Felipe Carvalho

This makes no sense. Aesthetics, plasticity, is not optional on singing (not even talking about technique here, and yes, it IS part of technique). This is starting to go in the direction of a long thread on the technique section with similar content, the super star thing vs need to train. What causes the perception of singing, is exactly the things that translates into aesthetics, pitch precision, how the notes are attacked, the definition of the vowels, the homogeneity of the vocal production, the later two are translated into legatto. The distance from each vowel, in regards to the definition of them, a constant part of the vocal production that causes a perception of continuity, of connection. Without it, singing becomes speaking, no matter if the target audience is a classical singer or just someone on the street, they both will perceive it as the same. Its not a virtuose requirement, it is NECESSARY to allow your vocal production to be perceived as singing in the first place. Its one of the functions of auto-tune btw, thats why you can feed any kind of trash in the in and the out will be the normal auto-tune singing we all can spot miles away by now. If perfect pitch on a melody line was possible without this, it would be perceived by a common listenner as pitchy. But pitch precision and legatto are very close to each other. And then there is the question of musicianship, the musical language used. This is not subjective. Wrong language, as by the way I was pointed very recently in an also very specific way , will be perceived by a listenner who is not aware of this as pitchy. What most define as pitchy is simply sounding wrong, sounding bad in regard to what you were trying to do. And if its perceived wrong, then its wrong! It should go without saying, but then the excuses kick in, you pass it on a spectral analyser, justify with the mics, weather, air quality and so on. The question is, where will legatto come from. Not if, but how? Will it be based on tensions? Will you just sacrifice all vowel definition to have it? Will you sacrifice energy and power? You can have legatto by adding a tongue tension for example, all vowels will share the hot potato quality. OR you can mumble the melody like a drunk guy, all vowels will share the mumbling. You can make it all nasal, all vowels will share the nasality. You can stuck it backwards and it will all sound round and muffled. All these things results in something similar to what is defined as legatto causes, but it just isnt it. What in this is subject to personal tastes? Its all part of technique. Its all objective, nothing in this is subjective. Now is the person doing this kind of bizarre alterations and sounding good? Cool, let him know, sounds good but its nasal (again something that was very detailed on the previous thread, if more info on the subject is required, I recommend reading it to the end). Now, sounding BAD, meanning all the previous things that renders plasticity are absent, and with all kinds of tensions and akward postures, then what is the deal? What can possibly come from insisting on something that has no quality to begin with? At best, a few things similar to the basics of technical trainning will be discovered, but without orientation to dismantle all the bad habits, its a fight you cant win. And the really weird thing is having to discuss this on a forum that is centered on technique, since when does personality and unique qualities of a voice comes from a basic and primary thing as the quality of the vocal production? All voices are unique, by adding nasality or altering emission you are simply discarding the basic qualities and using something that everyone that never had trainning uses to sing once in a while in a karaoke, how original... If on the other hand you learn how to control your voice, with plasticity and without having to struggle with it to deliver a vocal line, maybe, just maybe, it will be possible to focus on the good things all these artists have and that are light years away from a ridiculous thing like nasality or a cartoonish voice. Technique is just that, a collection of procedures and practices that allows vocal production with plasticity and quality while retainning comfort and vocal health. There is no "tone" associated with technique other than the tone your voice have when free of unnecessary tampering. Its much more simple than all this search for magic and "tone". Its not a matter of understanding and thinking about it, its a matter of finding someone that knows how to teach it and has results at a level you would desire to have for yourself, and then, trainning until you can deliver quality. Without results, all the information in the world does not give you any knowledge on this matter. Its practical application, technique is not meant to explain how the human voice works, but to train it to do a task. Just like martial arts do not try to explain how the parts of your body are controled. If "any" kind of result is acceptable, then its easy to write whole compediuns of the ultimate knowledge of the human voice, no matter what you achieve afterwards, it fits the initial proposal When high level of production is the goal, then things start to become slightly more problematic than just accept anything, and yes, EVERYONE can learn how to sing provided that is in good health. A subjective thing would be a choice in the interpretation or your affinity with a particular style. Voice is cool, but this just isnt my thing. Or in that spot, you went too strong or weak, did not like it. Perfectly fine, nobody is forced to like all music that is out there, nor all your choices. I am not talking about choices or styles here.

mdew there is a reason man. We can exchange experiences. Question is, will we exchange experiences, in equality, not assuming less of people for the sake of some sense of "singing politics" or will we really open the game? Its a really simple matter, as long as we keep it simple. The moment you start to question if you should say that its really bad because "what if this person quits", you are not helping, you are misleading. If this person could understand that its not working he/she would not be sending it on the forums. No matter for how long this person been studying whatever it was, no matter if its a disciple of Pai Mei himself. If because of one poor review the person will quit, better not even start on this. Not everyone is as carefull and polite as I am when expressing a "not sounding good".

