KillerKu

Keep the twang consistent as you descend from the upper notes. The upper ones twang fine, but as you approach the passagio from the topside, it gets lost.
Some top-down sirens and scales which approach the transition from the top should make the difference, with 15 mins a day for 2-3 weeks. IMO, you will also want to visit the specific vowels you sing in that area. They are not as resonant as they could be. The exercise for that is to sing each vowel shade related (close by) to the one you think you want. One of them will simply be much better the all the others. However, the 'right' vowel will change every couple notes. Be patient.

When you doing both of those, singing with consistent twang and spot-on vowels, it will be wonderful, and easier, much easier to sing.

That is how Lou (the master) does it.. Each note/vowel combination is ' just-so', perfect.


I hope this is helpful.

I would say the one you did @ 0:22 is best.

I liked it but you sound in control of this stuff so I don't have much to help with. I'm a big fan of talk singing ish kinds of genres and you have quite a bit of character already in the first half. The timbre sounds good. There's just a hint of a little rasp that audiences likely relate to.
 
Second half is a bit more singier. It still sounds good. Is there anything you're struggling with. If you post something that is outside your comfort zone maybe more anonymously (not on your youtube channel where you already have fans, etc), people might be able to give help. You sound like you're in your zone here though.

I think you sounded great bono...I agree with strength, I like it better than the original. I also agree maybe some parts you could open the vowel "just a hair" if you really wanted to knit pick. This is the first song I have heard of yours, I was un aware you were on that level...once again you sounded great.

I want to also make a comment to killer's post. The way bono is assending upwards on that partially closed sound. I think that gives some people trouble and others not, some people sound great doing this others not so much. It has some to do with training, opera for example will help build up closed vowels. However, I really think it has alot to do with design of the neck and resonating area, back pressure build up and all the other accoustic properties. Some people can rip in a way on a more closed vowel, where another will get choked off or experience discomfort.

I only say this as I myself can handle closed notes like that pretty easily with little issue(almost covered in a way). He sounded comfortable like me in that aspect. If I open a vowel, usually it will be for a tone choice, not out of necessity. This would be a strong suit for me, and from my guess bono, because he sounded like it had no effect on him.


However, there is a double edged sword to this. In your sample (killer) you twanged early and had a early pharyngeal tone, which I have a hard time to really dial that in before c5. I would like to bring that in earlier many times especially in live settings for increased stamina. However, this still isnt an option to me yet, as i still havent got the right sound with yet. And it may never be an option who knows.

I really believe these differences are a product of the individual accoustic areas of each person. You may be able to get a female to emulate a male voice with training, but a male will do it naturally without training...and 99 percent of the time sound better

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.

Thank you guys and thank you Robert. Yea, she has a really aggressive voice. She's a huge influence on my vocal style. Bonnie Raitt is fantastic too. Other singers I love, Anne Wilson and Karen Carpenter.
 
I had many voice coaches who told me I couldn't sing this way and I'm so glad that I didn't listen to them

 

Suppose if you really wanted to make the most progress at the best cost to progress level. I would say buy a course like Roberts....MAYBE cvt or tamplins. However, I know the people behind roberts course and pretty sure it would be hard to beat. Then get a personal lesson once a month, twice a month if it could be swung while working with the program.

I never took a course such as that. All my training came from one on one,group, ect. Then as time passed, my training came from trial and error from performance to performance and show to show. After the show figure out what went wrong lol. Why my voice hurt, why it was more difficult to control the last 20 minutes, why the high end lost some of its sharpness...ect ect ect. Try to make adjustments, rinse and repeat.

Though I would say the real time learning is irreplaceable. But if I had to do it all over again, I would do it as I said above. Mixing that with getting out and just doing earlier. I spent too much time and money early on just training, especially in opera.

I will say this, and please dont blast me too much teachers as this is not an insult. I can say for a fact I learned more from two lives shows than 20 lessons. In my opinion, the most effective a teacher can be is teach the basics, then telling the student go use it. Then being there for the student to help with whatever issues. Least that is what I would have loved.

"Hey coach, i sung these 8 songs, these three I got tight and worn out"...or something along those lines. That would have been great instead of having to struggle through it alone and trial error.

