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Bassist singing high with full tone?

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aaronweewee

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A lot of people on this forum seem to be giving examples of a lot of hard rock singers that can sing well, like iron maiden or judas priest. But what about pop songs? I'm 18, and i love Pop, Pop rock, and electronic music!

 

But i can never really sing them, seeing how 99.9% of all pop/pop rock/ electronic singers are tenors or tenor 2.

The only way for me to sing the songs are for me to transpose it down, when i do, people tell me its nice low and sexy which I pretty much love..

 

And Iv'e come to accept the fact that i can never ever sing high so i can forget about singing po after my a Capella coach indoctrinated that a bassist range is limited to at max a E4, so dont bother trying AT ALL, and just stick to your Low Notes

 

But then one day i stumbled upon this..

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/domWW8yxiQg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Apparently Tim Foust, a bassist  could go up to a Bb4!?@#!!@#!#%!$ Is this true??

 

Can anyone tell me based on listening to the way he sings what is he doing?!?! It's almsot impossible for me to go past a D4.

How does he achieve it, can I achieve it to? or am i really doomed to never sing my favourite songs?

 

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Bro like 70% of threads here are about singing high. And we established that EVERYONE can sing high with proper practice and commitment. Forget about tenors and basses. We have a member here Benny who is bass and can sing queensryche songs that goes up to E5 and above.

That said upload a clip so we can hear you.

Clip time.

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Bro like 70% of threads here are about singing high. And we established that EVERYONE can sing high with proper practice and commitment. Forget about tenors and basses. We have a member here Benny who is bass and can sing queensryche songs that goes up to E5 and above.

That said upload a clip so we can hear you.

Clip time.

 

This is me trying to do a major scale of D3-D4 which is the highest i can go now without flipping into falsetto. 

 

 

Even so, i hardly sing up to a D4 in any song as it is already so hard to.

 

Am I just pushing and belting it or am I on the right track?? What should i do?

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If any coach tells you that you are a "Bass" and classifies you into any voice category like that... with the premise that, ... because you can't sing high notes... you are receiving a disservice. It absolutely isn't true and the person that told you that doesn't know what they are talking about. 

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If any coach tells you that you are a "Bass" and classifies you into any voice category like that... with the premise that, ... because you can't sing high notes... you are receiving a disservice. It absolutely isn't true and the person that told you that doesn't know what they are talking about.

Precisely, Coach. We feel the exact same way about these "voice classifications".

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This is me trying to do a major scale of D3-D4 which is the highest i can go now without flipping into falsetto. 

 

 

Even so, i hardly sing up to a D4 in any song as it is already so hard to.

 

Am I just pushing and belting it or am I on the right track?? What should i do?

 

 

Hey Aaron, you don't sound like a bass singer at all, and I've met only one in my whole life. You actually have a nice tone on your voice. You just need to learn how to sing the high notes from a proper vocal coach (there are many here in the forum) or get a great singing program, such as The Four Pillars of Singing (created by Robert Lunte, the forum founder). Just don't restrict yourself.

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Gneetapp,

 

Thanks for the nice "shout out" regarding the TVS program, I really appreciate it...  :)  Do you have "Pillars"?  If not, send me a PM and give me an opportunity to get a copy in your hands as a "thank you"...

 

@Aaron,

 

Your scale on sound cloud is so short, it is hard to give you a full perspective on it, but as you can see by my timeline comments on your file... start by slowing down.  This scale is necessarily too fast... if you do these workouts too fast, and your a beginner... they tend to get pitchy and sloppy. Slow down and make sure that every note is in perfect pitch... also, I can't help but wonder why you stop at D4? Your passaggio is probably at around E4... Don't just engage in "chest voice" training only, because you are afraid to negotiate and contend with the vocal bridge... Working the vocal bridge seamlessly , inside and out... IS... the sport of vocal training. If you don't bridge your voice to your "head voice"... you are only dribbling the ball, but never shooting for the basket... we get a "Point" in the sport of vocal training and to some extent, in singing, when we successfully bridge the break in a seamless way.

 

Is that hard to do?  Of course!  But that is the point!  As Gneetapp points out... get a home study vocal training program and a good coach if you can make it happen and learn about how the voice works... and start training.  Throwing up samples on this forum can give you some real basic feedback... but thats not training... and BTW... neither is surfing YouTube videos looking for "FREE SECRET TIPS"... don't get caught up in that game... its a waste of time. There are no "secret tips" and even if there were... it still won't do anything of you if you don't train and practice... so in order to train and practice... you need, a book, training content, scales, etc... Hate to sound like Im selling my program here, but the honest truth is... the best way I can help you... if you really want to get serious about this is, invest in my training program, and start practicing... and maybe take a few skype lessons with me... that is the best advise I can give you on how to get better and make real progress.  There is no experienced singer or teacher on this forum... that would argue on that point.

