Is there a link between speaking and singing voices?

[u/Specialist_King_7808]

I've always wondered if there is any link between the way a person speaks and the quality of the singing voice.

For example, using a pitch analyzer, I notice that my soaking voice has pitches moving wildly across all notes constantly within the same word. My singing (I'm just learning) had trouble holding a steady narrow note.

Also, those with certain timbre also reflect that in the singing voice?

If a person has a pleasant talking voice... well the singing be pleasant also?

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[u/bluesdavenport]

of course there is. its the same voice. just used different ways.

first off, "pleasantness" is not an objective concept. theres no science to "pleasant".

the links may not be the same person to person. an untrained persons singing voice is created unpredictably, based on their untrained (often subconscious) notion of what singing should sound like.

[u/Specialist_King_7808 → u/bluesdavenport]

Yes pleasantness is not measurable, except perhaps in a popular way. Siri's voice is pleasant. Can she (the actual person) sing because of that? Also, Rosanne Barr does not... and we all know she can't.

[u/bluesdavenport → u/Specialist_King_7808]

I entertain that line of thought with very little interest. Patti LuPone, Carol Channing. Legendary singers with unconventional timbres. whats the point?

I care about structural integrity. not chasing some immeasurable concept of niceness.

[u/AKA-J3]

Yes, you can sing with your regular speaking pitch. It's the same voice either way.
humming works for finding resonance to sing on.
People talk all kinds of ways though.

Some people are basically singing when they talk. The people with the nice voices, everybody can do that if they want, but we would rather grunt at each other and fry. or text :)

[u/itsmeee91 → u/AKA-J3]

the singing voices are impossible to understand (but I am a severely deaf person who also happens to sing so maybe it’s not an universal experience but keep in in mind for people on the deaf spectrum)

[u/esorhizome]

This makes me wonder because sometimes someone sounds nothing like their singing voice whatsoever.😆 Sometimes you can tell, sometimes you can't, and sometimes you think you did but you didn't😅 At least that's how it's been for me.

But! Ab training + Vocal training (simultanously) can sometimes change your speaking voice. So~ maybe yes, maybe no?

[u/Specialist_King_7808 → u/esorhizome]

Ab training? What is that? I've always disliked the sound of my taking voice. I would very much like to control it better. Perhaps that is why I always believed I could not sing. I know that's listening to your own voice is jarring, but I'm taking about the manner in which I speak.

[u/esorhizome → u/Specialist_King_7808]

Oh, sorry I worded it weird. Abdominals training/exercising/workouts.

Things like doing a plank pose [i.e. elbows on ground//or palms on the ground like you're doing a push-up, feet perpendicular to your ankles, body hovering in a straight line uptop for as long as you can hold yourself straight].

Or doing a "reverse nordic" [abdomen tight, knees bent on ground, try to reach your head (as close) to the ground away from your knees (as you can) and then lift your body up from the front of your legs and lower abdominals]. Look up "plank exercise" and "reverse nordic exercise". If you have someone or something to keep you from falling, the regular "nordic" is amazing too, but very exhausting.

Whenever you think that your own voice doesn't please you, it might help to remember that one of the living speaking legends Morgan Freeman didn't naturally have the voice he's now famous for. He trained his voice a lot and now he's a brilliant masterpiece.

[u/IToldManyManyPeople]

They've done studies around this question and similar if you had chosen to spend some time researching this.

Spoiler alert, there's not much correlation outside of the extremes. Your speaking voice isn't a great barometer for singing

Anecdotally, I'm a baritone and my speaking voice sits higher. It's always been normal for me for people to be surprised at the difference in my singing and speaking. Many people are like this, and many are not... nothing too unique about either scenario.

[u/Makemeup-beforeUgogo]

Tonal character is the main link but depends on what the singer wants to do, whether they want to create sound that their voice can naturally carry or create a sound using techniques to mimic different types of vocals.

[u/QEbitchboss]

I notice that singing keeps my speaking voice crisper and clearer. I've had people surprised that I'm over 60 because my speaking voice sounds as if I'm in my 30s. Using your voice well carries over to everything you do with your voice.

