Don’t Decide Your Singing Potential Too Soon

Have you ever caught yourself deciding what kind of singer you are based on what your voice can do right now? Maybe you have trouble reaching certain notes, your voice doesn't have the power you would like it to have, or you listen to yourself on a recording and wonder whether you will ever really like what you hear. When the same struggles keep showing up, it can become very easy to assume that this is simply the voice you have and that there isn't much you can do to change it.

But you may be making that decision far too soon.

Your singing voice is not something that arrives completely developed the moment you decide to start singing. There are so many things you can learn, strengthen, discover and improve over time. And if you are still learning how to use your voice, there may be abilities within it that you haven't even discovered yet.

This is why I don't think we should be too quick to put labels on ourselves as singers. Saying, "I'm not a powerful singer," "I can't sing high," or "I don't have a very interesting voice" may feel like an honest assessment of where you are, but those statements can also become conclusions about where you are capable of going. And there is a big difference between recognizing something you struggle with today and deciding that you will always struggle with it.

Why Your Singing Voice Can Change More Than You Realize

Your Current Singing Ability Is Not Your Final Destination

Think about something you can do with your voice today that was difficult for you when you first started singing. Maybe you can hold notes longer, stay on pitch more consistently, move between registers more comfortably, understand your breathing better or sing a song that once felt completely out of reach. You may not think about these improvements very often because once something becomes easier, it simply becomes part of what you do.

Singing involves many different skills, and those skills can develop at different rates. Your breath coordination can improve. Your range may expand. Your pitch accuracy, vocal control, stamina, phrasing and dynamics can become stronger. You can learn how to use resonance differently, how to move through different parts of your range more comfortably and how to communicate emotion more naturally when you sing.

Your confidence can change your singing, too. A singer who is afraid to make a mistake may hold back without even realizing it. As that fear begins to decrease, the voice may become freer because the singer is finally allowing themselves to experiment, make bigger sounds and take chances they previously avoided.

This is one reason why it can be so misleading to listen to your voice today and decide what it will always be capable of doing. You are hearing your voice at one point in its development. You aren't hearing all the things you may eventually learn how to do with it.

Some Parts of Your Voice May Not Have Been Discovered Yet

Sometimes the problem isn't even that your voice needs to become dramatically better. You may simply not have discovered where some of its best qualities live yet.

You might be singing songs that don't particularly suit you. You might be trying to sound good in a style that doesn't allow your natural qualities to come through. You may be singing everything in the original key when another key would feel much better. Or perhaps you have become so accustomed to singing in one particular way that you haven't given yourself much opportunity to find out what else your voice can do.

I think this is one of the most exciting parts of developing as a singer. You don't necessarily know everything that is there yet.

You may discover that your voice has more warmth than you realized. You might find a beautiful lower range that you never paid much attention to because you were too busy worrying about your high notes. You may discover more power as your technique and confidence improve, or realize that a style of music you never considered singing somehow fits your voice incredibly well.

Give yourself room to make those discoveries. Your voice may have more possibilities than you are currently giving it credit for.

How Your Beliefs About Your Singing Voice Can Hold You Back

Be Careful About Turning a Singing Struggle Into an Identity

There is an important difference between saying, "I struggle with high notes," and saying, "I'm not a high-note singer."

One describes something you currently find difficult. The other starts defining who you are.

The same thing can happen with almost every area of singing. "I haven't developed much power yet" can become "I have a weak voice." "I get nervous when I sing in front of people" can become "I'm not a performer." "I don't know how to put enough emotion into a song" can become "I'm not an expressive singer."

Once you begin identifying yourself this way, it can be difficult to see beyond it. You stop viewing the problem as something you can work on and begin seeing it as part of the kind of singer you are.

That can be especially discouraging when you are already struggling with confidence. Every difficult practice session seems to confirm what you already believe. Every cracked note becomes more evidence. Every recording you dislike appears to prove that you were right about your voice all along.

But a difficult note is just a difficult note. A disappointing recording is one recording. A skill you haven't developed is exactly that: something you haven't developed.

None of these things has to become a definition of you.

You May Start Singing According to the Limits You Have Given Yourself

The beliefs you have about your voice don't always stay inside your head. They can begin affecting the choices you make with your singing.

If you decide you aren't capable of singing higher, you may stop exploring your upper range. If you believe your voice doesn't have much power, you may avoid learning how to develop more of it. If you have convinced yourself that you don't sound good singing a particular type of music, you may never experiment with it again.

Sometimes we have to be willing to question the story we have been telling ourselves about our voices before we can find out whether it is actually true.

How to Stop Putting a Ceiling on Your Singing Potential

Add the Word “Yet” to What You Cannot Do

There is one small word that can completely change the way you think about something you are struggling with: yet.

"I can't sing that note."

"I can't belt."

"I can't sing confidently in front of other people."

"I can't make my voice sound the way I want it to."

Try adding "yet."

You don't have to pretend that you can do something when you can't. If a note is currently outside your comfortable range, that's okay. If you aren't ready to perform in front of people, you don't have to pretend that you are. Being hopeful about your voice doesn't mean ignoring where you are right now. 

The word "yet" simply leaves some room for your reality to change.

You may eventually discover that something you once thought was impossible becomes easier after the right practice, better technique, more confidence or simply more experience. You won't know unless you give yourself enough time to find out. Voices can change with patience and practice. Just as you can become better at playing the flute after a few months of practice, your singing voice can also develop with the right approach, a willingness to learn and the courage to keep trying new things.

Become Curious About Your Voice Instead of Constantly Judging It

One of the best things you can do when your voice is struggling is become curious about it.

Instead of immediately thinking, "That sounded terrible," try asking yourself why that part of the song was difficult. Were you tense? Was the key uncomfortable? Were you running out of breath? Were you anticipating the note before you even reached it? 