 

And to be fair, there are other very talented coaches on this forum as well... but in addition to lessons, you need training content so you can practice.. its just that simple. Send me a PM if your interested we can work on something for you.... those of you that have seen this video, forgive me... but I just want to help Aaron... and get my message across.

 

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Thx for posting the clip. I agree with the others, and the barriers that seem so real to you today will be overcome with consistent work, good coaching, and encouragement. You may be a Bass some day, but it's waaaaaay too early to make that determination. The vocal weight and color of the operatic bass voice are not there right now... So do not sweat it. Learn to sing well, train your instrument, and see what it reveals to you.

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All I could think of was Paul Mccartney, Sting, and Geddy Lee when reading the title. I didn't know bass singers were called bassists too. :o

 

On topic, whatever kind of voice you have, you can expand your useable range upward with the correct training and technique. It doesn't mean it would be like X or like Y, but I don't think many men's voices would cap out at E4 unless there was a genetic defect. 

 

You might have a different bridging point depending on the voice type, and you may have access to a different set of sound color choices in various parts of your range, but the primary way of capping out at E4 is not bridging at all. Different people can push chesty sounds various amounts before capping out which is related to how they trained and voice type, but ultimately your teacher is probably not very knowledgeable about the voice.

 

One thing to note, in my experience lower notes are harder to expand convincingly than higher notes. I'd prefer to be a slightly heavier voice type at times as I'm pretty skilled at lightening my voice, but there is really only so much you can do with adding vocal weight if you don't have the resonating space and vocal fold size. There is more useful room to grow on top than on bottom for most people.

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Peter Steele was also a bassist AND he had a pretty low voice AND he sung B4 and above, probably best of all worlds ;-)

 

This is just some quick and dirty recording of what I do to improve "fullness" in my high range. I alternate between falsetto and an onset that TVS calls "Dampen & Release". Try to keep the same vocal tract setup as in the falsetto phonation while adding "intensity". The "B" helps a lot in doing that.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/69231116/test3.mp3

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This is me trying to do a major scale of D3-D4 which is the highest i can go now without flipping into falsetto. 

 

" title="External link">https://soundcloud.c...new-recording-5

 

Even so, i hardly sing up to a D4 in any song as it is already so hard to.

 

Am I just pushing and belting it or am I on the right track?? What should i do?

 

Aaron, you are singing in a weak unsupported chest voice at the bottom. You can try one of 2 things:

- Sing the scale lightly as you did but on a "oo" vowel, make sure you don't spread: keep the "oo" lips. I think you should be able to handle that. Go at least to A4 with this. You can also do this on a lip roll.

- Try a "no" or a "mum" but say it in a firm authoritative voice. Say it like you mean it! First just speak the sound on different pitches then try it on an octave arpeggio: C3EGC4EGC

 

And don't worry be happy you are not a bass ;)

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And don't worry be happy you are not a bass ;)

As far as cooking, both large and small mouth bass are good. Striper bass is kind of small, so you want to pan fry that, like one might do with bluegill and small perch,

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And don't worry be happy you are not a bass ;)

I would trade my tenor voice for a bass anytime. I think we established the fact that bass voices can sing high but tenors cant sing low with the intensity and high end like bass can.

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Dude, I'm a guitarist and I can sing F#5! I did notice that when I played bass at one point I couldn't sing as high as I can now! You need to switch instruments, clearly!

 

Disclaimer: I'm just messin' wit'cha!

Hey Khassera, that is exactly the reason why I started to play bass on my band, to work on my low pitch vocals... he he he  :P

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Robert,

Doing fine, very busy with work and did a lot of singing for Easter.

Finally making some progress on the pipe organ I am building in my garage, too...

 

Wow... that is really cool!  Can we see a video of it or hear what it sounds like?

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Heck, even a operatic heavy bass should be able to sing an F4, and a more common Bass-Baritone could get to G4 (if his upper passaggio was D4). Given that you can't sing past D4, it's also possible that you are just a full voiced baritone, a notch higher than a typical bass-baritone. Either way, you should have those trained, even if you aren't used to getting them boomy enough for an operatic high note, so you can maintain a bright resonance in the mid and lower register.

A Capella coach told you the max was E4, because any bass singing high will tend to stand out in a way that's abnormal for a capella, and many basses don't have controlled at your age, and quite a few ever. Technique is essentially the same, it's just the difference between the high and low is greater, and many basses get stuck with a very heavy chesty sound they want to carry up.

If you are looking for songs, low voiced women tend to have a range that's just an octave above the basses, and thus tend to be easy to sing an octave lower.



 

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