Common Mistakes

"I want to sound just like..."
   Everyone judges singing by the sound. That makes sense, because that's how we register noise, right? Unfortunately, this idea of sounding just like our favorite singer can put undue tension on our voices causing us to strain them. Eventually this can lead to vocal damage.

   Let me explain. Resonance is the area that sound vibrates in. With a guitar the strings vibrate, but without the hollow wooden box behind the strings, the sound wouldn't be very loud or rich.  Thus, resonance changes the quality of sound. So if your sound vibrates in a wooden container it will sound different than if it vibrates in a brass container. The shape and size of the area where the sound vibrates also is a contributor to the final product of sound.

  This same principle holds true with singing voices. Our vocal cords vibrate together to produce that vibration necessary to create noise. But it wouldn't be very loud without the rest of our anatomy: from the air in our lungs, to the space in our throat, to the shape of our mouths. All those things together provide the resonance our vocal cords need to provide the individual sound they generate.
  But here's the catch: No one is shaped the exact same way.
 We are as individual as snowflakes, and so also is the sound we yield.
 The people who have similar anatomy will sound more similar to each other; you may have noticed siblings have comparable voices.

Pictures used by permission of Alexey Kljatov

   So if you are trying to sound just like your favorite singer, well..it IS possible, it's just not healthy for your voice. You have to change the resonance of your voice to accomplish it. So you utilize muscles in your tongue, throat, jaw, cheeks and even soft palette to mimic a sound that your body wasn't meant to make. Picture squashing your vocal box into the shape you want to produce a certain sound.

   The other thing to be aware of is more often than not, you are not just trying to impersonate the sound of your favorite singer. You're also trying to mimic the microphone that adds a lot of resonance itself. Most pop singers don't really sound like their recordings. They have a normal voice just like you. That nasal/grindy/electronic/synthetic sound is exactly that: synthetic. It isn't natural.

   PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not compromise your own unique and beautiful sound for something you may like the sound of, but will only be temporary.