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ilovemyself

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Everything posted by ilovemyself

  1. Howdy! In Catholic monasteries you have monks going up early in the morning (or in the midfle of the night) to pray the Liturgy of the hours. They just start to sing without any warm up exercise whatsoever. I discussed this with a vocal teacher who said that they use singing wich are closer to how we speak than other types of singing. But I am still not sure why I do neef warm ups instead of just singing something easy like the monks do (maybe they star of easily anyway). What are your thoughts and reflections on this?
  2. At a vocal teacher you often learn to sing with another instrument be it piano or vocal (if it is a ensemble). Would it be important to learn to sing alone without an instrument or does that just come naturally after singing with another instrument? For me, singing alone is very different from singing with a instrument.
  3. So you don't like practicing intervals but rather melodic lines? I myself don't sing intervals but rather lines. C3-E3-G3-A3 would have intervals but it's more than just intervals. Is this what your talking about? Isn't drilling intervals just missing something about real melodies? Today I tried C-D-E-G. I played C-D-E on the piano and had G silent only singing it. I ended up (according to my tuner app) a bit higher than G. When singibg C-E I sometimes come a bit high. Is this common? Does this have anything to do qoth tge fact that a natural third is higher than a equal temperament third or is this just a technique issue?
  4. I've been singing Swedish traditional music with a vocal ensemble this spring. I sounded good in the ensemble, I think. The leader (the teacher) was happy with my singing. At home when checking with a tuning app (on cellphone) I could not sing the correct intervals. Eg. I was supposee to sing G-E but would hit Eb instead of E. After some practice and testing I hit E. Is ensemble singing easier? What is going on?
  5. If not above middle C then not below...what note?
  6. What is the typical range of an untrained male singer? I have heard from a teacher that everything under C can be a bit low for some men. This song has a range that might be big for an untrained singer:http://www.spelapiano.org/vem-kan-segla-forutan-vind.html If a typical untrained male were to sing it what would be the best key? And what key would be best if a woman would sing a long as well? I wanted to perform this tune with people who might join in and sing with me when I'm accompanying them on the piano or accordion. It be nice if you experts could give me some advice. Even if the key were wrong for them it might be possible that they themselve would just join in anyway without realising how bad it sounds, right?
  7. I read that children's natural range is D1-D2. What the natural range for adults I don't know. Let's take this song for kids: This song is in the key of A. Is this the most natural key for children? And which key would be most natural for adults? My accordion teacher told me that it would be good to play it in the key of F but I thought that it could be a bit low. What do you think? G would be a bit better, I guess.
  8. So you will sing much better at a lesson? How many semitones better can you be at a lesson? Could this also apply to piano lessin or is this only a vocal thing?
  9. Hi! My teacher told me I could sing the low Ab. This is really strange because I have another experience. I have tried singing low notes before but never really sang that low before. Today I could not come close to that low pitch. At the lesson she said she heard me sing Ab but I cannot sing the Ab at home. It can't be more difficult singing low notes at home. I even check with a pitch tuner. How can the teacher and my experience be that extremely different? Anyone who can tell what might be going on?
  10. Howdy! I am singing this song and wondered if blues notes (blue notes) is used in this or similar songs? It's used in white American folk music but do we bother about it in this type of country songs?
  11. Hi! Today I sang "Nu tändas tusen juleljus" (at least Swedes know this carol) with my vocal teacher. She was very keen on me not even looking at the sheet music when singing. It's like I should not analyse much other than being aware of octave jumps (which is fifficult). How would you analyse it? Would music theory be of no particular help here? What are your thoughts? The melody: http://birgstrom.dinstudio.se/files/Nu_tndas_tusen.jpg
  12. So the teasing rhymes of cildren are difficult for me since adults have a smaller vocal range? Is that what you're saying? Harmonics being non-practical? I don't know...beacuse...the thing it tells me is that singing is bit different from playing melodies on a piano. If you sing just naturally by yourself then there'll be no equal temperament. Isn't it more natural to sing without a piano (which is tuned another way then it is natural to sing)? Even the melodies from a singer accompanied by a piano can't be played on a piano (I've never really managed that). I can see why people just wanna sing without even thinking about it at all. But how big/small vocal range should a normal adult have? I sang the children's teasing rhyme in the octave below middle C. Starting on a pitch near G. Then the third note should have been a note a bit higher than A. I then played A and Bb on my piano and sang those pitches. Bb in fact didn't really feel natural to me. I guess I have a very small vocal range.
  13. I wached two interesting videos: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale and The Unanswered Question 1973 1 Musical Phonology Bernstein with sound This has made me think pf pentatonics. It's said that those pentatonics are natural to sing but we can end up with sime problem if just accept this fact without thinking bout being practcal as well. It would be nice if some singing experts could help me with this: If the major pentatonic scale is really that natural then matching pitch when singing shouldn't be that easy. If for example you manage to sing the note C then mtching the other pitches should be very easy since they are natural to sing and require no vocal train whatsoever. 1. It is said that some pop songs have melodies that is only with a fifth inveral since people who aee not good singers don't feel comfortable singing in a broader vocal range. But the major pentatonic scale has a range a bit broader than a fifth. It's actually nearly a minor seventh interval (somewhere between A and Bb). Does this show that pentatonics ain't that natural to us as we might think? 2. I did the experiment in which you sing the children's  teasing rhyme that Mr Berstein mentioned in the video. I tried singing this and I found that the first note I landed on was something very close to a fifth about C (below middle C). The third note I sang should have been A and Bb (called the 7th harmonics) but it was a bit high for me in order to feel like a natural not to sing. If that is the note that all children sing when teasing eachother why didn't I manage to sing this note? It made me a bit frustarated as it should be natural to sound like teasing children. What is going on here you think? 3. In an equal tempered piano (as you know that is how you tune a piano today and a bit different from how people really sing) the fifth note of the major pentatonics scale is played as an A rather than Bb. That note is closer to Bb they say. Why then do we play it as an A rather than Bb do you think? I am not interested in having arguments about pentatonics but I am interested in making my knowledge of pentatonics into something practical for a singer.
