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Speaking voice extreemly different than singing.

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Aman

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So I'm a singer like most of you and had a question I wanted to ask. When I hear some famous singer sing, their speaking voice sounds like their singing voice, and always wondered what was going on with me. I've always noticed that my singing voice it much more natural and open than my speaking voice. My speaking voice kind of gets tight and a little bit high. However when I sing I'm very relaxed and my voice hits this sweet spot and becomes deeper and fatter. Has anyone experienced this?

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So I'm a singer like most of you and had a question I wanted to ask. When I hear some famous singer sing, their speaking voice sounds like their singing voice, and always wondered what was going on with me. I've always noticed that my singing voice it much more natural and open than my speaking voice. My speaking voice kind of gets tight and a little bit high. However when I sing I'm very relaxed and my voice hits this sweet spot and becomes deeper and fatter. Has anyone experienced this?

Sure. I once had a teacher who, rather than singing like he talked, would talk like he sang. When I would go to his house for lessons, he would greet me with a 'Haaaaaaaaaaee', in the upper end of the passaggio. Quite a welcome.:D

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Aman, yes i have heard of that problem before where a singers singing voice has felt comfortable and free but there speaking voice is difficult or even painful to produce.

i just picked up a cool little book called ´change your voice, change your life` by DR.Morton Cooper that talks a little bit about that exact topic. it might also be helpful to you as its about finding a healthy speaking voice.

now if a singers speaking voice is correctly produced then the answer to the original question would be, yes and no. it also depends on what style of music you are singing and whether you want to add a specific effect or tone but lets say its fairly ´straight` singing like pop or soul etc. then i thinks its useful to think of the singing voice as an extension of the speaking voice. of course singing is slightly different and involves a few different mechanical processes going on but not a ridiculously different amount (and infact it is possible to make singing feel as easy as comunication via speech) its about being true to your voice-taking the natural qualities you have in your individual voice and applying it to your singing. often you will hear amatuer singers on something like X factor or american idol and when they go to sing they kinda start to put on a ´singers` voice or at least what they think should be a ´singers` voice and it usually sounds bad or fake and pretentious. its often because they are overly imatating a vocalist they really like but thats not there voice, its them doing an impression of what they think is good. it doesnt mean you cant do different styles or effects or tones its just that you do them from the foundation of your voice not the impression of another singer or what you think a ´singing`voice is.

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Generally, unless we are trained actors, we tend to neglect our speaking voice simply because it is always with us and we've been talking since childhood. Problems with the singing voice can often be traced to unhealthy speech, cheering at games and the like. We've probably all had the experience of hearing a voice teacher who sounds unbelievably stuck up when they speak--I'm imagining Mrs. Doubtfire. As Centre said, vocal style will also be a factor. My opinion, for what it's worth, is to work on both the singing and the speaking voice with your teacher, who should know enough about the voice and its production to help you achieve a healthy speaking voice while developing your singing voice. I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not both of your voices sound like the same person, so long as the way you are using it is not abusive.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, after reading this post I got to looking for a CD/book based course on "How to improve your Speaking voice". My speaking voice is different than my singing voice too. In general i hate my speaking voice. It takes a TON O energy to project when talking unless I "speak like I sing". And perhaps thats the fix, but it still feels unnatural....Went to Valeries site: "Voice yourself in the Classroom" and shes got some great stuff in the works, but I really want to address this issue now....Roger Love has a course out there but the Amazon reviews are bad. Any suggestions??

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I got Roger's Loves material, it's basicly SLS. It's not bad for it's money, but if you allready have like an SS course then I don't think it'll be worth it.

HOWEVER, I do think working with him on a personal level would be worth it. He has alot of experience with helping people, and his lessons are based both on correcting bad speaking habbits as singing habbits.

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Great Q&A's by everyone! I was thinking about some people that hear my singing voice are stunned because my speaking voice is so different than the singing voice. I try not to use a glottal approach or I try not to shout. I play my Irish music in pubs and it often gets so loud. I just let people know in advance that I won't be able to chat for long.

In relation, I am going to check out the books mentioned. I am hired to create a workshop at the Brooklyn Museum of Art focusing on Voice and Elocution. Seems that some of the Art History college and grad students are working at the museum as student guides and are a bit shy. The museum needs my help to get them to project as well as inflect a more confident cadence, etc. I would welcome any ideas from you all. I am sending a brief outline to the museum tomorrow. The workshop is in March.

Yours in good voice,

Janene

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I ALWAYS check out the speaking voice when I work with a student. After all, most of us speak more than we sing. Every time we speak, we use or mis-use the instrument, and we practice vocal habits.

My speaking voice used to wear me out before I ever sang. Now I talk all day and never feel it. I have other teachers and coaches and speakers who have all experienced the same thing when applying Power, Path & Performance method to their speaking voices. What is that? Basically, it's using a synergy of breath control and support, open throat and communicative articulation to make it all work. Jamie Vendera uses a concept he calls the "inhalation sensation" for singing... I call it "pulling instead of pushing words", and I do this when I speak, too!

My speaking and singing voice do sound differently but my application of technique applies to my speaking voice, too.

Important tips:

Speak TO, not AT someone

Speak with active eyes and eyebrows

Give yourself permission to breath between phrases. Support your speaking voice from your pelvic floor!

Use as little forward breath as possible... so that if you were speaking, a mirror in front of your mouth would not fog.

And... it gets to be a wonderful habit. You get more physically tired, but not vocally.

The hardest place to speak correctly: on the phone. Use communicative facial expression and support it, even when no one sees you.

