jonpall

Sorry for the lateness of my reply. I liked that track and think you're always getting better. I know you can improve even more, but you're definitely going in the right direction. Great site this is, eh? You sang the song with emotion and quite often, your vibrato was pretty good I must say. What you might want to work on is achieving a slightly better breath management (to sound more confident, relaxed and get a more evenly sustained sound) and see if you can let Steven Fraser listen to this as he will be able to point out things you can do to improve. What I can point out to you, and I've done so before, is to check out something that I think could really help you with basic breath management. For more advanced stuff, check out other vocal programs, but you gotta master the basics for most things you want to get good at in life so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=seth+riggs+speech+level+singing+part&aq=f. It seems that most of the parts are right there on youtube! . But you gotta find all the parts yourself by investigation work, which isn't all that hard. I don't think that any other program has helped me more with getting a clear, evenly sustained pitch. And we should never stop working on these basics or at the very least make sure we don't forget them. In any case - good job and I think singing lots of baritone stuff AND tenor stuff AND using the link I gave you will help a lot.

Shit, you have just about the perfect rock sound going on. I really liked it. I also like the type of music you listed.

Thanks, Steven!

Thanks man! I appreciate it.

Hmm, perhaps you're using an old Internet Explorer? Is anyone else having this problem?

Hi guys, Here's a song I wrote and recorded a few years ago. It can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/coma0210. Look for a song called "Letters in the sand". I plan to re-arrange it into a slightly more rock version akin to perhaps Bruce Springsteen. Right now it's really an accoustic pop song with some drums and bass added in a hurry for the fun of it. It doesn't contain any vocal gymnastics, though. The top note is a G#4 and it's really just based on a simple melody and lyric idea. It would be cool to hear what some of you guys think of it. Cheers!

Pros: Generally awesome and you have tons of talent, dude! Cons: 1. You should work a bit on sustaining long notes with and without vibrato. Every now you wobble a bit when you're singing long notes (very seldomly, though). 2. Go one step further in attitude for songs like this - like you don't give a (*auto edit*) and at some places just kind of spit out the words and/or pronounce them extremely clearly. Think about Robert Plant - at some point it sounded like he transcended into another world where he didn't have a care in the world apart from the story he was conveying in his current song. He dared to take singing onto a higher level. So you should ask yourself, can I take it one step further in terms of emotion - have I gone all the way yet? If not - go further!! It's not applicable to all songs but it certainly is to most rock 'n' roll. I hope you understand what I mean. Your audience will respond even better to you. Note that that's just my opinion.

It's true that the new mic will make a difference but I think that the biggest different is your improvement in technique.

...and I think it would be helpful for you to do baritone songs that have many LONG notes to hear how you sustain notes (and get you to practise it).

Don't worry about getting Bon's or Brian's tone, ron! Why would you even want that? What I've been trying to get you to do lately is to beef up your sound a bit (without straining your throat) and get a more rocker sound. It sounds like you're already there, man, or pretty darn close. Congratulations on a job well done! It's the enunciation, vowels and pitch part that I'm suggesting you work a bit on, to really turbocharge your voice. I'll see if I can find some of your old baritone songs to listen to but since you've progressed a lot since then, it would be more beneficial to hear what you sound on those songs now.

My, my - Ron, it's cool to hear you progress. You're getting better each time. There's an attitude here that I like. Kind of a f#%k you rock 'n' roll attitude. Good stuff Your tone is fuller, better placed, better twang, better pitch, etc. It's also cool that you use rasp SOMETIMES and not on each and every note. That's the best way for rock 'n' roll, IMO. Your performance is still not at the level it could be for this song but it's miles above what it was when you first started out. I'm being brutally honest so that you'll not get torn into pieces or something in the "real" world, but trying not to be a dick like someone like Simon Cowell would be and do my best to have my critique constructive, knowing that you can improve - and thinking that you WILL improve, from what I've heard from your recordings and general good and positive attitude towards singing. A truly great asset to have. My comment for improvement would be to pick several songs in the baritone range that are very, very easy to sing and try to sing them as well as you can, focusing on enunciation (singing each word very clearly), vowels (using the most resonant ones each time) and pitch. You need to have a more solid foundation in order to tackle a huge song like Highway to hell, which, by the way, is in my band's set list, but only when I feel that I'm in good vocal form (otherwise we don't play it that night and a few of the other most difficult songs). I suggest you pick songs from several different styles, record them, and post them here. I'm sure there are a few errors that you're doing over and over in regards to enunciation, vowels and pitch, that you and us will notice much better on easier to songs. Let's fix them together and turbocharge your voice even more, shall we? It could also help you to experiment with mic placement. Even for screaming, I don't think it's good to have your mic that far away. Or is it maybe a condenser mic? You could reduce its gain and move closer. And experiment with adding a slight more reverb and eq the track slightly to get your vocals to mix better with the backing track. Even still, this one was mixed much better than some of your previous takes. Bravo.

