KillerKu

  You nailed it on the emotions. Bono's version has a subdued melancholy and he sounds like he is closer to giving up on the subject.   Yours has a raw, pleading feeling in your gut as if you're not quite ready to give it up and are willing to fight for it, even if it things get dirty.   For me that's a big part of what singing is about. My favorite singer (David Ruffin) had a quote where he said, "I don't know what kind of voice I have. I guess it's just the feeling I get for a song.' It's how he emotionally interprets the song.   Ray Charles, another huge inspiration, was asked if he ever got tired of singing Georgia on My Mind, as it was so famous, incredibly good, but on his set list, and he replied, "No. Because every time I sing it, I'm feel different." So he always had more emotions to express in his singing and the interpretations always came out that way.   I'm really big into emo singing as a singer and as a listener (not the genre). I believe soul singing isn't a genre or sounding like X or Y soul singers, but is what you did here. It's when you lay your heart bare and put your vulnerability on the line.   Honestly, it can make technique harder. Emotions have their way of coloring the sound, they alter the resonate spaces, vowels, and even affect the laryngeal muscles directly, and so forth. The main technique I've been working on lately I think of as 'emotional bridging.' The concept is kind of like bridging chest and head voice, but the other bridge occurs between the emotional state of the singer, and trying to get it to the intended pitch!   It's much harder than singing like a robot. But for me, those are my real soul singers. Someone can have a spot on Ray Charles impersonation, but to me that person isn't a soulful singer by being able to do that. He might be able to imitate a voice that fits into the soul 'genre,' but genres are just arbitrary boxes to put music into. Genres aren't soulful.   For me, real soul singing is  when you allow yourself to be vulnerable, putting your heart on the line, expressing yourself as an individual, and try to express your emotional interpretation of a song as best as you can, as you. It's is a risk. It's a lot safer to try to calculate what the audience might want. It's a lot scarier than being Ray 2.0 and it requires 'letting go' and allowing 'you' flaws and all to color the sound. Most of my heroes had to find their voices, find who they are, and express that. That's why they are my heroes. Someone can imitate these guys and it's an impressive technical feat, but they already existed. Already did their thing, but it's more impressive to me when people find their own ways of communicating with their singing and connect with me.

You sound so passionate. I'm really feeling this. Yours and Bono's covers are revealing this to be a spectacular song. The melody is great.   Alright, let me go through the track here. You've got a gorgeous wistful timbre, coming in at 0:46, 'anywhere I would have followed.' It's really beautiful for this song. You should explore that side of your voice.   Timbre on the upper areas is brimming with emotion. Particularly the 'And I am feeling so small...and the section Chorus at 1:46 is dialed in beautifully. I love it.   Taking off my emotional hat and putting on my singing help hat. A Few technical things. The first couple notes might be a little sharp to my ears and are more nasal than the rest. Not enough to bother me, but if you want to do a comp, you might tweak on them. There was a little lisp somewhere, 'sthaying goodbye' but it was one time.   Now, I like singers rough, emotional, and raw, but if you wanted to polish it you might try tweakig the last chorus a little bit closer to the first two choruses. The first two had a crying very emotional sound, but also had a smoothness to the delivery that may attract listeners. The last had a bit of harshness, where things were going a bit more nasal.      Overall, I really liked it and I think singing a really passionate emotional song is a good direction for you. It's bringing out other character and even vocal techniques in your voice (sob/cry) that not only sound good and authentic for you as an artist to express yourself and communicate with listeners, but tend to balance out some of the nasality.   Get a version on Soundcloud, and I'll star that one too. I may sing this song myself at some point. Hearing how emotional you guys are with it, I prefer your versions over the original.

