Why do so many popular male singers

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by KarenB

Try sounding like yourself. There's only one you. Everybody else is taken.

. I like that Karen. I agree, make the song your own.

[Mandobart]

I have a pretty deep resonant speaking voice. I always assumed I should sing in a lower register as well.

A few years ago at my weekly bluegrass jam a friend suggested I try singing a song in A vs G. At first it sounded and felt odd to me, but everyone there said it sounded much better.

Now I find my voice sounds better and has more volume when I sing a few steps higher than what I always considered my "normal" range.

I've found that even when listening to professionals, they sometimes try to sing "too low" and it comes out wrong.

[Nama Ensou]

I find a lot of the same and there are a lot of songs that I just end up transposing down a step to get into a better place for me to sing them.

[egordon99]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Was told here by someone Robert Plant can't hit the higher vocal part of Stairway to Heaven anymore.

Yeah, this was discussed in https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=599309

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Like I said in the previous post it doesn't sound the same. Boston just doesn't sound the same with a vocal like Johnny Cash.

Actually just joking as I don't sing that low as I am a tenor but holy crap some of those singers!

BTW there is a recording of Johnny Cash out there singing Heart of Gold by Neil Young!

Hi Cecil
Popularity of voice ranges of lead singers shifts throughout the years.

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by KarenB

Try sounding like yourself. Everybody else is taken. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy your own unique sound.

I had a friend come record us two nights in a row at a club we were playing and was positive that there was going to be plenty of great stuff, but instead I was horrified at what I sounded like on most of the material.
After repeated listenings though I realized that there was a pattern to the songs that I liked my singing on, and they were all songs not done by singers that I cared at all about trying to emulate.
After that sobering lesson I just started singing each song as if it was my own. I don't care how the original singer did it at all, because they're not here and it's my job to tell the story now.

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by KarenB

Try sounding like yourself. There's only one you. Everybody else is taken. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy your own unique sound.

I know. I know. But...

[KarenB]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

I know. I know. But...

I can empathize with you Cecil. Singing is total exposure. There's no place to hide. Your voice is your instrument. It's you. it's physical. It's psychological. It's soul-full.

Finding a good voice teacher can often be a positive thing. For years I had a limited range even after working with a number of voice teachers. Then I found one who truly understood the workings of the voice and the workings of me, and I found my higher ranger. I'm not going to be a soprano, and don't want to be, but she helped me free the expanded "me" that I am.

The trick is, finding a voice teacher who knows what they're doing, and understands what YOU want to do and not turn you into something THEY think you're supposed to be.

It's an exploration. It's full of surprises. And that's the beauty of life.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

And yes, for most of us, songs need to be transposed down a little bit to make them singable for most of us, especially as we get older. The challenge is how to change the key of song and still make it sound reminiscent of the original recording.

- Glenn

This is the problem. When you're doing covers, singing a song a full octave below what it's 'supposed' to be sung just sounds... wrong. I have an acoustic duo with my wife and she's the lead singer so she can hit a lot of the male sung songs but then she has a hard time singing some of the female songs that we also naturally gravitate towards. Think singers like Lady Gaga on that great song 'Shallow' from the movie, 'A Star Is Born'. They have that powerful high register she can't hit.

Over the years we've found ways to 'cheat' the system using our combined voices. An example would be the Heart song, 'Alone'. In the chorus, lead singer Ann Wilson goes up a whole octave and sings in a powerful chest voice. The wife can't do it. She can shift to her head voice (falsetto) but that doesn't sound right. So instead she goes down an octave while I sing in the same key she was in and she goes in and out of a harmony. The difference is a head-fake towards the original and sounds great.

We have done that on several songs and it get's us by. But there are some great song covers we've just had to pass on because we couldn't come up with a work-around to making the song work for us. It can be very frustrating when it's a song like 'Shallow' that you really want to do and is very popular but you just can't pull it off. Fortunately, there's no shortage of excellent songs out there to cover! And of course then there's the best thing which is just writing your own songs which somehow are always magically, exactly in your key and your range!!

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Of course but doesn't sound the same. I want to sound like the artist if I do a song. Insecurity I guess.

As with so many things, it depends on your goals. If your goal is to mimic the original artists and your vocal range doesn’t match theirs, well yeah, you’ve got a problem that maybe a vocal coach can help.

In the 90s one of my contemporary solo guys was a mimic. He sounded exactly like James Taylor, exactly like Harry Chapin, exactly like Tracy Chapman . . . . . I had no interest in any of that.

If I like a song I break it apart and put it back together to my liking and to fit my talents. I change a lot, often including the key but - I keep it recognizable to the listener. It’s my interpretation of another’s song.

