Xamedhi

The other day I was playing around singing and recorded this. I edited it just a bit to make it more fluid and "conversational", haha I'm not impersonating anyone and just playing around with colours and twang An excerpt from 5th Extintion and Unnatural Selection: https://soundcloud.com/sebabergmann/unnatural-selection-22-abril

I am using Mastering Mix at the moment and for me it has worked wonders. The difference is that I have the breath support very developed and my resonance consistent and relaxed, my issue is fold closure. I have sung airy for so long that my vocal muscles are pretty weak in my opinion, so Mastering Mix is helping me a LOT because of all the Edge and closure exercises. I don't think you need to develop more closure for now, I think your voice is very strong, and what you need to learn is how to relax and keep open all your resonant spaces and learn breath support, which will make your singing 200% times easier and free ( and healthy, haha ) Keep up the good work, mate.

It's not bad at all. You have good ear and can reproduce the notes pretty well, mate. Your voice sounds strong also. If you really like singing and are willing to put a lot of time and effort into it, just buy some books, read a lot and if you can afford it, get a teacher. There are very good teachers here in the forum.

Thanks, Olem! I've been training non stop in compression since November because I used to be veery breathy. Very. haha So I have been re-learning the way I phonate. This is how I sounded in December. https://www.dropbox.com/s/paot8h3z7zeufs6/Xamedhi%20-%20Roll%20the%20Fire%2007%20Diciembre%202013.mp3

Do you have any more recordings, man? I'd like to hear your headvoice. I already heard your chest EDIT: Nah, nevermind. I'm hearing your Can You Hear Me? thread again, and I'm finding everything haha. I'd like to talk about it thought, mate Send me an email when you are in the mood of some technique talking.

Thanks, mate That really means a lot! I just started working on July I think ( August? ), and your opinion makes me think that.. I am highly probable on the right track, haha. I've been working a lot on headvoice strengthening, because I have a chest dominant voice, which makes the change in color and mode ( CVT ) very evident to my ears in headvoice. I have the luck of not having much problems on my bridge, haha, which is very convenient. How would you describe my voice, man? Bright, dark-ish, brassy, big, small.. :)

I liked the interpretation a lot. You seem to care a lot about dynamics and phrasing details. The only things I need to point out is that it is very breathy, and your vibrato is produced because of a lack of support. I am going to assume that it is a permanent technique thing and not just in this song. The breathyness comes from not closing the folds in a correct way, you are leaving them open with a lot of air passing through. I know how that feels, haha, I used to sing like that, and even more breathy, specially on my high chest notes ( I had no headvoice ). All the dynamics you are trying to use, which are fine, very emotional, will be far more easy when you learn to control the adduction of the folds. In that way it is very easy to play with volume and the brassyness of the tone. And also the high notes will come easier. Now your vibrato is made because of a lack of support. It's mostly produced because the air that passes through your folds has a rythm and pushes air in those intervals. Breath support will correct that, and then you'll probably have the laryngeal vibrato quite right. If you have any questions send me an email, mate, I'll be happy to help.

Well, answering your question, of course you can do something with your voice. I know people who sang Green Day songs with zero support or resonance who are now incredible lyrical singers. First, I think oyu have a lot more space yo resonate your voice, mate. And it's probably a darker timbre than what is shown in the video. I am an advocate of working first on what is natural and organic and then branch out into whatever your preferences are. Now I have no idea if it is good, productive, or counter-productive to work right off the bat on the specific sound you want. You could ask some of the teachers here. If you are into small voices like Adam Levine ( your clip sounds pretty similar hehe ) you can develop that type of sound. The thing is that you don't want to constrict anything to produce it. The high note you made there in 00:36 after the falsetto was very closed in the pharynx, very twanged and "throaty", some lyrical people would say. My first advice is to practice scales on a very relaxed and open-throat way ( Soft palate lifted, Relaxed Pharynx, neutral larynx ), while maintaining the fold's closure and see what happens. I would like to hear more of your voice :P

Hello guys I wanted to "update" the status of my voice, as I have had a kind of.. short ( eternal for me ) pause in my training. I look forward to see if you listen to the same things I am listening in here, and what other opinions can you give me. Thanks in advance

Well, there's not much we can judge from, mate. A song with maybe with more dynamics, different volumes and stuff would be useful.

Well, my advice is similar to Owen's. I say, play around with your voice and spaces, imitate opera singers, women, witches cackling, grandpas and their weird wide vibrato when they sing, imitate Disney characters singing, etc. All of that will give you knowledge and control over your voice. It will build sensibility on your muscles. You will learn in a fun ( very fun, indeed haha ) way to manipulate your soft palate, tongue, twang, and vocal muscles. I agree with Owen on the resonance part. You sound good, but you have a lot more space than that to use, it's very constricted and small.

I liked it a lot I am a fan of the first album of Lana and Born to Die, but I haven't heard this song. Which is cool because when I heard you singing I didn't think at all of her. You're using your own sound to sing it, and from what I know of Lana, her voice, dynamics and nuances, I can tell that you interpreted the song rather differently. If I am mistaken and you feel differently feel free to correct me, hahah. Well, I can only say that I'd like to hear more of your singing.

