Hi all,

When I was younger, I wanted to be a rock singer, and always seemed to like those groups with singers that had high voices - and I just don't have that kind of voice. I loved groups like AC/DC, Guns & Roses, The Scorpions, Journey, Eltnon John, Queen, Foreigner, Ronnie James Dio - the guys with the real in-your-face kick [*****] high voices - gritty, growling, or just outright powerful sounding. It seems to me that these voices sound "higher" and cut above (on top of) the sounds of the instruments.

Many of these songs, played in lower keys (within my range) seemed to lose much of their effect and power - I thought that perhaps lower keys had less 'natural' energy - whatever that means.

My voice has much less range, does not go very high, and has way less 'depth', also I'm just not a natural singer either - but I would have LOVED to not have to work so hard at singing - because I like the idea of being able to create beautiful (probably not possible) and/or catchy sounding vocals (maybe catchy would be possible if I find the right mix and style).

As I realized I would never sing in the range of the first group, I started listening to singers with lower voices - Jethro Tull, The Doors, Bruce Springstein, Johnny Cash, Dire Straits (some of these voice more polished than others, but most just impressionistic). Now their music also sounded powerful, and I'm assuming was in much lower keys (vocal ranges lower of course - I'm guessing songs in lower keys too ?). Somehow, these voices seem to sound 'below' the other instruments to me - with the guitar and keys filling in the higher range.

I'm guessing many of these groups found their sound through lots of experimentation, trial, and error. But I was wondering if there are little tricks of the trade in selecting instruments that will complement a lower voice and result in a fuller overall band sound - maybe instruments that have more depth in the high frequency range ? so that the overall band sound fills the spectrum and doesn't sound empty.

I would love to hear your take on this. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by Joe V; 06/06/15 01:21 AM.