What makes a good voice?

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What qualities would you say make a singer's voice good -- exceptional so that it moves you more than the average voice.

― Lesliepc16, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 03:46 (twenty-one years ago)

imperfection.

― papa november (papa november), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Agreed.

It needs to have a quality that makes it distinctive. I can never get on with classical/operatic vocal styles as they take out the individuality and scope for soulful expression.

― Bobby M, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

"Singing isn't about hitting notes; it's about pulling strings" - i.e. there has to be something, some indefinable quality (and it is indefinable, because it's different across so many voices), that attracts me, affects me, draws me in. The delivery, fragility, strength, phrasing, whatever.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 07:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes I hate technically great singers, sometimes I hate people with nasty voices, sometimes I oscillate wildly between the two (hello Ian Brown!).

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah these days I'm much more attracted to spindly whispy voices rather than people who can belt stuff out.

― papa november (papa november), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

technically speaking, control makes a good voice. it's really a mix of knowledge, foresight, focus, and having enough confidence to let go of studied affectations and make the very best of your real, natural voice. people say they hate classical singers for their showiness, and sometimes they're right on that front, but there are other things to listen for in classical singing, like command of dynamics (not just being able to transition smoothly from loud to soft, but being able to sustain the same volume throughout the sometimes unwieldy shape of a musical phrase) and making high notes sound pretty instead of screechy.

w/r/t pop singing, i'm somewhere in the middle. i love "bad" singers if they've got good phrasing, and sometimes that's enough. but i also think that "good" pop singers could be utterly fucking fabulous if they got a little classical training beaten into them. sometimes the "bad" singers are far more disciplined than the "good" ones!

― motown modown (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 08:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I can never get on with classical/operatic vocal styles as they take out the individuality and scope for soulful expression.

no more so than pop singing.

― motown modown (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I can never get on with classical/operatic vocal styles as they take out the individuality and scope for soulful expression.

No they don't! Not at all.

Diamanda Galás is spot on re: technicality: "Some people hear it as technique, because they can't hear anything but technique, so they think, "Oh, it's about virtuoso singing." Are they mad? Why do they think a person would be a virtuoso? So she can tell the story properly! Why else?"

As far as what I like, it's pretty undefinable... the same quality which makes me love one voice will irk me in another. And of course it's very dependent on what material that voice chooses to sing.

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

There are qualitative degrees even within "weak" singing voices; for example, Bernard Sumner's weak voice can move me indescribably, but the guy out of the Junior Boys just leaves me cold, unable to empathise with his perceived vulnerability. It's all down to personal taste. The important thing is that I have to empathise as well as sympathise with what the voice is saying/singing, and that can only be done by means of the infinitesimal differences in the old Barthesian grain of the voice.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

It needs to have a quality that makes it distinctive. I can never get on with classical/operatic vocal styles as they take out the individuality and scope for soulful expression.

This is just patently untrue. No one in their right mind would listen to Stephanie Blythe and Hei-Kyong Hong and think their voices were interchangeable (or, to stay within voice part, Hei-Kyong Hong and Jane Eaglen).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i knew dan would have something to say about that. :-)

― motown modown (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

i wonder if anyone would mistake my singing for dan's. naah, completely interchangeable.

― motown modown (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

A stellar voice comes from someone who can not only sing but emote. Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins is a brilliant example of this, especially since you can't tell what the bloody hell she's singing and yet it's soooo incredibly moving (for want of a better word) to the point of being soul-destroying or life-affirming at times! Grandiose, I know, but I know plenty who could empathise!

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 29 October 2004 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

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