jonpall

I'm actually only slightly kidding here. I think that a lot of that high pitched rock vocal stuff originated from Robert Plant. Anyway... Ronws, I'm flattered by your compliments and glad that you like some of my singing, but calling me a freak of nature might be appropriate if I could do all those tough songs live with my band, night after night and not just ALMOST without ever being shakey in the studio with the possibility of retakes. Even my vocal heroes could eliminate all the shakyness in the studio. I still don't feel I'm quite "there", but give me a year or so, maybe less, and I feel there is a chance in hell I could do it semi well. I have the feeling that DJDeath is someone who can do this almost like driking water as of now, live with his band, and probably Snax, among other few forums members, too. They sound very, very pro. I'm proud of my achievements and I'm very happy where I stand and where I'm going, but I'm also realistic about my current skills. Ronws, I can see the point you're making in this thread and I agree with lots of it. But when I hear myself speak and compare it with how Axl speaks, I don't think our voices are very alike. Well, maybe to some people. Perhaps you can find some tonalities that are similar. People hear things differently. Here's my speaking voice (and a middle pitched rasp and some high rasp): http://www.box.net/shared/eknsc0vvh8

Guys, guys, guys ... all of these singers are basically emulating Robert Plant ;)

Awesome metal singing, man! . *Headbangs...*

In general, I liked it and I think that you have a good sounding voice. I suggest you work on singing the absolute correct english vowels because a) it sounds like you have an accent and you will sound more resonant that way and c) it will be much easier for your throat. I also suggest that you try to work on having an even flow of air when you sing. Cheers!

Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Ron.

Here I cheated slightly. Well, maybe not exactly, because this is what is done all the time in studios. I noticed that there were two places in particular that REALLY bugged me, so I did a little "punching in" and re-did those two places. Those two places are actually just a few words, so there is very little change. Anyway, so here is the slightly improved version: http://www.box.net/shared/4d7mzfp117 Note that I'm deliberately having constant rasp and not just every now and then, just for the sake of practising rasp. Personally, if it were my own original song, I'd use it more sparingly. Just wanted to let you know that :)

Good job! My only suggestion at the moment would be to make your sound slightly less "dopy". You're probably lowering your larynx and raising your soft palate slightly too much. It can often help to do this on the higher notes, so it's great that you're aware of it, but just don't overdo it. That's just my opinion.

Hmm, after listening to that Linkin Park song again, it sounds like it's rather curbing than overdrive, but he's using very little hold/cry so it's hard to tell. However, that high note is a F4 so it's definitely possible to sing that chorus in overdrive, like you're doing in your clip.

You're already doing it well here! What are you worrying about? :)

To sing like that you definitely don't need to twang as much as you're doing in those clips of yours. That's just standard overdrive, below the passagio. Can ty record yourself attemping that line? Also, I think that if you want to work on just twang, try neutral instead of overdrive. Much easier, I think. Much less things you have to think about. But if you want to work on twang with very loud volume in overdrive going to either edge or MLN (and with bit darker sound colour than you're doing), you try one of Jamie Vendera's full voice sirens exercises, like I'm doing here: http://www.box.net/shared/ulyiyrr3sr

Have you tried letting those high notes resonate more from your head than the lower notes? Sounds like your doing the classic "pulling chest". I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for here. Do you f.ex. have a song that you'd like to sing or sing something similar to? Around G4 or even lower, for men, it starts to become a good idea to switch from overdrive to a different mode (CVT) as you go up in pitch.

Cool man! Besides an occasional pitchy note (it was live and you've had a few), it sounded very good. It's also funny to notice just how big a reaction you can get from a crowd with 2 things: High notes and violins. . The high notes being more important. High notes just seem to bring out reactions from the majority of people that lower notes don't quite do. Still, there are many other ways to get good reactions from people in music, than from high notes. But it's very cool to have them in your arsenal, something that Snejk seem to definitely have. Btw. your voice in the upper register is also very full and sounds great. Is there anything about your voice in particular that you'd like to change?

I wasn't sure where your new version of Eleanor Rigby was. My recording setup is a Sennheiser 835 dynamic mic (a condenser would be better) through a cheap M-Audio Fast Track audio device (or whatever it's called). Then I use Cubase SX and EZDrummer. I haven't tried out those drum programs you've mentioned. Btw. are you playing the guitar solo on your version of "Carry on my wayward son"? It's very good. It's been very long since I heard the original version so I have no idea if the solo even resembles the original one. It sounds that you're mostly using creaking instead of distortion. Personally I don't think you really need to change a thing about your voice. F.ex. your vocals on "Carry on my wayward son" show great connectivity in your voice and there is some grit here and there. If you really want to look into distortion (with the false folds) you could check out a recent post of mine about that subject in Bob's "Urgent" thread and see if that may help you. Basically, you may need to twang and lighten your sound colour (via a raised larynx and a lowered soft palate) to the point of you first thinking "hmm, that can't be right - it's too extreme and even slightly silly". But that's usually what you have to do at first and then you can pull back a little on the sharpness in the tone and make it a bit rounder but still keep the distortion so that you're morely likely to sound like Dio in his prime than Brian Johnson at the age of 89 in an elderly home.

lol, yeah, thanks Thanos. A while ago I just sang some lines from well known songs but later I decided to just make something up. I do, however, make sure that my high notes are not all on the Uh vowel, i.e. that I put in some I and O vowels as well. The Uh vowel has a tendency for many people to slip into a more shouty Oh (as in so) and if you can do the I and O vowels fairly easily you know you're not shouting. I'm also in the process of writing lots of original material these days. That's really where the fun is at, but I for a while I've really wanted to be able to write, sing and record very edgy hard rock music with screaming, intense vocals and not just accoustic ballads in the baritone range, although they can be great fun, too. So I'm building up to something hopefully good that I have more chance to be able to pull off now.

