On Quora.com not long ago someone asked this question:
https://www.quora.com/Whats-your-best-singing-voice
No other information was provided from the person who asked the question, unfortunately. One person who responded talked about trying to sing like Robert Plant while another talked about her experiences trying to be an opera singer. Overall, an interesting question didn’t get much in the way of coherent responses, IMO. One thing I would say is that you have to know what your goal is. For example, if you want to sing in a “conversational” style, such as Sinatra did, does it matter if you might be able to sing “better” with a different style? You might not even know! Singing is about specializing, one reason being that phrasing and musicality is so important (assuming you are good singing in at least one genre), yet takes time to get right (and some people just aren’t good at a particular genre, don’t like it, or are just disinterested in it for one reason or another).
If you are the kind of singer who does enjoy singing in different ways, like me, your response might be, “I have to consider what is popular or where I intend to perform,” if those are issues. It also might be the case that your preferred genre is already saturated with those who sing like you, but that there is more of an “opening” in another genre. And then there is the issue of what your “finished product” voice sounds like, assuming you are not singing opera. That is, if you are a microphone singer, and the venue is at least somewhat professional, a sound engineer will have some control over what you sound like to your audience. Auto-tune, for example, is now often used in live performances, but an injudicious use of it can make you sound ridiculous! So, it’s reasonable to consider developing a voice that is easy to “clean up” with existing technology. If you want to sing like winners on TV shows like “The Voice,” for example, a screechy quality may be necessary, though potentially very dangerous for your vocal cords (and presumably, your career as a singer!).
Now this isn’t to say that singing blandly is the solution. In fact, this situation allows you to take some chances, so to speak, so long as you have a good idea of how a sound engineer can smooth over the rough spots, as well as how to protect your vocal cords. For example, if your singing tends to be nasal, there is software that can correct for that issue! Learning to protect your vocal cords is more “tricky” – first you have to recognize what too much stress is before you can then learn to “back off” when you encounter those sensations. One of the songs that seems to be considered a major test of one’s singing “chops” is the Etta James recorded version of “At Last.” Her original studio recording is something of a pop song masterpiece, but what about her live performances of it? This is the only one I could find while she was still in or near her “prime:”
Sundance Head won on “The Voice” with this country-ish rendition of “At Last:”
But what did he sound like without the huge production:
It’s much more important to think about one of two things: either you need to get the fundamentals down, in which case you shouldn’t concern yourself with more “advanced” issues, or if you have the fundamentals down, then you can think about your possible audience, how much sound engineering is available, if you want to sing a well-known song in a different style, etc. Note that as of this date I am still offering a free first lesson/assessment with absolutely no obligation of any kind. Just email me: nickspinner@gmail.com. Also, I won’t give your personal information to anyone else. I might reference your singing on some blog posts if you provide me with audio clips, so let me know if you don’t want me to do that, but remember that the idea is to help aspiring singers! If you have publicly posted on sites like Youtube or Soundcloud, I’ll assume it’s okay to link to those in a blog post.
Learning to sing (with microphones) 