I know exactly what you mean about relaxed and expressive. I find when trying to sing with a new posture I often become robotic and stiff. It's that auto pilot emotional singing that gives people a free feeling. When trying to 'change' the voice it does feel like that.   You do have a slightly rounder timbre in the new take, but you don't have to rush a change into your actual singing voice if you're going to do it.   Something you could try, as an experiment is to sing without twang and in a cartoonish position. Cause would be like the opposite coordination. I make lots of sound effects with my voice and I do them comically. Not necessarily in a song I want to be emotionally authentic. It helps to have a sense of humor.   Sometimes exploring sounds outside of trying to channel like a song's emotions because as you said, it can feel very inexpressive when it isn't 'your singing voice.' But if you happen to find sounds, outside of singing that can be trained they can intuitively come into the singing voice when the 'feeling' calls for it.

  It's not really an out of range thing. MDEW was having troubles around G4 and in passaggio, and even he was saying he was lifting his larynx to lighten which will likely lower the soft palate and can add extra nasality. He wants more control over this area so he differs from Lou Reed on this subject.    Imo, MDEW should look for controllable areas of his voice that meet his desired aesthetic. If it ends up nasal, that's not an issue for me. Certain types of phonation are just harder to control so it's a balancing act between finding something that is both a sound that represents the artist and a sound that is controllable by the artist.   I've never found Steve Perry nasal by the way. In the off chance he checks the critique section, hi Steve!   Edit:   Hey MDEW, there is a thread about bridging started by Jeremy, I gave him some sound files that might help you and are related to lightening.   This sound here while sounding dopey is not as low of a larynx as you think.   https://app.box.com/s/znom31hbhw5ougfrqnyy1iwi627epeuv   It's a more tilted larynx, and wider pharynx (like a balloon expanding sideways in the throat).   I also recommended to Jeremy he finds a smooth light bridge first, then moves to the heavier one:   https://app.box.com/s/o6ue7dilxfbilxhz68sq1fwsasssns1q

  Forward placement can sound a bit nasal (twang and nasal resonance). The lightening of the timbre I believe has more to do with the cricothyroid activation and/or less vocal fold closure. If you want to experience a light voice, try a yawning sigh.   Nice job on the instrumentation, liked the guitar solos there and the way it was blended into the harmony.

  Alright, I got around to listening and being able to offer some input. Basically, as per usual the lower range sounds pretty good and the upper range is losing some control.   Here's the thing, that might help you with your dilemma, MDEW. All singing and speaking is modifying the vocal tract. You can't even make vowels without modifying it. If you were to modify to a more yawny, sobbier, or at least wider position of the pharynx it is also the position that allows head voice bridging for me comfortably, as well as opening the pharynx, which could reduce a bit of nasality.   Whoever is giving you advice to not modify your vocal tract. All speaking and singing is modification. I think it's probably just bad advice. I think it's more important to modify towards a sound that highlights who you are and a sound you believe in.   I think you've got a cool like country, conversational voice. It's got a lot of personality, and that may be who you are to be more conversational and a storyteller on average. But in order to get the upper to come in a relaxed way you without forcing or straining, most will have to do at least do 'something' a little different from speech. So I'd really advise if you're interested in range, for me it's like a compromise. I have Geoff Tate notes that I don't use much, cause they don't sound like me as a person. But even if I'm bridging, I've got to do 'something.'

