Is there any way to hear exactly how my voice really sounds like?

XHellChris

I've recorded myself singing through my phone's recorder and I don't really like how I sound. Is it true that how I sound through my mobile phone isn't really exactly how I sound? Is there any other way I can hear exactly I sound? Is getting an actual recording equipment the one way to hear how I really sound?

highmtn

What you hear on the phone is probably pretty close to what you sound like, unless your phone is really tinny-sounding.

Nobody really likes the sound of their own voice when they hear it played back, at least until you get used to it. We think we sound different, because we are used to hearing our voice from our own ears, which happen to be built into our skull. That means we hear most of what we hear of our own voice through bone conduction, rather than from outside our body, which is what everyone else (and the phone) is hearing.

Even our speaking voice will sound terrible to us on a recording, but then when we sing, we are even that much more self-conscious of the way it sounds.

The trick is to record your voice a LOT, as in CONSTANTLY for a while. You will get over how strange and wrong it sounds as you begin to realize you don't really sound BAD, you just sound Different from the way you THOUGHT you sounded. Then you can get to work on improving the things that are easily corrected, and making little adjustments here and there.

Recording your own voice and listening with a forgiving, but eager-to-improve ear, and you will make much faster improvements on your voice.

bentk

I also think singing through a microphone during band practice or something can help you appreciate your voice. At least, if you used good technique. As my technique improves, i appreciate my voice more too. I also recommend what @highmtn says. Keep recording yourself, you will improve over time and start hearing yourself differently.

This has so many good things, you start to focus what you can improve on your voice and know exactly what to do to change these things. Do you need it brighter? do your over- or under-pronounce words? Do you say too 'dark'? too 'light'? All kinds of stuff!

When i hear myself talk on a recording i still cringe pretty badly though... i don't know why, i just think it's weird. Talking is still different than singing!

highmtn

You'll know that you're really getting somewhere when you just keep recording as much as you can, and then sometime you hear a voice on a song that sounds really good to you, and then you realize it's YOU, and you didn't realize you were listening to yourself as you liked it. That's when you realize how much of the cringing and disliking of your own voice is just a psychological phenomenon. If that happens to you, you'll really relax a lot about the sound of your own voice bothering you.

XHellChris

Does the timbre of our voice changes as our vocal range expand?

highmtn

The timbre changes as we grow the voice and especially as we add the bright tone that Ken talks about, the ping. That's where timbre grows. Make sure you are getting good cord closure, like when Ken demonstrates "It's the Lah!!! AH!!!!"

Moftem

I have a very simple bit of advice. Cup yo hands and stick them on the sides of yo head, right in front of yo ears. Palms facin' backwards. It prevents the sound that travels directly from your mouth to yo ears and you only hear the sound that gets thrown about the room, the sound that other people hear.