We love and are thankful for anyone and everyone who visits POLITUSIC, but we also couldn’t pass up this favorite search. Any chiding is intended like a roasting, not with any malice. That out of the way, the best search to POLITUSIC: “If I sound horrible in a recording, does that mean I can’t sing?”
Uhh… yes!
Is it possible that the recording is bad quality? Yes, but a bad recording does NOT make a voice actually sound bad. You can listen to a terrible recording of a great singer and still know they are a great singer. You might be able to carry a tune when singing along with a song – but that doesn’t make a person a good singer. There’s a lot more to being a good singer than being able to hit the right note most of the time.
Have you seen American Idol? Ever noticed how 99% of the people who audition cannot sing, but think they’re God’s gift to music? Those people aren’t joking just to get on TV (well, not all of them). Humans in general suffer from massive self-delusion when it comes to the Self. From everything from what we see in the mirror to how smart we are to how well we can sing. Most people are not great singers. That’s life. Most people aren’t professional baseball players, either.
What you hear when you’re recorded is what other people hear. A recording is objective. What you hear in your head is subjective. That’s why so many people shudder in fear the first time they hear themselves on tape.
Youtube and facebook have made it even worse over the last decade, because now so many people tend to feel like they are entitled to fame. They’ve seen that anyone can be a celebrity (oh how I blame reality TV and Paris Hilton for that downfall of humanity), and therefore if just once they’re mother said, “Oh dear, you have such a wonderful singing voice.” they believe they’re destined fame, money, and love of the masses.
Sorry kiddo, that’s not how the world works. The top 2% of people have the needed combination of tone (what we’re born with) and technique (lots of work and training to use the instrument, the voice) to be a great singer. There are plenty more people who were born with the body shape to have a great voice, but they never work hard enough to have great technique.
Then there’s the rest of us (me included) who just aren’t great singers. That doesn’t mean we’re tone deaf, or anything like that. We can carry a tune, but just because we can do that doesn’t mean we’re good singers. The voice is an instrument that makes its sound based on all the parts and valves in your body. You might have perfect pitch, but still not be a good singer because you just don’t have the parts.
But above all else, never blame the recording. It’s not the recording that makes a voice sound bad. A good singer will still sound good if they sing directly into a built-in mic on a laptop. A bad singer will still sound bad if they sing into a $5000 microphone in the best recording studio in the world. Don’t dwell, just enjoy the music and sing along in the shower and in your car, anyway ;)
If you just discovered you’re not that great of a singer, then rejoice: now you know the truth and you won’t be like all those people on American Idol that we all laugh at. Now go out and learn to play another instrument :)
