Khassera

Thanks man. Inspiring.

Video four you're flipping into falsetto before accessing headvoice.

Onset with vocal fry to fix this.

I'm Finnish. Like Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica and Marco Hietala of Nightwish. I'm much better looking though.

Yeah. You're probably right.

Worth trying though, vowel emphasis.

The prob with english is that it's so full of diphtongs that you actually need to emphasize cardinal vowels.

I'd imagine if you spend most of your life speaking with diphtongs it shouldn't be hard to sing them. It should be harder to sing pure vowels. Not because of physiological things, narrower vowels are harder to project, but because you're already used to saying a certain word in a certain way, a "man" is sometimes "mae-eh-n" or "meh-ae-n" rather than "mae-n" etc. To me it's vice versa, but I just never thought the emphasis should be so huge. And obviously you shouldn't avoid the diphtong to the point of sounding like a 'tard, only up to the point where you can get the note to release, then you can start playing around with narrowing and feel the physical sensations that take place. If it's getting tighter, it's something you might need to manage, since tightness is something that will accumulate, and resetting in the middle of a song is extremely difficult.

Edit: I'm just an amateur, so to me these things are a lot about HOW something is said rather than what is said. So if I understand something in a way that opens new avenues for me, it's extremely helpful and mindblowing for me.  That's really all I need to be concerned about, what works for me.

This song gets about 500% easier after you take in the information from this thread:

I know you know about vowels. I know you know edging and whatnot, it's in your trainig program.... BUT nevertheless, read the post and try out doing it exactly. And obviously eith very little to no tension. Let the sound really project from the top part of your skull (as if you have norhing below your upper jaw).

My nationality helps me sing since I've grown up speaking only cardinal vowels and no diphtongs, so by abusing pure vowels i'm able to really keep the vowels similar to eachother. So in addition to emphasizing on the vowel, try avoiding te diphtong.

Don't sing "Ah-eh-ee-m the mae-eh-n een the bawks" etc, rather sing "Ah-m the mae-n een thoe(ö) bah-ks" ... Or something-or-other.

You don't appear cocky at all mate, just a bit cockney, mate ;D haha, just messin' witcha. I spent almost a year in Exeter, I love the place. But I bet you're from Australia or something and now I look like a dick.

Anyhoo, no. You don't need strain at any point to nail resonance and twang. No. Strain. Anywhere. No matter what Videohere will try to tell you. It's not a resistance training thing. It's a finesse thing. My recommendation in how to do T&T:

- Onset with a vocal fry to minimize tension

- gently press up into your digastrics below your chin, there should be no tension at any point. At all.

- upon occurrence of tension STOP IMMEDIATELY (not because it'll wreck your voice, your life, your car and your wife 'cause it won't, but because practice makes permanent), grab some water or something, rest for a couple of minutes and continue one octave below where you got to.

If you persist doing exactly this while focusing on maximizing the buzz in your face, teeth, lips etc, it'll take you maybe a week to nail the placement. And I mean in a way that you'll never have to worry about it again.

It'll feel really funky to let the headvoice take over. Worry about getting beefy after you nail bridging and connecting.

You're not hitting the note. You sound like you're getting stuck, or pulling a lot, and it shows in your body too.

Just hammer at resonant tracking. When it gets tight, pause and rest (this is very, very important), skip down an octave to start over and work your way back up. Do this a couple of times. Try doing it with an plug-earphone going to one ear. Feel the sensation of "NG" on the M and the N when you go higher, especially when you're past the passaggio.

Your voice doesn't sound resonant. It sounds like you're trying to keep a sort of dark timbre to it, which is fine, but for that song it sounds a bit off. Until your face, teeth and lips buzz throughout your low, mid and mid-high range I'd say don't move on to onsets, but I'm sure Rob can guide you better. It's kinda like moving in before the house is built imho. And the coordination isn't that hard to find with resonant tracking. Ave the patience to keep at it.

Keep working on it man. You've got potential, you have a nice tone.

Hey man i heard it, your close but your vowelmods are abit all over the place wich throws it abit pitchy. Try this, im hearing that your closing down abit to much on the closed vowels specialy the ih/ee vowels.

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Amazing practical demonstration. Thanks Jens!

Is it flat or is it just me?

It still sounds like it's not a free configuration. Are you feeling strain?

I like the distortion though. I dunno what your teacher's having you do, but I think that lightening the mass would be apt. It's not only about the volume, it's rather the way you trust the headvoice to sound as badass as your chestvoice, and, in fact, how much more badass it sounds once you let it do most of the work.

Can you sing this song with literally only headvoice, but keep it connected? If not, there's something in the vowels you're not doing in an optimal way. Or that'd be my take on it. I'd still just try singing this lightly with a "ou" shape, then just add mass and open it up a bit.

Someone shoot me down if I'm wrong:

I used to think shaping vowels and "singing vowels" or "modifying vowels" was in relation to the phrases sung rather than pitch. It's more about keeping a certain vowel shape in your larynx/throat while singing the phrase. So you're singing phrases, but the "feel" of the phrase is kept on a certain vowel, usually a narrow one, when dealing with difficult notes. To try it out sing the first phrase on a narrow vowel, for example, "ou," which forces you to keep your mouth very narrow. Then just relax and open your mouth wider and the vowel will sound more like "ae" but your throat will feel like it's still singing "ou." this feeling is definitely not strain, more of a release.

