Dynamic Singing: The Secret To Sounding Like You Were Born To Sing
I assume you ended up here on this post because you feel like your singing is a bit bland… You can hit all the right notes and you sound pretty good yet you feel like you’re missing something. Maybe you’re even wondering if it’s possible for you to improve any further or if that natural sound is just for people who were “born to sing”.
I have some great news for you. This natural sound is a skill that can be learned and it’s not nearly as complicated as you might think. You just need to focus on the right thing! And that thing is dynamic singing.
Let me know what dynamic singing is and how you can incorporate it into your own singing so that you don’t sound like you took a couple of voice lessons, but rather like you could always sing like that.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to watch/listen this episode on our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast or YouTube.
What Is Dynamic Singing?
Sounding like you were born to sing requires more than just hitting the right notes at the right time and sounding decent when doing so. To sound like your favorite singers out there you’ll need to start paying attention to HOW you’re singing each note.
Dynamic singing consists of 3 parts:
Tone - The color of your voice. Here are some different tones that your voice can create and that will help you sound more musical:
Twang (bright)
Low larynx (dark/dopey)
Nasal
Breathy
Registers (chest, head, mix voice)
Gritt
Diphthongs
Embellishments - The little decorations in your voice. Here are some different embellishments you can use to spice up your singing:
Vibrato
Riffs
Vocal Flips
Glissando
Scoops (onsets and offsets)
Ghost notes
Vocal Fry
Volume - How loud you’re singing.
It’s all those tiny little details that will make you sound more natural or more musical.
Developing Musicality
Now that you know what to pay attention to, your next question is probably how you should use all these things in songs (given that you can already do all this - if not, practice these individual skills first). Most singers just skip ahead to just adding these things randomly in their songs. Some singers can definitely get away with that because they have a natural feel for this. But to other singers this doesn’t come as naturally.
But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’re doomed! Instead of just randomly placing these different tones and embellishments in your song, listen to some of your favorite singers and analyze which tones and embellishments they’re using where and how that effects the overall performance.
When I first realized how few singers could hear these details in other singers’ performances, I was a bit shocked. How are you going to sound musical when you can’t identify musicality in others? That’s why at VoxTape Studios we always teach our students to not just do all these skills, but also train their ears to hear it in others. Because once you can hear it in others it will get a lot easier for you to then sing dynamically too!
Copy vs Original
When you’re first learning to sing dynamically, don’t be afraid to copy some of your favorite singers. Do exactly what you’re hearing them do - all the tiny little details. This is how humans learn new skills, through imitating others!
Once you feel comfortable with this, that’s when you then stop copying and instead add your own touch to the song. But because you’ve now learned which embellishments and tones go where and what you like in your own singing, you’ll still sound natural, but now also original.
I encourage you to not skip the imitation part of this process as this is what will teach you musicality. Yes, you will be singing a copy of the song you’re imitating, but only for a little bit. You will always then go and make it your own. Eventually you’ll be able to skip the imitation part because you’ll know what sounds good where in a song. But for now, don’t skip this step.
Example
I looked at Sabrina Carpenter’s Tiny Desk Concert (or at least for the first minute of it) and pointed out all the different tones, embellishments and volumes she used to help you train your ears.
Check out the example and the full episode below (example starts at 13:00).
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