Daniel, no! Im saying that if I like it, I say it, if not, I say it too. But the examples are of working executions, it has quality, maybe not through technique, but it does have a defined melody, a solid interpretation and homogeneity and consistency (but at what cost?). In many other threads Ive said that it was sounding nice but had technical problems. I repeat its not the cases. That Queen guy was murdering the song from the beginning to end for example, if I remember correctly Chris told him to yawn, hopefully he did. In these cases, high quality delivery, sure, its worth thinking about the existant quality. Not the case when what you have is a broken execution. Consistency and homogeneity zero and tons of tensions creeping behind a weak production. What is there to think about? How many persons could be singing at a top level if this kind of information was treated more naturally instead of all this sensitivity and fear of hurting each other? Anyways we are going way too far from the initial proposal, its simple! When you say that its good, is the song really good? Chris Oh but how seldom does this kind of situation happens? Once in like, every single session? :P

I dont know Daniel, I always liked Guns n Roses, provided that the execution did not had the problems I am talking about here, I would love Axl and not like Brian that much probably. Its a matter of personal taste. Technique, on the other hand, is not.

mdew I know that it would be awesome if we could message a instruction to solve the problem. But how to do it? If its an isolated issue, like one vowel in one spot collapsing, then it may be the case. "Take care, in that spot, its going too forward, sounding like a duck, try to keep the posture the same as the rest". But if everything is random, vowels wavering all around, tongue tension, emission totally forced (to the point of sounding like a squirell, this is NOT resonance), and when its a poor execution you can count on it, you cant even go near these things before breathing, support, emission, are working. Its not a matter of simply telling the guy the old "release your voice". Sure, release it, how the hell do you release something that is being produced based on tensions and constrictions? It will break! Didatic as said before say must come into play. First of all, at least one solid, correct reference must be found, and if not possible, built. From there, the rest can be applied. This varies much from person to person, it depends on what is being done currently both on spoken voice and on singing, and must be verified to be working. Without trainning, you simply dont know where to look, you dont have the perception of the details that matter, which will also vary. Emission ajustment is a boring and necessary process that will dictate the quality of the whole work being developed. If it is not done well, you risk having to discard years of work to reajust it, not to mention more time fighting against old habits. Its not something that can be solved with a "tip", a supportive word or a optimistic mindset. About these guys comming to the forum and asking for opinions... just give it, why not? That korean guy from Gangnan Style might come just as well. Whatever the superstar formulae is, he is the one with it in the moment, maybe he could give out some directions, Id like to listen to what he has to say :)

Daniel listenable is one thing, really not what I mean here. In the way I see it, honesty first, always. Its easy to be classy by just saying "sounding good" "good job" "way to go". A difficult song, with one correct phrase and the rest teared to pieces is useless in the real world, you know that as well as I do. If it was you doing that song, would it be ok if others were listenning to that result presented? Thats the line between what acceptable and unnaceptable to me. If the answer is no, than I proceed into what would I have to hear to proceed. And so on. And really, you could have picked another example hahaha, Curt Kobain is not really someone most people use as a reference of anything. People like how he sang, when he was alive, sure. But at least to me, it doesnt seem a desirable way to achieve things nor to live a life. So many better references that are not centered on vocal health or technique... And just in the case you dont plan on becoming a super star, you know too how important vocal health is if you depend on it to make your living. Finaly, Id like to make it clear that I dont review anything here based on vocal health or on styles. One simple song, well executed, pleasant to listen to, is worth much more than 15 difficult songs that make you press stop as soon as the guy opens his mouth. Completely altering your own voice is not a style. I remember one guy that was singing queen a few months ago, sounded like a squirell with a belly ache, and people were all "ooohhh nice, way to go", "soon you will have results". God have mercy on him if he proceeded on that, and on the coach that will have to undo all the mess. But I was the bad guy on the occasion, for pointing the obvious, uncomfortable maybe, but obvious. In the cases that its possible to interfere, where things are already working in way where its possible, I do give small directions, but really, there are things that you cant do with text, you know that too Daniel. An airy emission or without energy, you need to tell the person to go strong, how do you know what is being done is correct and will not lead to a problem even worse than the airyness/weakness? (these things are not stylish decisions, thats a big technical problem that no matter the style will bring problems). Didatic is the key of course. But when people are just reading and not really paying attention, there is no didatic, the person will just understand whatever it fits best what he/she wants to be the truth. Only once I had an oportunity to interfere that I was sure that would render results, because the mindset was correct, and even in that case, I think its very unlikely that any result will come from it before a directed study, with a teacher, is done. Other than that, its all black magic. The value in this section is exactly in collecting honest reviews of people who are involved with the activity before exposing a work, and also collecting directions when its possible. Its insane to try to make everyone sing by pointing random bits of problems on totally broken executions. Not only you will not help the person, as you will make your own opinions dubious: So do I trust this guy who says the squirell dude is good? Quite hard in my opinion. But this is just my opinion, I have very strong reasons to act this way, because If I had a "good job" back on the day I began second guessing the instruction I was receiving, maybe I would still be pretending to sing while others pretended to like...