This has good harmonic progression. I really liked the music breathing at 0:40. Gives the song a resting point before it proceeds.   Something I might think would be interesting would be to give "As the dust, carried in the wind" section a bit more energy. The song has a lot of sections, and that section is the most repeated and closest thing to a chorus you've got. If you were to give that section a bit more more oomph it might add more variation. Maybe the section before the outro "Wandering Soul Waits for More" could be made more pleading and urgent as well.    So yeah, it's good, but for my tastes maybe a bit more dynamics might connect more. Let me try an experiment. Reading lyrics, I'll interpret an emotion that  if I were to sing I would try to convey with my voice:   I'm traveling home to see my friends. (nostalgia) I don't think I'll return again. (feelng torn) The wind and I have never been friends. (loneliness) Its slithering sheets only pretends, (betrayal)  I won't chase its tricks again. (regret) To be something, it never plans. (independence) So down to the frozen river I go. (resolute) In search of secret treasures I go. (adventurous) I'm peeling through this earthly womb.  (Investigative) I'm shedding away this earthly skin. (renewed energy) As the dust, carried in the wind. (Grieving loudly ) As the dust, carried in the wind. (Stifling grief more quietly) As the dust, carried in the wind. (Almost speaking) As the dust, carried in the wind. (fading (almost a whisper) Beneath all swears, prayers, and stares, (feeling small) In the morning light. In the morning light. (hope) Drenching the sin, letting sunshine in. (remorse) A wandering soul pleas for more. (pleading) A wandering soul pleas for more. (pleading more urgently)   So it might be an interesting exercise to try a song this way. Your intepretation, of course. It wouldn't have to be mine, but when I sing this is how I sing songs. I don't write it down, but it might help in the songwriting process for both of us to write it down, since writing songs is way harder than singing karoake.   Anyway,  on a side note, what mic position do you use to record your acoustic or is it a plugged in acoustic? I really like your acoustic guitar timbre. Actually your vocal quality is aways very precise too. Wish I could get an acoustic mix as nice as you get them. Do you use any special EQ or settings? Mine always sound like mud. You have a lot of clarity in your recordings which make them almost immediately pro.   So yeah, I do like the song, but maybe you could experiment with some of those ideas. I think I will the next time I write a song.

  Take your time. It's tough cause you aren't first language. I have a really close friend online whose second language is English. So I spend a lot of time with her, cause she wants to sing English songs. I can sit there for hours. She never knew how to pronounce a short i vowel, like is. Rolling her Rs, dis instead of this.    There will always be a little something lost in translation. You'll get there, you already sound cool. It's tougher if you want to sing English stuff, but I couldn't touch anything your language. If you think about it that way, you're already better.

  I agree with most of your post and relate. But be careful with this line of thinking. There's almost nothing you've done with your voice that doesn't have a good context at least somewhere. You sing good. Rather than remove the old habits completely, you can expand your artistic palette so to speak.   Say some habits sound great on your low notes, quieter passages, but just don't work on the high notes. Do something different for the high notes.  There isn't endless flexibility, and yes habits exist and define people to some extent. You don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Some of those habits are part of what make you, who you are.   We are all physiologically different, but if we all used optimum techniques all the time, singing could be robotic and boring. You've already got character, so if you just adopted Stevie Wonder's technique as closely as possible, most of the time, you might lose some. 

Interesting, it might be the file format. This was the one I gave Bono1982, but it's kind of comedic, so bare with it:   https://app.box.com/s/0g46bgw7jskxmb2taobdiwws4xrvxsng   You can listen to the first 3 sounds, and compare them. The rest has some blending of resonances.   I'm not sure if it is the same thing as singing in your face, but basically you can blend the various resonances. Blending more towards the nasal resonance is a more pop oriented vocal style, where as classical western opera tends to be a bit more backwards placed, sounding wide deep, and so forth.   You wouldn't be doing any of the extremes, just leaning a bit forward on the higher notes which would mean allowing brighter vowels. Amy Winehouse uses very forward placement. She sounds almost quack like a duck. A lot of twang and the larynx is a bit higher, and the pharynx isn't as wide as possible. It's less boomy, and more of a cutting sound.

