While I am never explicitly asked ‘why does my singing voice sound bad?‘, as a coach and a singer, I KNOW that this is the often unspoken question that many people ask.
Usually, what I get is students telling me what they’d like to improve about their voice (a far more constructive way to go!). From there, the logical question that gets asked either verbally or internally once they start to experience those desired changes is no longer ‘why does my singing voice sound bad?‘, but ‘how long will this take?‘.
And there is no hard and fast and answer to this. The reality is that every singer and every voice is different. What will work and what is appropriate for one singer, may not be the most effective or helpful for another… and vice versa! And it’s this that I wanted to talk about today.
Instruments Vary
I was chatting with another high level voice coach about this in a lesson I had recently, and we were talking about how certain physiological attributes (not necessarily observable from outside the body) seem to result in certain advantages and disadvantages for certain singers. As an example, this coach pointed out that there is a certain volume of space within the voice as an instrument that is referred to as the epilarynx (as I understood it, between the glottis and epiglottis) that is quite important…
NOTE: even if you’re not scientifically minded, go with me on this, trust me – the story will make sense!
When it comes to singing, the epilarynx is a fairly big factor in how voices behave and function well. It is believed that the narrower/tighter this volume becomes in a singer, the better the vocal cords tend to behave in the process of creating a powerful and connected vocal sound. As a further example, at a vocal science meet where a number of vocal coaches had their own voices scoped (i.e. a camera put down their throat to observe vocal behaviour), one of the coaches was found to have an almost UNBELIEVABLY narrow epilarynx… it was said to be so tight in it’s dimensions that they struggled to actually see the vocal cords beyond… and this coach has an incredibly powerful and well connected voice.
What the point of this story is, is to point out that whilst EVERYONE can learn to sing, some are – from at least a physics and biology perspective – gifted with an instrument that is better than others for achieving power and connection throughout their voice, right from birth. Their own biology means that they are predisposed towards having a voice what WANTS to connect itself up, that WANTS to be powerful. The physics accorded by their own biology makes it so. Now while there are many other factors at play, and training can play a role in a singer’s voice and development, we can’t ignore this as a starting point.
By extension, there must also be singers for whom their own biology makes it harder to sing with ease, connection and power from the outset, as every degree to which they vary from the functional ideal will affect their own initial ability.
But here’s the good news!
The Functional Ideal is LEARNABLE
And it’s this that we seek to address in lessons. In every students’ first lesson, we identify the tendencies of the singers (i.e. in what way do they deviate from the functional ideal, and to what degree), and then we apply appropriately designed vocalises (i.e. voice exercises prescribed based on their tendency and the degree of that tendency) in order to PHYSICALLY change the behaviour of their instrument from the ‘base’ state.
Like anyone going to the gym, despite the different body shapes we all have, we can all improve our bodies and physiologies through correctly applied exercises and training. Sometimes it takes longer depending on the starting point and the propensity for that person to take on new muscle memory, but it’s about trusting the process. However many degrees someone’s voice varies from the ideal, and however co-operative their body is about taking on this new muscle memory, these are all factors that affect the speed and degree of progress in developing a voice.
As such, regardless of someone’s vocal starting point, proper technique and appropriately applied vocalises can yield HUGE gains in their voice… it’s very much about trusting the diagnosis of the vocal tendency, and the learning process that stems therefrom.
And here is the biggest catch of all…
We don’t measure someone’s singing ability with numbers.
We don’t measure it by a standardised metric of ‘power’ vs ‘connectedness’. Sure, those things are helpful, important, and worth pursuing, but they do not define whether someone’s voice is “listenable”. All the former things are quantitative, but when it comes to music, we are into QUALITATIVE metrics, i.e. did we enjoy that piece of music? do we like what they do with their voice?
The point is this: as singers, we are into singing in order to sing songs we like better. We’re not in it for vocal olympics, vocal weightlifting, or vocal shred-competitions (though obviously that can be an enjoyable ability to show sometimes, and certainly a proud moment to enjoy as we progress)… but really, as singers we are in it in order to move people with what we do with our voices… and that’s not a game based on numbers or quantitative metrics.
Don’t be put off by what you don’t yet have… instead, be motivated by what you can achieve with work, and above all trust the learning process.