Matt

I would say yes, lots of twang. The very onset when you registered the note was perhaps falsetto-ish for a brief second, e.g. vocal folds not as closed as they were once you got into the tone, IMO.

Very nice. Couldnt listen to it all though, because the cat started complaining. Dont worry, she looks extremely offended when I sing too...

It WILL help you sing in the break if you dont give up and keep at it. Strive to get that siren less and less forced. Instead of increasing volume and muscling your way up, lower your volume when you feel you're starting to strain too much. You want to practice so that you can creak even at the higher end of the siren. I agree with Jens, you're already getting closer, but I can hear you chords are too far away from each other which gives your siren a slight woofy sound, rather than a creaky, whiny, buzzing tight closure. Its the same for everyone, its a typical problem, we all have to go through this stage, even though where you are now it seems really strange that these exercises will help you.

Yeah, in the beginning. Youre not going to learn to sing in one conversation on the internet You do that regularly though, and check back to the brett manning clip now and then to make sure you're not straying away from the path and each day you'll understand it better and get better at it. Probably creak in a low comfortable range most of the exercise before trying to squeak very softly upwards.

Good. You need to do that for a month or two. after a while you'll understand how it feels better and better. As soon as you need to flex anything in your throat doing that, you're doing it wrong. Do that around your bridge problem area and your chords will begin to learn to stay closed through the break and you'll work that yodel wobble away. You started straining as you went up a little, but you'll learn to not do that after a while. Try to not let it flip over to falsetto, theres a sort of experience of a slightly different pressure that you'll feel and hear when you keep the chords together, even if it sounds roughly like a falsetto, but with a bite, or cut to it. Its better to lower the volume than raise it when you get into a difficult, higher area.

better example:

Vocalizing isnt about sounding good at all though, some of the exercises sound downright embarrassing when meeting the neighbors later. Sirens are basically to learn to keep chord closure through the bridges and iron out whats causing them to flap apart making the voice falter in that area. Making it into a pretty sound is step 2. Try creaking,"vocal fry" all through the siren like a squeaking door, or try the robot voice. Both train you to keep your chords closed:

Siren 3 is getting close. I often spend time sirening up and down just 3-4 semi-notes around where the problem break is, ironing out the kinks.

No, thats flipping over to falsetto. E.g., youre not learning to keep your vocal chords buzzing in close proximity as you go up, instead youre letting them part and flap about which gives you a weak resonance, much like the difference between letting air out of a balloon with a wide open valve which wont give much tone, or letting the air out of the balloon with the valve stretched together with tight closure which will give a stronger tone

I took the liberty of posting this in the vocal technique board, where you'll get more response, hope thats ok.

Its a siren that you're strangling as you go up. a siren needs to be relaxed all the way. A common trick is to, as you approach where its starting to get high, reduce the volume to a tiny little voice as you continue through the passagio, and after some practice you'll notice that as you pass through and upwards through the tricky bridge and leave it behind you, you'll find it easier to return to normal volume. Lip rolls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0CvItiNMsA Combination of siren and creaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmByAiyXeAQ (couldnt find a pure siren example right now, but I know theyre out there at youtube)

Sounds to me, that when your voice cracks at "same", you're not speaking, but falling back into bad singing mode habits, e.g. using loads of little muscular adjustments in your throat to finetune the sound in realtime to try to make it more pleasing to your ears (which I think is the wrong direction). Your cracked "same", is the same note roughly as the previous "Flood", which wasn't cracked and which sounded more like speech to me. I think you tensed up after a few words in and began to "sing" again. The experts here will get into different vowel exercises since flood is an easier vowel than same, but Im a bit lost on that stuff. But certainly, you need to strengthen your voice in that passagio area, which entails exercises like sirens, lip rolls, things like that. You're losing chord closure when your voice cracks, your chords blow wide open and you get a shaky sound that yodels through closed chords and open chords (falsetto). You should be doing creaking exercise too. These are the 3 basic exercises I think you should do for a month or two: 1. Creaks/cackling 2. Sirens 3. lip rolls I also think you should definitely get a second opinon from someone like Steve or Robert.

I wouldnt say his technique is awful, but I think the top notes probably caused him problems outside of the studio.

Alarm bells ringing. Are you trying to power it up with "singing" or are you speaking it as if to someone in the next room, casually asking for a beer?

Yeah, never realized what an awful cockney accent I have lol Hmmm. I think I would start speaking the lyrics lower and work my way up, but probably you need to adress this with sirens and connecting the voice etc, which is perhaps the biggest topic on this forum. You should find lots of tips in the Vocal Technique section. Personally, I'd still advise talking lyrics like this but at a level that is comfortable to you to just get that mode engrained into your muscle memory and in time bring it up a little higher, but never tensing, each time you practice. "When I do this I start right out in head voice and flip back and forth from head to chest and back to head" Those notes are right in your weak passagio in other words, one of the major deals about learning to sing. Perfectly normal issue.