Try it. It might open some doors you thought were locked. Plus, it’s fun.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Of course but doesn't sound the same. I want to sound like the artist if I do a song. Insecurity I guess.

In that case choose the singers who have a similar range to yours.

But - as already suggested - audience like to hear singers being themselves, not copying someone else.

I understand the "insecurity" angle - you feel you want to sound like the original because you don't feel confident in your own skill. But much better to be an imperfect version of yourself than an imperfect version of someone else! However good you get, if you're copying someone else you're still going to be inferior to them. And audiences spot that straight away. But they (we!) are much more forgiving of a hesitant amateur who is being honestly himself.

Remember you are covering a song. Not impersonating a singer. A song has an existence outside of its original performer, even if that performer wrote the song.
When Jeff Buckley sang Hallelujah, did he try and copy Leonard Cohen? Clearly not! He'd have failed miserably. As it is, he created what many feel is the best version, even superior to Cohen's - because you can tell the performance came from Buckley's soul, not second hand from Cohen.
Of course, Buckley had a great voice, and maybe yours is not so awesome! But the point is that any singer you admire is doing their own thing, not copying anyone - even when playing covers.
When you hear the way the Beatles or Stones played covers in their early days, they sounded different from the originals - but they sounded unmistakably like themselves. If they hadn't, you would never have heard of them again. You might prefer the originals, but you'd still give them the credit of making the songs their own.
Eg the Beatles' cover of "Twist and Shout". If Lennon was trying to sound like the Isleys, he wasn't making a great job of it! What he was doing was using the song to express something of himself. He didn't choose the song because he wanted to sound like the Isley Bros; he chose it because it's a great song that he knew they could make something out of.
Or compare the way he sang "Anna" with Arthur Alexander's original - you can hear how much that song resonated with Lennon, how much he was using his own voice and feelings, totally uninterested in how Alexander sounded.

Same with you. You should choose a song because it's a great song that means something to you - regardless of who might have sung it first, even of who might have written it.

[Slothead56]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Was told here by someone Robert Plant can't hit the higher vocal part of Stairway to Heaven anymore.

Neither can I!

[Glennwillow]

If it helps any, Cecil, I don't particularly care to hear someone trying to mimic another singer. The last thing I want to hear is someone trying to sound like James Taylor when they are not.

I think that someone finding and using their best voice doing a cover or their own song is the most appealing sung music. Many people with the right kind of work and coaching can put across a song reasonably well. But learning to sing well is hard work and takes significant effort.

I really do think that Karen's and other's advice of figuring out how to be yourself is the best advice.

You could have the best voice in the world but nobody can sing like everyone else. And even if you could, you'd just end up being a mimic.

I know that some people want to hear that, but I don't. In fact, I think most people are not interested in that. Most people understand that every singer has their own voice. I have often wondered if one of the reasons people write their own songs is so that people can't compare them to someone else.

- Glenn

[Wally Taylor]

When I was a kid I was really into Kansas. I still like throwing on Leftoverture and others. Steve Walsh had such a killer high tenor voice. At the time, Steve, Brad Delp of Boston, Steve Perry of Journey and others were exremely awesom singers in concert. I found out later, the hard way, that Steve Walsh lost all of his range around 2000. I watched a 2002 concert, and Steve was singing, but he could no longer do th high stuff. He eventually stopped singing, with Kansas anyway. Keith Knudson of the Doobie Brothers grew up right behind us in Illinois where I grew up. I ended up getting backstage at several of their concerts, and Michael McDonald was at his peak with the Doobies. That guy could hit just about any note any time. He hasn't lost any of it. Some of the great rock tenors blew out their vocal chords, and some could go on forever. Brad Delp reached th point where Boston had two young singers and Brad was still there, but he had lost some of his range. His untimely death by suicide had something to do with the relationship that he had with Tom Scholz. Being. great tenor can be a blessing and a curse I guess.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

This is the problem. When you're doing covers, singing a song a full octave below what it's 'supposed' to be sung just sounds... wrong.

Sometimes maybe, but as a general principle that's just silly. If the octave below is your natural range, then it just sounds like an interesting new take on it. It's you making the song your own.
If it sounds "wrong", that's down to something else: probably your over-attachment to the original.

How about when a man sings a song that was originally sung by a woman? That might well have to be an octave down. Is that "wrong"? Should a man never sing a woman's song?

Or would you say an octave higher is OK? Or should women never sing men's songs either? Should Jeff Buckley never have sung Hallelujah?

There is no "supposed to be" about the register of any song. Except (arguably) those classical pieces written for specific ranges: bass, soprano and so on. In operas, those things have relevance to character and narrative (so I understand - I hate opera!). But in popular music, nope. Naturally we get used to recordings which are commercially successful and become classics. That ought to be a challenge to anyone to sing them in completely different registers. Stir it up!