when did your voice come to fruition?

digster
digster Posts: 1,293
edited February 2004 in Musicians and Gearheads
I've had a longstanding love/hate relationship with my voice when it comes to singing; I'm really selfconscious about how it sounds, and I usually don't think it sounds too good. Every once in awhile though my friends tell me "don't worry about it, man, it'll come; you're only 18." That surprised me; I didn't really think my voice was still going through major changes. So when did your guys voices get to the point where you thought it was good? I know there's probably not a definite answer, but in your twenties? Late teens? 18? Just wondering what you thought.
Post edited by Unknown User on
«1

Comments

  • exhausted
    exhausted Posts: 6,638
    not so much age-wise for me but i really didn't get comfortable with mine until i gigged for about a year or so. it roughened up and strengthened to the point where i don't hate it quite so much now. i also learned where my ideal range was and all that.

    i also had to accept that i'm not a rock singer and never will be.
  • 69charger
    69charger Posts: 1,045
    The only way to be comfortable with your voice is to use it a lot. I have been playing for about two years now about 3 times a month and I am getting pretty good. I am no longer worried about if it will hold up and it just keeps getting better. So I guess my advice would be to use your voice a lot. Get a good voice training/warmup CD and practice with it. Warming up is extremely important and will suprise the shit out of you the first time you really try it and then sing. Enough rambling for now...
  • MissYouAllDay
    MissYouAllDay Posts: 939
    "i also had to accept that i'm not a rock singer and never will be."

    Man 2 words....

    Billy Corgan
    I miss you already, I miss you always
    I miss you already, I miss you all day
  • digster
    digster Posts: 1,293
    Originally posted by MissYouAllDay
    "i also had to accept that i'm not a rock singer and never will be."

    Man 2 words....

    Billy Corgan

    Yeah, I need to have faith. I have the same problem as exhausted has; I love rock and roll so much, and refuse to accept that my voice won't let me sing it. Maybe that's just dumb, I don't know, but God knows in ten years I wanna be on the stage of MSG wailing away and throwing all those mike stands and guitars in the air :-).
  • MissYouAllDay
    MissYouAllDay Posts: 939
    that's the right attitude!!!

    Keep practising
    I miss you already, I miss you always
    I miss you already, I miss you all day
  • Sea As His Floor
    Sea As His Floor Posts: 22
    When I first started the band that I am now in, I wasnt real comfortable with my voice. But after about a year of gigging and practicing a lot I became a lot more comfortable with what I could do and I found where my "comfort zones" are. I'm a very animated front man. I run around a lot and jump and climb on shit and just do whatever I feel like. It took some time to really find how all this was gonna effect my vocal performance, but I've pretty much mastered it. I just make sure to always drink a lot of water during shows. They only way to learn is to fail, so dont be too worried.
    "The children have to save themselves these days because the parents don't have a clue"-Donnie Darko

    "We were done, done, done with all the fuck, fuck, fuckin around"-Modest Mouse
  • nailz100
    nailz100 Posts: 1,176
    Warming up is Definately a must if you are doing gigs. I used to think that I had to warm up right before a gig to get my voice in shape. Since then my vocal coach has taught me to warm up and hour or and hour and a half before a performance. It makes sense. I mean you are probably singing what...3 45 min sets. Do you really want to warm up for half an hour and then sing for 45 min. right after? It sucks....most of the time I don't feel like I have enough time to warm up before a show, with all the moving gear and setting up. But you MAKE TIME for whats important. Nobody expect a drummer to go on stage with his drums out of whack or a guitarist with his guitar out of tune. The guys/ girls in your band should understand that warming up your voice is a HUGE thing and let you go off and warm up while they are setting up. Also cooling down after a show is very important. Do VERY LIGHT exercises after a gig to "reset" your voice. (Lots of stuff in your Falsetto) at least 15 min. Also drink lots of water, not only right before the show, but ALL DAY. I try to drink at least 12-15 glasses a day. Thats all the advice I can give you man....hope it helps.
    Only with our eyes closed can we truly see
  • nailz100
    nailz100 Posts: 1,176
    Oh, and I sometimes still hate my voice. Eminem hates listening to his voice. But I think that can be good. It makes you critical of your singing and makes you work harder to improve it.
    Only with our eyes closed can we truly see
  • AlterEgo
    AlterEgo Posts: 89
    I guess I have an okay voice. Not that naturally good, but I sing all the time trying to improve it. I'm really self-conscious about it, though, because my little sister has a frickin' amazing voice. When she was 9 or 10, she sang "Memory" from the Cats musical a cappella at an elementary school talent show and wowed the crowd into silence - and that was before she'd had any training (she's almost 14 now). So naturally, I always feel like my voice sucks next to hers, which I guess is probably true. But I still work on it. :) You probably have a leg up on me already because you have natural talent, so just keep working and it'll happen!
    "Dude...it's a hamburger on top of a rocket ship!"
  • digster
    digster Posts: 1,293
    Originally posted by AlterEgo
    You probably have a leg up on me already because you have natural talent, so just keep working and it'll happen!

