neil diamond cover

[Mads Bentley]

im new here, just starting to get into singing modern music, thought this might be a more constructive place to seek feedback than from my friends. 

song isn't super modern, just had it in my brain today.  thanks for viewing

 

 

[Draven Grey]

Great voice!

On the second verse, you started to go a bit flat. I didn't hear the same sisue on most of the rest of the song. It was almost as if you were trying to force harsher sounding vowels by squeezing them out rather than adding color to an already well placed vowel. You might try placing those vowels a bit deeper into the soft palate and using more breath support to get a more compressed sound rather than squeezing.

I can see this helping the only other thing I heard you struggle with as well. When you added breath support you tended to so one of two things: (1) you compressed along with the louder volume, causing a lot more twang/closure/harshness when you got loud, or (2) you opened your embouchure far too wide vertically, which cause the same issue, thus "splatting" the vowels. If you learn to narrow your embouchure to support the vowels being more in line with the placement of the note in the soft palate, it will release some of that harshness, and allow you more control over just how harsh you want it to sound (based on how wide you open).

This will also help a bit with the overcompression at louder parts, but you can also purposefully dampen the larynx more during those parts. Learning to dampen and stabilize the larynx will not only make singing higher notes easier and less harsh, it will make it more consistent with the rest of your voice. There are some great training onsets to help build that sort of support, but apart from training in TFPOS to learn those onsets, you can start by placing your finger just below your larynx and then trying to sing through scales while keep the larynx in the same spot. This isn't the same spot it is when speaking. It helps to start singing, feel where the larynx goes on the more releaxed notes, and then try and keep it there as you go up.

Look up Robert Lunte's videos on embouchure and vowels. I think they will give you a bit different way of thinking through how you were trying to place your voice.

You have a beautiful voice. I'm excited about hearing you with even more control over the sound colors of your higher pitches.

[Mads Bentley]

3 hours ago, Draven Grey said:

(1) you compressed along with the louder volume, causing a lot more twang/closure/harshness when you got loud, or (2) you opened your embouchure far too wide vertically

This will also help a bit with the overcompression at louder parts, but you can also purposefully dampen the larynx more during those parts. Learning to dampen and stabilize the larynx will not only make singing higher notes easier and less harsh, it will make it more consistent with the rest of your voice.

Thank you Draven.

I tried narrowing the vertical space, almost down to a few millimeters between molars, and it made a huge difference. Sound just kind of popped into place. I never realized the vertical space could be so small in the higher range, I certainly appreciate it.  Mind blown.

The forced compression with volume is prob my biggest problem right now, i'm just starting to learn to sing without an artificially-lowered larynx+twangy mix all the time.  If I relax enough I can do it, but consistency and mostly "trust" is still difficult.  I will look at the videos you suggested and I imagine it will get freer with many more hours of intentional practice.

I'll be back...

Feel free to DM me with rec's for LA area lessons if you have any.  Not thrilled with the options under $300/hr out here (And not wealthy)