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A shot at Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name'

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So I finally gathered courage to record myself in my home studio...a small clip of this arena hit singing with a backing track...its in the original key, although it isn't as near as difficult as the songs that you guys regularly upload! :)

I used a bit of eq, reverb and compression in my voice cuz am still not confident enough to record myself completely naked..hope you guys won't mind...also used a bit of doubling in the intro and the choruses to try to make the sound close to the original...

let me know what you think?

Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/8x1amy

peace!

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I liked the timbre you had in this one. Quite similar to the original. You sounded more confident in the higher parts than the lower parts. Was this mixed voice for you or head voice?

As someone else put it, these terms can be confusing. I've used full head tone and others have thought of it as falsetto. Either one could be right, I guess. When I hit a full headtone, it feels like a full head tone to me but might be falsetto. Or, it might be the other person hears falsetto, even when I am in full headtone. It's enough to make you dizzy. Anyway, mixed is where you have some of your "regular" or chest voice mixed with some of the resonance of the head. I think some are calling it curbing or crying. Where as full head voice could be a tight squawk or whistle-y note in the head or behind the sinus.

Nowadays, especially since coming here, I often second-guess myself, so I may not be able to accurately comment on other people, other than as a layman who hears a good sound and try to describe it in the language here, as best as I can.

It's only recently, like what I did with "Holy Diver" where my solution was not to go full blast and break glass with a sonic assault. But, instead, to go softer, or with a different tone. I think there's a timbre shift when you hit the lower notes but that might be my ear failing me or a trick of the recording.

I was wondering if the notes you felt shaky on might be better approached with more crying rasp than even you used in this recording.

I don't know, I just liked what you did.

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Hey man, you did well! This is a very difficult song to sing, I do it myself in my coverband. The fact that you can even hit these notes is an indication that you're well on your way to reach your goals as a singer. I have two tips for you right at the moment:

A) Try to sing this type of song, NOT all songs you sing, but only similar songs with that attitude in them, WITH RASP ON MORE NOTES, if not most of them. Most of the time, when you don't have rasp in this take, it lacks attitude. When you have the rasp on, it sounds MUCH better, IMO. This is especially apparant on the very first line. It can't be clean, it needs rasp! :) But the last few words you sing in the intro has a bit of rasp on them and suddenly you sound awesome and like a pro!

B) Since english is not my native tongue, I can't quite help you with this one, but some vowels of yours are incorrectly done, so this take has a bit of an accent that might tick some people off. For some listeners, it won't matter one bit. Maybe someone else here can chime in and point him out which those vowels are? I just have a hard time explain it, but I still can hear it.

It would be cool to hear a re-take of this song with those 2 items fixed, if you can, and then you're on your way to becoming a dangerously good singer :) After that it done, perhaps the next things to look at, which are not as apparent, are ever so slight intonation problems and lack of confidence. All of which can be fixed. Nice work, man!!

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I liked the timbre you had in this one. Quite similar to the original. You sounded more confident in the higher parts than the lower parts. Was this mixed voice for you or head voice?

As someone else put it, these terms can be confusing. I've used full head tone and others have thought of it as falsetto. Either one could be right, I guess. When I hit a full headtone, it feels like a full head tone to me but might be falsetto. Or, it might be the other person hears falsetto, even when I am in full headtone. It's enough to make you dizzy. Anyway, mixed is where you have some of your "regular" or chest voice mixed with some of the resonance of the head. I think some are calling it curbing or crying. Where as full head voice could be a tight squawk or whistle-y note in the head or behind the sinus.

Nowadays, especially since coming here, I often second-guess myself, so I may not be able to accurately comment on other people, other than as a layman who hears a good sound and try to describe it in the language here, as best as I can.

It's only recently, like what I did with "Holy Diver" where my solution was not to go full blast and break glass with a sonic assault. But, instead, to go softer, or with a different tone. I think there's a timbre shift when you hit the lower notes but that might be my ear failing me or a trick of the recording.

I was wondering if the notes you felt shaky on might be better approached with more crying rasp than even you used in this recording.

I don't know, I just liked what you did.

You know what Ron, i am much better on my high range than my low range. I am always shaky on the lows...I can very easily hit male tenor Cs and upto G5s in my strong head voice but I haven't built a strong lower voice yet. It must have developed from singing along with high voiced rock singers as a child.

I think most of the time i am in mix but I can't be sure as the mixed voice is something I can't really point out when I hear it. As you may recall from a post somewhere else here, I was asking questions about the mixed voice and some one posted a clip saying this is a good use of mix - and that clip was me singing lol (IRONIC!!! and FUNNY!!!) I am looking forward to the other forum regulars to hear their comments and improve from there...

thanks for the compliments man!

