Singing With Excessive Volume (Too Loud)

A common vocal issue seems to be one of excessive volume when an individual sings.

In the modern society, many factors contribute to singing that is often too loud for the individual at the moment such as:

  1. competing with your favorite singers on the radio turned up loud, or
  2. singing with a band and competing with drums and amplified guitars, or
  3. singing on stage with other singers and all having to “push” to be heard.

Whatever the situation is, the singer should be able to sing with appropriate volume without hurting themselves. Singing too loud should never be an issue.

You see, the vocal muscles have a maximum volume that they can handle at any given moment before they start to malfunction. You can think of this like a smaller stereo sound system versus a larger one. The smaller system normally has a point where if you turn the volume up too high, there is static and crackling and a risk of blowing the speakers out. Now, when you have a larger and often more expensive system, the speakers can handle more volume without crackling and getting upset.

The voice is sort of like this stereo system. When our muscles are not very strong, then they cannot handle volume that is too loud. When a person sings too loud for what they can do at the moment, then they risk “blowing out” their voice which does not feel good and does not sound good. However, when the vocal muscles have been trained and strengthened in a healthy manner according to scientific principles, then one can sing louder and not hurt themselves. An important reminder is that each one of us has a maximum volume that we can do safely at any given moment. As our voices are strengthened due to healthy vocal  exercises, then we can sing louder without damage.

Yet, even when we become real strong, there is still a maximum volume that we can sing, and we must learn what that is and not go beyond that and resist singing too loud. Each person is to some degree unique. Yes, we all have the same muscles, and those muscles do the same jobs. But, we are also individuals with different potentials as we do have variations in physical structures. For example, some people are able to pack on more muscle mass at the gym due to genetic factors whereas others might not be able to build muscle in the same way but are more able to be flexible and run for long distances. In a similar manner, with healthy training some voices are louder than others and some voices are more flexible. The point is to sing consistent correct exercises, and build up your natural talent into the best skill that is yours, not another persons.

Remember then that we all have a maximum volume at any given moment. We workout and build up our vocal strength so we can sing with more volume and be heard, all without hurting ourselves from singing too loud!

Allen Rascoe

about the author

Allen Rascoe Allen has been enjoying singing since he was a little kid. He officially studied voice at ECU and USC. However, he ran... Read More

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