Owen Korzec

Thanks for pointing that out, that's awesome to know. Extraordinary songwriting in this tune, both the lyrics and the music, and especially how they fit together.

awesome job Felipe!

a little bit pitchy but not bad. but you need to sing on top of a backing track to really check it against the music, that's where any pitch problems will be heard more clearly from the producer's perspective. i think what the producer might have been hearing though is the fact that you didn't sing with much dynamics, sometimes that can sound flat or robotic in just the sense of the way it feels. think about the emotion of the words in each phrase and sing them like you mean it and that should help fix that, but remember to pay attention to your pitch too. it's hard to focus on both at once but that's what great singers have learned how to do Your tone is really nice though!

Actually it's OBVIOUS she does and that her voice is damaged too. The fact that you can sing this in the original key, SOUND great, and actually have to ASK if you're feeling strain is already a blessing!!!

Sounds really great! The short answer is it doesn't sound strained it sounds beautiful.   The long answer would be, how does it feel to you? There were moments where I could sense that maybe a note or here and there took more effort than needed, but the result still sounded great. Unless you are going to be touring night after night, there's nothing to fear of a little extra effort in the performance here and there, so long as the overall result sounds good, we know that, AND it feels good - that's a question you can only answer yourself.   The funny part is Sia probably strains on this more than you LOL.

This is a great song to work on, I'm working on it too but you will get the most benefit if you practice it the way my coach has told me to - trying to imitate every little nuance and subtlety that Peabo does. You can always go back after you've learned the exact way he sings it and make it your own but the main problems with you are NOT range - your range is completely there and fine and your mindset being caught up on that (btw this is happening to like 75% of the people on this forum, either with range and/or power) has distracted you from other subtle weaknesses you have as a SINGER and if you compare back and forth between yourself and Peabo you will hear them very profoundly and you will be like WOAH that's why Peabo is so amazing and I'm just another singer. So then you practice those amazing things he does and try to learn them exactly and you become a better singer! This is a commonly overlooked aspect of vocal training some folks don't seem to be aware of. Your main areas to improve to bring your singing ability closer to the original version are:   -singing the exact lyrics with good diction.  -learn every "riff" he does exactly, nail every little pitch even if it's fleeting. -learn every dynamic subtlety (changes of volume anywhere in the phrases) he does exactly. You are already doing okay on this but there are a few key moments you missed   Work on this song phrase by phrase (play a phrase of the original, pause it, listen back and imitate and keep working to do all of the above at the same quality he is, repeat this until it sounds the same, then move to the next phrase. You will become a KILLER singer if you work on ALL your songs that way!!!   Just some main critiques to start you off: -really nail the pronunciation of "shimmering", he sings it as three syllables not two. -On "tell me Princess" notice how Peabo backs off to nearly a whisper on the syllable "ess" - make sure you catch that -The lyric is "when did you LAST let your heart decide" (you sang JUST). Also, pay attention to the transition from "did" to "you", you are not doing it as smooth as he has -you didn't do his incredibly beautiful riff on "ride" -you didn't do his incredibly beautiful riff on "world" -(there are some other incredibly beautiful teeny riffs and subtleties you missed, i want you to see if you can find them by ear  ) -the lyric is "where to go" not "where we go" Now I don't really know what kind of person you are but there are a lot of people who will look at this type of training negatively as trying to become a carbon copy of the original and thus losing your originality. The problem is that all the greatest singers in the world have carbon copied a handful of singers and mixed that with their original style too and blended those qualities into a refined original style and THAT'S how they sound unique AND amazing. A lot of people use the desire for uniqueness as an excuse to never pay attention to anything other brilliant singers are doing and frankly that's why they just never become good singers. And since Peabo is really a master, I highly recommend you really STUDY what he does and CRAVE to live up to it rather than just ignoring his mastery in fear it will take away your uniqueness. It will not, it will make you a way better singer. As far as the risk of carbon copying - this is why you do this kind of practice with 5 or 6 master singers and combine it into your own style. And be sure not to ignore your unique strengths as well, just don't let your unique weaknesses bring you down! I'm not sure what your unique strengths are from hearing this, maybe your tone (usually I recommend imitating Peabo's tone too and that's what I'm doing, but yours seems great for the song too so maybe keep it) but I'm sure you'll figure them out over time. Most singers have no problem maintaing their individual strengths. To be perfectly clear, you still did a good job overall. I just wanted to drive home the point that Peabo is still MILES ahead of you and I and everyone on this forum, in his mastery as a SINGER - he is nearly a perfect model singer, and you have a golden opportunity to become a much closer to that, right in front of you, ready to study, the second you stop being afraid of imitating him. I've just learned a lot personally from working on singing this song with the intent to absorb Peabo's mastery rather than just singing through it in with the same mediocre habits I've been singing with for years. Cheers and have fun with this tune. If you seriously work on improving it for a long time it will build your voice extremely well. Great start 

I thought it was pretty cool - like I said I was more fond of the stuff that kind of happened later on. for the first bit you seemed kind of stuck in your "rocker" mode LOL - but i was pleasantly surprised at how well you got out of that served the song for the last 2/3rds of the take. I have the opposite problem Rob, I'll record something, think I just got a mediocre take, and then days pass working on the mix and then by that time my ears have gotten used to it and like it better. Perhaps not a very good quality to have - because for folks like you and I, the listener is probably only going to listen once, and only multiple times if they liked it the first time. So good on you for being able to be hard on yourself and listen with a fresh mind.

Cool to hear a new side of your voice Rob. At first I thought wow that's an interesting song choice for you, but it turns out I really like what's happening starting around the end of the first chorus till the end, you gelled with the song really well in your own way. Great recording as always. What a beautiful song huh?

