Is it normal to hate the sound of your own vocals?

Question

I recently was lucky enough to spend some time in a recording studio to record a song for a funeral. After listening to my own vioce i hated it more than ever.Everyone has been telling me how good it is but i hear nothing but flaws in my voice. People say i must have tallent because i was given a schollarship for singing lessons at school by my principal. I don't know whether people are bieng serious or don't want to hurt my feeling. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

oh, that's exactlly true.. it's like you wanna hide when you hear your own recording. but, painful as it is.... you learn to polish along the way. and mind you, it's not that easy to give justice to a song.

keep working on it. who knows,
you can be the next pop idol. :)

Answer 2

Trust your friends and even moreso your critics. Do you have anyone telling you otherwise? Until that time, there's no reason to believe that your voice is not nice. Go try audition for something, say American Idol, and they'd be honest -- brutally.

Answer 3

Of course your gonna hate your own voice you hear it all the time and when its recorded and played back you'll often be to critical of yourself.

Answer 4

i hate the sound of mine but live with it ^^ its all in the mind if the principal thinks your good then you must be good unless your like in a 5 people school

Answer 5

Chillout n loosen up....ppl become bored with listening to their own songs.... Its particularly commonly used... N your only 15... As you improve older i will assure you.... You'l be making alot extra extra efficient songs that wont bore you out! =)

Answer 6

As several have said, it's not at all unusual to dislike the sound of your voice when you hear a recording of it. What folks have NOT said is WHY we respond this way.

In most if not all cases most of the problem is the difference between what you hear in your own ears when you are singing and what others (and the recording) hear. . . since when you hear yourself the sound is conducted DIRECTLY through your body, not through the air. So what you are TRYING to do, and think you are doing does not seem the same as what you hear on tape.

But here's a few things to do about that:
1) listen to yourself MORE on tape/recording till you get used to that voice and can judge it the way you do the voices of OTHERS (and the way people actually hear YOU). and stop focusing on the things you may like in the way YOU hear yourself that no one else will every be able to enjoy!

By the way, nearly the same thing goes for how you LOOK when you act, speak, etc-- you don't look the same to others or on tape as you think you do, and it can take some getting used to before you can honestly assess your own strengths and weaknesses.

2) Meanwhile, DO ask others whose judgment about such things you believe is solid. (This often will NOT mean friends, not necessarily because they may 'lie to avoid hurting your feelings' but because they may not have the expertise to be able to give you the most helpful feedback.)

3) Try to get an honest understanding --as you would want to do with someone else's voice-- of what your weaknesses are (and EVERYONE, even those with gorgeous voices, has them!) and how to strengthen them.... and even how to take advantage of what makes your voice distinctive...

Note that a lot of what I've been saying is about learning how to hear yourself. Never underestimate how important that is. I think I only began to appreciate that through friends who never 'could carry a tune'-- yet heard things quite well for playing an instrument!-- and finally learned to. I took for granted being able to 'hear myself' pretty well as far as getting the right pitch. But it isn't necessarily automatic. . . and hearing what pitch you're singing fairly accurately is just the BEGINNING. You want to keep growing in this.

4) You haven't told us much about the context of your singing, how you got the scholarship, etc. I'll bet it ws awarded because someone heard you sing SOLOS, and heard some real strengths. With young voices that ALSO often means that your voice is still somewhat undisciplined... you haven't had a chance to learn how best to control it and use it.

If that's so, you ought especially to consider the following:
a) some people have 'a lot of voice', others do not, though both may have a fair amount of talent and potential. But the person with more/bigger voice should expect that it will take a bit more work to get it 'under control.' Once done.. wow!

b) how and where you are using your voice can make a big difference. I personally do NOT believe that people with the best voices should focus simply on singing solos. There is MUCH to be learned about how to use your voice by working hard on ENSEMBLE work -- from a handful of people to a large choir-- esp. hearing and blending with others.

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Personal example -- I've sung solos since my teens, but more importantly, I was fortunate to be in various singing groups, large and small, from my earliest years... with good directors. So I was learning how to hear and blend with OTHERS [as well as harmonize by ear, not just sight, though I only discovered I could do that much later!] before my voice had even changed. So the transition was fairly smooth for me.

On the other hand, a dear friend of mine -- who led opposite me in a high school musical-- had 'a lot of voice', and you could tell it was pretty good, but frankly, SOMETIMES it did not sound very good... it was 'out of control'. She went on to major in vocal music and to sing solos and in groups, and her gorgeous voice came into its own. . as I think everyone knew it would.

As my kids are now teenagers, I've had many opportunities to listen to them and their classmates develop vocally. It was particularly interesting to listen to one girl, a year older than mine, who had one of the 'biggest' voices I've heard from someone her age, as SHE gained control over it through her high school years.... till when she graduated it was STUNNING!! (What I think was unusual was that she made that much progress in doing so before graduation. Many with 'that much voice' will not get there for a while. . .though that does NOT mean they won't get there!)

Answer 7

Well. it's normal to hate your voice. Ask one of your closest friends to really tell you the truth about your voice........

Answer 8

It IS quite common.