Hey brothahs(/sistahs)...i've got sort of a problem. After recording myself and listening to my voice about a thousand times over the years, i've come to a realization. I'm working diligently, my technique is improving, my range is getting together, i'm very slowly working my way through my bridge, but despite all this improvement, I really just hate the tone of my voice.
I think it just sounds really bad, mostly in regards to my chest voice, since my head voice isnt really developed well enough for me to tell whether it sounds good or not. I really don't know if there's anything I can do about it either. It just sounds really...I dunno, thick or something. It doesnt seem to be related to resonance or enunciation or breath support or anything, it just seems like no matter what I do it has this sound that I really can't stand.
Haha, I'm not exactly sure what my question is, but if anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

You should post an example. Nearly everyone you'll meet is unsatisfied with the way they sound in one way or another. I'm sure even Jaime, at one point, wished he sounded completely different than he does. You're always your own worst critic. You can change your tone to some degree, but when it comes down to it, you have to learn to love what you're naturally born with, because that's what you have.

I think you can increase your range in either direction as far as you want over time, have perfect technique, but the resonant qualities of your body can never change too much. Even after Michael Jackson, say, got surgery on his nose, his tone stayed pretty much the same. I started singing when I weighed 90 pounds and now I weigh nearly 140 (I was bulimic and I'm a pretty small guy to begin with) and my voice, even with aging three years and gaining 50 pounds, hasn't changed much.

All I'm really saying is...Well, give us an example. No one will make fun. It might make you feel better to hear compliments on it. I'm sure that if you've worked hard, it's gonna sound good.

I have yet to find a singer who loves their own tone....we all seek to modify it or improve it in some way.


Tim

I hate my voice ;) Learn to love your own sound and sing along with singers that fit your toanlity:) You'll find it.

JV

Here's a sample of me singing and doing the chords on my keyboard...I tried to pick a recognizable song with a range I could handle easily. If it sounds like i'm sort of distant from the mic, it's because I am...I was using my computer's built in microphone. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.geocities.com/rx88v/greensleeves.mp3

Maybe I'm placing my resonance in a wrong way or something, but I dunno, It always seems like my tone is just plain unpleasant and I really think it sounds kind of harsh.

Any advice?

I like it. Your pronunciation seems odd though. Are you native to English? I apologize if you are a native speaker, that's all I can really pick out. You have a nice voice.

And when I say that, I mean, that your hard 'a' vowels, as in the word "say" sound like the 'e' in "melt". It sounds like you're exagerating the alteration of the vowel. I'd like to say again though, I like the quality of your voice, especially the higher notes you sing on that recording.

Wow, thanks man. I really appreciate that you think it sounds nice, cause when i listen to it, I think it sounds really nasty. I guess part of it must be a psychological thing...the difference between my actual voice and what I'd like my voice to sound like is a pretty big difference.

In regards to the pronunciation thing...I had no idea!! Until you said that, I didn't notice that my vowels do sound a little weird, but now it really sticks out. Actually, it's kind of freaking me out now :) I'm a native english speaker, so I'm not sure where my vowel alteration thing comes from. I guess that's something I could work on.

Thanks for the input though, I really sincerely appreciate it!

Your vowel alteration most likely comes from the fact that, well, it's easier and seems more natural to alter certain vowels when getting into higher ranges. Most singers I've heard, within any genre, do that. I would suggest you work on it, but it added a kind of fire to that song. So don't try to completely rid yourself of that.

I gave your snippet a listen and your tone sounds quite 'nasally' to me - like as though you sing with a pinched nose. Don't be discouraged by this - a lot of people sing like that and I for one used to. I couldn't stand my tone because it sounded like it was all in my nose, but I've found the more I worked on my voice the more it helped. Also, a good way of testing where your voice is naturally resonating is simply to sing while pinching your nose. Then, adjust the way you produce the sound until you get rid of the effects of the nose pinching and your tone is not restricted by it anymore. You should find that helps a little... well I hope so anyway. Give it a try and let us know how you get on. Best of luck :)

Thanks for the tip! I suppose the reason it sounds nasally is because I'm sort of trying to direct my resonacne out of my throat, and the only way I can seem to get a decent buzz in my head/mask/whatever is if I direct my resonance up towards my sinus area. There's no actual air coming through my nose or anything, I just put my resonance there because it makes it easier to hit notes without strain, particularly the high notes. Am I placing my resonance in an artificial way?

And you know, I think the nasal quality might be what I dislike so much about my voice, but if I don't place everything in that area it feels like its coming from my throat, which sounds and feels much worse. I can't really seem to get rid of the nasality while keeping a non-throat based feel/sound. Any tips?

BTW, thanks again guys, this is totally helping me out.

Try singing the opposite of nasal...Try dropping your larynx and sounding like a snooty old woman, or how you'd imagine a female opera singer would sound. Go for that tonality. It'll open your throat and mouth up. Try to maintain the feeling in your head though, you have the right idea.

Here's my thoughts:

1. You're quite nasal. You're basically killing all of the beauty and ring in your voice because of how much nasality you've added in.

It can be fixed, though--I'm 100% the same way. If I let myself focus too much on technique, or if I don't even think of it at all (the two extremes seem to do me in ;)), then I just -throw- my voice into my nose ;). It sounds and feels ressonant to me, but it has no carrying power and it sounds really terrible and covered to everyone else.

For me, the way to get a fuller, more powerful sound is to make sure that I'm not focusing the sound too forward. I try to think of the ressonance as being 'wide', all across the inside of my mouth, instead of coming out with a 'point' to it.

One helpful technique for me is to focus my eyes at a spot on the wall and 'aim' my voice towards it. Then before I actually start to sing, I imagine that spot getting wider and wider. Now I'm not just aiming to hit a bullseye with an arrow--I'm looking to knock the whole target down with a cannon ball ;).

Even when I'm singing very softly, I make sure to try to keep my 'target' wide.

2. You don't seem to be feeling the song at all. You can have the most beautiful voice in the world, but if you don't feel a thing when you're singing, then no one will listen for more than five minutes. On the other hand, you could have a pretty bad voice, but if you really feel what you're singing, then people who would normally hate your voice will often listen and enjoy :D.

3. You're slamming into almost every single note. But most especially the low notes. That's also a problem that I struggle with. Practice keeping the bottom notes light whenever you sing a decending scale--I'd suggest you try working on 'ah' and 'ee', since those seem to help me quite a bit.

Now you don't make them any less powerful--don't mistake making them light for making them less powerful. The idea is to feel that the last note carries only as much 'weight' to it as the top note did. Try to imagine that each step down is actually a step up.


Other than that, you sound like you're on the right track :D.

Tony and James, thanks so much for your help!!! I tried to record a newer version, I focused on all that advice and was trying to tone down the nasality but I don't think it worked too well...

http://www.geocities.com/rx88v/greensleevesv2.mp3

Frankly, I just can't seem to keep any sort of resonance going without sounding very nasal. The only way to completely eliminate the nasality for me seems to be to stick my tone way back in the throat, and I know that's not good.
Another problem also came up...when I tried to eliminate the nasal feeling, my breath support totally fell apart. I seemed to run out of air every 5 seconds.

Blech, I feel like a total lost cause when it comes to singing. It almost makes me want to give up, but I've spent so much time practicing aleady it would really suck to see all that time go to waste.

I dunno, it's still not so much your tone that I don't like, but your pronunciation seems very narrow, very unnatural. Your tone definitely isn't going to make anyone sick though. It's nice, imo.