In one of our more recent voice intensives, an important question was raised around the challenge of “trying to find my own sound“.
Finding your sound
It’s an all too common experience. Experienced and inexperienced singers alike, in a search for their sound, go on a mammoth journey trying on different vocal “fashions“. They try manipulating their voice this way, or that way; they’ll try singing like singer X or singer Y; singing with more air, with less air; more volume here, less volume there; etc… all in repeated attempts to find “their sound“.
Searching for internet experts on forums or on Youtube often follows. Singers end up looking for self-help suggestions and how-to videos then discover tips advised by online personalities. Raise your larynx for high notes, lower your larynx for lower notes, sing harder, sing lighter, more or less nasal resonance, stick your tongue out, pull your tongue back, and many more weird and wonderful instructions.
— NOTE: If you’re confused or bewildered by these ideas, I’m not surprised!
Your own journey
If you’re reading this article, you likely relate to the above experiences, and may still be going through this mammoth journey trying to “find your sound“.
And yet, what 99.99% of such singers who do the above find, is they become even more confused about their voice. Often there’s some short-term satisfaction, followed by uncertainty in that direction. In the medium term, most tend to find that what they are doing doesn’t feels or sound right to them. Something seems amiss with how they are sounding (however good/bad it is), versus some instinctual reaction that it isn’t quite right.
Singers then start trying to tweak yet more things in the hopes of stumbling across their sound.
Here’s the question:
When you try manipulating your voice, to hack it into a particular note or zone, and something doesn’t instinctually seem to sit right…
… where does this instinctual reaction come from?
Something deep in your intuition tells you that whilst you might be hammering that note a bit better, it isn’t right. But how could you know this?
To have that gut feeling about anything, to have some idea of how things ought to feel to us, we need to have had some experience of what is right versus what is not right… but we’ve not yet acquired our own sound yet, have we? So how could we have that sense of orientation about our voice?
As it happens, you have experienced your own sound before.
In fact, you’ve been developing this intuition every single day of your life, every time you speak.
Each of us is intimately acquainted with the sound and feeling of our own voice. It’s already there, it’s already functioning. We each already have our own sound that we know. That’s the internal compass that’s telling you where all those other approaches aren’t quite right.
More than just “knowing” your voice, you feel your own voice.
More than even that, you can tell when it’s feeling “off” by even the tiniest of degrees day-to-day. When you wake up and it’s feeling a little heavy, or a little croaky, you know it instantly. The indicator needle on your vocal calibration sensor (metaphorically speaking) has shifted from balanced, normal and systems A-OK and is telling you “this doesn’t tally up with what we feel day in, day out”… and that sensor is extremely refined in most people.
It’s this same internal sensor that’s telling you something isn’t right whenever you try manipulating your voice this way and that in a vain attempt to sound better, or to “find your voice“. Your voice is the same instrument whether you’re speaking or singing. Of course, the demands and dynamics of singing can be greater than speaking in many instances, but the instrument is the same.
You’ve already found your sound: it’s been at home the whole time.
It’s been that little voice in your head telling you “this isn’t right” whenever you try and sing in a way that deviates from your normal voice.
On a technical level, the process we need to use to integrate this is covered in the prospectus on my site (signup link to receive is at the bottom of this page). We’ve got to establish our own chest voice first, then build that sound and experience upwards (across our various vocal registers) to maintain that sense of “this is still my voice” as we ascend.
In turn, if those high notes that once felt strained and out of reach then start to feel identical to the lowest notes in your range, your body has no reason to react negatively to them. This occurs when there are no cues that indicate a given note is any different or more difficult than the notes already in your comfortable range. It’s a truly strange sensation to feel like a song that was once too high, now feels low.
You’ll also be able to (in effect) feel like you are just saying the lyrics over pitch, in your own voice. No manipulation, no putting on an accent or remembering to do X, Y or Z as you navigate your range.
All these tonal, psychological and musical benefits are the reason you need to go back home to the voice you’ve already got, and build from there.
Learn More: Related Articles
If you want to learn more about finding your sound and vocal style, you may enjoy these related articles:
Style vs Hyper-style: An analysis of Modern Vocal Style
Learn to riff: why it’s easier than you think
Why singing is like clothing
Double check your musical diet
Styling songs: 3 versions of the same song
Why do singers resort to gimmicks to get noticed?