Your "warm up" in quotes isn't actually a bad way to warm up, it just depends on the student. Don't get fixated on what's "proper" just do what makes your voice feel and sound best! A great idea that works for a lot of people including myself is vocal exercises first, then song work, then finally they are ready to perform. Tension in the jaw/neck/tongue (there are other possible places too: solar plexus, chest, clavicles, lips, under the chin, i'm probably still forgetting some) is a huge problem, definitely something to watch out for. However it's important not to be all or nothing about it, like anything you practice, these tensions take time to reduce gradually. If you were to try to force no tension in these areas before you're ready your singing would suffer. Focusing on gradually reducing it over time is a better idea in my experience because at the same time you are gradually building up good tensions (lower torso breath support muscles, intrinsic laryngeal musculature) that can eventually replace the other extraneous tensions we don't want

Aravanid, the sound you're getting on Creep and Bring Me Your Daughter is less nasal from what I can hear (I would have to hear you in person without reverb to know for sure, but I'm fairly confident about this) although still very pinched on your twang compression in the passaggio range and above. It sounds much better to my ears but even some may not like it. Anyways, you could start from whatever you did there - and do rework on those songs, they seem to suit your voice better than the latest few - but work on reducing twang compression and any tensions you feel around the neck, jaw, tongue area, - and increasing breath support to make up for it, and you might find a good balance from that. And allow the larynx to lower too - don't force it but understand as you free up the throat and use more breath support, the larynx will naturally sit lower and you'll find you can sing high notes with a deeper tone more like you are maintaining the tonal quality of your the most beautiful version of your speaking voice - when your high range starts sounding like that that's when you know you're doing really great!

You're WAAAAY too nasal, that's why the tone doesn't sound great. The back of your throat is extremely pinched up, just take a look in the mirror singing with a tall mouth and you'll see it. You need to work on raising your soft palate a lot more, and perhaps relaxing your tongue down a bit too, but mainly the soft palate needs to raise and close up the nasal cavity so you can place the resonance in the back of your head instead of forward through your nose. Aim for an very tall opening in the back of the mouth behind all vowels and for none of the air/sound to come through your nose, you want to get it to where the tone doesn't change if you pinch your nose while singing vowels. It's a very hard thing to coordinate and may take you many months to fix completely but good luck on your journey!!! To answer some of the questions you asked Jarom - it's happening through the entire song and lowering the larynx is NOT the solution. It can sometimes be a symptom of the solution, it is natural for the larynx to lower as the soft palate raises, but to keep a long explanation short, lowering the larynx alone won't fix the tone problem for you. Your vowel mods are hard to hear through the nasality but I would bet they aren't that weak - you are actually doing pretty well, this nasality is just covering up the beauty of what you've developed - once you open up that back of the throat over months of really focusing on that concept, I think you'll be pleasantly shocked by the difference!

Killer Ku, he has great pitch here. It's riding on the center of the pitches (that's what you want 98% of the time) but he's still allowing it to have some freedom either way for a more soulful bluesy quality, very consistent with the stylistic expectations. So I don't really know what you're getting at.

great job! you should do a cover of this to a track!

head voice has good cord closure falsetto doesn't. i'd say that's the generally accepted definition i hear from most coaches but people argue like mad about this and never get anywhere But that's not important. What's important is that you start off your training the cleanest transitions you can, you don't want to mess with trying to blend coordinations that aren't similar enough to blend. But if you want to flip to something disconnected for stylistic purposes that's cool, just don't waste your time trying to smoothly blend into chest with it

Good job overall. Your C4-F4 range is really solid with that being said here are some things you can start working on: Pitch accuracy/control in your lower range. If you train with Rob one on one he will really help you with that. You are closing your jaw too much on the word "let" - again if you work with Rob over skype he'll help you fix that vowel since it's all over T V S training. However, this is my own opinion, be careful of overdoing the F1/H2 he talks about that that vowel tends to bring out - it can cause problems if you rely on a strong presence of it and let it make the sound fly forward. But if you make sure you PLACE that sound backward toward the soft palate more and more as you ascend it will mix in some headier overtones and you'll be fine. For the high A you just need to open your throat more vertically (don't splat to a loud EH though, it should still sound LIKE an ee) and push down with your support more, the complete sensation is like pulling down the larynx and the diaphragm in tandem and very important, that placing the sound back sensation too. That's what Rob means when he says "don't sing higher sing deeper" - high notes don't feel like a reach or like projecting across the room, it's a very unintuitive (at first) covered sensation that's best to learn from a teacher. You will also have to be able to sing around the high Bb or B before you can perform the high A consistently. The reason that note is inconsistent is because it is your highest and that is true with everyone - you need to extend your range and make it your not-so-highest note in order to nail it every time, so I really emphasize training pulling the full voice up high for that reason. You can definitely learn to stay in M1 (your speaking/calling out to someone voice) up to the C5 if you train correctly - not that you shouldn't train lighter too - you actually NEED to train both if you want a balanced versatile voice, so developing the strength to carry M1 up high AND the finesse to smoothly back off the sound into M2 if you want, is a prerequisite to really OWNING a note. Lastly you'll definitely have to work on turning your falsetto into a more connected head voice. In a way where you CAN lean into the head voice if you want to or further into a heady mix (however, it will end there and not be able to grow into full chesty mix unless you train pulling up M1 on the side and train to gradually pull off the intensity so it can connect with the head voice as a mix, that's why we do both), but then if you just back off from head, there's your falsetto. Instead of having to let go of all your musculature to get the sound and losing control over it. If you train the head voice stuff with Rob from a standpoint of finding a falsetto coordination that will grows stronger in musculature and depth, you will build some extra beef onto your head voice that allows you more release and control once you back off into falsetto again.