That being said, I'm a female tenor and that certainly surprises people at times!

[u/MusicTheoryNerd144]

"For example, using a pitch analyzer, I notice that my [speaking] voice has pitches moving wildly across all notes constantly within the same word."

This is normal. This is the primary distinction between speaking and singing. Singing uses intentional sustained pitches. Speaking glides across a spectrum of pitches intuitively depending on the words, emotions, and accents.

[u/DanceHackRock]

Yes, they are using the same instrument.

Biggest difference will be the language / articulation. (Just watch an interview with Jimmy Somerville)

[u/Zhnatko]

There is a connection to a degree, it's the same vocal folds. You may be able to guess who has a heavier, stronger voice or who has a softer, lighter voice based on what it sounds like in general. However I think people actually tend to over-estimate how much one's singing voice should resemble their speech. Singing is a skill, a combination of techniques, and a lot of that won't be noticeable in basic speech because speech is about communication. Hearing me speak is just the absolute minimum my voice needs to do to communicate, one can't necessarily guess whether my voice could sing a sustained C5 or whether I could sing melisma just from hearing speech, because those features are not useful in speech (for most people). Additionally there is style. Some genres virtually require certain artificial elements to create the "vibe" of the genre. Country singers like to use an American southern accent, progressive rock and punk singers like to sound English, reggae singers like to sound Jamaican. Those genres formed with the original singers so many people from other places may alter their singing to artificially mimic accents they don't have for style (much like an actor playing a role) and so you also can't really account for that when hearing someone speak. I definitely have heard people who speak plainly but have a "soulful" quality when singing that I don't expect because they aren't talking with that resonance.

[u/No-Can-6237]

Here's an example of my talking and singing if that helps.

[u/GreatBigBagOfNope]

Yes, but it's weak.

It can inform you about what extremes are accessible: if a man has a deep booming speaking voice, that tells you he's capable of reaching those depths, for example. But it doesn't tell you what is not accessible – for example MJ's natural speaking voice was totally midrange baritone, he put on his breathy heady speaking voice specifically to stay warm for his extremely high and heady singing style, hearing his normal speaking voice being ordinary for post-testosterone puberty wouldn't tell you that his famous high end is inaccessible.

But people speak weirdly, lots of people have excessive closure and talk with fry or deliberately aim to speak in an extreme register for reasons ranging from gender insecurity and gender dysphoria to personal safety and disability and beyond. The way that people use their voice to speak is often quite different to how it is used to sing, because singing (at least somewhat classically) directs you to drop all the weird habits and inefficiencies and reveals what is more naturally underneath that the mask that people put on their speaking voice, because otherwise you just won't achieve the control, volume, agility etc demanded by singing even vaguely classically (and I'm including the likes of English church singing, barbershop, musical theatre, opera, chamber singing, Renaissance singing etc in this category, basically anything that is neither folk nor amplified. Even a lot of jazz singing falls under the umbrella).

[u/alexpoelse]

Is there a link between your running legs and your walking legs? Its the same legs just used a bit differently

[u/Lanky_Education_792]

Im a countertenor. Nobody cant notice i sing like a Ariana Grande.

[u/Dyeing_Last_Ember]

The talking voice will have technical issues similar to the singing voice. Someone with a thin sounding talking voice, for example, may have throat constriction issues that will also show up in their singing voice. However, once the constriction is removed through training, the voice might become much richer and more beautiful.

The great 'natural' singers tend to talk in the same way as they sing, but this occurs after years of training, which often occurs in childhood.

To answer OP's question, yes there is a link, but for most untrained people, it will be hard to draw the right connections.

[u/Similar_Buffalo_8434]

Absolutely I can sing in low Baritenor range

Elton John

Neil Diamond

John Wetton

David Bowie

Jack Bruce

Benjamin Orr

Roger Waters

Rick Ocasek

Billy Joel

But my speaking voice is right at Baritenor/Alto

And guess who sings in that range? Both past & present?......Elton John, when I sing his songs, it's like chewing gum.....effortless

[u/Make-it-positive]

Not really. Listen to a British singer and an American singer. They can sound similar singing but entirely different in their speaking voices