What is Making My Voice Different When Singing Walking Around the House vs Practicing?

billthebaldguy

Hey All,

Back at it after a 2 year layoff:)

While getting back into singing shape, I noticed something today.

When I walk around the house listening to songs our band does, I sing along. I'm noticing that when I'm doing this, I'm not focusing on support and all the technical things we do when practicing - I'm just singing.

The volume level of my voice is basically at talking volume, maybe a touch louder.

When doing this, I can easily blend the head and chest, mix it, slide in and out, range is solid, tone solid.

But - when I practice, it seems like that all goes away. My chest voice is still solid, but mixing and/or getting into head becomes airy/flutey vs. when I was just walking around the house singing songs.

Anyone else experience this? What exactly is the deal?

Thanks all. Happy to be back again singing...

Klaus_T

if you sing louder when you practice vs. waliking around, then that would explain it. "only sing as loud as you can connect", etc.

what happens if you transition from walking to exercise, can you carry some of the good stuff over?

billthebaldguy

I'd have to try...

I heard somewhere (wasn't Ken) that your singing volume shouldn't be louder than your talking voice volume. Ken has said that your volume IS going to naturally increase as you sing with power, but the key was to not TRY to sing louder and as always, cut back the air and pile on the support...

[Deleted User]

It might be that because you are so focused during the exercises, that some tension is creeping in that isn't there when you are going about your day. Singing while you walk around the house sounds relaxing and fun, so it makes sense that you are just enjoying it. The exercises are work, and the relaxation response is something we have to actively think about at first. When you have tension in your body, it will spread and affect your voice.

You could try recording yourself while you walk around to see if you are actually singing correctly. Singing along to recordings can be deceiving, as it covers up a lot of problems. I'm not saying that to discourage you -- if you find that it isn't as good as you thought, then it will help you identify errors in your technique, and when you fix those, you will hear yourself sounding even better afterwards.

Unknown

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billthebaldguy

Okay figured it out...

While practicing yesterday I made a conscious decision to sing as quietly as possible/as little volume as possible while still focusing on support as much as possible.

Pretty much sounded exactly like my voice sounds when NOT practicing, just walking around the house or driving, singing along with songs. Ease of singing, range, tone, all there.

Sooooo - I need to practice "more relaxed"/not so "heavy" on intensity/volume. Ken even says in the practice recording to "not sing too hard".

Hope this helps someone else:)

Thanks.