izzle1989

Hello everyone! I'm a voice and piano major from Elizabethtown College in south central Pennsylvania, and I recently began putting videos of myself on youtube in order to get myself out there and to receive some constructive criticism. The three songs I have recorded so far are I Know the Truth from Aida, Unexpected Song from Song and Dance, and I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. Any kind of feedback is welcome--I love improving and growing as a singer and musician. Thanks so much!

http://www.youtube.com/user/HymnfortheShameless6/videos

I listened to I know the truth from Aida and I immediately thought to myself what a great voice

You have a consistent vibrato and a great tone to your voice. You are supporting your voice very well, but during some of the consonants you tend to relax that support which destroys the legato line.

I would recommend that you do some jaw tension/relaxation exercises since you seem to have a slight bit of tension which is preventing you from dropping your jaw enough. Also some of the words were a little to bright and wide which could be a symptom of jaw tension. I think you should focus on having slightly more vertical vowels with more of a vertical space between your teeth. This will help to keep your throat open which will encourage the legato line.

To sum it up you should focus on supporting the tone throughout the phrase, releasing jaw tension, and maintaining the legato line. If you want any exercises to help with these things let me know. Also let me know what you are doing during your daily vocal exercising so I will know what to prescribe and how advanced of a singer you are :-)

Are you purposely trying to sing this song in this high range? I honestly feel that you would sound better if you took it down a key.

If you are singing this on purpose then I would recommend cover the sound more as you are a little to bright right now. Also I would recommend doing lots of slides so you don't go into that disconnected falsetto.

Other than that I would say just stick to the basics and do a forum search of my posts maybe you can take something from them.

Good Luck :)

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.

There should be no flipping, but you shouldn't be actively trying to stay in head voice. Adam Lambert did not sing this song in pure head voice he did it in a mixed voice. The key is to never lose that connection with your chest voice.

Descending and ascending slides help this best. You shouldn't be trying to sing a song that you are not ready to sing. Practice and work on technique don't worry about songs right now.

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.

Great job you have very good closure and great vibrato which shows that technique and relaxation is present.

My only comment would be agreeing with what the other guys have stated. You are very comfortable using that light head voice, but I would like you to turn up the intensity and progressively add more fold mass. You didn't work your ass off making your head voice stronger to settle for a light head voice you worked your ass off to strengthen your voice and sound just as powerful as Adam Lambert does.

My advice would be to slowly increase the dynamic levels of this song by using a progressively larger amount of fold mass. The only way you will be able to do this is by training at this level.

I say train this song at a higher intensity level, but not so much intensity that you lose the purity of your sound. As you realize you can train at a higher intensity level you can progressively increase the intensity.

Practice and report back in a week...Don't forget their are many great voice teachers on this site and the owner is one of them...Good Luck!

Right now you are not ready for this song. You need to work on getting better cord closure and singing in the mix voice. I would say keep practicing, do lip roll scales, work on breath support, and strengthening your voice as as a whole. Time will be your biggest obstacle. Be patient and you will improve.