Wow this got way too long...sorry

Hi everyone,
  just sharing another singing try. After a short time of taking singing lessons I feel like my old «mechanism» of singing has been somewhat broken and the new one is still far-far-far from at least being there anytime I need. Just wondering if I’m going in the right direction, did I gain more support of my voice? or am I just shouting?    

Hi all,
 
I've just signed up to see if you could let me know what you think of my recordings on my website - www.davidirelandsings.com.
They're not great quality, but it'll be nice to hear what you think!
 
All the best,
 
David

I dont know if I would work on your heady/falsetto tone that much. Maybe get just a tad bit more closure if you wanted to. I think its pretty powerful for how far away from the mic you are, with zero effects.

If you were singing like that into a real mic, with compression and all the usual studio effects. Your falsetto would sound just as good as anyone's else on the radio, or better.

You really sound pretty well balanced and just like someone I would here on the radio singing this style. I mean sure there are little stuff you could work, little more closure for your light tone, a tad bit more control. But even Pavarotti could knit pick his voice with tiny issues. The day you say my voice is 100 percent is the day either your ego takes over logic.....well thats the only occasion I can think of Lol.

However, when you get down to knit picking, then I would say you are doing great. That is surely what I would have to do to find issue with your vocals.....

Oh and fyi i was speaking of the original post

so, lemme start by saying i don't really know what i'm talking about, but am wondering #1 how do opera singers/broadway singers sing like that and not fatigue (i don't really fatigue but I can get a little pitchy around G#/A, and #2 if i should even be singing that A in chest or mixed voice other than once in a while. If it's something that scales upwards like in stand by me it's easy, but to stay above E for a while is not where I feel my voice belongs. I really don't think I have a "tenor" range and other than for a few power notes I would have guessed I should be in head voice by G# most of the time. Or I could have the ability and just not know it i guess... i remember in grade school our music teacher one time told me i was a bass baritone or baritone

Tbh I find that all those terms are confusing. 
 
I like to stick with 'head', 'middle' (which is just when you chest gains some brighter qualities and then when you first go into head it sounds like it's still in chest) and 'chest' - even better, once I've blended them all together I will just say 'my voice'... And then falsetto to me is just a very light version of head voice without body. It is true, you can train your head voice on A to sound just like an extension of your chest voice rather than a hooty 'second gear'. If it's dying after 20-30 minutes I think you need to work on it in front of a good voice teacher as what you're doing now is also quite damaging - particularly if you were to sing say  a 1 hour concert with high G-As.
 
In all honesty where you are is fine, this would just need to be the next step if you wanted to start doing full concerts of varying artists.

I've never paid that much attention to Melissa Etheridge, but you rock. You've got lots of raw energy and are explosive. It's rare in female vocalists that will just explode like that. Well it's rare in male vocalists too, but yeah.
 
It rocks. I think I like your better than Melissa Etheridge. You're just less constrained, more explosive, and like you're willing to 'go there' wherever there is. Howling, screaming, whispering, raspy, clean, loud, quiet, whatever. 'There' sounds like a feeling. An emotion, and you go there. 
 
Primal, good stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sLWluSMlE0

yeah, i realize that the "stay" is in full voice. thing is, the real song's chorus sounds very powerful in part because of the perfectly mixed background chorus. I didn't feel like any type of head voice could give that kind of power recording with a camcorder so i went full, which is obviously at the upper part of my range. i could sing it softer in full voice but my voice wouldn't hold up doing that regularly. maybe in a studio or something. The other thing i was thinking about is would it sound alot better with some compression plus or minus some reverb. smooth it out ya know? or is it just the character of the note and not really the volume that makes it sound a little out of place?

Can you do a non breathy falsetto ish sound yet? You might try nya - ing into that for a bit.
 
If you are having trouble finding this sound, if you say a vowel really fast. Like Uh oh! And then gradually extend the length, many people find it.
 
You could experiment with sliding that non breathy falsetto ish thing down. I found that really helpful for me.
 
