I can’t sing, you know! I’m afraid to open my mouth with the sound that comes out.” This is what many people think before they start taking singing lessons. (Also read my previous blog.) We all want to sound as perfect as our favorite artists, to sing just as beautifully.
But they too sometimes sacrifice their technique or intonation a little (or a bit more), for example for the message of the song or their unique vocal sound.
In this blog, I take you through examples of what I call ‘controversial voices’. Singers who are famous and popular but do not necessarily use the best singing technique or have a daring vocal color that not everyone finds beautiful.
In this blog, I want to look at what we consider a beautiful voice. I don’t want to challenge anyone’s musical taste, so you don’t have to be offended if you find your favorite singer here. Because I received so many wonderful examples from my friends, I’m making two parts on this topic. Part one about intonation and part two about special vocal colors. For some artists, the message might be more important than the singing quality. But here I’m only talking about singing, no matter how beautiful and important that message might be. This week is about singing out of tune. Enjoy!
I start with singers who occasionally sing off-key, because many people see singing off-key as a mortal sin in singing. If you sing off-key, you can’t sing and shouldn’t even start. Is that so? I want to show you some examples of authentic, famous artists who sing a little off-key… or very off-key. Many people don’t care about this or they don’t hear it.
This is not out of tune the whole time, but the intonation is quite shaky. I give two examples of comments on the video about Nick’s voice: “His voice is liquid gold, so soothing, it heals every cell in my body!” and “Beautiful and sad. I love Nick Cave’s voice.” It is hard to find comments that are not positive.
This video has 1.9 million likes for a Lana who sings off-key. Live she’s even worse. But, to be fair, even her fans admit that sometimes it’s not entirely in tune. One of her live performances received this comment: “Not to be mean, because I think she’s amazing too, but… when I hear Lana sing like that, I have hope that I might make it someday >.<”
I’m already singing ‘fun, fun, happy house, oaooaaaa’. And I’m happy in my house. Just like this person: “the melody of the voice is incredible.” But yes, also incredibly off-key. Another fun one: “Dare to be exceptional, Siouxsie. What a stylish and unique individual. What a voice! She has influenced those who are a decade younger than her in the most positive way.”
These three singers with their own intonation can touch people with their voice and their way of singing. Other examples of off-key singers are: Tom Waits, Lou Reed, and Johnny Cash.
In 1998, singer Cher released her song ‘Believe’. She was the first to use the autotune software on her voice. Since then, it has become a very popular tool for correcting off-pitch notes. It is also widely used as an effect because it makes the singer’s voice sound robotic. Nowadays, it is used by many artists.
Cher mainly uses the software as an effect. Listen to how autotune distorts her voice.
Here you hear a clear example of how autotune is used to correct pitch. In my opinion, the autotune in this example went wrong. The software makes the voice of a good actress monotonous and emotionless, but yes, in tune. Of course, we do not know if Watson would have sounded terrible without autotune, but I would love to hear it.
An artist who uses autotune is not necessarily a bad singer. The tool can save a lot of time, because a singer doesn’t have to redo a line hundreds of times if one note is off. Take this quiz and see if you can hear whether autotune is used or not.
That you don’t have to be a technically brilliant singer to become famous is one thing, but becoming famous because you sing so poorly is something else. See Florence Foster Jenkins. She even gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, has a Wikipedia page, and a Hollywood film about her life.
That singing in tune is unnecessary? No, because people generally prefer someone who sings in tune. If this weren’t the case, we wouldn’t need autotune at all.
But what we can learn is that you can sing even if you’re not Mr. or Ms. Pitch Perfect. Confidence and authenticity (using your own voice) are more important than always singing in tune, especially if you’re not musically or vocally trained. Just sing!
But although I’ve convinced you now to come to my lessons and say: “I have my own unique sound, and singing in tune affects the message I want to convey,” it’s still important to be aware of what your voice can do. A decent technique and improved musical ear will reveal new aspects of your voice that you can further explore.
This journey to musical awareness begins with scheduling your introductory phone call at Voicelab The Hague. I’ll end with a quote from Florence: “People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.” And so it is!
In this article, I give four reasons why you might feel a strained sensation in your voice. In other words: why you are probably too relaxed in your body, causing too much tension on your delicate vocal cords. The first two are physical and the last two are psychological. They reinforce each other.
Are you also afraid of making a mistake when making music? You’re not alone. The problem with mistakes and making music is that you often only have one chance to do it right. But, is perfection really important? Or are you allowed to make mistakes in music?
There’s a taboo on singing poorly (or feeling that you’re not so good). That’s a shame because most people can learn to sing better.
