Opaa

"Many singers produce "styl-ish" strained sound. Sting (the Police times) is one of them." Steven Tyler does this too imo.

I think he sounds good there The very top notes are too tight alright but otherwise isn't that just the way he sings and sounds all the time?

It appears that I try to sing a new song every day. Here's a bit chestier one, I lean more into the voice. Stevie Wonder - Place in the sun: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8384032/2012/2012-08-07%20Place%20in%20the%20sun.mp3 I tried to keep the headvoice going beneath the tone as strong as possible (in the passagio), but it get's smothered by the chest voice so easily. It works in a decent manner already though.. I can't wait till I get to really work on restructuring those passagio notes.

Thanks izzle, that makes a lot of sense. "This way of training will work to an extent, but you will never become strong or coordinated enough to sing those same pitches in a chesty way if you are always lifting half of the weight. This is where I hope that messa di voce and other Frisell-exercises are able to eventually deliver those results. "at some point you are going to have to start to add more weight." I hope that point is now. But gradually though. I'm starting to have some success with swelling EH vowel from detached falsetto into a full voice, which according to Frisell marks a turning point in the muscular development and a shift from "closed phase training" to "open phase". At that point Frisell advices to start working the head and chest voice both separately, if I remember correctly. I'm not gonna go there quite yet, but soon I guess. Hopefully I'll be able to handle more weight soon enough.

Thanks Keith Thewall thanks for the tip of how Adam is singing it, and I indeed did headvoice all the way for the practice of it.

Btw thank you for the feedback so far guys, appreciate it. Devaitis feel free to suggest any songs. Posting samples can be pretty embarrassing sometimes... I don't sound terribly good right now. But I tried a female song today, Titanium by David Guetta feat Sia. It seems that I have a lot of work to do lol, but I have a feeling about this song, I'm gonna work on this. I have a lot of strength to develop and technique to work on. Here it is: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8384032/2012-08-06%20Titanium.mp3 Boy I need to narrow down those high note's vowels, they're all over the place.. And support is a bitch, and cord closure. I creak all the time on the top. But even though my voice isn't very strong right now, there is still some kind of headvoice development that I didn't use to have and my voice sits higher. Headvoice is more dominating than before, which is what I've been going for and I want to build strength on that foundation. I hope you guys be honest with me as I'm telling you how I'm approaching and working my voice and tell me what you think about this. Now I'm taking my chances with this headvoice approach, because I have a feeling that it will eventually give the certain type of results I'm looking for, even though it has it's problems or challenges. I want my voice to sit high and my headvoice to be very dominating and to stretch it throughout my range. I want my range to be very high and I want to be one of those tenors who even speak with headvoice presence. I want my voice to be transformed. Challenging and I'm absolutely nuts but I have a feeling for this and nothing to lose anyway so I'll give this vision all my effort.

Another paragraph from the same chapter: "During the transformation of the upper register's muscles to a state of dominance, the process automatically imposes a corresponding transformation of all the tones of the lower register. In proportion to the ongoing development of all upper register tones, the corresponding tones of the chest voice automatically and undeniably begin shrinking, and reducing their "weight" and "thickness". As a result of this metamorphosing process, the tones of the antagonistic chest voice are forced to subjugate themselves to the developing falsetto's muscular control, and begin to willingly participate in a "team effort" to accomplish the task of singing. During this phase, the developing voice goes through many frustrating periods or "turbulence", during which the singer may believe he will never resolve the antagonism between the two registers. Patience, faith, and persistence must reign!"

Really? I'm not talking about disconnected headvoice, I already exercise chest but only by blending it with head voice and there I try to strengthen it as much as possible. I do this with the messa di voce exercise. I don't exercise chest in a raw state, which means without the collaboration of head voice muscles, or swelling it "through the head". However singing in a light semi-disconnected way in a song like I did above might be dangerous or unnecessary, or not, I'm not sure. I differ with you based on the information on Anthony Frisell's book The Tenor Voice. Here's a quote of what I'm talking about: "All superior voices are "created" by muscular structuring, achieved by transforming the undeveloped muscles of the two vocal registers (from whatever starting condition in which they present themselves), to a "new" state of structural existence, one that must conform to, and in time, satisfy all the demands of a large repertory of difficult vocal literature. In the beginning, this transformation is accomplished by executin a series of selected exercises which favor the development of the upper register, so that it becomes the dominant muscular system. What becomes evident, during this slow building process, is that the muscles controlling the tones of the upper register begin to grow in strength, first, within their original boundaries, and then, they can be transported physically ( not merely esthetically), downward in the vocal range and made to overlap all the tones of the lower register. (Another later paragraph): With continued strengthening of all the tones of the upper register, the basic sound of its tones begins to change. New, improved vocal sounds appear and begin to match the sounds of the transformed tones of the lower register. The lower register's tones begin to sound "lighter", "buyoant", and "heady"; in time, they become "puffy" (with breath) and "falsetto-like", because the breath flow is now merging with them. They communicate to the singer (and to the knowledgeable teacher), their capacity to correctly apply "projecting power" as opposet to "forced resonance". At the same time, all the developing tones of the upper register begin to take on a more solid sound that is "like" the transformed sounds of the lower register, yet they are still being produced and controlled by the muscles of the upper register." So Frisell clearly states that the lower register will "lose power" during the process and the upper range will grow in strenght. This is the early phase of training.