  14. Cool... I was thinking two things when searching around on youtube for howling humans. One reminded me of a native american flute and another person reminded me of the siren. In a Homespun tutorial (Penny or something is her name) I heard about two vocal exercices: the howl and the siren. You try to sound like a wolf and a siren. You bassically start low (pitch) but then going up high. Let's be practical here. Is this just an exercise or do people use that "breath pressure" when they sing? Cause it did help me get the high notes.
  15. Hi! I was doing an experiment the other day. You know how a wolf howls (their way of singing). I was trying to do the same thing and boy did I get higher pitches than I normally get when I sing. Anyone here with the same experience? It seems to me that howling is way easier than doing normal singing. It's way more natural for me to howl than to sing. What do you make of this? I guess one just need to find out how to howl in tune.
  16. Howdy! Today I sang Hocchie Coochie man (Muddy waters) and it raised some question: 1. I got a different feel when I used a microphone (near my mouth) than when I sang without it. Do you sign higher or lower when using a mic? Should you control the volume or should the PA system do that for you? I myself felt as if I should not let the PA system control the volume/power but what do you experts say? 2. It's like I sometimes sing (or even speak) with a certain nasal sound/tone. Is this something a blues singer should care about? Is nasal the more natural way of singing 'cause that's what many people do on the recordings? Or does one need to control this? 3. Learning the piano and signing seem a bit different. With vocals you just sing whereas with piano you look up more about the instrument before you play. It's like the most natural instrument is vocals. I saw a video with Bobby Mcferrin showing people, with a singing experiment, that pentatonics are very natural but I guess people don't sing pentatonics with equal temperament tuning like modern piano use. On a piano, my instrument, you would look up the notes of the pentatonic scales. With vocals you basically just find the first note and then sing the scale(s). This means that learning the piano and learning how to sing must be very different? Singing is more of a second nature to us so I can never learn it like i learned to play piano? What do you expert say about this? I want to be very practical here... 4. Like I said in 3 do you think that people sing pentatonics naturally with a tuning that is a bit different from the modern piano tuning? Is this an important or unimportant thing?
  17. So he does not start the melody on the tonic? He actually starts on a "blue note"? Is that a good thing to do whensinging the bliues, i.e. not starting n the tonic?
  18. Is this something that you pratice with a vocal coach? I may sound a bit stupid. It is obviously the vocal coach that will help but...I am not sure this is something that somebody can teach in the same way that they teach you vocal technique. Feeling seems to be very difficult to teach. What would a vocal coach do if I told him/her I wanted to sing the blues? I'm not sure BB King ever Went toa vocal coach when he sang in his church.
  19. Hi! I am learning the piano but I am also very interested in how to sing. It would be nice to learn to sing as well but I've never really done anything about it. blI found a book called The real book of blues which included a melody to the song Back door man (sung by Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf).http://www.breitlinks.com/jazz/realBookOfBlues1.pdf When I tried to play that melody on the piano I got some questions: The first note in the melody is E but I don't really think that my piano's E matches with what Howlin Wolf is singing. Could any signing experts please explain what Howlin Wolf is doing with his voice on that E? It also seems that singers are not too concerned with playing a melody on a piano and the singing that melody. They just hear the guitar or piano doing some comping and then just sing what they think should sound good. Is this a good approach I should use when learning to sing the blues? If so then such a melody would include mictrotones and other things. i.e. it would sound exactly like a minor pentatonic you on the piano. What can you say about this? I am a beginner when it comes to singing the blues. As a piano player I am used to the concept of "blue notes". People use them a lot when singing the blues. Do you pratice singing them or do they just come naturally? I don't imagine the first blues singers or field hollers going to vocal coach and saying: teach me how to sing "blue notes". What are your advice to me? and what are your definitions of "blue note"?
  20. Hi! I just started following a CD with singing lesson. The teacher is a woman. This means that she will sing an octave higher than I should sing as I am a man. How do I deal with this? If I were to imitate her it would sound like I'm singing an octave too high. What should I do? I am aware that asking a teacher irl is good but I haven't find my teacher yet. I am searching for irl lessons. and one of the first exercices was sounding like a siren. Is that what people do when they take singing lessons? And the cd include a book with lyrics and chords but not notes that you're suppossed to sing. As a piano player I read sheet music. It also sounded like her singing wasn't exactly a melody that could be written down. I guess it's only when you sing music like Bach chorales that sheet music is needed. What will happened if I take singing lesson?
  21. the song itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv4aSEnr50E
  22. Hi! Today I played a melody from a certain song on my piano. It sounded like I actually played the melody from the song but when I played it together with the recording it didn't sound too right. It's like the singer did something that can't be played on the piano. This is not the first time this has happened. One thing is true: he did not use any special vocal techniques. What does a proffesion vocalist say about this?
  23. yeah, it might be tough. But where do I start if I want to learn how to sing this music?
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