Singing (Page 1 of 2)

Before you start getting all crazy with effects, get used to your voice.  How you sound inside your own head is not how you sound to other people.   Set yourself up with a microphone and an amplifier, and start singing and talking into it.    Once you're accustomed to that sound, you can practice and you'll be surprised how good you sound after a while.

Singing well is 99% confidence, and 1% talent, and I'll argue the talent portion every time.

Jerome's advice is excellent.  The other thing is just keep on recording yourself and listening.  It does take a bit of time to get used to your own voice recorded.  Eventually, yes you will get used to it and as far as how long that takes, well that's all up to how much you listen to your own voice!  When I took voice lessons, THAT was a huge part of my training.  Question, was it just the sound of your voice that you thought was horrible, or were you way off key and too pitchy?  The sound is one thing to get used to, the other stuff is something that you can work on and improve by singing along to your recording and trying to improve upon what you're hearing.  Also voice training will help with hitting the right notes of course (play a single note on the guitar and then sing it, do scales!  Record, then listen and see where you were off and try to improve).

Very few like the sound of their own singing voice---I've been singing for 30 yrs and last summer was the first time I actually said "well, *that* sounds good" :-)  Many times I've had people tell me I sounded great, when I thought "my GOD, that SUCKED"...

Good advice from the other posters about recording your voice! It DEFINITELY helps with actually hearing yourself and making corrections.  Don't get discouraged; if Tom Waits and Bob Dylan can sing, YOU CAN! :-)

Hi Lesl,

  Wander on over to the "Recording" section and check out some of the posts there (especially Russell Hardings Audacity tutorials),
very doable and lots of suggestions on software and stuff in there to help you get started.

Take Care;
Doug

All of those singers can sing in key, even though they have a bad or gravelly voice.  I have to add Willie Nelson to that list.  He is a great singer with an average voice.

Sure. There is some level of technical proficiency you have to have to sing well, but that can be trained into you, unless you're completely tone deaf.

Personally, I love Willie Nelson's voice, even if it's not classically perfect.   It's "old timey," as the old timey guys like to say.  You could add a whole lot of old time bluegrass guys to the list of people that cant sing, but are still awesome. 

I've got tickets to see Willie play on the 16th, and can't wait.

Some of the best music in the world is just simple music, sure they can sing in key but nothing great about their voice, I'd add Jimmy Buffett and John Prine to that list, I love both of them, but nothing great about their voice, just good simple music.

Cam

I too, could not stand the sound of my voice, singing or talking because I was not use to just hearing it. Feeling/speaking with your voice is so much different than just listening.
I also found that I would sing to high for my capability because the original singer of the song sang high.  I found that dropping an octave or two can make a lot of difference. 
Practice, practice, practice is the name of the game.

My playing is bad enough, I really can't afford to throw my bad singing in the mix!

When I sing I sound like a cat tossed into the shower. Throw the dog in at the same time and that's me singing and playing.

In my head I've got the clarity of James Taylor and the gravitas of Johnny Cash.  You are right that the sound in our heads is different!  It sounds more like a mixture of the clarity of Mumbles the Dick Tracy villian and the gravitas of Mickey Mouse.