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Steven Fraser

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  1. Steven Fraser
    Snax: This is very tasty. Even without a band, you communicate the song very well your vocal styling alone. You just lay it out there, guts and all, for us to hear. Very, very well done. I agree with the others that have said that your voice is deserving of a wider audience. IMO, to move to the next level you need to be practicing with a good band and gigging. Its also way more fun than singing acappella into a digital recorder. It will be work, but the cold, Canadian winter will be warmer for it. A cred bump for you.
  2. Steven Fraser
    Joshual: Hey, very nicely done. I hear what you mean about the onsets. Here are some comments and suggestions of approaches you can take to them that should help to improve them. 1) Think the first note earlier. The way the pitch-control mechanism of the voice works, about 1/5 to 1/4 of a second before you start phonating your laryngeal muscles adjust to produce the note you are about to make. As you are taking your breath right before the phrase is started, think as clearly as you can the note that you are about to sing. That should help some of the accuracy. 2) When the first note of a phrase is tricky, isolate it and practice it out of context. Turn the syllable into an onset exercise, and sing it 20 to 50 times in a row, refining your technique... being really picky with yourself, to make it as clean, accurate, on-pitch and rhythmically accurate as you can. Even 10-15 minutes of attention on a particular onset will make a big difference. Once you can do that one note to your satisfaction, add 2 or 3 more in the phrase, and weave the onset into the beginning of the well-done phrase. Work all the onsets this way. For a song, may take 2-3 days of 1/2 hour a day with this sort of exercise to begin to train your mind to think your onsets in this new, accurate way. Once you get to that point, and I think you will be able to feel and hear when that happens, then you can go back and dirty up some of them for effect, if you want. Its really funny that it works this way, but the voice follows your musical imagination. These exercises are about training your mind to approach the onsets more precisely. I think you'll be pleased with the outcome. As others have said, you have great timing and a real feel for this song. You are very musical, and it comes through in the performance. Good job. I hope this helps with what you have in mind to accomplish.
  3. Steven Fraser
    Snax: Driving the input harder produces a mild, 'round shoulder' clipping distortion, which we interpret as warmth. The amount you are using seems perfectly fine. Don't diss the A.R.T. Its good equipment. I used to have a tube SLA, and I was very pleased. The recording came out very well... good performance on a very challenging song. At times it seems that you are kinda throwing your voice at the pitch, rather than singing it, at the beginning of phrases. Otherwise, very enjoyable. When are you cutting your first CD, dude?
  4. Steven Fraser
    Nathan: A way to practice that is to lengthen the vowel... just sing it nice and long a few times, like you are singing the note without the F at all. THen, add the shortest F you can, right before the next word. When it feels like you are putting the F on the beginning of the next word, that is about right.
  5. Steven Fraser
    Hi, I thought this recording was pretty good, and got better as you progressed into the song. One of the difficulties with the recording is that the balance between the guitar and the voice is not great... the guitar overpowers the voice in the early part. To fix that, do another recording, and put the mic closer to your mouth than it is to the guitar, or use 2 mics. One area I can suggest for some attention is the amount of voice used on some of the shorter/faster notes. For a word like 'if', lst the vowel sound for the ih be longer, and shorten the F sound. Apply the principle generally, and you will create a greater sense of singing line in the phrases.
  6. Steven Fraser
    Hey, man.... well done. Here are a few comments. First, the intensity level you are using is well-suited to the piece. You are out there vocally, and the thrust of the phrases comes across very well. I think you have connected with the kind of vocalism that this piece demands, and the intensity of the expression. Second, It took you several phrases to get into your most accurate and sustainable vocalism. See if you can get there from the very beginning. It will make the whole song less draining. Third, IMO you need to be looking at the audience, and not at your left hand on the fretboard while you are delivering. Either rehearse it to the point that you can do it solidly by feel, or sample the guitar opening into a loop, and then sing along with it. This was a kick to see you in action. Great job.
  7. Steven Fraser
    ronws: In classical singing, the way this 'leading' is accomplished is by being sure that the vowel sound starts as written. If there is a consonant preceeding the vowel, its put 'before the beat'. Rock on.
  8. Steven Fraser
    guitartrek: Yes, that would be one way to do it. I look forward to hearing what that sounds like :)
  9. Steven Fraser
    This is an engaging piece... lots of nice contrast of tempo, harmonic, rhythmic and melodic content. Kept me interested to hear what was coming next.
