How To Find
Your Own
Natural Singing Voice
Are you singing with your own voice?
Are you really singing with your own natural singing voice and what do I actually mean by that?
Here’s the deal: The way you sing right now was been shaped by many things, like how you grew up, what you experienced in your school or at home what other people told you (about your voice), videos you watched, the music you listen to and much more.
When you start out singing you might be so inspired by your favorite band or singer but you don’t realize how you might try to imitate their sound – and I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing – getting inspired by the artists you love can be awesome! But, there can be negative sides to this too. And that’s when you try to sound a certain way – even subconsciously – and it messes with your ability to sing.
Because you might not understand why the singer you like sounds like they do. You might not understand the vocal techniques they use to get that sound and even if you did, everyone has a different physiology, experiences and habits that have shaped their voice. Some singers even have vocal damage, so you will never sound exactly like them.
But that’s alright, because you are you and the world doesn’t need a clone of your favorite singer, does it?
If you are manipulating your larynx, constricting your throat or adding unhealthy tensions to your voice, all those things can really limit your range, sound and overall vocal health.
How do you find your own voice?
After many years as a vocal coach I found that the best way to find your own singing voice, is by speaking. It’s something you do every day and most of the time you don’t think that much about it.
Begin by just talking like you usually would and listen to the melody of your voice. You can just repeat the phrase “Hello, how are you?” Repeat it a few times and while you do, listen to your voice going lower and higher.
Did you hear how your voice went up and down in pitch when you said that phrase?
When we speak we don’t just speak on one pitch all the time (except for that one boring teacher we all had in school that constantly put us to sleep).
Usually our speaking voice has some kind of melody. It depends on the emotion and emphasis of what we’re saying. This means we already “sing a little” while we speak.
We want to take this natural way of producing tones into our singing. Sometimes when we switch from speaking to singing, weird things happen.
Picture this situation: You’re chatting with your friends around the campfire. You’re just having a relaxed conversation. But then: Someone walks up to you, a guitar in hands and asks you to sing something.
Your voice that was relaxed just moments before can suddenly switch into this singing mode which changes your sound and can make your voice tense or sometimes the opposite lose tension altogether and become really weak.
Those changes can be very subtle and you might not even realize it. It’s kind of like a switch inside your brain that changes certain muscles in your voice and body once you think of singing.
If this singing mode of yours is “programmed” in a bad way you get into trouble and that’s why you should find your natural singing voice.
Surprised "Aaah"
We start by making a common sound in our regular speaking voice let’s take “Aah” like you just realized something very important. You’re like “Aah”, that’s why!”
Keep it casual and just think about speaking or like your acting. Imagine you just realized why you had a hard time singing all these years. 😉
“Aah”, that’s why!”
Sustain
Now experiment a little more with that feeling. You start in that casual speaking voice again, say: “Aaaah okaaaaaaaaaaay!” and then you just stay on that note while still remaining that same feeling and keeping that very casual and positive attitude.
Don’t worry about this sounding perfect in any way, it’s more important that you keep it casual and relaxed.
Siren
Once you are able to sustain that note you do the same thing again, but this time you slide up and down in pitch on that sustained “aaaaaah” or “aaaay”.
Do this a couple of times and just keep it easy and spontaneous. It can also help if you just speak a casual sentence right before like: “Oh, that’s interesting… Aaaaaaah” Now I understand.”
Keep experimenting with those sounds and see where this takes you.
And if you’re struggling with this exercises, don’t worry! Everyone can find their own natural singing voice, sometimes it just takes some patience and you really have to trick your brain not to switch into the programming of your “singing mode”, that you’ve been using for all this time.
Good luck! 🙂
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
I hope these tips and exercises are helpful for you.
If you want to go a step further and really take your voice to the next level, feel free to contact me for private lessons.
I’d love to help you to improve your singing voice like I do with many other students every day.
Fill out the form below to contact me.
See you soon! 🙂
Wanna try the lessons?
Then contact me to arrange a free trial lesson (30min).
In this lesson we can get to know each other a bit and you will see if the lessons are right for you.
You will also get some useful tips and advice that you can apply immediately.
I’m looking forward to your message!
See you soon!
Gideon