Vocals Review

[Talia Applebaum]

Hello. I'm interested in getting feedback on my vocals and songs. I've come to understand that a musical entity is dependent on a combination of factors. Just like in medicine there's a holistic approach, not singling out one body part/ailment but rather seeing the interconnectedness, so with music, one cannot single out the vocals alone but rather listen to a song as a whole entity. Take Bob Dylan for example. What if he was judged by his voice alone?

Thanks, Talia@ www.myspace.com/taliaapplebaum

[Robert Lunte]

Hi Talia, I listened to your music. I listened to "Flashes". I would love to hear this song much slower with just voice and piano as a dramatic ballad.

Your voice is pleasant. I would say your production can do a lot to feature your voice if it is right. It might be a good idea to keep your great songs and experiment playing them with a band at different tempos and feels.

Your voice is good. If you slow down the tempo on the first two songs, you can sing with more legato, which would sound great with your voice.

Hope this helps...

[Talia Applebaum]

Thank You Robert for talking time to listen & for your helpful comments.

Blessings,

Talia

[greekmac7]

Hi Talia I'm listening to your myspace and writing as I go along.

First impressions for 'flashes in the darkness' - great tune, great choice of instruments, reminds me of the seventies (not that I was alive then but you know what i mean). One criticism - I think you could have pulled away from the mic on the word 'flashes'......the volume seems to shoot up on that word each time. I like the Hebrew verse at the end (it is hebrew right?) it adds an extra dimension to the song.

'The Task' - at first something wasn't sitting right with me.....for the first minute of the song i thought maybe it was just a weak song. But actually the chorus has a good melody - I think i might have to agree with Robert here. The arrangement and tempo doesn't do the song, or your vocals any favours. I've had this problem with one of my songs. I would suggest trying to perform the song in different styles and seeing if a different style might work better. (I know how tought this can be for an artist)

'Sing a New Song' - great intro - nice start 'sing sing sing etc).....the word 'Strong' sounds a little bit yodley. I'm hearing a lot of vibrato in your voice. It sounds like you've drawn inspiration from ethnic folk, (maybe a hebrew song?), that you've translated to English. For me, it doesn't work. I've tried to do this in the past with Greek songs and I know its hard to get it to work.....Actually a lot of Shakira's English songs translated form Spanish don't sit well with me - even when i love the spanish version. I think you could sing it better a semitone higher.

'Life' - awesome intro! NICE VOCALS! My brother just woke up from the sofa and said 'who's that playing? Its GOOD!' I like the backing vocals too - they sit well in the mix.

'Turbulent Times' - the start had me guessing a bit with all the pauses.....but when the 'aren't you tired' stuff kicks in its cool. the drum pauses at 2:00 put me off a bit, in general its a song I would remember.

'Suspended' YESSSSSSS another jazzy song:D. I think your voice is most comfortable in this higher pitch range - I like this.

I like your music. It has a really positive energy to it and it mixes a lot of different styles together nicely. You have great artistic vision.My two favourite were 'flashes in darkness' and 'Life'. I think 'the task' deserves to be looked at from another angle, and I think that the vocal style applied to 'sing a new song' doesn't suit English (in my opinion - people often disagree with me:) ).

I hope you're not offended by any comments I've made. I am only picking at straws ....your music rocks

ed.

[Louise]

:)Hello Talia:

First I'd like to say I enjoyed listening to your material.

I think you have a lovely voice and a nice vocal style. I think you could achieve outstanding results with better breath control. I found this particularly noticeable in Life. You don't always hold the notes firmly to the end and your voice tends to quaver a bit.... but maybe that was your intention.

I also think that it's a great idea to try out different tempos and instrumentation for the various songs. I would have liked less instrumentation and more voice (keeping it simple) but really the best idea is to try out different things (as mentioned by Robert and Ed)

This is just pickiness on my part, because, overall I think you did a great job and have some really interesting and good songs.

Best

Louise

[Talia Applebaum]

Thanks guys for listening to my music. Task happens to be one of the popular songs. That is one song I would like to invest doing over in rocking audio. Most of my songs are a mix of midi & audio. It started out as an experimental album in midi. As I got more confidence I was willing to invest more in it & added live instruments. At this stage, if I ever record again in the future, I would do just audio with a band. The problem is I don't have a band & it's very expensive to hire a whole band to do a recording and not financially worth it for me at this point. There are websites that allow you to collaborate w/ other musicians. I have to look more into that possibility. :D