I m ade this to help MDEW, so ignore the dying cat joke section in the beginning (or at least don't follow the advice, heh)
 
https://soundcloud.com/killerku/how-i-sing-young-elton-john
 
but at about 1:28 I begin with a 'here kitty' voice that is light but not super breathy. While training you can practice sliding this thing down imo if it just stops at the bridge. You can even nya into that voice. It can just help you learn to release the voice rather than keep pushing.

I'm not an expert, and hopefully Rob can chime in since it is his program, but I do believe you are including more twang in the second sample. It also seems like your resonance is shifting to more more nasal place.
 
As a quick fix for getting a twangy witchy position. I find saying 'nya nya nya nya' like a witch can be helpful. Tongue high and wide, right, Rob should be helping you a lot with Twang. But the important thing to understand about hat is the 'n' consonant will be nasal by necessity, but when you go into the 'ya' section you can change the sound color to include more pharyngeal resonance as per taste.
 
You can even say like 'nyook' like book, or 'nyoke.' It it is easiest to find twangy thing on a nasal sound, but it is ultimately like an ingredient. And later you'll be able to add and remove it to other sounds a bit.
 
When twang is isolated is isolated as much as possible in my voice it sounds very ugly indeed. Don't worry about it sounding pretty, but overall my non expert opinion is you're going in a good direction and sounds like Rob's program is steering you pretty well.

I've never paid that much attention to Melissa Etheridge, but you rock. You've got lots of raw energy and are explosive. It's rare in female vocalists that will just explode like that. Well it's rare in male vocalists too, but yeah.
 
It rocks. I think I like your better than Melissa Etheridge. You're just less constrained, more explosive, and like you're willing to 'go there' wherever there is. Howling, screaming, whispering, raspy, clean, loud, quiet, whatever. 'There' sounds like a feeling. An emotion, and you go there. 
 
Primal, good stuff.

I did a show a while back doing some Melissa Etheridge covers. For some reason I couldn't share the videos but I finally got the downloaded and up to Youtube so thought I would share them
 
Come To My Window - 


I Wanna Come Over - 
  I've always wanted to be able to do her songs. Was able to do a whole 45 minute set screaming my head off without even losing my voice. Was totally awesome. Definitely once of my favorite shows to date.

Elvis,
 
Have you tried the same scale on semi occluded exercices like lip bubbles, tongue trills, 'v', 'z','ng', straw etc...? Those will be easier for you at first than open vowels like "ah". Also you don't need to go so high with this. A lot of people want powerfull high notes like C5+ and are unaware that they have problems in the C4-G4 area... They can hit the note but it doesn't mean they're doing it right.

Hi all,
 
I think it's fun to listen to old recordings. My friend just sent this to me. It's from the show "The Blues Brothers" and was recorded over 10 years ago. Martin H on the loose....so bear with me...LOL
 
https://app.box.com/s/9a8x2m7ob9pydzz6lscjytidze539w3d

Yeah, and doubling vocal tracks has been around for decades. That is a big chunk of Joe Eliott's sound on Def Leppard's first big album, mixed by Mutt Lange.

Good Points, but that is not the same "Fake" that I am meaning, That is part of the Magic of recording. Also as Jens has pointed out all "Singing Voices" are fake until they become infused into our own  natural expression.
   My attempts at the Johnny Cash sound were unbalanced and highly noticable that I was "Trying" for a Johnny Cash sound.
   "Fake it till you make it" is still a good point of view. With time I may have been able to improve that sound.
   The whole recording process and production is fake in a sense.....Cutting unwanted frequencies....Boosting others...... compressing, limiting, over dubbing.....whatever is needed to enhance the product...... And now they have that blasted autotune, the bane of a good singers exsistence......... .
   Not only that but you also have distortion and octave doubling effects for the voice now.....There are many people who are trying to copy the sounds of their favorite singer and not realising that the sound is from a box not from his/her voice.

One of my students just released this production. I think it sounds great... wanted to share it.
 

http://www.reverbnation.com/psychosindicate/song/22963614-break-me
 

'No' Is very chesty and that is very good advice for Bono. Just be prepared that it will be very loud. If you try to hold back too much of that volume, you'll likely end up squeezing. The way you described that is perfect, spontaneous, natural, and emotional. Like conviction. So yeah, don't be timid on that one.