  10. Steven Fraser
    Andrew, I agree with what everybody else said. One thing I'd like to offer in addition is that the way this song is written, the phrases end on notes lower in your range than those in the middle of the phrases, and so the intensity of the vocal tone is less on the last note of every phrase. Sometimes this obscures the intelligibility of the word you are singing on those notes. In general, lower notes contain less sound energy, so they are less audible to a live listener and in a recording. If you care about this at all, one way you could compensate would be to crescendo down to the lower last notes of every phrase, making them just a little louder. Another approach you could take would be to allow them to be a little firmer... more toward the voice you use when you speak. I thought the message of the song was attractive and interesting. The piano acc is well done, sparse enough to let the voice come through somewhat. And that will be better if you can separately mic the voice and the piano.
  11. Steven Fraser
    Ray, Its really well done. Vocals are fine (liked the overdubbed harmonies), the band is tight, tasty arrangement of the parts, everybody's got the chops, and very well produced audio and vid. Good job! Just a personal preference, but the 'singing breathy eating the mike' kind of solo vocal you sometimes employ in this...is not my favorite. I like to hear just a little more voice clarity in the sound... but that is just me. If you were to bump up the sung volume (not in the mix... your own singing), and then back off the gain in the mix, I think you'd get something a little clearer and not lose the overall effect. FYI, When you sing a bit louder in other places the tone clears right up. But these are very fine points, and personal preference at that. Keep 'em coming. Fine offering.
  12. Steven Fraser
    Snax: Its not off key, its just hanging on the low side of the notes. Sinatra used to do it all the time, too :-). Here is a question and a suggestion: If you are using 2 earphones, be sure to mix your own voice into the earphones so you hear your voice in the phones with the track. If you are unable to mix your voice with the track into the phones, Use just 1 earphone with the track, leave the other ear open to the air when you do the recording.
  13. Steven Fraser
    Guitartrek: This was fun to listen to. First, the backing and guitar are outstanding work. Very professional, with very few issues. Vocally, its very effective as well. Its working into your voice nicely, and with some attention to very fine details, will make an awesome recording. Here are the picky things that I hear can be tweaked to add further polish: 1) Diction. As a general comment, some initial, mid-word and final consonants need about 10% additional energy to balance with the vowels in the same words, so that the intelligibility is always there. The way it is now is ok, but you can turn Ok to fab with just a bit of attention. A picky-thing... at 1:37 is one place where you replaced an R consonant with a W in the middle of 'spirit'. That stuck out, and something similar happened in the following word 'erase'. 2) Mix presence & balance. Overall, this mix is set just a bit back in the sound stage, reducing the thrust and edge of this performance. I think it would be more effective if brought forward just a little, but put in a larger space, as if the recording were made up closer, but in a bigger room. From time to time, there are balance issues where the voice is lost under the accompanyment. I'd like to hear a bit more of the voice in the mix in those places. As an example, the middle interlude guitar solo, when the voice enters at the end of the instrumental part, the instrumental covers up the text clarity of the entrance of the voice. Tweak the pots down on the accompanyment so that the voice rises clearly from the end of the instrumental. 3) Up-top openness. The top is strong, but the vowel colors are a little on the thin side right now, perhaps not as resonant as they will be eventually. I think this will get better as the piece settles into your voice over the next weeks, so don't make a change at this point. In a month, do another recording and compare. Even small changes in pronunciation on some of the most exposed notes will make a big difference. Thats all for now. IMO, people would pay to hear you sing this in a concert. Time to get discovered. :-)
  14. Steven Fraser
    I thought the style was fine. You certainly have the range, too. IMO, biggest thing to work on is the intonation. For most of the song, you are under pitch when compared with the accompanyment. What was your monitor set-up for this recording?
  15. Steven Fraser
    Kelly, I agree with Ashique. While there are many 'other' things you could do with your voice, the things that would define a 'next level' come from your vocal and artistic goals... from your own musical value system, your aesthetic, the relationship of the text with the melody.... all of that. So, this takes us around to clarifying questions: What do you want to do next with your singing? What are the things or characteristics you'd like to add to what you can do? Or, what do you have that you'd like to improve or even remove?
  16. Steven Fraser
    Snejk: I'll be very direct. While I like this casual, lightly-registered sound for your mid voice, I can hear that quite often your glottal closure is not firm, and there is no appreciable amount of twang. If you want to sing up top with power, you need to address both of these, so that your true, clear upper voice appears. I wish I could have written that in Swedish :-)
  17. Steven Fraser
    Very nice.
  18. Steven Fraser
    Ronws: Oh, no problem. I know exactly what you mean about using contraction (the note getting smaller) as a a mental image or concept. IMO, It is very helpful thought when it comes to preventing oversinging/pushing.