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Hey man, you did well! This is a very difficult song to sing, I do it myself in my coverband. The fact that you can even hit these notes is an indication that you're well on your way to reach your goals as a singer. I have two tips for you right at the moment:

A) Try to sing this type of song, NOT all songs you sing, but only similar songs with that attitude in them, WITH RASP ON MORE NOTES, if not most of them. Most of the time, when you don't have rasp in this take, it lacks attitude. When you have the rasp on, it sounds MUCH better, IMO. This is especially apparant on the very first line. It can't be clean, it needs rasp! :) But the last few words you sing in the intro has a bit of rasp on them and suddenly you sound awesome and like a pro!

B) Since english is not my native tongue, I can't quite help you with this one, but some vowels of yours are incorrectly done, so this take has a bit of an accent that might tick some people off. For some listeners, it won't matter one bit. Maybe someone else here can chime in and point him out which those vowels are? I just have a hard time explain it, but I still can hear it.

It would be cool to hear a re-take of this song with those 2 items fixed, if you can, and then you're on your way to becoming a dangerously good singer :) After that it done, perhaps the next things to look at, which are not as apparent, are ever so slight intonation problems and lack of confidence. All of which can be fixed. Nice work, man!!

Oh WoW! Thanks Jon!!! You are dead on with your comments, and these 2 pointers will be really helpful. I totally agree with you about the power/un-clean and attitude issue. Now a new challenge - RASP! :D I have NO freaking clue whatsoever on how to get it, but I am surely gonna try it.

You are also right about intonation - I will post my intonation problems and question in a separate thread. I am so frustrated about it man...

but thanks! yippie!

(now off to fix the issues mentioned...work work work!)

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I listened a 4th time and, dang it, jonpall was right. The weak spots were your vowel intonations. I couldn't put my finger on it until he mentioned. Born to speaking english, I never thought of it. Where you are strongest is when the vowell forms in the back the mouth, just about behind the sinus, counterintuitive as that may sound. It weakens when you form the vowell forward in the mouth, such as on the word "game." It is a very subtle distinction and thanks to jonpall for catching that. Man, jonpall, you've got a great ear. Maybe, as you say, due to english not being your first language, making you more sensitive to vowel changes. I speak english, german, spanish and a smattering of russian and ukrainian and I change my vowel formations for those languages without thinking, mimicking a native speaker. I never thought about it in singing. And I think your point is well taken, whether we speak english as a first language, or not. That's going to be something I watch for in myself.

edited to add: I know some castillian spanish but what I often speak is what we call tex-mex, a variation of mexican spanish that includes english words converted to spanish. For example, truck in tex-mex is trucka and lunch is lunchera. Malissimo in castillian spanish becomes mala in mexican and tex-mex spanish. Some structure still remains. "Que es hora an?" stilll means "what time is it?"

As of consequence from having learned some spanish on the job, some friends have named me "Oso Blanco," (white bear.)

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Hi Fahim,

I thought that it was quite good. I would say that the vowels are almost there but for me you need to be 'looser' when singing the words. What I mean is you are pronouncing them too sharply. Stopping the words, in some places, too sharply. Jon Bon Jovi is singing the words relaxed but with all vowels wide and of course distortion.

So, my opinion is that it's more style that your challenge is. Listen to him singing it with that in mind.

Definitely, you are on the right track!! Keep on rockin' my friend.

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Thanks a lot Michele :) Its an important issue that I've never been aware of. Will listen for it from now.

To Jonpall & Michele - Any tips on how to get distortion/rasp? or may be you can suggest me a good book/program? I've gone through the chapter 'distortion' in the CVT book and there's just way too much information in there. I can't process it.

I can get the very rough black metal/death metal/scream distortion but can't seem to get a slight rasp as needed by these songs. Where can I learn this? Thanks for any tips you might have...

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  • 1 month later...

I was hoping I'd find an example like this one, it sounds great man - I love the raspy part of your voice, but I just read you wanted to know how to get it ?

I saw some examples on youtube about how this part of the sound is produce and most people claim that it's our false cords (apparently a set of cords above the vocal ones)

and that's why singers with distortion sound like the distortion is just applied on their voice. Since you've got the cvt book, you have the sound examples too. I started by

producing the various sounds until I could apply them on my voice. It's a great starting point actually.

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hey akaward, thanks for the comment man. yah i've been trying to get distortion/rasp at all parts of my voice but it's been a bit difficult for me still. actually i've not been practicing / exercising for atleast about a month now so i am pretty much at the bottom right now lol. yah i've got the cvt book but its very hard for me to understand. :(

thanks again.

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It sounds good. There are a little unpitched notes I think it's because you're geting some "nasality" in some parts I guess ,like "Whoa!"

hey man, thanks! but i didn't get which part you are talking about ...'whoa?'

but i agree with the pitch problems. i am working on it :) ... fingers crossed!

thanks again!

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