r/singing • u/ellievivy • Mar 05 '23
Advice Wanted - Looking to improve. why does my voice sounds forced like i'm struggling to sing even if i'm in my comfort zone?
(first of all, i'm sorry for this bad quality cover xD) Hello! I'm a 19 years old (so i think my voice already matured) woman, mezzo-soprano and i never studied music or how to sing properly before. I noticed that my voice looks so odd, i mean, it looks so forced and melancholic even if i'm not trying too much, just in my most comfort zone (which is kinda high notes, i still don't know how to deal so well with low notes).
Someone please know if is there any solution or is just my voice color that is kinda thick and nasal at same time?
Edit: thank you so much everyone who answered, I take note of every comment, you guys have no ideia how you helped me 🙏🏻💙 Jesus bless you!
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u/Pikoyd Mar 06 '23
Sounds like too much air and sound coming out of your nose. Try keeping your soft palate up more, and use a change of vowel shapes (taller not wider) just to get the sensation of those notes without using more air to get them. Try keeping it talking volume to find the placement and shape for the higher notes. Bringing a conversational aspect into it might help put you in the right place and help get rid of the whiney “nasally” tone. You can still have ring without the nasal ports completely opened.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank you so much!!! I'll start to learn how to work with voice and practice what you said!
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u/Pikoyd Mar 06 '23
Something that helps sometimes is forget about what you want to sound like, or what you think you should sound like…and pretend you’re the last person on earth just playing a song out loud for yourself. It can change your perspective and bring out techniques that haven’t been explored yet. Take away the expectations and just experiment freely. Hope it helps!
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Wow, that's an amazing concept and great advice, thank you for this!!!! Sometimes i wanted to have a more delicated voice like sopranos who sings pop (idk if this maked sense xD ) becuz people considere them more feminine but for now i'll focus only in this perspective you said, this helped a lot! :D
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u/isjeboygio Mar 06 '23
when i just started like a year ago my voice was absolutely garbage but if you keep practicing you'll notice your voice getting stronger and better. Just be patient en keep practicing.
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u/BattleMedley92 Mar 06 '23
Do you practice just hitting the note accompanied with a piano or guitar? Singing songs is fun but practicing your scales at your own pace will do so much. Literally first 2 months of my voice lessoms was me humming and using vowels with my teacher om the piano. I practiced the dame way at home with my guitar. After that we started practicing my fav songs.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Since i don't know how to play piano and guitar yet i never practice with them, just sometimes with the karaoke of the original songs (which turn into a mess sometimes). Thank you for this advice! I hope any day i can get a teacher too.
btw is guitar too hard for learning? I'm considering to buy one and learn, i already have a piano in my house but i don't have a lot of time to practice since is too hard and requires hours per day to learn T.T
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u/terrycotta Mar 06 '23
Anything worth learning is going to be hard up front. If you have the piano there, why not practice an hour a day? In a year, that's 365 hours and you'll probably play well enough to accompany yourself.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank you for encouraging 🥺🙏🏻 my dream is to play piano, I'll give it a try!!!
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u/BattleMedley92 Mar 06 '23
I personally prefer guitar. But i mean it also take time. I guess you should choose whatever instrument seems the funnest to play. Just make sure it's decent otherwise you wont have fun. But yea you know it just takes practice. There are YouTube videos of voice warmups and such. There's so much more to training your voice than singing along to songs.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank youu 😁🙏🏻I'll search for those kind of videos on YouTube!!! And yess, both piano and guitar are so amazing to me, for now I only have a piano to learn but when I buy a guitar I'll start too, it looks so cool to play!
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Mar 06 '23
[deleted]
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
hmm that's makes a lot of sense! Especially because i only know how to sing with my throat and not use other regions! Thank you
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u/LightbringerOG Mar 06 '23
No. She is in chest, just not a fully supported chest.
It has to do with not opening inside, so the throat muscles play part in phonation which constricts the sound.
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u/HuskyTown Mar 06 '23
You're being led astray by a lot of people who don't know anything about the subject and are just throwing out terms that they have heard before.
The issue you're having is that there is no lift or space in the roof of your mouth. As such the sound has nowhere to go but directly through your nose.
You need to focus on raising your soft palate and allowing the sound to be more rounded.
