THE VOICE CONNECTION
SOUND OFF

Welcome to The Voice Connection Sound Off; a forum for users of books like Raise Your Voice, Melody to Madness, The Ultimate Breathing Workout, and Unleash Your Creative Mindset, as well as a place for Vendera Vocal Academy members to interact.

This message board was created so that singers could come together and "sound off" to help support each other during vocal development and the creative process of unleashing the creative spark that occurs when writing and producing music. Currently, myself and vocal coaches Ben Valen, Ray West, and Ryan Wall are here to respond periodicially to your questions, with new vocal coaches coming soon. But, feel free to help each other too:)

This board is here for you to ask questions about my and my fellow coach's books, videos, and MP3 programs, as well as offer others help with our vocal techniques. You may also post videos of yourself and your band to share your music and ask for critiques.

Please refrain from negative comments, profanities, spamming, and inappropriate criticisms of vocal methodologies, vocal coaches, and singers. All negative posts will be deleted and subject to banning without question. I will not respond to negative posts, because, as Mark Twain once said, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” With that said, positive criticism is welcome because that is how you'll grow as a singer during the training process.


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Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Good evening,

I'm a 16 year old guy from the Netherlands and I've been using and reading RYV for about 4 weeks now. I'm making improvements and I find my range is increasing. Which is great :)

Here's me singing give me a sign by breaking Benjamin. I tried the best I could to get a pleasing sound.

https://soundcloud.com/user615259413/breaking-benjamin-give-me-a

However I still think I sound kind of nasal, whiney and childish and to be frank, I don't like my own voice at all.

Could you guys maybe give me some advice? Is there hope for me of ever sounding more like Chris Cornell or M shadows? Is the tone of my voice going to change much with age or is this the best sound I'm gonna get?

Some guidance and help would be really really really awesome!

Niels

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Is this forum active at all?

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Learn to love your voice! Kenny Werner's book "Effortless Mastery" is an excellent read on that topic. See my interview with him here:

http://www.voiceyourselfgoes360.com/VYGoes360%20Kenny%20Werner.html

By trying to copy someone else's voice you might be creating unnecessary stress on your vocal cords which can be harmful in the long run. If you own RYV (2nd edition), you might find my tip on moving your sound away from your nose useful on page 292. Basically, pinch your nostril on and off while you sing to figure out if you're nasal. If your tone changes, you are nasal. Move your resonance backward or upward until your sound is the same when you pinch your nostrils. Hope that helps!

Valerie

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Just stick with it! You have a good voice, all you need is practice to find your own style. To answer your question about whether your voice will change, in my experience, the answers is yes. I started singing when I was about your age. My voice has changed substantially since then and I have gained a lot more control. Raising your voice is not only about gaining power and range, but about finding your voice and developing your own unique style.

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Niels you´ve got a long way to go, and you should be happy that you found the book RYV in 16, When I was at your age I had a very limited range, before beginning this program, a year ago I had aproximately about half octave greater range than before, and now after roughly 90 sessions I got the range I would have never thought before in life, and guess what, if you religiously stick with it for couple years or maybe a year you could end up with 4 octaves. it´s no joke. Jaime delivers what he promises. And Yes while training your colour may change very slightly and you get fuller tone like mine. For me excercises I chose were, E- scream , sirens, transcending tone (it´s all in one of Jaime´s videos) , and if you get the range and strength build up then do grit excercises after your routine if you want.:)

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Many thanks for all the positive replies. I already knew the pinching your nose trick and I do my best to apply it. Maybe my voice just naturally has this sound I don't know. I'll stick with the isolation exercises and hopefully my voice will improve like Jaime promises.

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

FamiliarStranger
Many thanks for all the positive replies. I already knew the pinching your nose trick and I do my best to apply it. Maybe my voice just naturally has this sound I don't know. I'll stick with the isolation exercises and hopefully my voice will improve like Jaime promises.


I have a gift - or a learned practice - (I'm not sure) I can listen to a voice and pick out "signatures".

