Performing Great With Bad Voice ?

[LarryByrd]

What are your opinions about people with shitty voice, but great feel and mojo. I'm thinking like, though not necessarily Neil Young and Mark Knopfler on their bad days. Obviously they are great. But sometimes they don't even hit the note. Especially Neil Young. Listen to Like A Hurricane live. But I love the performance! So my question is, should you keep your voice to yourself if you aren't a good singer, or should you just dont give a f*** and perform as good as you can, and see what happens? Or should you have such decency that you keep it to yourself:p?

And do you know what it takes to be good, eventhough you suck? Is it enough with feel?

My opinion is that songs can get great, even if your voice is bad, but I don't think I would take that risk on stage.

[musicthom]

What are your opinions about people with shitty voice, but great feel and mojo. I'm thinking like, though not necessarily Neil Young and Mark Knopfler on their bad days. Obviously they are great. But sometimes they don't even hit the note. Especially Neil Young. Listen to Like A Hurricane live. But I love the performance! So my question is, should you keep your voice to yourself if you aren't a good singer, or should you just dont give a f*** and perform as good as you can, and see what happens? Or should you have such decency that you keep it to yourself:p?

And do you know what it takes to be good, eventhough you suck? Is it enough with feel?

My opinion is that songs can get great, even if your voice is bad, but I don't think I would take that risk on stage.

That is a very good question

I suppose it all depends on individual taste for example Nick Cave world wide star i don't like his voice but hey other people think diffirent,

I am of the opinion that you don't have to have a large vocal range to draw someones ear it helps though if you can sing with feeling and some depth not even the biggest and best get it right every single time

First thing is we have to establish can we sing?

for this there has to be a certain amount of honesty, so many folk have the friends that will tell them they can when they can't

This is nither good for the performer or the audience, we have to concentrate on what talent we do have if thats guitar or anything else then work on that instead of waisting valuable time

Secondly, we may have a good voice but lack of belief can make us bieleve otherwise

confidence can play a big part in a performance, nerves can and will make for a weak perfomance only way over this is to go out and do it

finding your range and singing within that range is allways best, gaining some knowledge of how the voice works, how to breathe etc is a big advantage

Recently i have taken some vocal lessons learning how to do vocal exercises scales etc pushing my range to see how far i can go

it has enhanced my vocal performance no end

Somthing that lots of people fail to consider is Backing vocals there are those who may not be able to do a full vocal performance but can do backing vocal, backing vocals when done well can be the making of a track

Edited March 23, 2010 by musicthom

[ypk]

Singing in tune is almost a must, but in terms of tone, it's more a matter of taste, and how your other instrumentation compliments your vocal tone.

I think Tom Waits is a great example of how a rugged "bad" voice can be used powerfully and emotionally. His compositions really fit his vocals well.

Like musicthom mentioned, confidence can be a huge thing. For a lot of singers, confidence helps them project their voices better, and more organically.

[Nick]

Which bit of Tom Waits is good and which bit bad?

Is there a middle for him that's ok (or not)

Are you suggesting that

1 He is a bad singer

2 he sings out of tune or time or something bad

3 That swordfishtrombones is either better or worse than san diego serenade

4 he's a bad performer

5 that he can't sing in many voices

6 that...

He has the sweetest voice as well as the roughest

Edited April 8, 2010 by Nick

[Nick]

And Neil Young is an individual electric guitarist that you can spot in seconds. Not my cuppa but sweet that people rave about it

I remember at A level time answering an interesting question which I remember to this day

"Style begins where talent ends". Discuss.

Great question.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Nick

[Nick]

The answer is in the question.

Come back and talk- it's hard to start a discussion here. It would be good to do that

[LoRaynmusic]

What are your opinions about people with shitty voice, but great feel and mojo. I'm thinking like, though not necessarily Neil Young and Mark Knopfler on their bad days. Obviously they are great. But sometimes they don't even hit the note. Especially Neil Young. Listen to Like A Hurricane live. But I love the performance! So my question is, should you keep your voice to yourself if you aren't a good singer, or should you just dont give a f*** and perform as good as you can, and see what happens? Or should you have such decency that you keep it to yourself:p?

And do you know what it takes to be good, eventhough you suck? Is it enough with feel?

My opinion is that songs can get great, even if your voice is bad, but I don't think I would take that risk on stage.

the voice in all its conceivable shape and forms = life = story= artistic creation = a mirror image of a perfect imperfection called life ...................

.........thats what makes the worst singers sound so great! and the best singers sound like they are striving for something that they will never get .........

because the worst singer was able to convey it in a non'singer fashion ( an every day real life story fasion ) that everyone was able to relate to .....................

MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT HITTING THE CORRECT NOTE MY FRIEND, ITS ABOUT MAKING THE NOTES HIT THE CORRECT EMOTION IN THE LISTENER !

smiles man

Ray

( Loraynmusic )

Edited April 9, 2010 by LoRaynmusic

[Shyox]

the voice in all its conceivable shape and forms = life = story= artistic creation = a mirror image of a perfect imperfection called life ...................

.........thats what makes the worst singers sound so great! and the best singers sound like they are striving for something that they will never get .........

because the worst singer was able to convey it in a non'singer fashion ( an every day real life story fasion ) that everyone was able to relate to .....................

MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT HITTING THE CORRECT NOTE MY FRIEND, ITS ABOUT MAKING THE NOTES HIT THE CORRECT EMOTION IN THE LISTENER !

smiles man

Ray

( Loraynmusic )

Mick Jagger isn't very good, but still incredibly famous.

I suppose you need character, or something else for them to focus upon besides how crappy you're singing.

[vocalcoachkentaylor]

I'm a vocal coach, so you'd think I'd put the technical aspect of the voice first, but the truth of the matter is music is emotion that we can hear. That's why we all love music so much, because we can connect to it. It makes us feel.

That being said, if you're able to convey a strong emotion without 100% pitch accuracy, who cares so long as you get your message across. But don't make the mistake of thinking that gives you the excuse not to brush up on your chops. Inaccuracy of pitch or a pleasing sound for the sake of driving the feeling of the song should be a choice... not an excuse.

That being said, singing is a skill just like anything else. Some skills come more naturally to some, while others have to put in more effort. If you're willing to put in the effort and get the right guidance, then you'll be able to achieve better results (now I'm not promising you'll sing like an angel, but lets be honest... you probably don't want that anyway).

All that being said, if you're really passionate about singing/performing, don't let not being perfect stop you (esp if you have the type of charisma that we as listeners crave so bad). Just put in the hours to take your voice to the next level.