Confidence and Singing

Unlocking your confidence can unlock your voice

I was teaching a student for around two years and she couldn’t increase her volume. She described it as a mental block. She wanted to, she could understand the concepts on how to but couldn't physically do it. She worked on it, she tried very hard but her voice wouldn’t allow her. And then she sat her year 12 exams and ended a stressful relationship and was suddenly, dare I say, fixed!  She immediately had a fuller sound, more breath control, and projecting her voice was much easier! Fast forward another two years and she’s singing punk rock and is SUPER loud. I already knew our bodies respond and react to stress but to witness it first hand was quite fascinating.

My voice teacher at university told a story of her best examination performance while she was studying music: she was about to get on stage for a singing exam and had a HUGE argument with a lecturer, from yelling at him she marched on stage, picked up the microphone and delivered the strongest, cleanest and most in control performance up to that date.  Her marks were the highest she’d ever received and she learnt a valuable lesson: get angry! I’m joking, don’t do that, but DO be confident. When you are standing up for yourself you're (hopefully) feeling confident, and in that moment, she was feeling strong within herself.

Know this: confidence in yourself will be present in your voice.

It might seem rather obvious, but if you have confidence in yourself it will be present in your voice:

• You will open your mouth wider.

• You will breathe a bit deeper.

• You will stand a bit straighter.

• You will speak louder.

  
  

No, I’m not talking about shouting or the booming voice of a market stall fruit seller, but I am talking about clearer and calmer, and more authoritative speech. Your body relaxes, your breathing muscles are happier, and you can breathe deeper,

I’m not a self-help expert but I have lived a little. Enough to understand that we can’t always be calm, in control and confident. But a foundational confidence in who you are as a person can go a long way in improving your voice.

An understanding that a lack of confidence impacts your voice can maybe go some way in encouraging you that you aren’t a shitty singer. It’s maybe just life. And maybe when things start to improve so too will your voice.

And if you’re in a place where confidence isn’t coming to you but you still want to sing, maybe you could use this, other, newer, softer sound to your advantage:

• If it’s singing you could work on dynamic and singing out your emotion

• If it’s voice acting you could develop sombre characters

• If it’s public speaking you could develop your empathetic voice

Then once you’ve got your energy back up and your PEP in your step you can get your BIG voice back. Your big sound. Your confident sound!

Yes we are told to fake it till we make it, and some folks are real good at that. But if it just ISN’T working for you, it’s okay. You can rest in the fact that “fake it till you make it” just doesn’t work with all of our voices. We've all had different life experiences, and we've all had our bodies respond in different ways to those experiences. Our inner world impacts our sound, our “vocal placement”. Our internal world literally has a flow on effect on our voice.

But what if you do have to sing big and belt-y and punk-y and theatre-ey for upcoming shows?

You can learn how to adjust your voice, your “vocal placement” so that you can work around it. It just won’t come as easily.

Embrace what you do have!

Your body enjoys singing, so sing what you can!