Quincy

Ron, I like this take better also. To my ears, you have some serious intensity going on. Good job man! You definitely got some powerful vocals pushing that mic around, but I can still hear through a lot of it. Keep after it man, you're on the right track!

jonpall, To me, your tone sounds great! and you have your air balance really under control. Sounds like you really focused on getting that right. One thing I would personally try and see how it worked out would be to have some more moderate volumes or I guess as has been pointed out, more dynamic variance. Overall great job man!

Stan, I don't have much experience with this type music, but I do hear someone singing his *%&! off! Great job man! I like the intense vocal effects you are doing. Not real sure what they are though. :lol:

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment guys! godvollie; One thing I’m finding out with the limited amount of critiques I’ve heard from my singing is I don’t get a lot of universal approval or universal disapproval; I seem to be controversial. I’m still trying to figure it out. Evidently I have what I would call a “Willie Nelson” style of timing and phrasing. Not that I’m anyway similar to him but that has been a somewhat constant theme I’ve received in the past. It either turns people on or off. I guess that is good and bad. It is probably because I don’t spend the detailed amount of time working out the phrases of the songs I sing as much as most people do. At this point I’m just singing and things keep changing, so I’m not trying to fight it. Stan; Thanks for the compliment. I think you did pick up on the country singer influence. I have a somewhat mongrel background in influence. I’ve lived in Texas all my life and grew up from a baby onwards with my dad playing mostly older country music in our house. He was and still is a big fan of mostly old country music. Plays and sings himself in some local get togethers. Funny thing is when he hears me do a George Jones song like “He stopped loving her today”, which I think I had the phrases pretty close, he’ll tell me it sounds bluesy. Ha ha. So I don’t know. I’m also a big fan of blues, southern rock blues, old Elton John, Beatles, 60’s and 70’s music. Maybe that creates my different sense of timing. But I’m having fun and things seem to be evolving faster in the past year than before. Maybe I’ll post up an old country song and see what kind of reaction that gets. As Lennon would say, “I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round”. :)

Thanks for your input! It really helps me to understand what you guys are hearing.

Thanks for your comments Ron. I know I keep harping on this, but it seems like you never quit discovering that fine balancing act between vocal fold thickness/thinnest and the changing dynamics of breath pressure and air flow. I guess it’s always that way when you find something majorly new and working for you. That sensation of feeling like you are breathing inwards and could change on a dime with the direction of the airflow gives me way more options of different expression. Whereas I used to have a much more limited way I could express a song, I’m at the beginning stages of being able to try whatever comes to mind. Not to say I’m anywhere near mastering this new concept, but I can tell I’m going to be busy for sometime to come experimenting and trying to develop it. Seems the more you learn the more addictive it becomes! Tubagod: I went back and listened to the original and didn’t hear any higher notes over those two sections I did. There were a few beginning phrases that started with a higher note but still within the notes I was using. I’m not sure what you were referring to.

I listened thru one time only, but overall your accent sounds good. The mix was kind of hard for me to tell and be real sure but towards the end where you were repeating the word "opening", it sounded to me like "openy". The "ing" sound wasn't coming thru.

mvrasseli: Is that because it was without effects or were you just expecting some death metal screaming at ear piercing pitch? It might be a while before I can try that. tubagod: Thanks for your tips. It's new territory for me, but I’ll work on copying the original a little closer and see how it goes.

To Michele; Thanks for your comments! The timing is difficult for me, especially in the beginning where the music is not continuous. It’s good to know my pitch has improved as that is an area I’ve had comments on in the past. It is still off in some places I hear. I want to learn more effects in the near future as I’ve been mostly trying to sing clean with out constrictions. Think I’m about ready to dive into some of the CVT chapters on effects. To Ron; Appreciate it! It’s a new song for me and I didn’t really burn into memory all the nuances Chris Robinson uses. I do love the way he sounds and would like to develop a little more of his emotions. But you are right, we should try to keep it our own and just capture the feelings that we really like. I did try to do it fairly clean but think I’m ready to try out some different effects. Getting my breath pressure in line with the changing registrations has been a real challenge for me but I’m slowly getting a handle on it. Thanks man!

I’m working on doing some more aggressive type songs. Not sure what this sounds like to other people’s ears…if it is shouty, constricted, off pitch etc. I don’t get a chance at much feedback (my own insecure fault) . I started out with SS and later MM but have explored CVT to some degree. What I felt was holding me back the most was breath control but CVT and a lot of the discussion on this board has helped me get a better grasp of it. Any comments are much appreciated. http://www.box.net/shared/yzcpburqy2

I just read an excellent post by Steven Fraser that I thought explained it very well... particularly for over blowers. The post regarding transitioning through your first bridge. There is definitely a seduction of wanting to give the upper part of chest voice more foghorn power...instead of transitioning above the middle C area with a little more restraint. Keeping good air balance and twang and finding all those sweet resonant shapes for the various vowels. If a person can burn that muscle memory in it would be a major step to singing with ease and power. :)

I think you are on to something with learning to control your air better. Some people are more inclined to being "blowers"...I fall into that category. I think most of your pitch problems probably stem from this. What I hear are air imbalances that creates tension and constrictions. At that point you lose your vocal cord coordination. I've been working on my support for over a year and it keeps getting better. It's also given me a lot more options using different tones. I used to not like my tone but am getting much more comfortable with it now. I keep getting surprised about "less is more" when it comes to air and effort. Everytime I think I've reached my limit on some phrase, I'll find an even more efficient technique without giving up the strength of the sound I'm going for. Still learning about this stuff but it seems it never ends. Just keep the focus, it will come. :)

Your control is pretty awesome! Stylistically, I guess i was looking for something with a more smokey rough sound to it. Maybe try it with your same licks but a more rough wailing sound. I would also be interested in hearing it keyed down a little. The beginning transition from slower tempo to faster sounded a little rushed. You might try varying that a bit.