MUSIC

Just took my first vocal lesson ever. I have a soft voice -vocal coach kept telling me to belt loudly. HELP?

I have a soft/soothing speaking and singing voice. When i speak or sing, i sound better when using a mic as you can hear the nuances of my voice better. I’d like to have a stronger, clearer voice, but when i try to force my voice to be louder – i lose some of the tone i like and sound really forced. I took my first voice lesson ever today and he kept having me sing LOUD. i told him about my own observations about my voice and he said that i just need to keep practicing really loud, even though my voice was sounded thin and strained… Should I listen to him and keep trying to sing loud? is it okay if to have a softer voice vs sounding like i’m screaming? Maybe he’s right and eventually that “screaming” will sound more like singing? Or maybe I should try a different singing coach? He does a lot of gospel music where belting out seems to be more the style – i like more mellow sounds – ie. colby caillet.

It sounds like you’re not supporting your voice properly with diaphragmatic breathing. Did he teach you about it before telling you to sing loudly? He should. Try and feel like you’re drawing your sound from deep within instead of just the top half of your body. Your sound will come out much stronger without having to force anything. My teacher always tells me to ‘feel the ground’ whenever I sing.

Also, it may sound loud to you because you’re not used to projecting your voice. I don’t think any teacher would tell a student to belt on the first lesson…sing louder, yes, but not belt. Singing softly is actually harder than doing the same thing at a louder volume, because singing softly requires more control in terms of breath, tone quality, support, etc.

I also have a naturally soft, gentle instrument, and before taking lessons, found it extremely easy to blend perfectly into a choir, no matter whether I sing properly or not. On my first few lessons, my teacher kept telling me ‘sing with full voice’ – she told me to ignore all the dynamic markings in the scores and just sing everything at a ‘forte’ level (which to me, just meant ‘loudly’ at that time – now I know better), because it’s easier to feel what’s correct and what isn’t. I’d be running short of breath every 5-7 seconds because I wasn’t used to projecting my voice like that. It also sounded really loud to me, but when I practised at home, recorded myself during that time, and compare it to my recordings now, I’m actually a lot louder now than last time. In fact, those early recordings sound weak to me now. And now, I actually have to lighten up and sing with ‘half-voice’ to blend in.

I would suggest that maybe you try out a classical voice teacher (teacher, not coach…those are 2 different things in the classical field), just to make sure that you develop proper technique in a safer way. In time, you can sing whatever you want, but starting with classical training protects your voice more, so that you can sing for life.

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