I might be absolutely out of my mind but I do it on purpose to develop my voice in a certain direction. No way I'm going to sing that heady for the rest of my life and I can sing chestier too, but I hope to develop a new structure in passagio and throughout my voice. This kind of heady singing is just for a little practice, my real workout is messa di voce exercise. This is so weird, because it's kind of working so far. On the other hand my headvoice alone is much stronger and more reliable and my high range is more accessible, but my passagio and chest has been losing power and I have allowed it to happen for now. I might be crazy, my voice is less powerful right now but still I feel like I'm making progress to the right direction. I think that when the power and chest comes in after all the headvoice workout and blending, it will be a new kind of structure where my voice sits higher and I will be able to blend the chest and head in a new way. That's what I hope to accomplish anyway. For now I'm in a weird middle ground, if what I think is true.

Thank you :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8384032/2012/2012-08-03%20Time%20for%20miracles.mp3

You sound great and I think Jamiroquai song fits your voice perfectly!

Sounds really good to me. My opinion: Strenghten the top notes and this would probably go from good to great. You already have a connection going on and a good sounding, controlled head tone. And the lower passagio notes sound great. Maybe gradually add more pressure on those higher notes and really give them a good workout to add more power and musculature to them? And maybe work to be able to move in and out of that lighter headvoice to a more powerful one, blending them? That's my opinion and that's what I would go for anyway "Adding chest musculature to it is the next step. I have no idea how to do it." Well this forum is full of people with answers on how to work on that I personally use mostly the messa di voce aka swelled tone exercise.

Well not to compete against others, but voice like yours is a rare gift and I think gifts like that need to be shared I'm sure people would love to hear you sing That's all I'm saying, music needs to be heard!

WOW! That's just amazing.. How about going to a Talent competition or something?

That's certainly a tip worth mentioning, thanks!

Thanks. I'm influenced by Axl too and for sure I tend to imitate him a bit when singing this song, but I'm trying to develop my own tone with this, not to capture his tone. And I don't think I'm gonna compete jonpall :)

Really? Thank you Obviously I hope to improve the tone in near future, but I think I got something good going on since I can sing a head/mix in a fairly controlled manner here..

What do you think? Any tips for working with this one? http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8384032/2012/25.6%20you%20could%20be%20mine.mp3 This didn't sound very edgy yet, but I think I'm able to work on that with this song. This song obviously sits high up in the headvoice, which is good since I've been working on my headvoice. Now I feel that it's time to gradually add some intensity and work with a deeper compression, without losing the headvoice "release". I want to gradually strengthen my voice muscles to be able to hold a bigger, fuller and edgier tone in the upper range, but still not losing that control and "easiness". Btw that annoying "iiiiiiiiiii" at the beginning is something I sometimes use to find my headvoice placement :)

Thanks for the feedback!

I tried it again today but there wasn't much improvement. So instead I did "Ring of fire" and it turned out alright I think, considering it was a spontaneous and partly improvised take. I sang it with a constant "squeeze" or "cry". http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8384032/2012/19.6%20Ring%20of%20fire.mp3

Thanks for the feedback and tips! This was done so light because I wanted to make sure that the head musculature stays beneath the tone even if I add intensity, so I don't "flip" into chest voice musculature. People usually worry about flipping into falsetto / headvoice, I worry the opposite Well there wasn't much intensity this time, but I will work on it, hopefully I will be able to post something soon with a bit of development. I aim for a more developed headvoice and mix with this.

What do you think? http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8384032/2012/9.6%20Mad%20World%20w%3A%20reverb%20eq4.mp3 I'm working my butt off to strenghten my headvoice to get that low connection and head-dominant, yet full and balanced sound that Adam Lambert has. My top note sounds super wimpy imo, but I hope the swelling exercises will do their trick in time... Actually I think the whole thing sounds weak, wimpy and unprofessional, but it's all head dominated even on the low notes, which I haven't been able to do before. By the way I tried to record the Don't stop believing that I had last time and it was a disaster. Gonna get back to it in some other lifetime lol.

Thanks Olem. Will try it with a backing track soon, hopefully this week.

Thanks guys for feedback. Keith I just emailed you about the backing track! I will give it a shot as soon as I can, within a week or so. Hard times, I don't know if my singing is getting better or worse, I will certainly do my best trying to record this song.