Finding Your Voice Through Music: Crafting Your Signature

You have recorded a song, but it sounds unexciting?

How can you separate yourself from the next artist, starting today?

 
Ready to know the formula of the major industry leaders? 

In this article, we present you with different concepts that can help you form your own signature sound(s). Subconsciously you might have already noticed it listening to your favorite songs.

The vocal instrument
A voice is a powerful instrument, remember that, it can either be rhythmic or melodic. You could slide or bend, and we barely even scratched the surface, there are endless possibilities! Use that creative freedom to extend your lyrics.

Monotonous intonation
Many artists can be monotone; having the same color or tone of voice throughout the whole song, let alone their album. Although it’s not primarily intentional, the performance seems less spirited and can ultimately appear tedious for the ear of the audience. To keep it interesting for the audience, let the beat breathe, switch up rhythmic patterns, and exploit a melodic phrase.

How does this part of the lyric genuinely make you feel?
Emphasize words with the natural sense of emotion, specify the pitch in your sentences to give it that extra substance and accent. Enable those strengths with variation in slower, faster, quiet, or loud pronunciations, after a while you will likely experiment with stretching or shorten your words to fit the rhythm.

The intro/outro negligence
Artists can use these parts of the song structure for leaving an impression of their character or piece of mind. It can also be a way to build anticipation for the central message you like to convey. Without any spoilers, you could share in a mysterious manner what inspired you to write the song or what situation you are in.

Out of the box
Spoken word or poems highlights the lyricism of the song when you like it to be more conceptual and thought-provoking. A voice or audio clip can be very common in the genre of hip-hop, it can be done creatively in other genres as well. Always give credits when using samples.

What fits?
When you have a feel-good song the approach would be slightly different, more playful at least. Consider jokes or other fun ways that tickle humorous events. Nevertheless, simplicity can be bliss too, maybe the lyrics match so well with the song. A few credit naming can be enough already!

Voice signature/trademarks 
This type of branding is widespread throughout the whole rap industry. For example, check the video below and you will notice a phrase they repeat in the majority of their songs. Even the king of pop himself had a few up in his sleeves.

If this article has provoked thought or experiment more, share your thoughts in the comments or send Audiophrenic a message.