  It's cool, I like your voice and want you to succeed. I've got some free time at the moment.   You generally don't want your vocal folds to be as open as in a whisper unless you are actually whispering. That's an extremely open position even for most breathy styles. You'd want the minimal amount of openness basically get the breath into the tone, as it is less fatiguing.    If you train, you actually can control the amount of openness to some extent. In English we have something called an H Consonant. Which we used in like 'hello' or 'hi.' Another very relaxing way of finding it is the yawn and the sigh. Once you've toyed with the extremes you can learn to control the amount of closure some. It's the 'fine tuned' closure (once the folds are already pretty much touching) that is more difficult to control. In this exercise I created a breathy voice with H and yawn/sighing, and then reduced it steadily using the word 'less, less, less; less.'   https://app.box.com/s/0jc1edededefpm1ede6nwponlt3d8cgq   You will want to support breathy voices, but you'll probably refine your support. It doesn't have to be a huge workout once you get isolated the components that are necessary for a given voice.   For singing higher notes, generally the rule is to use less air given the same 'closure of the folds' because to make higher notes they are vibrating faster and creating more compression. It can create a situation where you're 'forcing' air into a tight space it doesn't fit through. You don't want that one.   But if you make the timbre lighter (that yawn sigh tends to shade it to a lighter place and let them part some) you can use more air on a high note than a lower note, you just have to accept that the timbre will be lighter.    It's past midnight here, so I can't sing very loud, so I thought it would be neat to record something, this is Fleetwood Mack's Rhiannon:   https://app.box.com/s/5g2y6d2kq0tmig1pyten64seq92vzjdr   That right there is about as breathy as I am comfortable singing. If you notice is it soft and wispy, tender, and delicate, right? As long as you let it get softer, and don't force air it's not a big deal. I wouldn't speak breathy all the time and rest the voice regardless. It can sound cool.   The final thing you should know is some of the fanciness is production, here is the same track just raw with no production:   https://app.box.com/s/l32xstp5ypapixm3fn6hygpem203yx4v   Anyway. you have a cool voice and sing Valerie, Matakka. You encouraged me to record it too:     I'm wishing you well in your singing there and it's cool to ask questions from time to time. I like helping people.

I love this song and I have to give it another listen. But I want to see if there is something I can do to help you. The one thing I was thinking, is you might ask your teacher about 'forward' placement and see what he/she thinks about it?   You may not be quite ready for it, as you're still trying to learn the ropes here. I tought you the idea of twang some last time. Forward placement would be just a bit more buzz kind of near the top row of your teeth? If you do it really extreme it sounds more than a bit ridiculous, but just a bit of it can help place the voice in a position where high notes are a bit less strenuous.    In this sound file   https://app.box.com/s/ekli54x9vmc7efv97n54wmflbd2jq7t0    1. I'm doing a very forward placement (narrower pharynx, higher tongue, lots of nasal resonance) 2. Then a very backwards placement (wide pharynx low tongue, little nasal resonance) 3. Then a more balanced one (wider pharynx, higher tongue). And shift around the placement.                                            And shift them around. Then I shift resonances while sustaining a vowel. So when you're ready, if your teacher is familiar with forward placement it might help help take a bit of the weight and shout out.   And by the way, when you come back make sure you check out this thread again:   '&do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>   You were interested in breathier voices, so I offered a bit of advice in how I go about that.

I gave this one a pure emotional listen, here, with no singing mumbo jumbo clouding my head, and I wanted to say I am really feeling it. I mean, yeah, I like to help if I can with technical mumbo jumbo, but you've got an emotional voice. You don't need to be perfect to move people.

