r/singing

I feel that there are some rigid norms about how low notes should sound, especially for women's voices. Many people teach to turn down the volume of the low notes and make them airier. They "should" feel intimate and soft. I suppose there is a vocal technical point to that when you have difficulty reaching the note without it being forced. But sometimes it feels like it becomes a general rule, which is also applied to voices that can take low notes with a full and powerful sound naturally. I think there is value in having access to both strength and softness in your low register, but I see a tendency that women are expected to take the low notes softly. I’d be curious to hear how others think about this.

Hey everyone, I’m on staff at the worship department at my church, which means that singing if basically my full time job. About two months ago, I got sick and completely lost my voice. Ever since, my voice never fully recovered - getting hoarse after heavy singing days, struggling to hit high notes, lots of tightness, etc.

I knew something was wrong, so I went to the ENT last Monday and they confirmed my biggest fear - I have nodules. Thankfully, they’re very small, so my doctor reassured me that it’s nothing severe. However, he urged me to start speech therapy and professional vocal coaching so my issue doesn’t worsen.

My biggest struggle right now is resting. I don’t know how to go on full vocal rest when singing is what I do for a living. I’ve made steps to minimize the amount of times I sing throughout the week, but I’m still usually singing about once or twice a week.

Does anyone have any tips? Success stories? Do I have hope of these things going away completely?

excuse this if this is a dumb question, but just like pitch, rhythm can be trained. How close do you think someone’s internal clock can get to match a metronome, given any BPM? Is there such a thing as a “perfect” clock?

I was asked to sing a psalm at the Easter vigil. Afterwards when I asked the music coordinator if it was OK he said it was beautiful. I thought he was just being nice and supportive but afterwards two people (strangers) came up to me and one said i enjoyed your singing. I said i hadn't sung for a while and she said well we were lucky to hear your beautiful voice. Then a while later another stranger came over and said I just want to say your voice is beautiful. We're all saying how nice it was.

I felt a bit shocked. Im very self critical and have low confidence and self esteem and I thought I messed it up. I wasnt the only singer that night and I'm wondering what it means. Does it mean my voice has potential or were they just being nice?

I noticed how Frank Sinatra had quite a light timbre in his earlier work such as “I’ll never smile again” and in contrast it deepened and became a fair bit richer in his later work such as “Monday Morning Quarterback”. Same effect with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka who both sounded very youthful in the Karate Kid films despite being adults and in contrast they sounded way more adult (William Zabka’s voice even got a bit raspy) in the Cobra Kai series. In contrast to this “deepening with age” effect, some people say actually male voices would get lighter with age due to decreasing testosterone. So males: did your voices deepen or lighten with age, in what way did they deepen or lighten, and by what mechanism did it occur?

How do you actually stop getting super tense on high notes and stop the larynx from rushing up? Is there a simple fix to this? How should the sensation actually feel?

hi guys! I’m sure you guys see a lot of this but I truly just want to learn on how to improve my singing, my voice always sounds so strained and just wrong. I don’t know how to explain it but it doesn’t flow like butter like the voices of others I’ve heard. I already know I’m not a good singer but it’s genuinely my dream to be a singer like my life long dream to be able to sing well. I’m way too embarrassed to publicly post a video of me singing but any advice would be helpful.

I want to learn to sing. To where I hit the right notes and where people can feel like the song through me singing on how I feel. If that makes sense?