As Jens here in the forum says, there are small, medium and large voices. Don't think a bout classifications, they will just limit your mindset and your approach to your goals. Voices have so many traits! Some are brighter, darker, bigger, airy, metallic, smooth and creamy, shrieky. One's job as a singer is to identify how your voice is, and what is easy for you to do, what is more natural anatomic-wise. Your range is your range and you can develop it to the point where you have range to spare. Your tone, timbre and quality of your voice is a completely different topic. That is yours to embrace. That is yours to take advantage of as a singer and interpreter. Now, what you call falsetto, or headvoice, is produced by a different coordination than your "normal" voice. There are other muscles involved, which can be trained to the point where the voice up there, in falsetto/headvoice, can sound just like chest voice/modal voice. That's how classical singers obtain such power in their high register. Do you want to be a classical singer? Is there a need for you to be categorized at all? If not, then just use your voice and be known for your particular traits. A singer is a singer, and you are your voice as much as your voice reflects yourself. Does it matter if you are classified by the people who surrounds you as cool, mean, shy or whatever... not at all. You are how you are, and that's what's important Same with your voice :B I forgot to mention. Maybe you already know but, voices change depending on the size of your throat, your pharyngeal space, your nasal space, the lenght of your vocal folds, the MASS of your vocal folds, the very borders of your vocal membranes, and a myriad of things. That's what defines your sound, and you can certainly play around with that to an extent. Bigger voices have more space to resonate, and they tend to be lower too. Because of a physical fact that low frecuencies ( low notes ) need more space to resonate well. If you have a big space, coupled with big fat vocal folds, then you are likely able to make HUGE low notes. If your folds are not like that, then maybe your range will be higher, with HUGE high notes, but maybe your folds are just not able to produce massive low notes. As you can imagine someone with smaller spaces will have a completely different kind of sound. Classical sopranos sound that sweet and "birdy" in their high range because they have very small spaces ( which are required to resonate well higher notes ) and thin folds. Of course that is not the absoolute truth and I am not the owner of it, haha, but what I have explained is pretty accurate, and I really hope it is of use to you Btw, I liked your voice a lot. It's dark and creamy, like mine. Personally I have found that it is kind of hard to achieve what other voices do so easily, that's why I try to tel you not to try to look for a sound, or search for one if you ever think of it. Good technique will unlock your true sound and your full range, resonating and dynamics capacity. I'd love to hear more of your singing and chat about this stuff if you'd like. Send me a private message if you're interested. :)

And also point that maybe lower a bit the vocals volume The music is cool, I liked it a lot and your singing fits very well the style. Keep working, mate :D

Thyroid tilt has little to do with volume, mate.

Thanks por the input, spiral_out About that, mate.. I feel like I tend too much to the nasal, so I try to avoid it by directing the sound as back as I can haha So weird xD I will try this week to balance that and record myself, I'll see what happens. Thanks for the observation :)

Thanks again, Snejk I'll keep working hard. (:<

Thanks for posting your thoughts on here, mate. I am aware that the current state of my instrument doesn't allow me to sing as I'd want to but, hey! That's why we are all here, isn't it? ^.^ I know my voice "doesn't fit" these kind of songs (yet), but I am determined to get that performance level. I know by experience how much the body can change and adapt when you do something over and over, year by year. I have been singing the wrong way during years, and now that I started training seriously some months ago I had the handicap of a very breathy tone :/ . Very. Breathy. So, to be able to sing like this means world to me right now Also, yeah.. a friend of mine named me "The King of Midi's". I wish I had musician friends who would be interested in making some tracks for me haha But I have to use what I have at hand. Thanks again, Snejk, and by the way, I heard a lot of your songs on SC and I like your voice and style.

Thanks, Jugulator. I am currently working on compression daily, haha. Some months ago I had no idea how to adduct my folds above my bridge, and my chest voice was awfully breathy, so for me this is a huge improvement, which keeps me always motivated to keep working hard.

Now, don't misunderstand me, hehe. I am just saying that your voice reminds me of him He is a lot more.. "Goblin-ish" and "Comical", the heavy and gritty quality of your voice reminds me of him. I liked your voice, man... fits very well with this kind of stuff.

Nice, I loved it man. Nothing bad to say about it. Do you try to sound like Kai Hansen on purpose? You do sound like him quite a bit, man, haha.

Nah, don't worry, I didn't feel offended at all. I am aware that Steve Perry's songs some of the most chellenging. And from what I have sung about Faithfully and Loving, touching, squeezing is that I need to keep working like a mad man on my compression to get that ease with which he sings. He is light, but sooo solid. EDIT: Also he sings a lot on the passagio area. And greatly, on top of it. I think he did that on purpose just to piss off singers who covered Journey's stuff haha What other bands with lighter vocals could you recommend, so I can listen to and pick some songs?

Yeah, I think that too Thanks for the input, man. I'll study some of Journey's songs and see what happens.

Nah, Kiske's voice in general in the Helloween era is very sharp and thin. Powerful, but not dark-ish, or mega chesty. I still don't have the compression I'd like to really belt out songs like Caught in a Web, Take the time and stuff by DT, or Iron Maiden, or to give my voice more "core" and edge when I try to sing a bit thinner like this. I tend to have a breathy voice. I'm working on it, though.. and I have made great progress in a short time So I am quite encouraged to keep working hard.

Hey again! Two uploads today haha Well, I wanted to try this song, as it is one of my favourites from Helloween. I dunno, the melody, the humor... The "happy happy Helloween" vibe in all it's splendour, haha. It's the first verse and chorus of the song, I hope you can leave some thoughts on here. Thanks SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/sebabergmann/x-helloween-rise-and-fall Box: https://app.box.com/s/0a5ytv7nf0jfoufz3chh