  Breathy Voices:   Perfect timing, Matakka. I had some time when warming up today. So I figured I might be able to help both of you. So I'll start with the breathy voice. The breathy voice is when the vocal folds in the larynx are more apart. You probably know how to whisper, which is an extreme version of breathy voice with no voice.   In English, the "H" consonant is basically the breath control consonant so adding more of the feeling of that consonant. Yawning and sighing at the same time can help achieve a really relaxed natural position for things to be breathy.   However you should pay attention, because breathier voices on average are more fatiguing on the vocal folds, because there is so much air blowing past them. It's fine to use, but you'd want to rest it. And the other thing, the breathier you get, the lighter your tone should be (closer to falsetto). The thickness of the a voice is partially controlled by how closed the vocal folds are, so if they are closed and you're trying to be breathy, it can put excess pressure.   I made this sound file that might help here:   https://app.box.com/s/j8s6vh4kkwenvu55u4vby3cho6pbrsi6   I explain a few things, but since English isn't your first language, you might have to just listen for the sounds. I sang snippets of Happy, Unchained Melody with ligher voices. But I showed a fuller voice singing Valerie, but those fuller sounds are more advanced and you want to be careful how much you add.   Non Breathy Voices     So on the flip side and for Krispian this might be helpful for you. If you sing or speak breathy and you don't know how to reduce this, I made something that might help you.  What is going on is your vocal folds are more apart. One of the best exercises I've found for reducing breathiness in a fairly intuitive way, is to say a vowel very quickly. Like 'uh oh.' And then gradually extend the vowel out until it is longer.   Now the only thing about this exercise, is it might create too much closure, more tha you want. So it can help to add the feeling of an invisible 'H.' Like a tiny cushion.   And for Krispian, I don't know if your native language is English, but I tried to explain it a bit. If you don't understand, the sounds are still demonstrated. At the end I showed what it would be like to sing Stevie Wonder breathy, how I would have to lighten the timbre, vs if I sing it not breathy, I could add more closure.   https://app.box.com/s/dt6rg9ryrcw4i64b94wf2lbj72jysohy   I hope these can help, it's really useful to be able to control the amount. In general, kind of a medium thing is fine. Fuller thicker notes, require less breathy.

Your pitch is wandering a lot and you're kindof speaking/mumbling almost as much as singing. It's not what people would generally consider skilled singing.   It's great your friends like to hear you and are hopefully supporting you in a positive way, but you're right, they are biased because it's not typically what people would listen for in singing. But you did come to the right place, if you hang around here for awhile, you can train and improve a whole lot.   You'd want to train with pitching exercises (singing along and matching pitches to an instrument would be a good start) and just some of the fundamentals of singing in general (breath control, support, etc) It's great your friends support you and like to hear you, but don't go on American Idol yet, you know what I mean.   Do hang around though. Cause why not improve. What would be even more interesting is if one day you sent your friend another track after you'd trained and they could hear the difference. It would probably blow their minds and it is possible if you're interested.

  Thanks Sexy, I'll keep toying with that one.

I can hear emotion in your timbre. It has a delicate and fragile quality to it. It is a style you can develop on with more training. It's sombre and affecting to me. I can feel it. I like the individuality of it. It's a bit falsetto/breathy but your personality comes through in the way you phrase things and the vowel choices.   If you don't already know how to make a less breathy version of this voice, you can train to control the amount if you'd like. The quickest fix I know of, is saying a vowel extremely fast. Like 'uh oh' but really, really fast. It's pretty hard to make it breathy unless you add a lot of H.   Where do you want to go with your voice? You can take it a lot of places. Where it is at right now, I find it nice to listen to, and I'd liike you to keep posting. I'll keep listening to ya, but it's probably not dynamic enough for much mainstream consumption yet, if that is even a goal. Pitch isn't too bad most part, a bit slurred and moves about a bit, going a bit flat on the lower notes on the Adele song, but I like the style of movement.   I would listen to singing with this kind of phrasing, but people who are more interested in pitch perfection would advise probably a little precision towards reaching the center of pitch a little sooner and use less blue notes.    Anyway, I think you should keep singing, train your voice into whatever you want it to be, and keep posting here. It's cool. I like the middle finger too. Punk rock falsetto.