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  • 6 months later...

Of course they are two different things but people can get very confused when they hear that "singing should be as easy as speaking." But that doesn't mean you should sing with your speaking voice. Speaking voice is a chesty and throaty sound when you apply it to singing especially on high notes. When we sing, we have rules to follow by, we have the masks we have to place our voice in. When we talk, we don't worry about any of that, there are no mask required to speak correctly and when we talk, our voice doesn't vibrate(o).

My voice has gotten deeper but sweet at times too but that could be a technique to take advantage of which is something a lot of people would spend years trying to do. You could choose which quality to sing in and knowing that you're not straining, it's quite fun. It's like being able to act out different character role and doing it every way you like but of course it's best to stick to one tone quality in a song.

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  • 3 weeks later...

To me, speaking instead of singing seems to work. Its like acting or painting or dancing or any art. You ask the leaders and they'll say its about transcending technique and finding your way back to being as natural as you were as a child, strip away all the bad habits and just tell the tale in the song. To me, its comfortable up to about an A to concentrate on speaking as opposed to singing. When I listen to recordings of me practicing this, it sounds nothing like speaking, it sounds like singing. although I was in fact just speaking in different pitches all the way.

Heres an example:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/l4nozx

Every note here, I concentrate on registering it the same way I would register a spoken word, and I sustain the notes by trying to concentrate on me just elongating a word I've spoken to someone all through the sustain. Every note I avoid registering and sustaining the note the way I do when I sing a piece. But it sounds like singing (of sorts). I'm a complete amateur so maybe Im recommending something dangerous here, but I seem to find it an easy and effortless way of singing. I also make sure 1. that my face and throat is no more tense than during normal speaking and in fact remains at speaking configuration, and 2. that the volume of my voice remains at the same speaking volume even when I rise in pitch.

It takes a TON O energy to project when talking unless I "speak like I sing"

Although, obviously this isnt much advice if you have speaking issues...

I have heard some interviews with female opera singers, and their speaking voices have all been low and sort of husky. Are they speaking with bad technique or is this a way of conserving their voices?

Got any examples? I doubt its bad speaking habits.

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"Got any examples? I doubt its bad speaking habits"

I heard a few interviews on NPR, but I can't find them - I guess I was just wondering, because despite speech therapy I feel like my main problem is still with my speaking voice - I have a sort of husky voice, and I always feel I have to work harder than other people to make sound when I speak. (I apparently get rave reviews from callers when I answer the phone at work though!)

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  • Administrator

One thing you can say is speach is a different vocal mode. Speach vocal sounds are produced by a vastly different physiology to say... falsetto, belt, twang, opera, ect... remember, the idea of vocal modes/qualities... different physiologies that influence a different sound are key to the understanding.

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Hmmm, I guess one of the classic ways is cackling, which brings the chords into a close approximate of the closure they should have. If thats the problem, and remember Im just an amateur here, you need to learn to have the chords close better. I do cackling first, then cackling on sirens, personally. Another trick they have is the short vowel: Ah as in cat, IIRC, where you emphasis a short, sharp attack on the vowel. This also encourages a suitable closure of the chords, which you can hear in having a good, clean "cut" to the tone, when you register with good chord closure. Somewhere in the vicinity of the cackle lies a strong, clean, ringing bell when the chords close well. Please wait for the experts to come in and give their opinions before doing anything I say though ;)

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I consider singing to be an extension of speaking. I certainly don't see speaking as vastly different from singing. Physiologically speaking it's not too different. You just have to learn how to control it. Robert, you say the physiology between, for example, 'falsetto, belt, twang opera etc' to all be vastly different than speaking but if you say that, then it follows that your falsetto and belt are vastly different from each other. They are. It's still singing though. Whilst no one will say that speaking is actually singing, to me it is no different in terms of voice usage to your 'falsetto' and belt'. Yes they are different. However they are no more different than speaking and 'falsetto' except for the fact that you are consciously aware of pitch control.

For me, speaking is to singing what walking is to running.

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hi folks, i'm back from a brief hiatus...hey matt, i really liked your vocals and song. you sure don't sound like an amateur. give yourself more credit...nice job!!!

as far as singing and speaking, how do you explain jim nabors? he would even lose his southern drawl while singing. i think the singing voice can be altered to sound like someone completely different. take a look at karaoke, it's part of the fun of it..how about billy joel? he can really clone his vocals. i think the singing voice is innately different from the speaking voice, but it's entirely alterable.

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I'm intrigued by this discussion. I've found by and large that most of the vocalist I enjoy listening to sound different in their singing and speaking voices. Sometimes onstage their speaking voices are a bit closer to their singing voices, but when I've heard them speak in person or interviews, different.

To give an example of one whose speaking voice did sound, to me, quite similar to his spoken voice (and I'm probably dating myself with this) is John Davidson. For those old enough to remember he was a talk show host who sang a bit on his show. To me, his singing voice sounded to me EXACTLY like his spoken voice, just on pitch and held out. Not to be disrespectful, but his singing didn't do anything for me. He sounded quite proficient - good intonation, resonance, breath control - but, I don't know, it just didn't excite me. Though I probably wasn't his target audience; maybe my mother was.

On the other hand, I have heard others with squeaky, mickey-mouse voices when speaking who have blown me away with their singing voices.

Maybe this is part of my own issues - I don't care much for the sound of my own speaking voice, and my singing voice sounds too much like it, I'm expecting/hoping for something different. Food for thought. (Please don't ask for a sample, not ready yet!)

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