Help me to find my voice!!

Istarc

Hi guys, today I fulfill almost 5 months of studying KTVA. I was not sure to uploading this track because I recognize that I still have much to learn, but I'm confused about my voice and that's why I decided to share my voice with you.

Honestly, I can´t find a genre or style that fit with my voice. I feel it is a very thin voice, without presence and strength, and with a very strange tone. When I study the method; I feel my voice with power, even when I recorded this track, I felt I was singing with intention, but now that I listen the track again, I hear my voice so weak, as if I was just talking and singing some notes.

I wonder if you can give me any advice? I know there are tuning problems and many others, but I wonder how could I improve my tone and give more intention and feeling to my voice, how can I find my style?

This track have my voice with the backing track, and then just my voice. This is a Spanish pop song, I will add the lyrics of the chorus.

Lyrics: 

Y decirte...
Tus labios son de seda,
tus dientes del color de la luna llena,
tu risa la sangre que corre por mis venas,
tus besos la tinta de mis versos,
que siempre te cuentan.

Istarc

@highmtn? Bob? Ken? 

highmtn

@Istarc,

This really isn't all that bad at all.

I do have some suggestions for you, that I think will help you to improve. 

Thanks for posting this demo.  You did a good job of getting the voice at the right level, over the music.  And having the voice without music afterwards is also helpful.

The only place where your pitch is noticeably off is on the word "versos".  Everything else sounded on pitch.

You are hitting the consonants too hard. Your voice will sound more musical if you make it sound like one long word, with only very light consonants, just enough consonant to make the words understandable.  This is sometimes referred to as a "string of pearls".  String the words together and make them sustain more with very light consonants, so that your melody rides on an uninterrupted stream of sound.

This will smooth out the overall sound you are making, and give your tone something to latch on to. 

You are also "punching out the notes" on the higher notes.  Try to avoid hitting those notes so hard. This song does not need to hit the notes with impact. 

The main thing that always improves tone and helps with pitch is support.  If you put your concentration on support, your support will make the sound less throaty and more beefy.

Make sure your larynx isn't rising.  A high larynx can undermine your tone. 

Good Singing to You, Istarc!!

Bob

Istarc

Thank you Bob. All your advices make sense and are very helpful. 

By the way, you are doing a great job encouraging students like me.

I will follow your advices and focus on that details. I hope someone else can give me any advice.

Happy Thanksgiving Day guys!!

highmtn

You are welcome, Istarc!

Bob

Istarc

@highmtn Guess what? You are totally correct about my voice tone and the larynx position. I was singing with a high larynx position.

But, I want to ask you a few questions:

1. The position of the larynx is related to the pitch of the notes?. For example, Low larynx - low notes; Medium larynx position - medium notes; High Larynx position - High notes

2. It´s possible to sing High notes with low larynx position or Low notes with High larynx position?

3. Should we maintain an specific larynx position while studying / singing or  do we must develop a good singing technique in all larynx positions?

Istarc

Oh yeah, I forgot one more question about it.

4. The larynx position is related with volume? It is possible to sing low pitch notes with with the same volume as high pitch notes?

Thank you Bob.

highmtn

@Istarc,

Ideally we keep the larynx centered in a neutral position. 

There is a natural tendency for the larynx to rise as our pitch rises.  Often this rising larynx creates a lot of problems.

Our tone gets higher with a high larynx.  This isn't necessarily a good thing. Our tone gets deeper with a lower larynx.  With a neutral larynx the tone is mostly a natural tone.

The tone does not create a higher pitch.  You can sing high notes with a low larynx.  It will sound a bit darker, but the pitch will still be high.  You can sing low notes with a high larynx, but it's not a natural sound.  High larynx sounds like Kermit the Frog or Dudley Do-Right.  Low larynx sounds more like Yogi Bear. 

So the larynx position is more related to tone and not much to pitch.  We just have a tendency to raise the larynx when we get higher in pitch.  This can create a jammed-up condition when we are trying to stretch our cords and raise our larynx, all into a tiny space.  Not enough room for healthy singing.

Larynx position is not necessarily related to volume.  You can sing low pitch notes at a relatively high volume.  High pitched notes mostly just appear to SOUND louder.  You can't really blast high notes through your cords without hurting them, but acoustically, higher pitches sound more penetrating, and don't really need to be amplified as much as mid or low notes in order to be heard. The ear is more sensitive to notes in the 1khz range and even more so to overtones in the 2khz to 4.5khz range.  An A4 is actually only 440 hz, but can be painfully loud at moderate sound pressure levels.

Singing loud with a high larynx is more difficult simply because there is not much room when the vocal tract is scrunched-up near the epiglottis and there is little room for the cords to operate freely.

Bob

Istarc

Thank you very much Bob; now, everything starts to make sense.