I stumbled onto this thread by accident. I had already listened to the clip but very briefly and was in a hurry and didn't have time to write comments. I just listen to the track again and it's just a joy to listen to. For the most part I didn't listen to it with critical ears. I just sat back and enjoyed the music and the vocals. It's very professional sounding and you really have singing in the blood, man. I particularly liked your phrasing and emotion. Sometimes you put in slight vibrato, sometimes you ended a phrase with a slight downwards dive. Sometimes you pulled a bit back on the volume and sometimes you put your voice in a higher gear. You also showed that you have some control over moving across your range (from chest to head). And like Snax said, this could be something you'd hear on the radio. You've also put some effort into learning to mix songs, haven't you? Your songs always sound very well mixed.

It sounds a bit like Richie Kotzen :)

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I really appreciate them. Steven, those were some cool ideas. Also, considering your expertise, your comments make me glad. Ron, you're always so kind. Thanks for the Axl comment. It was cool coming from one GNR fan to another. guitartrek, thanks buddy. Yeah, I was meddling around with a very slight delay for the very first time and I think that in certain songs it can be very effective. I do dislike it, however, when vocals are overly produced, so one has to be careful and tasteful with effects like these. I was also using reverb. My distortion feels different from where I used to feel it. I now feel it more above my vocal folds. I'm pretty sure it's false fold distortion.

Since I've been writing a bit about my opinions on rock tenor singing techniques (high, powerful notes, usually with distortion), I thought it might be fun to let you hear me do a simple exercise that I've been doing a lot recently to help me get better at this sound. I don't claim to have really mastered it yet, since I'm relatively new at this but I feel that I'm improving and I couldn't even go near this style of singing a while ago. This exercise is very simple. Using this "rock tenor sound" and really focusing on twang (but with resonant vowels whenever I can), simply improvise random melodies with random words and have fun. It's just gibberish but I feel that it's good training after you've gotten slightly good at just getting that sound going on in the high part of the voice. So this would be a good next step in going from scales to something that resembles a song: http://www.box.net/shared/716r0cu0v4

Also, if you follow my tips, you'll find that your support effort will be reduced. So you get more for less. Sounds good?

I'd say you're 99% there already and have the potential to sing this and similar songs simply great. It's already somewhat great, but I still hear a slight strain. I'm on a similar boat myself. I think you currently probably are singly slightly too loud in curbing and aren't hitting the curbing vowels 100% correctly. You can hear that you get much louder in the chorus and there you push the volume and squeeze your throat a bit too much to for it to be healthy - or at least I recall you saying that. You could also be overdoing the hold/cry in curbing. But the problem you find is that if you lower your volume, you don't sound as full as you'd want, right? The reason for that is usually because you're not singing the curbing vowels 100% correctly, even though you think you are If you hit them spot on, it feels like you "fill out" with resonance and you get a nice balance of high and low overtone. You already have good twang, which is very, very good and it makes it easier for you to put that slight distortion on top of the most emotional words and phrases. Btw. your distortion sounded very cool. Also, in your lower range, don't forget to keep your twang and sing with slightly more confidence, just like you're doing on your high notes. Great job man! But, as always, I'm not a vocal coach, so this is just my opinion. Still, try this stuff out and see where it takes you.

I think what Ron suggested would be a very good start. You're singing well. It's just that it might sound a bit better if there was a bit more variety in your vocal sound. Perhaps this is exactly how the original version is, 'cause I haven't heard it. But there's nothing that says that you can't put your own spin on it, even just slightly. Cheers.

Thanks, Ron. Although I think I could do it a bit better now. I hear that I'm not 100% centered in curbing, so I cringe a bit when I listen to it now, but hey, it was fun and very beneficial to attempt that song.

Snejk, that was cool and fun to see. Ron, that may have been your best performance so far. So I guess you're always improving. I'd guess that the difference between this take and many of you other takes was that 1) you were more relaxed than often before and 2) you've learned a lot from this forum . Cheers.

Hey, I do the same as well - I play lead guitar and sing lead vocals. I can do a good version of the Sweet child o' mine solo, f.ex. and some attempt at Steve Vai's For the love of god, which you can find here: www.reverbnation.com/jongunnar. I'll say that you're an unusually good guitar player with just the right balance between technique and feel. And since you're in the process of nailing that rock tenor sound - that's just scary . Just wow. Have a nice one, dude!