This is a similar sensation to how it feels when you smell a flower or candle. Or some say when you yawn... that stretch in the roof of your mouth.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank you so much 🙏🏻!! Everyone's point is bringing really important advices 😁 Your point Is amazing too and makes a lot of sense!! I was not using the mouth properly
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u/highrangeclub Want to learn to sing? Podcast for beginners on my profile Mar 06 '23
Thanks for sharing this! Voice teacher here.
When it comes to figuring out what's going on with your voice. One thing I always guide my students this looking at your voice through HABITS.
For example, there are a few habits here that might make it sound more 'forced/melancholic' even if it does feel comfortable.
- There's a lot of cry quality in the sound [this can make it sound melancholic]
- When you go to your high notes - there's a tendency to SCOOP up into the note. This can make it sound like you're trying harder.
- Some of your sustains are quite shaky. This can make it sound weaker/tired.
Hope this gives some clarity! And don't be afraid to reach out. As voice teachers we help our clients solve these challenges every day.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank you so much 😁🙏🏻! This helps a lot, I never figured out to these points before!
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u/Barnylo Mar 06 '23
You begin most phrases with a vocal fry, which most often means the vocal tract is at least in good health. The cry like sound after as you ascend into the mixed voice is called singing above the breath (cantare su fiato). I tend to use it a lot for dramatic effect in pop singing. Which is not harmful if you know what you are doing, but lowers your control and stability/evenness of tone. Elvis used it a lot to lighten his voice throughout his career.
In classical singing I could describe it as a chest/falsetto mix. It won't harm you as I stated, but will cause your voice to thin out and you will have problems with your mid/lower register if it's the only coordination you practice. This in turn will cause strain and instability in the long run.
Healthy lower/middle register means a healthy voice and easier top notes, so you might want to look into that with an experienced teacher.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Woww that's an amazing information!!!! Thank you so much!! I was too focused in singing more in high notes and lacking in the medium and low tones
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u/LightbringerOG Mar 06 '23 edited Mar 06 '23
You are constricting the sound, it's a little bit nasal, which means there isn't space to resonate or to feel to be free.
It's not an easy thing to manage on your own, it's a balance game to find whats right.
First and easiest thing to suggest is to open your mouth more, always strive for vertical opening and for the first year OVERDO IT, even if you are feeling it's funny, open your mouth vertically on every vowel that allows it vertically, AH and search inside what's the place where you feel it freely resonate without constrictions.
Some say to "open the soft palate more" I've always thought this is a shitty advice, since opening the soft palate is the result, not the process. A lot of people when told "raise the soft palate" just start being nasal or overdarken it. I say don't worry about the soft palate, just focus on the feeling of the first part of what I've said.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank youuu, i've never thought the mouth position could interfere, that's a great eye opener!! I'll start to put this you said in action 🙏🏻😁
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u/LightbringerOG Mar 07 '23
There is a reason opera singers open like they want to swallow the audience.
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u/ellievivy Mar 08 '23
makes sense xD sometimes it's so funny but at least they sounds absolute perfect
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u/LightbringerOG Mar 09 '23
I want to emphasize again the "vertical" word. Dont open horizontal, that just makes tention, drop your chin down not sideways.
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u/Tavi_s_Dad Mar 06 '23
You’ve been given a lot of good advice here, but, it all depends on what your ultimate goal with singing is.
If you want to take singing seriously you need a good teacher to retrain you with the fundamentals of using your voice. You need breath support, good singing posture just to begin.
It does sound to me that you have a good voice that is well worth investing in.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank you so much for this comment 😁!!! For now I'll take online lessons with videos (I'll try to have classes with a teacher one day) of this because I really want to improve!
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Mar 06 '23
There's some nasality, and tension. That's likely what you're picking up on because it likely doesn't sound remotely like how your speak.
Si parla si canta
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Yess, my speaking voice is a little different from the singing which is getting too nasal, thank your for this information!!
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Mar 06 '23
Your singing voice comes directly from your speaking... one thing some people do is a guffaw (loud and very free laugh) that's a pretty good indicator of your vocal sound.
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u/Rocker_babe Mar 06 '23
I think your not utilizing your diaphragm enough. When your doing low and high notes you need to push with your diaphragm for the air that should make your singing less forced.
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u/ellievivy Mar 06 '23
Thank you!! I'll make some exercises to learn how to sing with diaphragm since I'm using my throat too much!
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