Let’s do a quick recap of what we covered in part 1:
There are many variables involved in gauging someone’s vocal ability, but a lot of these are misleading.
One particular qualitative characteristic I listen to when working with a singer, which applies to all singers of all ages, in all genres, at all stages of development – the weight of their voice.
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)
We then covered the challenges this interaction creates for voices on the weightier end of the spectrum in part 1. In this part we’ll be covering how this manifests in lighter voices.
What’s the difference between weightier voices and lighter voices?
As a reminder, I’ve provided clips of 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.
If weightier voices can have MORE muscularity to their vocal folds, and/or MORE lower frequency resonance to their speaking voice, then lighter voices are the opposite.
Lighter voices tend to have less muscularity to their vocal folds, which results in (typically) a higher speaking pitch, a brighter sounding instrument and can also be quieter in volume. It’s a little like stringing an acoustic guitar with much thinner strings than normal – it reduces the bottom end, and brightens the whole instrument while often reducing the volume. Please note, we are only really talking about the vocal folds and their muscularity here.
When it comes to resonance, the same reduction in bottom end is down to fewer lower frequencies being sympathetically excited by their singing. This is typically due to a narrower and lower volume vocal tract, resulting in less resonant space to colour the sound so as to darken it. Returning to the guitar analogy, a smaller body guitar tends to sound brighter and more strident, while a bigger body guitar tends to sound bass-ier and fuller. The vocal tract resonances are similarly correlated.
Three Challenges of Lighter Voices
Challenge 1: It’s harder to get a bigger sound
The lighter the voice, the easier it is to hit high notes as there’s so little weight to their instrument holding them down. Getting to notes is generally more readily accessible than for weightier voices. However, getting the power behind the notes they want to sing is much more challenging.
In the case of less muscularity in the vocal folds, this means that lighter voices don’t have the capacity to contract their vocal folds as firmly and fully as weightier voiced counterparts. This makes it a much less mechanically demanding experience than it generally is for weightier singers.
NOTE: This reduction in contraction-ability means although they don’t have much contraction available, establishing what contraction they do have is critical to building their voice well.
Challenge 2: They are prone to sounding strident or weak
In turn, the thinner vocal folds generates a smaller and brighter spectrum of frequencies into the vocal tract (which shapes the sound into vowels). This creates less pressure on the vocal tract than weightier singers. This can make it less difficult to keep the vowels correct, but often sounds weaker or more strident than they would otherwise prefer to sound.
In less skilled singers this often leads to them opting to yell such notes when they feel their sound isn’t powerful enough (even if they are doing it well/correctly). When we yell, we are essentially opening the vocal tract completely and not shaping the sound. This creates the impression of high volume/power, but at the expense of the quality of sound.
In lighter voices where the resonant frequencies of their voices sit higher (irrespective of the muscularity in their voice), they have to really control and focus the space in the vocal tract to enhance and enrichen their sound. More power doesn’t come from hitting the voice harder, but from shaping that sound well to bring forth a fuller and more intense sound. If the vocal tract isn’t shaped well enough at the back of the throat, their singing will sound overly thin and potentially feel unpleasantly tight/squeaky as they do it.
The lighter the voice, the more focus is needed to bring forth depth and intensity… which we need to do WITHOUT opening so wide we just yell the note. It’s tough going even for lighter singers.
Challenge 3: Lighter voices tend to NEED to be quieter
The last challenge is that lighter voices generally operate better at a lower volume. I’m not talking about AVOIDING singing at high intensity, but that lighter voices often have a lower optimal operating volume than weightier instruments. Trying to operate the instrument above a certain level can lead to things jamming up or feeling tight/yelling.
One last thing
Like with part 1, many singers may be thinking “I relate to that, I must have a lighter voice“… but I must stress that weightier voices too can face similar issues to lighter ones 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 ‘lighter voiced’ just by the symptoms I’ve listed above.
I’ll be covering why light voices sometimes end up expressing the same issues as weightier voices (and vice versa) in part 3.
Either way, whether you are a lighter singer who recognises these issues in your own voice, or a weightier 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.