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Unconventional Singing Tips

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yuutokun

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Hello everyone.;)

I have been frequenting this forum for about a year now but I've only started posting more recently as I 've started to get deeper into my singing.

I am currently a vocalist for a screamoish band in Japan and working hard to improve my vocals. My sound is ok at times but I have often gotten confused or have felt like something is missing from tone and production.

Recently, I read something on this forum that I've never heard or thought about before which lead me to wonder how many subtle things about singing that I may be missing. I'm trying to find who said it again, but I read somewhere that many singers often make mistakes about stressing the wrong parts of a phrase and something to the effect that putting power into the last note will help add emotion to the phrase.

After playing with this a bit I have started to see some improvement.

One of my biggest problems until now has been my falling flat on the last note of the phrase.

It made me start to think about all the potential tips like this that are rarely discussed or mentioned.

I know this is a bit vague but if possible I would like to hear more singing tips like this that go outside of the convential breath from your diaphragm, sing in the mask, etc. Things, that people might often overlook.

Tips relating to enunciation, rhythm, and stress when singing,etc.

What unconvential advice would you give to a struggling rock vocalist?

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Hmm well I've heard some people actually use flat sounds in their composition, some other people go up a quick scale at the end of a phrase. Or there are countless different styles.

What really works for me, is breaking down a phrase into groups of notes. I'll hum the first group, than sing it strongly, then hum the next group, and sing it strongly, etc. And when I piece it together, all these sections add more articulation, allowing me to hit each few notes with more force.

Compared to singing the same phrase smoothly and accurately, I hit the notes but the tone is more neutral.

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Do not mimic habits or accents, look for the positive sides thinking about musicality, not copying voices. Copy an interpretation line, and you can do a good version of a song, mimic another person gestures and accents, and you are doing a comedy act.

Sing on vowels.

Use the vowels to work for you. Open vowels = more dinamic sensation, closed vowels = less.

Plan the interpretation line ahed. Remember that what gives sensation of power and emotion is contrast. If there is no reference of calm, you cant create an explosion. If you do the whole song at the strongest level you can, where will you go when you want to denote something inside a phrase?

Of course all these with support, emission, and resonance working, so that you can deliver a good quality performance of your ideas without hurting yourself in the process.

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I used to have a bad habit of "crashing" notes and it comes from the way men speak around here. They tend to drop pitch at the end of a word or phrase. Jonpall pointed out to me that I was doing that.

I cured it by imagining the note going on after I wish to stop. It does involve continuing the breath support but more as an automatic function of your intended viewpoint of the note continuing, rather than a concerted effort to keep up the "push."

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I would agree that it is the subtle things all coming together that make a good singer into a great singer.

In regards to emphasizing words. I wouldn't say it was always the end of every phrase. It depends on the emotions your trying to convey. Take the phrase 'I had a cat' for example. You could stress words differently like 'i had a cat' , ' I had a cat' or 'I had a cat' each phrase would have a different meaning. It often helps to speak the phrase first then sing it and try and stress in the same way as you'd speak it.

You could add dynamics to a song too (how loud and soft thing are) whether that's as simple as the chorus being louder than the verse or if you have a sad phrase take it down to a soft end.

Also the onset/offsets of words will make a huge difference. So how you attack each word and finish each word. All of these things can change depending on how you want to sing the song. As an example, on hometown glory from adele I always tend to sing the word 'tutting' and 'strutting' with a slight emphasis on the t's. Which conveys the right feel for the words. Then in the middle eight is repeats the phrase 'shows that we aint gunna stand sh*t, shows that we are united shows that we aint gunna take it' 4 times. So I usually sing the first one really softly then build it up. It's little tricks and subtleties that I think make a song interesting to listen too.

The more you can build up different techniques the more choices you have.

Hope this has helped

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if you tend to fall flat on the end of your phases, have a look at your breath management.

Yes! Sounds like your are losing some breath pressure (running out of air) . When I sing a long phrase, Ill use a break (if there is one) to take a quick micro breath. Sometimes, there is not break.

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Sometimes we concentrate on the beginning of a phrase not paying attention to the ending of it and just let it fade away. One suggestion would be to practice ending your last note on the beat ( in time with the music).

Another tip, release the note with your intake of breath. It will be a quick clean end to the note.

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I've done the intake thing, some times, as well. The end result is the same. To not let the breath dwindle on the last note. For guys around here would say ca-at, with the at descending in pitch. It was part of the accent I have picked up, living in Texas since 1974, though I was born in California and spent most of my early childhood there.

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