This week I’ve had some VERY different singers in for back-to-back sessions. Some have been much lighter voices that have an abundance of range and ease, and others are weightier voices that operate well at a much higher intensity than most.
It struck me that I’ve not often talked about the ideal volume for singing and practicing singing. So let’s cover it.
Short version
Singing around the volume of your natural speaking voice is about right. It’s the goldilocks zone. Not too loud, not too quiet.
The key word is around the volume of your natural speaking voice, because…
Long version
We don’t sing at just ONE volume. Variation in volume is essential for dynamics, to express and to indicate emotion throughout a song. As such, I’m not advocating for ONE singular volume level.
What I AM saying, is that the natural volume and weight of your speaking voice reflects the natural weight and optimal calibration for volume of your singing voice. Singing with prolonged excess or insufficient volume tends to detract from the quality and the longevity of the instrument.
Too Loud
If we try to be substantially louder than this for extended periods, we are asking too much of our instruments, and fatigue/damage tends to result. It also tends to get a sub-optimal lower quality tone from our instruments – like hammering a guitar or piano rather than playing it appropriately to get the best out of whatever instrument it is.
Or Too Quiet
Similarly, when we try to sing more quietly than our voice is built to be, there are also negative tonal and physical consequences. If we sing too quietly for long periods, then generally creates tension within the instrument (as it’s operating in non-ideal conditions), and can also leave the voice feeling dried out due to excess air passing over the vocal folds.
This is one of the reasons why Seth Riggs started the technique I teach, and called it ‘Speech Level Singing’. The balance we achieve when we truly sing with the same instrument that we speak with, creates a wonderful roadmap for developing the voice further. This helps form a solid starting point to further enhance vocal range AND dynamic range, but we are trying to find our ‘homebase’ at our speech level.
Over time, singers will find they are capable of being ever louder AND ever quieter, this expanding the full range of colours for their voice… it simply requires us to start with speech level to get started on this journey.
Some Caveats
Perception is a funny thing. I often find that people who are new to voice training, who haven’t liked their voices before, tend to perceive themselves as singing louder than they actually are. As such even when they THINK they are singing at ‘speech level’, they are singing 20-50% quieter than that.
Similarly, some singers who have sung for a long time but have come to me for help with their voice (typically performers), often think they are singing at speech level when in reality they are absolutely bellowing the notes out.
It takes time to train your ear and your body to recognise the weight and calibration of your voice, and to learn to train and sing within that optimal zone. But once you do, you’ll find that you can sing for longer and longer periods with no ill effects. If anything, you’ll find your voice often feels BETTER after singing for several hours than when you started.
If this is something you’d like to develop and figure out in your own voice, you can book in your initial consultation via my booking form right here.