I've been working on some solo shit lately, kinda hip-hop/electronica based stuff. I've only played a few fragments of it to a few people, but I've been getting doubts expressed that my voice can carry it off. My timing is good, my pitching is ok (and that shit is fixable nowadays anyway) but the actual timbre of the voice itself isn't exactly sonorous
So I have 2 options - first is to try and improve it. I've been trying out different things, for example I've noticed that when I'm singing without thinking I tend to blast the sound straight from my throat, and if I instead try and direct it upwards into the back of my nose it kinda gets easier to control the pitch. Also noticed that sometimes when singing I tend to close over the connection between my mouth and the back of my nose, and this is when my voice sounds at its absolute worst. So, I know I can probably improve various aspects of my voice, but I'm not sure I can turn a EUR50 fiddle into a Stradivarius, y'know?
Is it worth my while bothering? Another thing is I seem to be able mimic other people more convincingly than I can be myself - on Saturday I recorded myself rapping one of my tunes as ODB, and it sounded fucking WAY better than me rapping as me ... which kinda makes me feel like I mightn't really have found my own voice yet (despite my advanced years). Any thoughts?
And of course the other option would be to get someone else to sing the songs. Mrs. egg_ disconcerted me a bit by suggesting this directly when she heard one of them (it's very modern-urban-pop, like Rihanna or some shit, dunno if even a good male voice could really carry it off, never mind mine (though maybe someone like Yeasayer could)). Anyone any experience of doing this? I'd feel a bit odd about it, especially because the lyrics in these tunes are ... well, they're real, and tbh I'd rather sing them myself. But I don't want the songs to be shit because I'm unable to sing them well enough
Thoughts appreciated
So I have 2 options - first is to try and improve it. I've been trying out different things, for example I've noticed that when I'm singing without thinking I tend to blast the sound straight from my throat, and if I instead try and direct it upwards into the back of my nose it kinda gets easier to control the pitch. Also noticed that sometimes when singing I tend to close over the connection between my mouth and the back of my nose, and this is when my voice sounds at its absolute worst. So, I know I can probably improve various aspects of my voice, but I'm not sure I can turn a EUR50 fiddle into a Stradivarius, y'know?
Is it worth my while bothering? Another thing is I seem to be able mimic other people more convincingly than I can be myself - on Saturday I recorded myself rapping one of my tunes as ODB, and it sounded fucking WAY better than me rapping as me ... which kinda makes me feel like I mightn't really have found my own voice yet (despite my advanced years). Any thoughts?
And of course the other option would be to get someone else to sing the songs. Mrs. egg_ disconcerted me a bit by suggesting this directly when she heard one of them (it's very modern-urban-pop, like Rihanna or some shit, dunno if even a good male voice could really carry it off, never mind mine (though maybe someone like Yeasayer could)). Anyone any experience of doing this? I'd feel a bit odd about it, especially because the lyrics in these tunes are ... well, they're real, and tbh I'd rather sing them myself. But I don't want the songs to be shit because I'm unable to sing them well enough
Thoughts appreciated