Ever wonder what really makes a singer stand out? Spoiler: it’s not about sounding like someone else—it’s about knowing who you are as an artist.
In this episode, we’re diving into vocal identity—what it is, why it matters, and how to develop yours. I’ll walk you through the four key components that shape your unique sound:
🎤 What you naturally bring to the table
🎨 Your artistry and exploration
🛠️ The technical tools to help you deliver your sound
💪 And the vocal health that keeps it all sustainable
Plus, we’ll talk about how your vocal identity can evolve over time—and why that’s actually a good thing.
Whether you’re just starting out or refining your style, this episode will help you connect with your authentic voice and stand out in the best way.
00:00 Understanding Vocal Identity
03:34 Technical Tools for Vocal Identity
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If you have ever wondered what makes one singer, one vocal artist really stand out in the crowd, really get some traction and another artist just as talented, vocally just as strong, just kind of fade into the background, Then this is the episode for you. Today we are going to be talking about vocal identity.
Who are you as an artist, as a vocalist? Who do you want to be? How do you figure that out and how do you then communicate that to your audience, to your would-be fans?
So I wanna talk about what I feel are the four components of really developing your vocal identity. And the first one starts with you. The biggest aspect of your vocal identity is the you part. And that means the unique qualities you bring with you naturally in your voice. Those things that maybe we sometimes try to smooth over or shy away from because we don't sound like somebody else, they sound very unique to us.
Those are the things I highly recommend you leaning into as much as possible, leaning into the things that make you unique. And it's not just your voice quality and those natural qualities and tendencies, but a big part of it is your personality, your life view, who you are as a human being and all of the natural tendencies you bring with you vocally and otherwise.
That is the biggest piece of the puzzle in developing your vocal identity. Heavy on the your
The second component we need is exploration and artistry. I am such a huge believer in play. I love to throw it against the wall, see what sticks. So what does that mean? Trying out all different kinds of genres, all different kinds of sounds, covering different singers, trying to emulate them Not because that's your end goal, but because you want to see how the different aspects that they use in their voice
the different aspects of their vocal identity, how it feels in your voice and in your body. And then you're gonna take little pieces of that with you,
hitting record and just jumping into a song and improvising things off the cuff, listening to see what comes out, making goofy noises to see what sounds actually feel good and sound really authentic to you. Exploration and play is a huge part of developing your artistry. And when I talk about artistry, we're also talking about stylistic tools, the way you want your audience to feel.
the vibe you want to create.
and you determine a lot of those by playing, exploring, trying different things out. Do one single one way, record some songs another way, play with a different band, put out an EP completely original. Play with all of those things and little by little you start to determine, ⁓ this is really the authentic sound that I want right now.
And I want to be sure and point out throughout this whole discussion, right now is also the key. Vocal identity does not need to be carved into stone. I feel like so many singers put so much pressure on themselves when they're trying to determine who they want to be as a vocalist, who they want to be as an artist, because they feel like once I choose this, I'm going to choose a box. And that's the box I'm going to live in forever. And that is not the case. One of the great things about vocal identity is just like personal identity. It changes.
all the time. It can and should and will evolve and grow. And I love artists where each album or each project they do sounds like a totally different side of them. I also love artists who find their thing and it is who they are in their bones and they truck along with that forever.
The great news is you can do either, you can do neither, you can do a combination. It can be constantly changing. It can always be evolving. so whenever you're thinking about this episode or really kind of trying to figure out what is your vocal identity, just think about right now. What do want it to be for this next round of shows? What do you want it to be? What do you want it to communicate to people on your social media?
What do you want your next single, your next EP to sound like? Only go from there. Another thing I love about the current music industry is that you don't have to fit into a particular box. Some of my favorite artists fit into no box at all, or really more, they fit into a bunch of different boxes. So playing around, exploring, figuring out what feels good to you is a really great way to start to decide what kind of sound you want to have, what kind of feeling and vibe you want to create for your audience.
and then it's all about developing artistic and stylistic tools to help you communicate that. And that really takes me to the third component of vocal identity, technical tools. And that is you've decided this is the sound I want. I want to be the sultry powerhouse singer that really moves people. Then you need the technical tools, the technical ability to create that sound over and over again.
and also to be able to create that sound in a healthy, sustainable way. So if you go out on tour, if you have a gig at any time, you sound your absolute best. So that's another big aspect. Having the actual tools that will enable you to sound how you decide you want to sound. And so that means training, working on your voice. Singers are vocal athletes. I am a huge believer that every singer should be training all the time.
the start of their career, all the way through the middle, all the way to the end. The singers that do that are the singers that sound the best, that have the longest careers, that stay the healthiest. And I'm not just saying that because I train singers for a living. You don't have to train with me. Train with somebody. And ideally, if you can train with a professional, someone that can get to know your voice and give you really specific tools, that in a perfect world is the way we wanna go.
We don't always live in a perfect world. That's not always feasible for singers. So if that's you and you're thinking, yeah, I'd love training Amber. I can't afford to do that. Whether it's time, money, all of the above, whatever the reason is, there are things like the vocal pro membership, other memberships out there where you can get access to fantastic resources at a much more reasonable rate. Or if that's too much for you, jump onto YouTube, right? Go onto social media, listen to podcasts, try and find tips.
that you feel really help, that feel good in your body and give you the sounds that you're going for. And then the last part, I would not be doing my job if I didn't mention vocal health is part of your vocal identity because you can have done the work and decided this is who I am. This is the artistry and the style that I stand for right now. You can develop all the most fantastic technical tools to be able to deliver that sound, that style, that.
artistry night after night, but if you don't have baseline vocal health, and really let's just say baseline health, if you aren't healthy, then you're not gonna be able to show all those great tools that you have to make that audience feel the way you want them to feel because you don't have the baseline health that you need. So I just wanna point out when you're thinking about your vocal identity and making decisions about that.
and what's gonna really represent you authentically, what highlights your unique voice in the absolute best way, what makes you feel so great when you do it. It just like speaks to your soul and your bones and that your audience then is going to enjoy. And guess what? Whenever you feel great about something and you are enjoying it and loving life, they enjoy it too. If you are miserable and phoning it in, your audience is gonna feel that. I don't care how great of a faker you are.
Taking the time to really figure out the sound and the style and the artist that you want to be that feels great for you, sounds best in your voice. All of that is so hugely important. It's the thing that will help you stand out above and beyond all of those singers who are in line with you that might be as talented, but haven't taken the time to really do this extra work, to really figure out
and then making sure that you prioritize taking care of yourself, taking care of your voice so that it is there for you when you need it so you can deliver that artistry and that feeling to your audience. I hope this is helpful. I feel like I just jumped into so much major stuff. It's a total overview. If you listen to this and think, I want to dig down deeper into some of these areas, leave me a comment in the show notes. Like always, I have a bunch of freebies for you guys. Check those out in the show notes.
Happy singing everybody and I hope to see you in next week's episode.
