Hey guys so after some less that appealing band experience ive decided i just want to play on my own for awhile. As far as solo gigs go how good does your voice need to be. Mine isnt bad, i would say above average, its just not amazing (im no American Idol)

Any voice can do. You just need to pick material that is appropriate to your range.

Assuming you have experience singing while playing a guitar without your timing going all over the place, just go for it.

A "good" voice for certain kinds of music is subjective and what you consider a good voice so just go for it.

Captain_Trips and Ninjato are right. A voice that "fits" the music is just as important as one that's "good" (maybe moreso). Think across a wide spectrum of acoustic musicians. How many of them would you say really had a "good" voice. Probably not many, whether it's Dylan, Robert Johnson or Willie Nelson, etc, etc. But their voices really "fit" the music they were doing. Maybe a Paul McCartney or James Taylor acoustic love-song isn't a good choice for some voices, but then a really "good" voice like those wouldn't work very well doing a Son House "hard-blues" either. A voice just needs to fit the tune.

Like Ninjato says, just go for it. You'll soon be able to figure out for yourself which tunes work for you and which don't.

Have you recorded yourself? I hate listening to myself sing but I have noticed that it does help iron out those notes that you may be a little flat on when you are singing.

There's a reason why there are so many songs that don't stretch beyond a signal octave! As long as you're close to in tune no one's gonna hold anything against you.


There are now pedals that can help correct your voice, double your voice and reference your guitar playing to process your voice into something else entirely.
TC electronic Voice tone correct and Harmony G are worth checking out as is the digi-tech harmonizer line.

VERY true! I have one that will not only pitch-correct "off-notes" but lets me harmonize with myself in a four-part harmony. (And even give me a "colored-girls" back-up if I want it! )

But I rarely use it. (Haven't for years since I first got it. Too much dikkin-around.) I just sing how I sing and try to do tunes that work.

Let me in here, I have a couple of cents worth on this topic. I spend, and will continue to spend way more time as a fan than as a performer, and to me it's not so much the voice, but what the voice has to say.

Seldom do I remember thinking, " Man, what a voice."

Maybe when I heard John Cowan the first time.

I think the main thing you want to do with your voice is express emotion. You can get away with many vocal imperfections if you are dripping with emotion. See performers such as Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

Neil Young...at least he doesn't sing off key like Dylan who for the life of me, I cannot figure out what makes him so special and why Jimi Hendrix revered him so much. Same goes for Springsteen....I don't see what is so special about Springsteen....he sucks. JMO.

I agree with Springsteen . . . and nothing irritates me more than "guitarists" that use their guitar as a prop more than an instrument.

What makes Dylan special? Like I said, it was what he had to say, gotta admit, he did write some good songs, his lyrics made up for the voice, and sometimes today, they still do.

Early Springsteen had some lyrics that got your attention, but he fizzed out pretty quickly.

James McMurtry is an example, no singing voice, guitar playing borders on annoying, but sh!t, the man is a poet.