Doing it like Dio is easier (not easy) once you do it like Sanchez first.

HEAVEN AND HELL Coheed and Cambria:

Tight, dude. What phone adds reverb/delay to the recording?

Tervetuloa tännekin.

Rob, ron's suggesting that Tappi sings the song using straight vowels and not tight diphtongs. He typed out the vowels.

And it's ah-n (ah + n = on) aeh-nd ("ae" as in cat + nd = and) so on and so forth.

I'd go as far as to use a vowel you don't have to modify at all to get the release into the mix/head and open it up from there. Maybe try singing with only oo or a german u (suomeksi uu tai yy).

I think your tone is awesome, it does sound a bit difficult though. I dunno if you feel it, but it sounds like you're straining, and I bet that's why you're not executing the melismas Dio does and there's some spots where the phrase just abruptly ends. All in all I think it's good, but you shouldn't need to shout over the music, it's not how Dio did it. Not saying it's the only way to do it, it's just the easiest way to do it.

I think my problem is that in high parts of the songs generally i take the "easy way" and go falsetto. This is my try not to do so...is falsetto better after all?

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It's flat. "I am strong" the "I am" part sounds really released, you should try and keep that feeling in the other phrases also. Try going through the song with either "ee" (suomeksi ii) or "oo" (suomeksi uu/yy) and try to let your voice drift into a clear, bright headvoice, not an airy headvoice. Once you have that down, add mass.

Less air, less volume, more resonance, if you can't sing it soft and light don't try to belt it loud.

Aika päheetä.

With training you could sing in the original key.

Jesus christ, I wrote like an A4s worth of an answer but somehow it got lost.

What I meant was that here's how I'd fix this issue:

You have the tonality spot on on the "Oh" lick before "and cold - cold spirits of ice," so keep the tonality/configuration the same as in that lick, and do the "can you remember" phrase with an "oh" sound. So instead of singing "can you remember" you sing "oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" (not staccato but a pulsing, controlled phrase). Once you can sing it as loud as you need while staying in tune, change the phrase to "gan you remember." Once you have that down pat you change it by adding the hard plosive K sound ("Can you remember").

And obviously you hammer at that specific phrase 'til you onset it with freedom and ease, and the power will come as the technique gets ingrained.

Hey, try to do the "Oh" lick b

To add to Ron's post:

I don't know how Rob has you practice, but I suggest going through the song in very, very small phrases, recording them, playing them back until they're perfect. Don't move on until you feel you nailed everything, since this song, if any, is a good example of going from "I'm too young to die" to "Nightmare."

My opinion on the song:

- I think you sound flat. It might be the mix, but it sounds as if you're just a tad below what you're supposed to be singing. It might be that you're dampening the larynx too much?

- Don't go overboard with the effects, Layne didn't.

- You start out really heavy, "AHM The man in the box" instead of the really droll, creaky, almost nasal falsettoish tone Layne started with, and if you're going to do that you'd better nail the pitch on the first try, since it leaves no room for subtle correction.

+ Your tone is f*ing awesome dude, you've got a great voice

+ The chorus sounds great, very powerful even without the compression. Can't wait 'til you get some compression going.

You sound a bit scandinavian.

Well let me ask you this:

What do you think? What is good and what is bad?

Welcome Khassara... cool photo.   How is your Pillars training coming along?

 

BTW guys,... Ill be filming about three new belting and "bottom-up" lecture / demonstration videos on Thursday for the system.

Thanks Robert! I've done some random workouts here and there. It's going great, even though it's a bit different than what I'm used to.

Quentin, it sounds like your higher register is "separate" from your lower register. You gotta hammer at those connecting notes to smooth the passagio, and it has to be as effortless as possible. I dunno if you own Pillars, but "The Hero," I feel, is a great exercise for steamrolling the passagio.

Yeah, the "I love it, I need it" isn't near as ballsy as what I'd like to hear, and the verses are heavy enough that I know you could do better.

Ã…h, man tackar!

Really like Johnny Lindqvist, the original singer. Powerful voice and very nice distortion. Too bad they haven't released anything new in ages.

Ohhhhhhhh man, Nocturnal rites is awesome! I remember getting to know them by accidentally picking the wrong no-label CD off my very, very christian friend's brother's shelf. I'm an atheist, but obviously my friend's parents were devout, where as my buddy was a bit in between.

Threw us both the f* off that the CD was Nocturnal Rites' Sacred Talisman. I was like "wtf is this?! It's AWESOME! I WANT MORE!"

Lindqvist is just amazing, he's got a great tonality. And you nail this cover like a boss. Well done! :)

Sing the vowels, don't say the words.

That is amazing. Thanks, along with a rep point. That just made everything easier for me in about 2 seconds.

That is fricking awesome dude!

Right up to the "never be free" point, that kinda threw a curveball there I mean, it's great, sounds fine I'm sure, but I didn't expect you to use a tonality like that. A bit of a turn for the Jon Oliva there?

Sounds like you've been working your nuts off dude. Keep doing what you're doing.

EDIT: Love the f-r-i-c-k-i-n-g autoedit there. lmao

Haha, awesome! Very versatile!