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kalapoka - Thanks for your comments. Yes there is one note that is constricted - a D5 right before the instrumental break - I wonder if that's the same note you are referring to. The first take was improvised - I didn't practice it. I subsequently recorded two more "takes" of the phrase - without constriction. But I liked the feel of my first attempt so I just kept it. On the guitar - I'm using a Godin acoustic electric - recording direct and dry. I'm using PodFarm 2 as a plugin and Perfect space reverb. My DAW is Sonar. analog - Thanks! ronws - Thank you - I liked your version too. Geno

I recorded this song last weekend. Thanks to this forum I am finally able to sing this song. http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9375888

Sounds great. Nice guitar work too.

You've got a nice quality to your voice and you are singing in the passagio area (F#) nice and relaxed. One easy way to improve your voice quality is by smiling while you sing. Most of the time your cheeks don't look energized. If you energize your face by smiling it would add instant brightness. Those really high parts you are singing in fallseto could be sung in full voice if you want. Maybe you want to sing that in fallseto, but if not you can learn to extend your upper range to do that. Also, you may want to try recording your guitar alone and then practicing your vocal without playing your guitar. Seems like you might be distracted by the guitar part. You can always do both together, but isolating the voice lets you concentrate on improving the voice.

Much improvement there. The guitar is much better and the vocals are improved. That is a tough song to play on the guitar.

I just watched the Chris's really cool unplugged version of Black Hole Sun. In that song he does seem to use curbing, and at the end it seems like he is singing overdrive - G4 and A4. Curbing somes from CVT terminology, and CVT has done a ton of research with all different kinds of singing. Their website is pretty informative and there are some youtube videos of Catherine demonstrating the different "modes". check out 3:00 on this video: She demonstrates these different modes. Overdrive is like yelling and has a limit to about C5. Whereas Curbing which is "holding" (crying) has virtually no upper limit. Twang is something you can apply to get a brighter resonance and power like Overdrive. It also allows you to go super high like Curbing.

Sounds really good to me - Still you turn me on. You are connected with your breath support pretty much the whole way through.

Wow! Excellent performances. I love your guitar work and you voice fits perfectly with your style - both songs. You don't really need to do anything with your voice if you don't want to - you are a natural. But if your are interested in improving your voice you've come to the right place. For one, if you want to sing full voice up another octave (in addition to your falsetto singing) you can do that. You'll need to learn to sing through your passagio (E4 to Ab4) and there is a "trick" to learning how do do that. An easy improvement is this: Try smiling while you sing. You'll add some brightness to your tone by raising and energizing the cheekbones.

Sounds actually very good! You are singing mostly in the passagio area in overdrive. This can be hard to sustain for long periods of time. If anything you might want to try curbing with a little twang in this area to get similar power wth less effort. Maybe you already can do this? Good luck with the lessons and keep us posted!

ronws - Your voice is nice and smooth up there on the A4s and B4s. You seem to be able to transition very freely between your passagio and head voice. Nice job! I've also been working on this song and I agree with VIDEOHERE - walsh's stuff is not easy.

Iris - great job! You have a very nice voice. The minor pitch issues are really just a confidence thing which you WILL overcome. I would bet that when you are at home practicing you are right on. If you concentrating on correct breathing this will also help the pitch even if you are a little nervous. I could definitely hear you adding some weight and distortion and twang to your voice to give more emphasis in certain phrases. Siobhan Magnus is a good example of a singer who would sing a lot in neutral (like you) but she adds distortion and twang as needed. I think you could work on those techniques to give you more options. Nice job!

Sounds great! Well performed. Welcome to the forum. You already have very good technique. Stylistically it sounds very appropriate to the song. This is a matter of personal taste, but I could envision you adding more power in certain areas of the song. Well done!

Great job! Head voice sounds nice and big and very consistent with the chest tone. The last note is really good. I can't give any advice - sounds great to me.

Thanks jonpall for the great comments and support. Yeah thats me on guitar - thank you. I wasn't sure about distortion on this song at first, but I tried it and I kind of like it. Chad Kroeger from Nickleback does it on all their ballads and I love it.

Seventh Fear - Actually your comments on my other song was what motivated me to try a little more distortion. Thanks for the tips and excersises! I'm going to try those - cool video!

Thank you Michele! I wish I did! I have 4 CD's worth of original music but I haven't spent the time to get to the point of marketing them for sale. It is one of my goals. But after your comments I think I might be able to sell one some day! I appreciate your comments!

Thanks Steven - Yeah the song is not in the tenor range and was I trying to find a way to go up there without taking away from the song too much. Maybe I can work more of that in. I'm glad you liked it.

Hi - I bought the CVT book and am starting to get a handle on "healthy" distortion. With this song I can finally produce distortion without my voice feeling bad afterwards. But it is still hard for me to control it "at will". Please take a listen and see what you think - it is not heavy distortion - but it is the most I've done in a single song. The vocals start around 00:39. http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9094030 Thanks Geno I updated the song - 5/9/10: added more high notes per Steven Fraser 2nd verse and 5/8/10: added a shredding guitar phrase 2nd half of solo.

Your voice has a great tone - nice and bright and unique. I agree with Steven about the pitch. I think if you started to do some vocal excersizes on a regular basis the pitch would improve in no time. Steven posted some great ideas on improving pitch on a thread a while back. Good luck!

Jonpall - great singing! You really have Pride down - I'd say that is ready for live for sure. You have ACDC down really good too - you can tell it is not all the way in your voice yet on some of the verses - but very close. The high choruses are great. Really good technique up there high and the right amount of distortion. Well done!

Thanks Steven - I really appreciate your feedback - I don't know if what I was saying is right about vowels - you are definitely the expert here. I think you nailed it on the head when you said "vowel pronunciation" for the genre. Vowels are vowels no matter what genre, correct? It is more the way we pronounce them that identifies them with a genre or even dialect, right?

Thanks Jens - yes I would love to be able add distortion up there and very interested in your excersises. You can really scream up there! I'm not on hotmail, but my email is gno2@wi.rr.com. How I work my voice: Currently practicing octave traids and scales on each vowel starting low (A2-A3) and then progressing up one semitone at a time as high as I can comfortably go which for the past two weeks is F4-F5, and then back down. I'm slowly gaining range. I'm using vowel modifications through the passagio and my head is much lighter - and it is generally an operatic tone. However, when I sing a rock song, I try to make the vowels sound as they should for the genre - which is not operatic. I'm trying hard to keep my throat open up there in the A4-C5 range to keep the tone heavier. At first it was really difficult but got easier over a few weeks. I know it is not overdrive and Snorth said I'm curbing.

Thanks Jens. But you can sing way way higher than me! C4-C5 must be a piece of cake for you.

Thank you Jonpall!!!

Thanks for listening. I checked your page out - Great guitar playing! I like the legato lesson.