When it comes to singers assessing their own voices, people obsess over many different things. They obsess especially about:
– voice type (e.g. soprano vs alto, tenor vs bass);
– what kind of range do they have;
– what genres is their voice better at/worse at;
– what are their highest notes, etc.
But this is like someone obsessing over and endlessly analysing how strong they think they are before they’ve ever set foot inside a gym.
These attributes are important, but are only really meaningfully assessed after a period of training. Some of these traits are also extremely negotiable with the right training. These are all helpful traits to listen out for and make a note of, but they are not permanent or static reference points.
With training, range will grow. Strength and power can also be enhanced, but some singers need more than others for their chosen genre, so this is (to some extent) negotiable. How high someone can sing may not be where they artistically choose to spend most of their time. This is what makes these traits somewhat useful, but often misleading.
There is ONE trait that doesn’t change enormously
There is, however, one particular qualitative characteristic I listen to when working with a singer. This applies to male and female singers of all ages, in all genres, at all stages of development.
That characteristic is the weight of their voice.
What is the ‘weight’ in someone’s voice?
I’ve covered what light voices sound like in this article, and what weighty voices sound like in this article. We’ll get a little more analytical here.
The weight in someone’s voice is more of a cluster of several things, rather than one singular thing. There are many nuanced traits but the following two should give you some idea of what I’m looking for. It’s a combination of:
1) the pitch of their speaking voice (how low vs high someone tends to speak);
2) the resonance of their speaking voice (how much low vs high frequencies exist in their voice when they speak – this is correlated with, but independent of pitch)
NOTE: How loud/quiet does a given voice tend to be is a factor I consider, but can also be misleading. Hence, I’m going to ignore this aspect for now.
Broadly speaking, these two traits are a reasonable reflection of the natural weight and calibration of someone’s voice. It tells me how much muscularity there is to their voice (or how little there is), and also tells me about the natural resonances and frequencies their voice tends to generate.
Three Challenges of Weightier Voices
Voices with more ‘weight’ tend to have either a more muscular instrument (literally more muscle in the vocal folds), or an instrument that resonates with more low frequencies, or some mix of the two.
Challenge 1: It’s more physical work to sing well
The weightier the voice, the easier it is to hit notes they already have with power. Thickness of tone is also more readily accessible. However, GETTING to the notes they want to sing is much more challenging.
In the case of extra muscularity in the vocal folds, this means that weightier voices need to contract their vocal folds MUCH more firmly and fully than lighter voiced counterparts. This is a much more mechanically demanding experience (even done correctly) than it generally is for lighter singers.
Challenge 2: They are prone to yelling
In turn, the thicker vocal folds generates a fuller spectrum of frequencies into the vocal tract (which shapes the sound into vowels). This creates increased pressure on the vocal tract, which makes it harder to keep the exact shape needed to form the right vowel for good singing.
In less skilled singers this often leads to them just yelling the notes when they feel this pressure. When we yell, we are essentially opening the vocal tract completely and not shaping the sound. This abates the acoustic pressure in the vocal tract, but at the expense of the quality of sound. It is why often weightier singers find themselves prone to yelling or going too wide when singing for long periods or at high intensity, more so than lighter singers.
In weightier voices where the resonant frequencies of their voices sit lower (irrespective of the muscularity in their voice), they have to create a LOT more space in their throat/vocal tract when singing to allow higher notes to resonate in a congruent way with how they sound lower down. If there isn’t enough space at the back of the throat, their singing will sound inappropriately thin and potentially feel unpleasantly tight as they do it. The greater the quantity of lower frequencies, the more space is needed… requiring us to make that space WITHOUT opening so wide we just yell the note. It’s tough going.
Challenge 3: Weightier voices tend to NEED to be louder
The last challenge is that weightier voices generally do not like to operate quietly. I was trying to practice in a hotel room recently, only curbing my volume slightly, but this meant several songs did not feel right. I’m not talking about singing at high intensity, but that weightier voices often have a higher optimal operating volume than lighter instruments. Trying to operate the instrument below a certain level can lead to things jamming up or feeling tight.
One last thing
Many singers may be thinking “I relate to that, I must have a weightier voice“… but I must stress that lighter voices can face similar issues but for wholly different reasons. Instead, you have to listen to your own speaking voice and identify if it’s lighter/heavier in it’s weight, rather than diagnose yourself as ‘weighty’ just by the symptoms I’ve listed above.
I’ll be covering what light voices struggle with in part 2.
Either way, whether you are a weightier singer who recognises these issues in your own voice, or a lighter voice singer who relates to this as well, if you would like me to help you with these issues you can book in with me via my booking form right here. If that’s you, then I look forward to starting work with you soon.