Voice volume

Chronize

Hello,

I was wondering how loud one should practise and sing for the voice to stay healthy as i experience clear differences between singing at home and singing in the rehearsals of my band. Whenever i sing for the band i tend to go more shouty just so that i can be heard and to make my voice sound more "energetic". I was wondering if anyone experiences this as well or if anyone can tell me what the 'proper volume' is to sing for both practice and fronting for a band (if there is any difference between those at al?)

Thanks!

HuduVudu

Let me first say that we should practice EXACTLY the way that we sing. Let me say that again lest there be a misunderstanding. We should practice EXACTLY the way that we sing. Ok now that that is clear. What you said right here is a HUGE red flag for me.

Whenever i sing for the band i tend to go more shouty just so that i can be heard and to make my voice sound more "energetic".

If you are practicing one way and singing another then which way is the correct way, because your muscles would like to know? If you don't choose one way or another then your muscles are going to pick the way that they have the most experience with and that will be how they do their thing. If you're singing "shouty" then that sounds a lot to me like you are singing using too much air. Let's be clear about what happens when you do this. You WILL hurt your voice. You do it long enough and you will blow your voice out. Either way it hurts and is counter-productive to effective long term singing. You wanna do it occasionally then that is up to you just make sure you have alcohol to sooth the pain.

Enough of what not to do let's talk about what to do. Good support with resonance and solid breath control means that you can turn the volume knob of your voice up and down without changing one iota of how you are practicing and singing. The way you sing at a low volume will be the same way that you sing at a high volume. This is one of those moving target things. Volume should never change HOW you sing only in how much sound is being produced. Focus on your fundamentals and this will be yours. Ignore your fundamentals ... whelp ... good luck with that.

Hope I wasn't too snarky, just want to make sure that you understand that too much air across our chords is REALLY bad news.

Furious_Phil

I addition to Hudu's comments, in the beginning (first 6 months on the course), there is a very real tendency to oversing when its "go time". In my experience, one of the biggest drivers to this is the vocals not being high enough in the monitor mix. So make sure you can hear yourself adequately in the mix to help alleviate the tendency to try to compensate with voice volume.

Become more mindful of the proper air pressure you should be using, and stick to that. If you can't hear yourself, adjust the mix.

… Also, be aware of how your voice is being EQ'd, as something may be walking over your vocal frequency

Cheers,

Phillip

doc_ramadani

Hi @Chronize,

I had the problem Phil ( @Furious_Phil ) mentioned. I was constantly singing too loud during my first half your and had to spend a lot of work on learning how to control my voice and to build resonance. And I think that a lot of students (especially males) have this problem. So I often recommend to students to sing at conservative levels.

Doc

Chronize

thanks everyone! just came home from a festival so had no time to check! great feedback! Also, @HuduVudu you shouldnt worry about being too snarky!

xiedofu

in addition to what @Furious_Phil said... (i'm a recording engineer so coming from that perspective)... The person behind the mixing console will want to get a good mix of your voice. So the louder you sing, the more they will tend to want to turn your volume down, making you want to sing louder... a vicious circle.
So as Phil said, if you can't hear yourself, just ask them to turn you up in the monitor, then you can sing in your normal voice at your normal volume, the person behind the mixer will turn you up in the main mix and all will sound good

Furious_Phil

@xiedofu , brilliant input, thank you so much for that!
While not an audio engineer, I have spent a fair amount of time in a studio, in the booth and behind the console, and from my experience, your insight is bang on.

Cheers,

Phillip