Hi Singing. Ok, here we go. First things first, as ronws said, forget the classifications for now. Even if what you want is to go into classical singing, its not done based on range. It seems to me, that the recording was done at a very low volume, isnt it so? Anyways, what you are doing sounds very small, kinda restrained, a little shy. Its perfectly normal, your voice sounds pleasant, but its still a long road of work until its on a nice level, as was adviced, seek a teacher and work it out . Should render great results. On your own, from what you have now, it will be hard because of the nature of a few ajustments that you will have to do, not a big deal, but must be done right. GL!

Which pointers do you (in general) think help a singer progress? In general, find a teacher. Specifically, specially. ;)

:)

Adon. I dunno, If someone abandon hope from one negative opinion that he asked for, its better to not even begin in this. Insulting is not necessary, and now let me remark that it goes for both explicit and implicit insults. George, excuses are the best. Its the mic, the weather, the day, the night... You are spot on. Tommy. Humm I see man. But make no mistake, this isnt about just technique, its musicianship too. I dont buy it that you cant say at least the specific spots where most apparent problems happens. We dont have to provide a solution for problems, nobody can do that on a few lines of text anyways. You can write a few general directions, of what can be done. But exercises and quick fixes are doomed to fail, miserably. mdew its cool man. I am not trying to tell you what to write, just wanting to know what you think about it really.

Hi all! I would like to invite you guys to think about a few points that are real when we give our opinion to others. First of all, I know that no one here has the compromise as being a reference to anyone, or have responsibility over other peoples voices ok? Still, consider for a second section and the forum where we are participating. You see this forum name is "The Modern Vocalist World" and this is a review section inside it. It may be the case that you dont consider your opinion to be so important, but for someone looking for a reference, looking to know where he/she stands, opinions given here have a lot of weight, make no mistake. So can your opinion be trusted? When you say that its "good", do you think that it would hold well on an audition for a band if this person should seek one? Do you think that a common listenner would keep listenning to the end of the file sent? What are your parameters? Are you reviewing the whole singing or just a small piece of the song where it is possible to identify a small quality? How much weight does the social side have on what you write here? Do you think that the fact that the person receiving the opinions will also comment on your own recordings play a role? No? Well then you are ignoring something real, we are all humans, of course we think about what the other will do when writing something for us. The question is: do you manage this well? Are you writing your opinions based on just the person singing, or are you considering your own habilities as a parameter? You see, if you say that something that is above what you can do is bad, where does this leave you? This is a real problem too! Truth is that when we do a review honestly, we must open our defenses too. Im not telling anyone to be an ogre and start just being an ass on everyonelse. I am just saying that if you write something without doing so, you may actually be causing a problem, instead of helping. Consider the little monsters you are creating when you say "good job" to someone who is clearly not doing a good job, maybe 5% better than the horrible last recording, but surely not "good job". We all know how falible our own perception above our own voice is, we relly on external feedback to improve. It may look a good idea to give a small tap in the back to make the person feel nice, but what will happen in the long run? My perception of the current culture here is quite strange. It is subjective, remember that this is an opinion, but Ive heard recordings that no one in his right mind would listen to the end (maybe the mother of the singer), receiving positive reviews. And Ive also received emails from other users (more than one, you guys know who you are) telling me that they simply dont trust many of the opinions issued around here anymore, exactly because of this. Quite frankly me too. Do you think that this is a healthy state? I will not say names, the fact is more important than who. To end this blabber, Id like to say this: Saying that something its not good is not looking down on others! Wake up! You look down on people when you start to review stuff without expecting to hear something decent to begin with. Raise the bar, the reviews are the reason for this section to exist, and we are the ones who make it. Show respect by expecting more instead of leveling all down. ;)

Top notch, as usuall Tommy. I dunno if I said this on the other video, but this guy can play some harmonica huh? More! :)

Hi sound. Well I didnt like the end result man. From the beginning its too inconsistent. Can be much better. Your voice does not sound tense to me, airy when you go high but thats totally normal, and sounding very raw, but with a bit of work should come along very nice. Wouldnt it be possible to get a teacher to help you definig these first and so important steps? You sound comfortable, thats a quite important thing right there.

