Why does our singing voice sounds different from our speaking voice?

[colin040]

Well, is there a simple answer to this question?

Some time ago I spoke with this dude who described himself as a bass singer. Now whether he really is I'm not sure about but hearing him speak was so different from what I've heard him singing. His sang with some weight into his voice and said he wanted to reach G4 at one point. While I heard him speak he was pretty much talking in the fourth octave the entire time and even went up to a C5 when he sounded very excited.

Me, on the other hand, have a quite high voice. I'm easily singing around G4 if I've warmed up and all yet I can speak rather dark for a lack of better term (I talked on lower notes than the guy I just mentioned) yet I cannot reach strong low notes while I'm singing.

Why is this? Has speaking on certain pitches got to do with habbits you create for yourself? Or is it just that because singing asks more of your voice, it reveals much more about your voice rather than speaking does?

[Jens]

You get speech and singing usually from mimicing others from birth. So in a sense you dont have an "own" voice but you are a mishmash of your experiences/language/dialect/personality/habits. Cheers

[Sun]

Jens said it.

Often I'm asked if it's really me in a recording, probably because my speaking voice is lazy and low

[Felipe Carvalho]

There is no simple answer.

[MDEW]

All good answers. In singing you shape your vocal tract to get the best resonance, projection and vowel shape for the task at hand. In speaking you end up with whatever you have grown accustom to. Because of personality and invironment your speech may be less than optimal.

I know some men who talk using a high pitch that uses only a thin fold coordination But sometimes they slip and allow their full folds to engage and would have a deep voice if they only allowed it. And I know some who because of the people they are around use a voice that is deep, strained and husky just so they can sound Big and powerful.

[Owen Korzec]

When you start training good vocal technique they will stop differing as much. Lately, my speaking and singing voice are pretty much the same as far as I can tell. My singing training bleeds over into my speaking technique pretty naturally for me, and that's the way it should work, not the other way around, you don't want your speech habits to interfere with your singing. But the only main difference between the two for me is what pitch I speak at and that varies depending on the time of day and how warmed up I am. The earlier and less warmed up, the more monotone and low pitched, the later in the day and more warmed up, the higher and more sing-songy.

[ronws]

My speaking voice is kind of dusty or raspy, around D3. And totally disarms people. If they have only heard me on the phone. Small voice, they think, small guy. Then, I show up and I am a giant and I have that (albeit, cleaned up) "biker" look. I loves me some irony.

I think the difference in singing and speaking voices may also depend on the song or the genre, or both. I could be wrong. To hear me speak, you would not think I could make notes lower than that, but I do. Probably no more odd than someone like Jens singing as high as I can sing.

So, as we approach the zen-state of Jen-ness (find your inner Jens) "voice type" doesn't matter. Work at the sound you want to make and then make it.

[Owen Korzec]

I agree with Ron that it depends on genre. If I am singing folk I might want to stay more true to my natural speaking tone.

[Xamedhi]

Oh, god. I am a ballet dancer, and I am constantly sharing halls and stuff with opera singers. When they joke around and laugh you better have ear plugs because it's LOUD, haha. The bassos can be heard mumbling from miles away.