    Yeah, right :-) Trust me, I guess it's a good thing I have to work for it, but any singing talent I have is going to be hardearned. I guess thats the best way to have it though.
  • thewaxtadpole
    thewaxtadpole Posts: 50
    I'm a trained choral singer (I'm also AlterEgo's sister, and thanks to her for the very kind words :D) and I don't remember exactly when I started singing. I've been in some select choirs and I've made a few attempts at writing, madrigals and stuff. But I'll never have a rock voice and I'll never have a Broadway voice. That's something that kind of comes natural. I don't have the greatest ear in the world either, it's a killer (along with my short, stubby fingers) when it comes to the guitar. It all really depends on what you train yourself for. I've had a long-runnign fantasy about being in an opera - but that won't happen ;)
    I've noticed that our senators
    have very funny names.
    Like Lincoln, Zell, and Saxby.
    What's wrong with things like "James"?
    I think that this is crazy.
    I think that it should stop.
    I think this is the reason
    They confirmed John Ashcroft.
  • AlterEgo
    AlterEgo Posts: 89
    Originally posted by thewaxtadpole
    I'm a trained choral singer (I'm also AlterEgo's sister, and thanks to her for the very kind words :D) and I don't remember exactly when I started singing. I've been in some select choirs and I've made a few attempts at writing, madrigals and stuff. But I'll never have a rock voice and I'll never have a Broadway voice. That's something that kind of comes natural. I don't have the greatest ear in the world either, it's a killer (along with my short, stubby fingers) when it comes to the guitar. It all really depends on what you train yourself for. I've had a long-runnign fantasy about being in an opera - but that won't happen ;)
    You could sing rock songs, you know, Mandy. You did find singing along to CDs in my bedroom. ;) Just not Rolling Stones or Creedence Clearwater Revival-type rock songs. Or straight-up punk songs. I agree that you don't have quite the right inflection for that. :D
    "Dude...it's a hamburger on top of a rocket ship!"
  • puremagic
    puremagic Posts: 1,907
    Originally posted by thewaxtadpole
    I'm a trained choral singer (I'm also AlterEgo's sister, and thanks to her for the very kind words :D) and I don't remember exactly when I started singing. I've been in some select choirs and I've made a few attempts at writing, madrigals and stuff. But I'll never have a rock voice and I'll never have a Broadway voice. That's something that kind of comes natural. I don't have the greatest ear in the world either, it's a killer (along with my short, stubby fingers) when it comes to the guitar. It all really depends on what you train yourself for. I've had a long-runnign fantasy about being in an opera - but that won't happen ;)

    Evanescence, Amy Lee - not a rock voice. Example of a band being formulated around a voice.
    SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
  • thewaxtadpole
    thewaxtadpole Posts: 50
    Originally posted by puremagic
    Evanescence, Amy Lee - not a rock voice. Example of a band being formulated around a voice.

    quite true...and she's the only member of her band who should be making music at all.
    I've noticed that our senators
    have very funny names.
    Like Lincoln, Zell, and Saxby.
    What's wrong with things like "James"?
    I think that this is crazy.
    I think that it should stop.
    I think this is the reason
    They confirmed John Ashcroft.
  • exhausted
    exhausted Posts: 6,638
    Originally posted by thewaxtadpole
    quite true...and she's the only member of her band who should be making music at all.

    and possibly the only one who should NOT be designing dresses.
  • Pacomc79
    Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    Originally posted by thewaxtadpole
    I'm a trained choral singer (I'm also AlterEgo's sister, and thanks to her for the very kind words :D) and I don't remember exactly when I started singing. I've been in some select choirs and I've made a few attempts at writing, madrigals and stuff. But I'll never have a rock voice and I'll never have a Broadway voice. That's something that kind of comes natural. I don't have the greatest ear in the world either, it's a killer (along with my short, stubby fingers) when it comes to the guitar. It all really depends on what you train yourself for. I've had a long-runnign fantasy about being in an opera - but that won't happen ;)


    In that case, sing instead from your chest. use your chest voice not your head voice. Just go with the gut and belt it out. The shower voice that's your rock voice. Power, comes from your gut.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • puremagic
    puremagic Posts: 1,907
    Originally posted by exhausted
    and possibly the only one who should NOT be designing dresses.

    is that what that was - ok, we'll go with that.
    SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
  • AlterEgo
    AlterEgo Posts: 89
    Originally posted by exhausted
    and possibly the only one who should NOT be designing dresses.
    Are you implying that the rest of Evanescence should be designing dresses? ;)
    "Dude...it's a hamburger on top of a rocket ship!"
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    I'd been singing all my life to myself but when, in 1990, aged eighteen, I first heard the album "Marjory Razorblade" by Kevin Coyne I heard someone who sang a bit like me and I was encouraged. Then, in January 1991, I heard "Dream Letter - Live in London" by Tim Buckley, and I admit, I tried to copy his voice.
    But my scratching voice all alone was nothing like Buckley's baritone. I found much later on, after gigging and playing with bands and writing songs that your voice will change regardless of contrivances on your part: using PA systems and listening to other musicians with you will encourage you to bring out new tonalities in your voice and even write lyrics in a different way that brings out the sound of the words with the bands, even when you have a point to make in the lyrics themselves. Let the voice guide the poetry, I guess.
  • digster
    digster Posts: 1,293
    Something I've been wondering; I have been working on my Vedder wail, and I wonder...when you go for that rock and roll scream (see...I don't know...Save You I guess or whatever, you know what I mean), do you tend to go up really high straining your voice, or do you stay lower but just kind of growl/scream it? I mean, I'm no master with the high notes, but when I do it lower, it never seems....I dont know....sincere. How do you work on this section of singing, what do you do?

Categories