  19. Steven Fraser
    Ronws: Just a quick point... the vocal bands are stretched, not contracted, to make higher pitches. This stretching action thins the vocal process, reducing the cross-sectional mass and increasing the tension... both of those cause the freqency to go up.
  20. Steven Fraser
    There is nothing quite so frustrating as to read an article or hear someone speak, and the originator uses a term, which is unfamiliar. I did that this week in The Modern Vocalist Forum, with the term “tessitura”. When one of the readers asked me to explain it, I thought I'd just post it here for everybody. Definitions Here is a link to a very useful Wikipedia article. Start with the first paragraph. Here's another from Miriam-Webster dictionary online.   Discussion When we perform a piece of vocal music, it has several characteristics that affect how we perform it: It has a range, from the lowest note, to the highest. Very practically, we don't -- often, or ever -- perform pieces that contain notes that we cannot produce consistent with our vocal tone quality standards. It has tessitura, which indicates where in the range of the piece that most of the notes are found. For individual singers, some sections of the vocal range are more tiring or challenging than others are, when desiring to maintain our tone quality standards. It has dynamics that indicate how loudly the singing must be in the various sections. Very soft and very loud singing put special demands on the technique of the singer, while trying to maintain our tone quality standards. It has duration, which is the amount of time that singing must occur during the length of the piece. To sing a few notes over the period of a minute is not difficult. To sing 1,000 over the period of an hour requires a different level of endurance, while maintaining our tone quality standards. What Does “Tone Quality” Have to Do With This? I mentioned for each of the above items the desire to maintain our vocal tone quality standards. That is my way of saying that the singer has aesthetic, genre and stylistic preferences and values that influence the singing they choose to do. Paraphrasing Robert Lunte, some pieces require certain types of tone quality to be effective. The countertenor sings the C above middle C in a Purcell verse anthem differently than a Death Metal front man would warn of the destruction of the world. When all of these items: the tone quality, the durations, the dynamics, the tessitura, and the range are combined, they represent the totality of the vocal requirement for the piece. Why is Tessitura so Important? The tessitura determines which notes in a piece get sung the most often. The singer's ability to perform those notes repeatedly, while meeting the other performance requirements mentioned factors into the experience of vocal fatigue. For example: The high-school choir bass who can take the occasional E above middle C briefly but loudly in concert, will have a much more difficult time singing that same note 10 or 20 times in a row. The rock balladeer covering “Stairway to Heaven” better be able to sing that hook line in his sleep, because it will get repeated very many times. (Mercifully, the piece has lots of nice interludes for recovery.) The singer handling Neil Young's parts in quartet harmony has a similar challenge. The bass covering a Johnny Cash tune, or singing the low melody in a Stamps Quartet gospel song, better be able to live below the bass staff, and balance everybody else, too. It’s not enough to have one low D in a song -- there may be 20 -- and notes even lower. The college baritone learning a Verdi aria will discover that he spends most of his time in the passaggio and that it just wears him out when he tries to sing the entire aria. Covering a Janice Joplin tune... well, you get the idea. Summary The tessitura of a piece, large or small, places certain demands on the singer's ability to sustain their technique when combined with other musical factors. For these situations, the tessitura of the singer (that is, the areas that the individual singer can sustain) should be matched to that of the piece. Other factors being equal, this is best done by adjusting the key of the piece to the ability and voice type of the singer.   This essay was first published January 17, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet’s #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.
  21. Steven Fraser
    Marilen: You both do this very nicely. It was enjoyable to hear such clear, young voices.
  22. Steven Fraser
    Marilen: The laid-back jazz style you are employing is just fine, however, I found myself wanting to hear just a bit more tone from you through most of the song. Right near the end, when the other voice (pianist?) joins you, you increased the volume to a level that seems more engaged and compelling. It made me wish that you'd employed that intensity of tone more often through the song.
  23. Steven Fraser
    Don: Not sure I understand the question :)
  24. Steven Fraser
    Geno: I liked this alot, and when you wailed up into the top for a moment, you made me want to hear more of that. Nice rendition, dude.
  25. Steven Fraser
    I had the same reaction. 8 and 7 seemed either too present, and not present enough, and then things equalized out. Maybe it was a bit of time to get into your 'comfortable' zone. Anyway, the numbers 6-1 all sounded great. Good recording quality, balance, presence... the issues I mentioned in the post last week were all resolved. One of the songs seemed just bit too low to be optimum, but overall, nicely done. I enjoyed listening to your casual, authentic club swing style.
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