Many people who come to me for sessions, often come with a very clearly defined self-given label for what kind of singer they are.
“I’m a weighty contralto with a light top”
“I’m a super-light tenor with an airy flip”
“I’m a hard-rock singer with high-octane vocals”
And 99% of the time, they are not any of those things. Let me explain why, and start with a simple caution that every singer eventually has to learn for themselves.
Rule 1: Don’t rush to definitions
It’s all too common to want to know “but what AM I?!“. We all want a handle, something that makes the intangible seem more tangible, and to get a grip on what we should or shouldn’t be doing. It’s an understandable desire.
In turn, when one knows they’ve got a long way to go, it only seems logical to start with whatever we presently have. We look at what we can presently do, and what we can’t, and extrapolate from there. But here’s the problem: what each of us has at the start of our vocal journeys is so fledgling, so minute, it often doesn’t give anywhere near enough of an indication as to what the voice will be with even a modicum of training.
Sadly, singers (including my own past self!) hyper-fixate on what they think they have, and construct some internal definition of what their voice is/isn’t when they’ve not actually built anything yet. This is often where those self-labels or worse – self-declarations – come in.
Those of you who have studied with me will have noticed how rapidly your voice changes within the first few months, such that the voice you have after just a little bit of study is not even close to the same feeling instrument as it was at the start. However much people think you can change your voice yourself in self-guided training, it really doesn’t change all that much compared to what can actually be done.
So firstly, don’t rush to definitions. They mis-lead and paint you into a corner by setting typically inaccurate parameters as to what you should/shouldn’t do.
Rule 2: Your voice will change with training
When we first start working with someone’s voice, we have to build the fundamentals (obviously). This can mean that range, power, control, even-ness will increase in exercises, but songs will still feel tricky to execute the same facility.
Why would this be?
It’s not just that it takes time to build the beginning of facility, but it also takes time to figure out songs that your newly built voice will respond well to. I’ve listed three songs I often prescribe to singers as beginner building songs, but people often tend to fixate on songs they like, even if such songs are working against building a voice well.
After a short while, a few songs will become apparent as more favourable for your voice mechanically, but they may not feel that artistic or performance-worthy just yet. Some of that is because the training process initially addresses the problem of great singing mainly through a mechanical lens. This means that at the start, we are not yet focused on the artistic. Even as we become more facile with our voices, the artistic can only be considered when the technical is not proving to be an obstacle.
Some of the lack of artistry is also because you are only just learning to “hold the paint brush” musically speaking, and it will take a little while before you can “paint artistically” with your voice. It takes time.
Rule 3: Some songs will suit you more than others
Not long after this process begins, in very short order in fact, some songs will seem to leap ahead and sound incredible in your voice. You’ll start to hear things you’ve never heard before. More bottom, more top, more dynamic range and excitement, and great control. Your voice will sound and feel smoother than it ever has before.
You’ll then go down a rabbit hole trying to find more songs that feel the same. You’ll want to try and deploy that same feeling of vocal quality in every song you try. Some will be more successful, and some will be less successful. That may not make a lot of sense at the time, but it really is something you learn to make peace with.
You’ll try to figure out why some feel better than others, and you’ll derive some intuition that helps guide your song choice better. And you’ll spend some time consolidating at this level. You’ll think you’ve figured your voice out, that you understand it now, and FINALLY you might even start to think about labels for yourself… but wait…
Remember Rule 1: Don’t rush to definitions… because…
Rule 4: Your voice will keep levelling up
With all the work you’re putting in, you’ll find that suddenly a new song that you previously thought was way beyond your ability, feels accessible. You won’t know how it happened. You’ll remember trying it in the last phase, and the song just fell apart. But something has shifted in your voice. You’ll be tackling more range than before, and trying to smooth out the transitions across your growing range.
Suddenly, all the songs that you thought were your A-game, suddenly feel like B- or even C-grade. What happened? You’re not doing them any worse… but rather, you’ve levelled up. Your voice has not ascended not just in range, but in quality and function.
What then? Well, you’ll wash, rinse, and repeat the same process of figuring out what songs fit and what songs don’t. You’ll try to iron out the wrinkles and figure out how to deploy that next level of quality in as many songs as possible.
And then? You’ll try to figure out the next label/definition… but with each levelling up occurs, you’ll start to grasp that these labels are so temporary that they almost don’t matter. They are not definitions, but merely reflections on your voice as you ascend to greater singing ability.
Don’t worry about the labels.
The great thing is, you’ll still be unmistakeably you throughout all this training, but as soon as you start to consolidate at one level, you’ll shed any previously meaningful label and be ascending to the next level, which you’ll consolidate at, and move forward again. Ever moving forward!
Conclusion: Voices reveal themselves
The take-home message is not that you can’t derive any meaningful sense of your voice with training. But labels are only so helpful, and labels turned into self-definitions or declarations generally impede progress over time.
Instead, voices are completely unique, and each reveals themselves as we train. It’s a lot like bodybuilding or going to the gym – you can’t tell exactly what someone is going to look like with training, but the physique will develop at it’s own pace and as the pounds shed themselves, the underlying physique is revealed. And the better someone trains, the more nuanced that revelation becomes.
So don’t worry about labels, or what kind of voice you’re going to be. Even I can’t predict with perfect accuracy what kind of voice someone is going to be, I can only give generalities. But the longer someone trains for, the more obvious it becomes what kind of singer they are, and what kind of songs they should be singing. It just takes putting in the time to reveal that sensibility.
Want to experience this for yourself?
If this is a process you’d like to experience for yourself, I’d love to help you discover your own voice for yourself. You can book yourself in for your initial consultation via my booking form right here.