Curiosity gives you somewhere to go. Judgment usually doesn't.

If every mistake becomes an opportunity to negatively criticize yourself, you may eventually become afraid to experiment. But experimentation is part of learning how your voice works. Sometimes you need to make strange sounds, try different approaches, change the key, sing a phrase several different ways or simply allow yourself to sound less than perfect while you figure something out.

You don't have to impress yourself every time you sing. Sometimes you are simply there to learn something about your voice and what it can do.

Give Yourself Permission to Explore Beyond the Singer You Think You Are

Every now and then, try stepping outside the little box you may have created around yourself as a singer.

If you usually sing quietly, experiment with making a little more sound. If you always choose the same kind of music, try something completely different. If you think of yourself as someone who only sings slow songs, try something upbeat and playful. If you tend to copy the original singer closely, experiment with changing the phrasing and making the song feel more like your own.

You may not like everything you try, and that is perfectly fine. The point isn't to prove that you can sing every style or develop every possible vocal quality.

The point is to discover more about yourself. To give yourself the chance to find out what your singing voice can do. You can't really know what kind of singer you are capable of becoming if you only allow yourself to do the things you already know you can do.

How to Believe in Your Singing Potential When Progress Feels Slow

Look Back Occasionally Instead of Always Looking Ahead

When you care about becoming a better singer, it is natural to focus on what still needs improvement. There is always another note you want to reach, another technique you want to learn, another song you want to sing better or another weakness you want to overcome.

The problem is that when you are constantly looking ahead, you can forget how far you have already come.

Every so often, look backward.

Think about how you sang six months ago or a year ago. Listen to an older recording if you have one. Think about something that used to make you nervous that doesn't bother you quite as much anymore. Remember the songs that once seemed difficult but now feel relatively comfortable.

Some of your progress may have happened so gradually that you didn't notice it while it was happening.

And that matters, because if your voice has already changed once, it can change again.

Let Small Improvements Change What You Believe Is Possible

Not every breakthrough in singing arrives as some enormous moment where suddenly everything works. Sometimes progress shows up quietly.

Perhaps you hit the difficult note correctly three times this week instead of once. Maybe you listened to a recording and liked one section of your voice that you normally criticize. Perhaps you sang in front of somebody and felt nervous, but you did it anyway. Maybe you recovered from a mistake without stopping the entire song out of embarrassment.

These things may not seem particularly impressive when you are focused on everything you still want to accomplish, but don't dismiss them.

Small improvements are evidence that something is changing.

They are reminders that where you are today isn't necessarily where you will stay. As long as you continue to practice, stay open to discovering the little things your voice becomes capable of over time, remain curious about your progress and have patience with yourself, your voice may just surprise you one day. And that is something to look forward to.

You Don’t Have to Know What Kind of Singer You’ll Become

There can be so much pressure to figure yourself out as a singer. What is my style? What is my range? What kind of songs should I sing? Am I a powerful singer? Am I a soft singer? Am I good enough to perform? What is special about my voice?

You don't need to have all of those answers right now.

Some of them will become clearer as you gain experience. Your musical tastes may change. Your technique may improve. Your confidence may grow. You may discover qualities in your voice that lead you toward music you hadn't considered before.

There is something hopeful about allowing your future voice to remain a little bit unknown. Instead of deciding exactly what you can and cannot become, you can continue learning and see where the journey takes you.

That doesn't mean every vocal dream will automatically become possible. Every voice is different, and we all have our own individual strengths and limitations. But especially while you are still developing, you may not know where those limits actually are.

So don't draw them too early. Your voice will progress during each stage of its development.

Give Your Future Singing Voice a Chance to Surprise You

If you are struggling with your singing voice right now, I don't want you to pretend that the struggle isn't real. It can be incredibly frustrating when your voice won't do what you want it to do, especially when you are working hard and progress seems slow.

But the voice you are struggling with today may still have a lot of growing left to do.

You haven't heard every sound you will ever make. You haven't sung every song that might bring something special out of you. You haven't learned everything you will eventually understand about your voice, and you haven't experienced all of the confidence that may come from continuing to work at something that matters to you.

So be careful about deciding too soon that you aren't a certain kind of singer or that something will always be beyond you. Maybe it is now, but that doesn't determine the future.

Keep learning. Keep experimenting. Keep challenging some of the assumptions you have made about yourself. Give your voice the time and opportunity it needs to develop.

A few years from now, you may look back at some of the things you once believed you could never do and realize that you were judging yourself before you had enough information.

Your voice is still becoming.

Give the singer you are becoming a chance to show you what else is possible. 💜

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What If You Don't Like Your Singing Voice Right Now?

If you are struggling to like your singing voice, it can be difficult to imagine that you will ever feel differently about it. You may hear all the things you wish you could change and overlook the qualities that are already there, as well as the ones you still have the opportunity to develop.

This is one of the reasons I created Not Loving Your Voice? Learn How to Make It Better. This e-book is for singers who are unhappy with the way they sound and want to start looking at their voices differently while also learning practical ways to improve them. It can help you better understand what may be influencing the way you feel about your voice, recognize what you can work on and begin developing a more positive relationship with the voice you have as it grows to become something better.

Get your e-book by clicking the button below:

My name is Stella Jasmin, and I am a motivational singing coach, writer, and founder of The Singing Journey. Through my website, I create resources designed to help singers build confidence, overcome self-doubt, and discover what their voices are truly capable of. My hope is that you'll not only become a better singer, but that you'll also enjoy every step of the journey along the way.

Happy singing!

💜 Stella Jasmin
Motivational Singing Coach and Founder of The SInging Journey
https://thesingingjourney.com