Why does my voice sound dull/flat (and how to fix it)

Author

Ivan Lu
July 13, 2023

Why does my voice sound dull/flat? (& how to fix it) - 8 min read

So it’s finally happened to you.

Like an annoying bug bite on your arm, you finally decide to scratch that itch.

That itch to create, to record and most importantly to know how your voice sounds like

And maybe you’re here because of the aftermath

The aftermath of listening to your own voice.

And like awakening from the matrix, you desperately wish to un-see the truth.

This isn’t me…

This isn’t my voice…

It must be the phone’s microphone…

Most importantly you wonder - why in the world does my voice sound so dull and flat?

Now of course I’m being over dramatic here, but if you’re watching this video chances are you’ve had a similar experience. Maybe it’s just happened to you.

If that’s you - I’d like to help you.

My name is Ivan, I’m a voice teacher who works with students over Zoom all around the world and today I’d like explain exactly why your voice sounds dull and flat. And most importantly how can you fix it.

3 REASONS WHY YOU’RE SOUNDING DULL/FLAT

REASON 1: You’re not actually hitting the right pitches

What you hear is often not the root problem.

Most beginners will blame that they sound NASAL or their voice feels blocked when they hear their voice as dull/flat.

But that’s usually NOT the problem.

The root cause of this is you are not singing the right pitches!

Usually you’re not singing high enough.

Most beginners will often stick to notes that they are comfortable. Close to their speaking range.

And so when a song comes along that requires a bigger range of pitches. They will often it try to sing it from a place of comfort.

And so as a result - you’re often missing a lot of the notes.

Now what if you feel like you’re hitting the right notes but it still sounds off?

Now this might be because you’re singing the song an entire octave below. This is especially the case with male singers.

Ivan - what should I do then?

The answer here is clear. We need you hitting the right notes.

Now I do share more specific examples on other episodes but an immediate step here is to build and get familiar with your full range.

Exercises like doing simple slides up and down your range. Matching pitches on a piano. Anything that can increase your comfortable singing range will help.

A personal favourite of mine is singing songs through a falsetto or tiny volume. This allows you to focus on hitting notes with ease which makes it easier to hit. Instead of straining and pushing

REASON 2: You’re not adding the right colours

But Ivan - I’m certain that I am hitting the right notes. But it still sounds dull/flat when I listen back to myself.

I get you. It was a challenge that held my singing back for a long time. I remember that for a long time in my journey I was obsessed with hitting high notes.

And whilst I did succeed in making it easier, every-time I would practice singing and recording.

Something sounded off.

Something didn’t sound quite right.

And the lesson I learnt is that beyond pitch, the 2nd thing you need to tackle is learning to sing with colour. This was a game changer for me.

Let’s go back to school for a moment. Remember those times when you had to give a speech in front of your class.

One of the tips your teacher probably gave you was to speak with more expression.

But what EXACTLY does this mean?

This is where VOCAL colours come in.

Colours like volume (soft, medium, loud)

Smooth vs choppy speaking

Breathy vs clear and strong.

All of these are example of different colours that your voice can have. And if you sound flat/dull. It might be because you’re trying to sing with the exact same vocal colour.

Leaving your ears sounding bored and uninterested.

EXERCISE:

Listen to some of your favourite singers and see if you can break down what colours they are doing and try to see if you can incorporate that into your singing.

I show you exactly how to do this in my Fundamentals Course. Something I call singing into the ‘pocket’.

REASON 3: Nasality

Now if you feel like reason #1 and reason #2 aren’t it.

Then this leaves us with the final culprit which is there is an ACTUAL muffledness/dullness to your tone.

One of most common causes I see with students of mine is nasality.

Now the nasality I’m talking about might be different to what you’re thinking.

Most beginners when they think nasal - they think of a WHINY/BRIGHT sound.

This is not what I mean. That is usually what we call TWANG.

A truly nasal tone is when there is excessive airflow going into the nose. This leaves our voice sounding a bit muffled/block.

Now this isn’t always bad! There are certain sounds that need to be nasal.

For example when you say the word “SING”. The NG needs to be nasal. Otherwise the articulation would sound funny.

The troublesome part is when non-nasal sounds BECOME nasal. For example instead of “OH” - you start to lean to an “ONG”.

EXERCISE:

An idea to improve this is observing what it feels like to be nasal then non-nasal. Try this:

  1. Sing through the 5 vowels (UH, EH, EE, OH, OO) with your nose partially blocked

  2. Try alternating between a NASAL/non-nasal sound

    • You’ll notice that when it is NASAL, there will be some pressure building up in the nose. That’s because the air is trying to leak.

  3. Once you can establish this - observe other sensations in the body. This will be useful when we don’t have our nose blocked.

    • Personally for me - I feel an opening/ringing up and back behind the nose VS the sound being trapped in the nose. Everyone’s different though so try it yourself!

That’s a wrap!

Thanks for joining me! I'm Ivan - your voice teacher. See you next Thursday/Friday for our weekly tutorial.

Quote of the day: “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”
- Epictetus

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