range comes from below you obviously have it if you say you can do it one way but not the other "bland" way you just need to know how if your serious about it a few voice training lessons should sort you out and put you on the right path...but on the other hand if your happy enough to sound like this person you speak of go with it man because no matter what you do you will always be compared to somebody....best of luck with which ever you decide(sorry about the bad spelling im in my 10th hour of a 12hour shift :rolleyes: )


  • Registered Users Posts: 499 ✭✭Flynn


    Hey,
    I agree with smelltheglove, if you started singing covers before your own material (which is most if not all of the time i'd imagine) then it can be hard to "find your voice" i've been told your real singing voice is the voice that comes out when you speak. This is the honest voice IMO. But obviously people are going to add a little flare to their accent to make it more stylish but don't get rid of the accent completely. It just seems false.

    I think i know where you're coming from when you say you don't sound as good using your own voice. I felt the same, when i started singing originals i thought it sounded really lame but i just got used to it, i think alot of it was in my head.
    So maybe the reason you can't reach those high notes is a psychological one??

    If sounding like this famous guitarist is getting you down maybe you should force yourself to re-learn to sing but in your own natural voice this time..

    But i dont know you and havn't heard you sing - maybe you just do sound like this guy??

    later

    -flynn


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,323 ✭✭✭Savman


    just belt it out, whatever comes out comes out :cool:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,946 ✭✭✭red_ice


    Flynn wrote:
    i've been told your real singing voice is the voice that comes out when you speak.

    Thats all you need to know right there. I've been singing along to queens of the stone age, Mark Lanegan, pearljam, alice in chains and such for god knows how long. Thats how i got my confidence up when it came to hitting notes, and its also how i came to understand different tones in vocals - if you know those bands you will know they have very different vocal sounds.

    I've been making various post on Pitchyness and mic technique when it came to my singing because i couldnt understand what sounded so wrong on tracks, yet it sounds so right without a mic(i knew your voice sounds different in your head than to poeple hearing, but that wasnt my problem). I slowly but surely started to realise that i was putting too much effort into my singing, because i was trying to sing songs the way that they were being sung. I never really applied my own melody (in key) to a song, but when i tried it, stuff became more natural. When i started to realise my range, and the potential that it contains, i got more confident, but in order for me to be confident, i wasnt listening to my voice, i was listening to the guitar that i was playing, and leaving the rest out of my mind.

    Then, when were jamming, a slow riff was being played, that i couldnt really relate to any band that i've heard before (our sound), which i didnt know what to do, so i talked lyrics over it, then tried to add some keys to it, then some emotion, and bam - i found my voice.

    Once you break through it, its like an epiphany. It just hits you, you feel more confortable, and your range gets alot better than when your trying to sing over someone elses stuff. You dont even realise, but its kind of harder to sing in other peoples style once you get used to your own.

    Why not try writing a song? If you play an instrument, just hit some random slow chords, get a beat going in your head with it, then talk over it, then talk the chords you are playing and match them. It really does work... for me anyways

    Hope that helps


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 154 ✭✭Briony Noh


    Urrm, I think it was about the voice, yeah, that's right. I've been singing in my lame voice for more years than you've been alive (wild guess) and only last year I started to think I could probably do better. I mean, I've spent all that time ignoring the fact that people have always told me my voice sucked (They just aren't hearing it right, I always thought). So about six months ago I started to think if my voice always sounds better when I'm doing impressions of other singers (believe it or not I had a rave review for my Paul Robson and have often been told I could sit in for Dean Martin if he ever dies completely - ask grandma) what is it about the impressions that's good for my voice. Recently, I've developed what I'd like to consider an embryo style of singing and been startled to notice that, not only does it actually sound a little better on recordings I've made, but I even seem to have improved my range!

    What's my point? I'll tell you what my point is. I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY POINT IS. Although, it might be something like this: Do whatever you have to do to develop your own style. It's no more and mo less than any other instrumentalist has to do. All guitarists, drummers, bassists, saxophonists (how many instruments are there? How long is this list going to be) learned to copy their heroes and later discovered how to make their own style ring through the sound. That's all you have to do. Take your voice, your derivative voice, and make it your own. Now, buckle down, sonny, discovery takes time and effort. Without these, it's just theft. Wax with the right hand, dry with the left...

    Good luck.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,946 ✭✭✭red_ice


    Someone Just smoked a whole bunch of crack! :v:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 154 ✭✭Briony Noh


    it was either smoke it or fillet (cullinary humour, arf-arf)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14 Soltra


    Hi

    There's a couple of things I'd suggest although they may seem a bit silly at the time. A couple of weeks ago I was doing a vocal recording for a friend and we had to come up with 8 different ways of singing a 3 part harmony. I ended up screaming down a microphone, singing through a bongo drum, trying to imitate a trumpet.. you get the idea. Anyway, I came away with a much better idea of what my voice was capable of as I was experimenting and trying ways of singing that I wouldn't in a million years do otherwise.

    It might be an idea to give this a go. If you learn more about your capabilities you may find a happy medium between these two voices you're talking about.

    Accent is another thing. I think it's much easier in some ways to sing with an American accent as you don't have to enunciate the words as much (maybe controversial) but I find that if I try to sing in different accents then my whole voice changes with it.

    Another thing is to mess around with rhythm and singing on the beat or syncopated or whatever.

    I think it is fair to say that you have to 'find your voice' but this may at least give you a map (I hope). All the best


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭pbsuxok1znja4r


    Hey, yeah I think I've gone some of the way toward finding that happy medium. When I sing low notes my voice sounds very good, and sounds less like the person it supposedly sounds like. When I hit higher notes it's more noticeable though.
    Yeah I sure as hell don't sing with my Irish accent. It sounds awful when I do, and it's also quite hard to do, after years of listening to anything but Irish vocals. American sounding for the heavy stuff, and (ironically) kind of manchester sounding for acoustic stuff. Heh, strange, really.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,783 ✭✭✭Binomate


    Well I wouldn't say that about the Irish accent in vocals. Andrea Corr has a fantastic voice. Her accent just kind of adds to the sweetness of her tone. I think an Irish accent can be used in certain styles quite effectivly.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭pbsuxok1znja4r


    Eh, half the time she still sounds american to me. Trust me, when I sing in my Irish accent I sound like a fucking trad singer, which I do not like.
    It's more natural for me to sing with the American-ish accent; so much so that it doesn't even strike me as being american. It just sounds neutral.


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