I hear parts during the verse where you are comfortable and natural - you're letting your chest resonance vibrate, you allow sound to flow. You're a bit nervous and losing a little bit of control - hence the unintended vibrato. Then there are other parts of the verse where you are trying to mimic the original vocalist (mostly during some of the slides) and you get rigid and choppy. Although your resonance is great during the parts where you are comfortable you have a "dropped" sound - like all the sound is caused by your chest instead keeping the sound in your palate and letting your chest color it.

Think of it like every sound you'll ever make is coming from your Palate, the depth & warmth of that sound are given to it by your resonance - whether it be chest or head. This is why no matter what exercise you are doing - be it bubbles, hums, falsetto slides, TT's - you name it - your face and teeth will vibrate - ALL your sound is in your palate. If you feel the vibration/tickles stop - you've dropped your sound placement - or raised it if you're in head resonance, take a breath and retry it while keeping all your SOUND BUZZ in your face and move your RESONANCE BUZZ up and down like a ping pong ball on water, filling and draining as you go "up" and "down" in pitch. ALSO - stop with the UP and DOWN - instead think Near (low) and Far (high) - Like a catapult, project your higher notes to the very back of the room - for lower notes lower the power of the catapult so they only hit the first row.

During the builds and the choruses you are already disliking what you hear before it comes out - this locks you up (mentally, emotionally and consequently - physically), makes the sound tight and nasal because #1 You are not changing your resonance from chest up into head for higher tones/energy - you're just forcing a higher "chest voice" and #2 You are refraining, afraid of your voice, afraid of what it will do if you set it free, afraid of imperfection, afraid of sounding stupid, afraid of losing control. STOP IT!!! During your practices LET IT GO, SET IT FREE - Sound TERRIBLE, crack, make mistakes LEARN HOW THEY FEEL so you can navigate around them - and learn how it feels when it FEELS GOOD TO LET GO- JUST LEARN!!! and STOP being afraid!

You are drawn to this song for a reason - internalize the lyrics as if you wrote them, FEEL what they mean then convey it. Don't worry about how the original vocalist sang it - they weren't singing it - they were feeling it and it's your job to feel it for the listeners NOW so they can feel it with you. You'll be amazed at how easily the notes you stress about come straight from you heart without trying with PERFECT tone - If I had to put a percentage on it I'd say that AFTER you establish proper technique 90% of singing is in the "tone of the emotion" you are conveying, not the tones you manipulate in order to emulate someone else.

Don't forget your Vocal Stress Release and Ultimate Vocal Warm-up BEFORE you start your isolation exercises. You gotta warm-up before you can open up!

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

Thank you very much for taking the time to write all that down for me, I will take some time to apply your advice and then I'll try again and hopelfully make it sound better.

Re: Is it possible to change the tone of my voice? (With sample)

The tone of your voice changes by you training it. You must drown yourself in your favourite artists, do covers of their music try to imitate every single little inflection. break every phrase down and repeat it back acapella trying to match everything. copy BLATANTLY. If you do this with 3-4 different artists you will absorb their different traits and meld them into a unique sound. The good stuff you love will rub off on you.

Do you know how Michael Jackson became such a unique dancer? He imitated James Brown, Fred Astaire and a few others copying every single thing then what you do is once you can copy it exactly you THROW IT OUT AND FORGET ABOUT IT and just do your thing. The habits will rub off on you and seep into your individual sound and you will get a mix of different qualities and it will be YOUR INDIVIDUAL SOUND

Now you need to have a good handle on technique in order to know what stuff to copy and what stuff to avoid. But from what I can hear it won't hurt you to experiment a little as long as you come back and center yourself with clinical technique when you warmup with the scales/exercises. when you sing, feel free to muck around.

Remember this: when you try to morph your tone to match a singer you love, there is always a line you must draw: if it starts ruining with your technique that's too far. fade it off until you can change your sound without hurting yoru technique.

Now you are not nasally you have a nice buzzy bright tone. The only problem is when you ascend to the very highest notes in that track the sound gets out of your control as you aren't modifying the vowels. Other than that you are doing great.

Phil Moufarrege
Grow-The-Voice.com