Hi
Like many others on this forum, I'm trying to get an idea of how I sound, and whether its worth singing for my friends at the moment, or whether I need to go for lessons. I know that neither my playing nor my singing is good, but please give opinions. Also, remember that this was just a rough recording. I apologise for poor quality.
Thanks
Hey,
Firstly, its always worth singing, so don't let your nerves put you off :). Your voice is very steady and quite calm, it sounds like you have your breathing in check, but your range sounds quite limited and you sound a little dull. This is nothing that can't be improved on though. For your range you might want to start singing scales along with your guitar, go slowly, you should never be 'pushing' your voice so it hurts, but experiment with the amount of air you use along with where in your throat you direct it. If you find that your larynx (voice box) is raising as you go higher in pitch (you can tell if this is so by putting your finger on your Adams apple whilst you sing), this may block your higher registers, so try singing with it down (i find singing like im about to yawn can do this), if you practice this enough your body will get used to it eventually. But this may be a slow process, but stick at it and you will feel the difference.
You can change your voice's character a great deal by controlling the soft palate (the bit at the top back of your mouth that is more apparant when you are yawning). Basically the soft palate controls the direction in which the air goes, so if you close it completely the air will go completely to your nose and you'll end up sounding like a cartoon duck, and if its completely open you sound like an opera singer, somewhere in the middle and you seem to get a nice resonance. Try and experiment with it completely open and with it closed and then see what you want to do with it to get different sounds.
This is stuff that has worked for me anyway. It may or may not work for you, but the greatest tool you can use is what you've already done; record your voice and listen listen listen. Be critical, work on the bits that you are bad at and you will see improvements. Theres a lot of good info out there on the internet. But keep on singing, you've proved that you can do it.
Nath