Tyson it makes sense, its all tied together... I dont know how heavy is your singing schedule, but until your voice is mature, its not such a good idea to overdo it to the point of having an effect on your voice on the days after. Still open and forward is a sound and good plan . Do record something when you are better and send it over, it does not sound bad at all.

Ive heard the two last versions, did not like at all. Same big technical problems as before, chest voice tense, muffled and back, and breaking into falsetto when you go high. Without trainning, from the ground, the basics, it will not change, you are just running in circles around the same issues...

Sound ok, a bit raw voice, but with trainning would quickly improve I think. Main issue is that its all retracted back, closed. I dont understand, you were in tour with the choir and that had impact on your voice? Why? The higher notes are completely off placement, youre literally shouting them.

:D Oh! Thank you Michelle. Really glad you liked it that much! Its just trainning really, I have the luck of having great orientation and I do my homework everyday .

Michelle no problems. About the melody, try defining better the ideas so that they fit better in the harmony. Also do consider well how you will do the alterations, you have a great number of choices to do alterations. Lyrics and the melody line are the more evident ones, the audience will notice it counciously, although it is cool, it is wise to not overdo it. The next is the dynamics line and the vowels. Small changes on how some phrases resolve may give a "personality" for the song without having to change the lyrics. I find it usually do the job better than the more evident changes. About the dynamics and the airy emission. Maybe yes, maybe not... If you are doing as a choice, then yes, of course going a bit stronger will fix it. But I suspect its not the case from what Ive heard, as you went a bit stronger on the songs, the emission did not ajust properly so it suggests that a small ajustment on this fundament is desirable. But for this, a teacher is mandatory, a poorly done ajustment is worse than no ajustment at all. So try working the dynamics a bit, try sitting the middle of the vocal line you are deliverying a bit stronger, on a middle level, and use air as a detail, it surely will help. To address everything together, try picking one of the songs, map everything the original artist did, regarding lyrics, melody, timmings and dynamics, and then replicate it, but thinking just of these aspects, dont try to mimic the original "voice", just the musical content. Afterwards, replace on a few spots how the dynamics are used, on the second verse, try reverting it for example. Boring work, but will reflect on all the other songs, and will give you more tools to deliver your own interpretations. Hope it helps Michelle But I repeat that it is sounding nice, so work from what you've got in slow steps.

Hi Michelle. Its sounding pleasant to listen to, I liked it. There are a few issues that you can fix right away and that will improve it overall, on some songs, I heard the melody going kinda "random", its not a pitch problem, to me it sounds like a place where you dont know the melody exactly and you kinda "invent" something to fill in on the fly. Try defining everything better. Also the interpreation line could use more variation, you are doing almost everything low, and its not contrasting as much as it can. There is one more urgent technical issue that would be great if you could find a teacher and work it, the emission is at all times airy, this can lead to problems on the future. Ajusting it will make your life much easier, and will improve the perceived quality of your voice, will bring more of your tone out. GL!

Cool, slow it down then, let go of the larynx, dont worry if it rises, just dont force it, dont strain. Comfortable will sound great I assure you. Once you begin the lessons then you worry about the technique. This work around comfort and easy singing will make the start easier for both you and the teacher. No need to rush into exercises , it will take just a few months to begin. GL man!

Hi! About the question to either quit or continue. Quit. Still here? Then the question is pointless, its not my choice as you see, its yours. The recording does not sound bad, but its not good either. The main problem I hear is with the melody line, listen more to the song and nail it, in special, the timmings and divisions. hehe curious, Ive heard prety much the same yesterday . Your voice does not sound strainned, but in the only note that is just a small bit higher tension prevented you from singing it. DONT force your way up ok? Either seek a teacher or work around this comfortable area, it will slowly improve. GL, do find a teacher man.

lol tnx guys! haha Tommy well it surely tends to sound a bit like blending ice cubes.I wont try to sell this as technique or even singing, its just plain old screams, with some solid ground so that I dont spit blood afterwards of course. But I do like it \m/ . Very fun stuff, its a matter of taste surely. Tnx for listenning it even without liking haha . Edit: Oh yah, I sent a video of a live version somewhere I think, old stuff. Jens tnx a lot man! But isnt it like that on the original, slightly behind? Maybe I overdid it. Ill check it later Tnx Max I appreciate it :)

Oh its all good rowns, Im not really looking for technical feed either, good or not good is better than any other kind of technical info, nothing like a good and straight yes or no to make life simple . Besides its all the same.

Tnx guys! Mdew ;)

Hey guys! Something with a little more power, finally . My first attempt using a more direct approach with distortion/drive/whatever, very fun. Looking forward for some comments!!! Tnx a lot beforehand! http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11974739&q=hi&newref=1 \m/