why does my voice sound weird
by Sarah Sloan
It happens to all of us at some point. You watch yourself on a video or listen to a voice mail playback and you wonder what alien highjacked your voice. If you're like most people, it will sound a lot higher than you thought and even your speech pattern will sound different. No, you're not going crazy or hearing things. There's a real physiological reason why singers can't hear themselves and the reason has to do with the physics of sound.
When you listen to the voice of your friend speaking to you, you are hearing sound waves traveling through the medium of air. Sound waves can travel through many mediums like water or other types of gases. But when you listen to yourself speak you are hearing sound waves travel through the bones in your head: your skull and the tiny bones in the ear canal. Because the sound is traveling through different mediums the sound waves are also different and therefor are heard differently. Think of how it sounds when you yell underwater compared to when you yell above the surface.
This basic difference in medium creates a completely unique acoustical environment and can be a challenge for people learning to sing. This is why voice teachers insist on students recording their lessons and why professionals record themselves obsessively. We can hear pitch and volume but tonal quality can be quite another matter. It makes the role of the singing teacher more crucial to the student than other music teachers. Most vocalists need a sophisticated and well trained second pair of ears to give them feedback. Indeed, many professionals never stop training for this reason. Learn to record your voice well and often. The voice recorder can be the best teacher you ever had.