I can totally relate to this thread. Yes, the voice I hear in my head is generally more rich and resonant than what comes out of my mouth. When I did my first cd 2001, I was amazed at the little girl sound and the lack of control in my lower register. But beyond that, the whole sound was different than I had expected and I sounded just like my sister, which was very funny.... how did my sister sneak into the recording studio??? Naturally having a light tone, I have been working on breath control and building my lower register ever since. My band is just finishing our 3rd cd and it is definitely better. I feel at ease in the studio and like I am working not diving off a cliff like I did on the first one. Still, as my voice teacher once said - you have the voice you have and some poeple have a mazarati, while others have deep sea vessel.

I guess I am just more used to hearing myself too. However, when I hear a live performance, I often cringe because I have highexpections and lots of little things slip by in a stage performance. These are not acceptable on a cd, so it is important to have the ability to control your voice enough to match tones and emotional timbre when patching in over goofs.

I guess, my thought is that if you hear things you don't like in your singing, they are probably there, but that doesn't mean they have to stay there. You can improve and recording yourself and listening is the very best way to do it. That said, I completely agree with BW that it is not the perfection in your singing but the intangible quality of heart feltness or lightness or whatever your song is conveying that matters in the end. Even while we all work toward better singing, it is important to realize that communicating is why we do it and any sort of voice can be beautiful in that regard.

Claire