Guitar Nerds Anonymous

That’s really great to hear man. I think it’s an actually a very common thing struggling to fine a voice. I spent years thinking I couldn’t sing (but inflicting it on people anyway!) before realising that I was trying to sing too high and crucially - too loudly. I think this is really easy trap to fall into when you start out trying to be heard over drums and amps with crappy PA gear.

Not saying I’m anything of a singer now - I definitely have more tenacity than talent, but learning to live within my comfort zone in terms of range, tone and volume was a game changer.

Also, not liking your own voice often means not liking how you sound to you using your totally unaffected speaking voice. Most singers have some degree of affectation in their voice. Some far more than you might realise. There’s no shame in “putting on a voice” you like. Obviously this can go too far but, yeah, I think you’d actually be surprised how far you can go into what might seem like an extreme affectation before it tips into silly. Try it!

But yeah, I fucking hate my voice almost all of the time then once in a while I stumble across a voice that I can do that I don’t hate. I can’t always summon it up at will and have to listen to previous recordings where I got it right - then I copy myself doing that and I’m off to the races.

Final home recording thing, when I do vocals, I loop the track and sing it like 25 times. By the final take I’m relaxed and comfortable in trying a few little improvisations that add variation, and usually by then my voice is starting to get a little ragged and less clear/boring. Then I can use the best take or comp of a couple and that seems to work more often than not.