A few questions

[MarkofCainband]

I've been practicing a lot more and a few questions popped up, maybe you guys can answer.

 

1. When I warm up, I just go through major scales and arpeggios from the bottom to the top of my range then back down. I do this on different vowels and when I'm done I move on to practicing the songs I'm working on.

 

When I'm done with my warmups my voice kind of scratchy and raspy, shouldn't the warm ups not do that? I warm up for about a half hour everytime. It's weird because tonight I practiced for 2 hours after warming up and my voice was less tired sounding after that than after the warmups. Should I be changing anything there?

 

2. When I speak I tend to talk at the very bottom of my range and with a fair bit of what I guess you'd say is vocal fry. Someone told me that is bad for my voice, at least the talking with a lot of vocal fry. Is that actually true?

 

3. How can I get my voice louder with out feeling and sounding like I'm screaming? When I practice singing and playing acoustic guitar even when I'm not strumming hard it feels like I have to sing louder than I should to get over it, which is ok for some stuff, but not mellower songs.

[davie]

I guess it depends on how you practice your warm-ups. The tone of the notes you vocalize will tell you a lot about the sound quality. The warm-up range may also affect it. I never try to vocalize too high or too low. If you're doing the proper warm-ups then may be you just need to spend more time with them. And make sure you're constantly drinking water.

 

For the speaking voice, its not really healthy to speak using vocal fry, I would try to avoid it all costs. And its actually not so great for the voice if you speak at the bottom of your range. My teacher showed me an exercise to find the optimum speaking pitch. Just make an "MmHmm" sound, like an "agreeing" sound, the Hmm part is actually your optimum speaking pitch.

 

If your having trouble singing over instruments then you need to use a mic/PA. But if its just an acoustic guitar then you don't really need it. The vocal range that you're using may affect the volume. Typically lower notes won't be as loud as higher notes, and also there's not as much overtones in lower notes. I would be weary not to overproduce or over-thicken the lower range. The best way to allow your voice to have carrying power is to sing more with an open throat, such as lifting up the soft pallate.

[YeahDoIt]

How long have you been singing? Maybe your throat is not ready for 30 minutes of exercise at this time. You might try exercising 15 minutes, notice if the scratch and rasp disappears.

 

I sing louder when I get out of the house and jam with other musicians. At home, I just don't get that kind of voice power. But I notice that I sing differently when jamming, and how I sing differently. I breathe differently. I'm working on it. Maybe it takes stage time and more work.

 

The heat of summer might be interfering with singing also.

[reddude333]

On getting louder. Its funny my sergeant helped me sing louder. I had to march every one and i wasn't loud enough so he worked with me. He had me belt out commands. Thinking of it like football, were they say, "Hut, hut, hike" helped me. Free singing lessons in the military who would guess. I don't know if that's help full, but it made a big difference for me. If your singing from the right spot (diaphragm) then you will be loud and not have strain when you do it. I hope my advice isn't stupid.

[MarkofCainband]

Heat might be an issue. I practice in my garage so I don't disturb anyone else and even at night it gets pretty hot here right now. I'm not uncomfortable but I suppose it would make a difference. I should probably be drinking more water while I practice too.

 

I've always sang along while I've messed around by myself, but about a year ago I started really focusing on singing better, and in the last 6-8 months I've been practicing very seriously and doing warmups, exercises, stuff like that.

 

About the volume thing, I recorded myself today, just a microphone at the other end of the room, and my voice is definitely loud enough over the guitar. I guess I just don't hear that as well from my viewpoint? Either way, I guess it's not as much of a problem as I thought.

 

 

I also tried the "mmhmm" thing to find my pitch and try getting rid of vocal fry from my speaking voice, and I can hear how that could be healthier for my voice. Now it just feels a little weird talking differently than I have since I hit puberty.