Selling fish bait for a few months ... touring with JP for a few months, alternatively. Does it sound that bad, Tim?

Hey Snax! Judas Priest are about to go on their "final tour". Perhaps you should pull a Pineda and show the band your audio clips ;)

I found that Rob Halford and Paul Gilbert clip: . It's great! And here you can hear that he uses false fold distortion instead of rattle. The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure that his technique in this song (and in many other Judas Priest songs) is pretty much exactly the same as Axl Rose's. Especially on this clip. He sounds so much like Axl it's uncanny. Btw. I'm working on this technique a lot these days :)

Well I liked it, Mike! But perhaps you'd like to try using false fold distortion instead of rattle as your way to get rasp in this song? Just a suggestion. Also, on some notes it sounds like you try to darken your sound a bit too much (very little, though), which can take away some of the edge and attitude of your sound. I think many rock tenors in the past fell pray to that. They were constantly trying to have a "bigger and fatter" sound than the other singers. I think Freddy Mercury may have done this a bit in his latter years, especially live. But I think it's the wrong way to go. I'm just mentioning this because I know you're looking for improvements and not JUST praises Even though you deserve all the praises in the world. In any case, awesome singing as always, Mike. Cheers!

What the hell do they put in the waters where you and your friends come from?? She's unusually good - VERY pro sounding and with a rare rock-chick sound.

Barbara, I really liked your vocals. I checked this thread and a bit of the songs you have on your youtube site, after you posted on my Whole lotta love video. Great voice!

On some of the high notes (f.ex. on the word "repeating" early in the clip) you try to make the sound a bit too dark so it doesn't sound as good as it can be, but on many other notes you do it very well. It could be because the word "repeating" has the Ee vowel for the highest note and the Ee vowel is difficult to sing in the high part of the voice with power. Try modifying it towards the Ih vowel, use good support and twang. Then you should strain less and also sound less strained and better on that note. All in all, good singing, man!

Snax, what would you say are the most important things to keep in mind, vocal technique wise, when singing in a style like that?

One reputation point for Snax for his contributions to the forum lately (and before) :)

I must disagree here, Janet and I'm sure the other forum members will say that same. We're all equal here. And I have more respect for singers who had to really work for their voice as opposed to ones who could always sing amazingly well from an early age. I know how tough it is. The first time I ever sung in a studio, being a guitar player first and foremost, I was told "don't quit your day job". But with training I've managed to improve my voice to the point that people don't say that to me anymore. The truth is that most people don't realize how much you can improve your voice with vocal exercises. They think that you have to be born with it which is just wrong.

One thing I like about your singing, Snax, is that you care about the details, but still have a bit of a reckless attitude in the sound. A recipy for the perfect singer, really. You do little things like not start the vibrato until at just the right place and it's not too fast and not too slow. Sometimes you don't use vibrato but end a note with a slight dip. Sometimes you start a phrase with a bit of a vocal fry for effect. You sing sometimes clean and sometimes you use rasp - and a variety of rasps, sometimes slight and sometimes very heavy. You sing both soft and powerful. You pronounce the words very clearly and you seem to care about what you're singing. I could go on and on. I do realize that you'd like for this type of singing to be a bit easier for you and perhaps if I was picky and was your producer or recording engineer I'd ask you to redo a couple of words, but that could also actually detract a bit of humanity from the performance. I'm having somewhat similar problems myself. But you seem to be on the right track for sure. Btw. you wouldn't happen to have msn messenger?. FYI, this is one of the clips on this site I just have to listen to more than once. It's that good. And actually, for the rest of you forum members, just know that so many of you are also extremely talented singers. I don't want to leave you out What a great forum, I must say.

Just beautiful, Snax. That's all I can say. Have a great day!

I totally agree with analog - that was awesomely awesome!! I really liked the sound of your voice! Great pitch, rasp, sound, attitude, rock 'n' roll, man! :)

Ron - good job. I think you're improving. Your pitch was good and you channel the emotion of the song well. I think that it would be very helpful for you to get comments from an experienced vocal coach such as Steven Fraser or chanteurmoderne (just as examples) on how you can take your voice to the next level. I'm sure they could point out a couple of very simple things that you're currently not doing and your skills would continue to grow.