Wow, that is hard. As a rule I don't touch Lou Gramm all that much. Not only is he Bob's hero, but the guy is always singing so high.  Honestly I think you did better than I would if I were to one take that on on pitch. I agree if you're gonna go live you've gotta train, but you've got to have some patience for yourself.   Here's the thing, when I hear it, I do hear a light connection. Now, maybe it's not the sound you're wanting as a complete sound yet, but in a way this is a good thing.   I wasn't even sure if I could sing that chorus without falsetto. I can, but there's a complication, let me show you:   Raw: https://app.box.com/s/lb5syr7hezyxe0puqtyzn9yjdcvra19r   With Reverb Etc: https://app.box.com/s/gy8r1876dbe2n9hfd72go01mymca3oc8   0:00. mostly falsetto (a bit Smokey Robinson ish) 0:09  more connected from Smokey 0:15 starting to lean the other way 0:19 More connection 0:25. Very connected (felt a bit like belting, which sounds fine, but maybe too much connection and pressing the cords)   From 0:00 to :025 I was increasing the the 'curbing' feeling. Really leaning into the vowel on that is in 'book.'   0:38 Backed off that sensation and starting quacking more with twang 0:50  More quacking 0:57 Extremely quacky (sounds a bit ridiculous)   1:07.  Backed off both a bit and attempted using more air (sounds good, but may be too much air)   So basically, I don't know which one is right for me, but I do know the Smokey Robinson one has the least pressed phonation and throwing air at it is not a good idea either.   So my advice is to maybe take it a bit slow and try to lean into a position that is stable, not fatiguing and so forth. I'm still not confident in my notes there. It's not the sound, it's that it is more fatiguing on the vocal folds themselves when sending my voice that high. None of them were particularly unpleasant and I'm not sore or hoarse, but I have a feeling it's best to dial such a thing in for long term use.   And you're saying you want to go live and go pro with singing. That makes it all the more, right? I'm fine if I do that like 8 times there. Could have done it a lot more, but if I did that chorus for hours, I might not be fine, since I don't do that..   So going back to the beginning, if you're in this for the long haul, take your time. Don't rush it. Cause right now you're in a pretty good place, and just a bit more closure may be good, but too much may be bad.

  The timbre changes, and it might be ever so slightly flat, but it is likely insignificant for a live performance. Even auto tune would barely need to tug at it and most performers are using this now.   If you're really interested in super precise pitching, you can invest in auto tune, and then sing back to your auto tuned tracks to try to match them. This is an exercise I've heard modern voice teachers doing, using it as a training device.   Loud belty vowels are tougher to judge pitch inside my head too as the timbre shifts a lot and gets additional overtones. I'm not aiming to be a professional though and dig blues and dirty music, so I like to keep slightly off pitch notes. If I don't sing them, no one else will in an age of auto tune.   But basically 'if you have to ask' you might as well get a computer to answer the question at this point, cause it is that good. If it is 10 cents off most people won't be able to tell, even people with perfect pitch don't necessarily have micro tonally perfect pitch.   One more thought, everything was synced perfectly, but 2:41 looks like mouth de syncs. Dunno if you edited a snippet, or most likely it just looks weird. If you want to make a cool music video later on, you might as well just do multiple shots and lip sync, even if the original performance was live, cause it might catch more viewer attention on youtube.

    MIR, your description is close, but I'm also allowing the pharynx 'woof' open into a wide position which boosts the low mid frequencies and allowing it to narrow for more treble. If you speak in a very narrow voice, imitate like a stereotypical computer geek with a nasally voice, I can find the extreme of this position.   I was basically saying not only is increasing the twang helpful, but dropping a bit of that woofing sound can highlight the treble frequencies and seems to make singing higher easier for me.   Like a guitar amp. you have 'angry cat knob' treble knob and 'woofing dog' low mid knob. Turning down the woof is a way of increasing the angry cat and so forth. Turning up each knob varying amounts gets different balances.   David Bowie is a great example of someone who fiddles with these knobs:   Here is angry cat:     Here is woofy dog:  

