Developing your signature sound happens when you take a broad approach of working on vocal ability, musicality & experimentation with vocal, sonic & production elements. I’ve covered this in the last three posts & this is the final in the series.
- Trust
- Vision
- Authenticity
1. Trust
I’ve talked about trusting the people that you have supporting you on your musical journey but most of all you need to trust YOURSELF. Focussing on the areas that I’ve mentioned in the last three posts will definitely help you gain trust in yourself. Building confidence is also a must but difficult & something all creatives struggle with. Be good to yourself whilst you are navigating these new waters, you’ll only find out what you do want when you have figure out what you don’t want, sometimes through some hard learned lessons!
2. Vision
Knowing what you want for yourself, specifically the sound & style is an important part of your vision for yourself as an artist. Looking forward (& back in time for inspiration) & defining these elements through this long term process whilst keeping your vision in mind will help you keep focussed on what YOU want. This will lead nicely into being & staying authentic
3. Authenticity
Be brave in the pursuit of your signature sound. As I mentioned, it may involve a lot of trial & error but you’ll get to the core of who you are as an artist by doing things that scare you, like working with new musicians you haven’t worked with before who are AMAZING & you know will help lift your game or trying new genres. Trying anything that basically makes you want to throw up a little is a good indicator that growth is just around the corner from the experience. This will help you hone your sound & in turn become more authentic.
Remember to take full ownership of your uniqueness. You are what the world wants, not a carbon copy of another artist. Don’t stress that your sound is different to what you are hearing on the radio, especially mainstream radio/tv/online. Celebrate it! Don’t worry that your voice or music isn’t ‘perfect’. Music & life isn’t ever PERFECT. Your delivery & songs can be perfectly IMPERFECT which makes them unbelievably real or authentic. A crack of your voice when you’re laying down an emotive delivery of a song is totally fine & can draw the listener into the authenticity of your performance, cos you feel it!
Make sure you look over the other posts in this series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) & start to work on embracing your uniqueness, building your confidence up & paving that road to your authentic & signature sound.
Got any other tips to add – let me know below or email me!
