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.

Hmmm, headvoice starting too low or too high is something a lot of people do exercises for here, but you'll have to ask one of the tutors for tips on that.

I posted the speaking wav afterwards, did you have time to listen to it? Its not really that high when speaking but can be very high if youre trying to sing it incorrectly, its the sort of pitch one might reach if slightly exasperated for example. I wouldnt try to sing exactly the same notes initially, just vaguely in the area until I start to feel comfortable: Roughly like this, which I think is somewhere in the same range: http://www9.speedyshare.com/data/386303596/18573714/58365063/Would.wav

My personal take, others may disagree: Youre tensing up mentally a lot before each sentence in Would, which is making you pull chest and tighten your throat muscles. You're probably mentally preparing for each sentence sort of like one does when getting ready to do heavy benchpresses, and that doesnt work. I think you're also trying to push air from your throat muscles and hence cutting off the air from your diaphragm. I dont do any official SLS or other schooling, but I absolutely try to speak when Im singing. It keeps my throat no more tense when singing than when speaking up to about A above middle C It takes a little time to notice when your voice switches over from speech to the old habit of affecting a fake voice and "bad singing mode". What I would do in your case, is speak the lyrics at the right tone, but without holding the tone any longer than I would if I was speaking. I often imagine myself speaking the lyrics to my mum. Thats probably fairly easy to get into, but then comes the bit that tricks you: trying to hold on to the note. That, for me, is when its easy to slip back into my old bad habits, so my trick when warming this up is to speak the sentence: "Look, would you like me to speak in slow motion?" When I get to "slow motion", I hold the word as if demonstrating almost sarcastically to someone: "Look, would you like me to speak in sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow moooooooooooooooooooooootiooooooooooooooooooooooon?" The first part of the sentence puts me into speech mode, and the elongated part doesnt turn into "bad singing mode", because Im saying it as if to demonstrate to someone how I would sound if I was speaking in slow motion. This lets me feel what its like to speak long notes, and after warming up like this, I apply that to a song. I like to do that "look, would you like me to speak..." at higher and higher pitches, as if raising the pitch somewhat in exasperation. You can and probably do say sentences to people at for. ex. G above middle C in fairly normal conversation without tensing up anywhere near as much as you would when you try to sing the same pitches. Hasty, slightly exaggerated example, (havent sung for a few days, so sounds pretty crap, but just to show that what sounds like speech in my head when I produce it, comes out sounding like singing) below. The notes are fairly strong, but Im actually speaking the notes as if I were raising my voice just a bit to speak to someone in the next room, nowhere near the power I would use to shout or yell or "sing". Im using the same power and the same way as if I were in the tv room raising my voice a little to say to my girlfriend in the kitchen: "bring me a beer with you, hun" (I'd never dare do that in real life) http://www4.speedyshare.com/data/976153702/18573328/56064118/lithium.wav This is speaking at around g# http://www7.speedyshare.com/data/655942380/18573525/48140760/slow.wav Thats a reasonably high note that is easily produced speaking and with a bit of polishing and tidying up it quite easily becomes a usable singing mode. If I want to darken and it up a bit and make it more masculine and muscular (which I would if I wanted this to sound good), I just mentally say the lyrics in a sterner voice. You're not far off really though, you're just in a slightly confusing grey area at the moment. My two cents ;)

Nice voice, I like. As you say, a couple of slightly pitchy notes which is what is expected on a demo anyway. You've got some typical country twang there, if anyones unsure of what twang is. Also, like me, you get a little woofy now and again, if you want a little criticism, which you dont really deserve ;)

Thanks a lot Good idea! I'l love to hear comments/criticism/suggestions of my technique, if anyones interested.

I would have liked to hear you do more of a bluesy rock thing, a Paul Rodgers tune or something. I really like that you've got the legato thing sussed.

Very impressive. Big old voice. You sound pretty schooled to me.

Lmao. Yeah, something like that, *imo*.

I would say the whole of your second sentence is a little iffy. Then, "The thought of falling endlessly asleep", second verse and also the sentence afterwards, up until you get more comfortable as you ascend. Two more sentences where I cant work out the lyrics leading up to you going crazy towards the end (which you do quite eminently) sounded a bit suspicious too. I think thats about it really. The falsetto is a nice touch and sounds good and the hysterics at the end are quite impressive ;)

You got a whole range of skills, effects and tricks under the belt there, good job Great sirening. You seem to be quite a lot in your head even far down in the normal chest range. Slight criticism: You were a little off key now and again when you were in your normal voice in your passagio and I was at first a little dubious of your voice until you started getting into what you really enjoy doing. So can R. Halford be, who you could probably take on in a match without feeling ashamed.