Have you ever wondered if there is a connection between your speaking voice and your singing voice? Are you a confident speaker but would not dream of singing?
In this post, you will find the answer.
How does your speaking voice differ from your singing voice?
Everybody has learned to speak for communication. But not everyone sings. There are people who think they cannot sing. Yet, we use the exact same instrument for both.
What is singing?
Singing is basically speaking with varying pitches and rhythm. Thinking about singing as melodic speaking helps students to learn because most of us have a mental block around singing.
It is very likely that within 24h hours you use your voice in many different ways, with the pitch of your voice going up and down. Depending on your personality there might be a lot of variety in the intensity of your vocal expression as well.
Think about such people as Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough. Or the one and only Frank Sinatra. Sinatra’s range was quite surprisingly only about an octave and there were many other technically more superior singers during his time, but because of his ability to express emotions, he is considered the greatest of all time. If you listen to him sing live, there are many occasions when he seems to be speaking or reciting the lyrics just as much as he is singing them.
So focus on making your speaking voice more melodic.
What If I’m just one of those people who can’t learn to sing
If you can hear the differences between different pitches you should also be able to reproduce them.
Sometimes people can hear the difference between pitches, but reproducing them is very difficult. I remember having this one student who knew he was singing the wrong notes, and at first it seemed like he was tone-deaf. It actually turned out that the muscles used for singing were just really uncalibrated due to the lazy and monotonic way he’d been speaking his entire life up to that point.
In the end, he learned how to sing on pitch due to deliberate practice that helped the muscles used for singing to get stronger.
So if you have a fear of being tone-deaf remember that if you can distinguish whenever you are off-key, then most likely you just haven’t exercised the correct muscles enough.
To learn more about developing your singing voice
The Speaking Voice
The average person usually speaks without giving much thought to their sound. People are so used to their own voices they don´t even listen to themselves. It´s another matter if someone records your voice – hearing it is usually a shock.
The reason for this is that we hear our own sound partly through bone-conduction, which is directly from the inside of our head. Often we perceive our voice to be darker than it actually is.
A tip for finding out how we actually sound: put your hands in front of your ears and speak. That way you will hear what others are hearing. Of course, recording your own voice will make it perfectly clear.
The Individuality of the Speaking Voice
People´s speaking voices differ hugely depending on their gender, age, ethnicity, dialect, social surroundings, education, etc. We can usually gather a lot of information just by hearing somebody speak even without seeing them. Our voices are highly individual and form our personal blueprint. Voices and their importance are unfortunately undervalued and underestimated.
The Pitch Range of Speaking
A person usually speaks with his or her typical pitch. It´s mostly in the low middle range for both genders and feels comfortable for the speaker. Actors may want to change their pitch range in order to sound more like the role they play. Usually, low voices confer more authority. High voices in both men and women may sound naïve, childish or inexperienced. Professional speakers really should find their own best pitch because it sounds so much better and helps diminish straining.
Languages have different pitch inflection ranges. This means, your voice usually doesn´t stay on just one pitch which would sound monotonous. Depending on the language you speak, this can change a lot and even change the meaning of the sentence. Every language is unique in this respect but some languages have more melodic lines.
The English language is spoken very differently all around the world, taking into account all the different dialects. Also, the intonation may go up or down – for example, a question usually goes up at the end of the phrase. In any language, lively and interesting speech calls for some inflection. The more emotional the speaker, the more the voice can go up and down. In fact, the voice can easily go up an octave (8 steps on the musical scale) if a person gets excited! In singing, this is totally obvious. The more emotion, the higher the song usually goes. But if you can speak high then you could also sing high, perhaps even belting the so-called “money notes”!
The Sound of the Speaking Voice
A good speaking voice is resonant. It can be soft or loud at will; in fact, this is desirable. If you always sound loud the listeners will get tired; if you always speak softly the listeners may not hear you well. So, a good voice has variability and the tone is connected to the body which makes it sound grounded and firm. It is not harsh, gravely or squeaky, tremulous or piercing. The amount of nasality or twang can depend on the dialect. Some qualities are personal and need not be negative. If the vocal folds are healthy and little tension is present in the throat the voice is usually easy, flowing and resonant.
Developing the Speaking Voice
Can you change your voice? Yes, absolutely, if you want to! If you have problems with speaking and get tired easily it is a good idea to book a session with a professional, a speech-language pathologist (SLP), who can help and coach you. You will learn to breathe correctly, to support your voice with nice airflow and body connection, to get rid of unwanted tensions in the throat and neck area. The same rules apply to all voice use, be it speaking or singing.
Put your hand on your chest. Relax your throat and say out loud “Yes!” Feel the resonance under your breastbone. Open your mouth and let your jaw drop perhaps a little more than usual. Keep affirming: “Yes – Yeeees!” several times, extending the sound if that feels okay. Get excited and experiment with different sounds, pretending to be an actor. Don´t be afraid to sound funny! Laugh out loud and cry like a child. All these sounds prepare you to free your voice, to find your resonance and enable you to let it out. Remember to breathe and relax your tummy muscles every time you take a breath.
Articulation and Diction
How is your articulation? Is it clear and crisp or is your tongue lazy? Diction is equally important to both speaking and singing. Listeners want to understand what you say, don´t they?
What is articulation? It is the pronunciation of words in a clear and distinct manner. Perhaps your tongue movements are too sloppy? Do you barely move your lips? You can practice different syllables, do tongue twisters and even exaggerate – this feels really ridiculous at first – but don´t underestimate the need to get your tongue active. Open your mouth so the sound can get out as well. Often we speak too fast, so slowing down really helps make your enunciation more impactful.
The speech sound must be accurately formed and supported by the breath. Also, do not “swallow” the ends of words but finish them completely. If you speak in a big space, especially without a microphone, this is even more important.
Singing Voice – What is the Difference?
Here we finally come to singing. Singing is speaking on different pitches. Well, sort of. Because there is yet another element to singing that is connected to the brain. The regulation of singing comes from the right hemisphere whereas the regulation of speaking is more rational and originates in the left hemisphere of the brain. There are people who think they cannot sing but there are also people who have difficulty speaking (for example, spasmodic dysphonia or stuttering) but who can sing.
If we consider singing as just making different pitches with different rhythmic patterns, then we are partly correct. Therefore, if you do hear the pitches and can imitate them, that is singing. However, really making music also requires the ability to understand sound. One technical aspect of singing is the thyroid cartilage tilt that enables vibrato and gives the sound a personal musical quality. Also, the ability to lengthen these sounds according to the melody makes singing different from speech. But all in all, do not consider singing mystical or something that belongs only to a few blessed people. We can all learn to sing and speak better.