MIR, you may be right, but here is the tone knob demonstration I was going to make. I needed to warm up anyway. Basically, on one extreme you have the really open pharynx, round tone.  And on other extreme there is extremely forward placement, super twangy nasality. It's controllable, like a sound color for me.    https://app.box.com/s/0g46bgw7jskxmb2taobdiwws4xrvxsng   I have found I pretty much need to lean into timbre at least a little bit.  My point is not to make a horrific nasal sound, but if you can control the sound color a bit, like a tone knob on the guitar. So I showed black and white, but then shades of gray all between in various circumstances.   I didn't put any compression or reverb or whatever, just to keep it honest, so it won't be 'beautiful' but it could helpful. The super forward placement, or pharyngeal voice, is kind of like a 'nya.'   Once again, it's not about replicating what I do, but I've just found control over this, has really helped me. Even if I want to sing a darker, rounder sound, leaning into that forward placement a little still helps.

  You be correct. Still new to this box thingy. Can't clutter soundcloud with random sound effects forever.

That's a really distinct timbre. It is growing on me the more I hear it. It's a bit on the nasal side. For acapella the song is recognizable and mostly in tune which is good.   I think on average balancing out the resonance to include just a bit more of the lower/warm side might help you get a little more mainstream, but Adam Levine is pretty nosey as is.   The opposite extreme of resonating is a very open throat, lower tongue, and high softer palette. If you were to say like 'hoooooo.' Like an owl and almost yawn the beginning of it it would be the polar opposite, which would be too far for most mainstream tastes too. Either way, higher tongue generally helps, even with more open throat.   I don't know what timbre you're after, or what your artistic goals are, but I'm thinking just a little more openness might add a tiny bit of richness.   On a side note, dude you're like almost eating the camera, you're so close, hahaha. Just thought it was funny. Most people are like camera shy and would put a bit of distance or whatnot. You got balls. Your face takes up my whole screen.

As usual, I like it. You just have a cool, passionate voice.   The only thing I can think technically is maybe a bit more more nasal resonance might help. You have a smooth, warm, round tone, but when ascending that kind of timbre tends to give me trouble. I'm wondering if you were to practice buzzing like a bee on an n or ng kind of kind of consonant and then adding a slight bit of that into the timbre, if it might help.  I find it most useful to be able to isolate that one and then mix it as desirable.   I actually had similar ideas for Matakka, but both of you are not first language English, so I was wondering how to explain this with words. Anyway, if you make the sound at its most extreme it can sound kind of like this (hint, not very good):   https://app.box.com/s/dj64xvqknp5uvuh5ty0c1h9j1jd9eq6i   Which was also twanged. But if you incorporate some of that into the sound, when added judiciously into the voice it tends to make singing easier. For your timbre and style, you'd need to be a minimalist and add the least amount that is necessary, which hopefully wouldn't be too noticeable.   Anyway, I think SLS uses the 'nay' sound to isolate the nasal sound. Next time I get loud time, I'm going to record sounds that are transitioning between the a richer more pharyngeal resonance, and a buzzy, nasal one, and the space between.I think it's really useful to be able to do, not just for creating high notes, but just balancing out a timbre. For me it's kind of like a tone knob on the guitar.   ____________________________     On a second listen, it sounded like during the first half you had more a more forward placement, but as the song progressed, it felt like it was slipping and moving around and were mostly using the cry/plaintive/hold thing.   If it feels good, it sounds good. But I know if I rely overly on the cry/plaintive thing it feels pressed or weird. So if it doesn't feel quite right, you can try to lean the placement forward on the higher notes, while on your lower notes you can keep them as round as you'd like.

  Me too. You rock. So uninhibited. You sound so free. It's not polite at all.   A lot of singing sounds to me like the singer is thinking 'oh no am I offending x percentage of the audience?' You sing from the gut. If the audience can't handle it maybe they are wussies.   I'm listening to Patti Smith right now. You're trained and got technique and all that, but there is still that kick. I really respect it, especially from female artists, as society tends to raise women to be polite. "Well isn't that a pretty and appropriate sound for woman to make.'   Screw that, women can kick ass and should more often. Rock on.