Stiletto

Umm no. Its because I gave it a lot of thought that it sounds good at all. I was one of those guys that in the past "Just sang" and used a lot of bad technique doing so. I produced some good results doing that and most people said it sounded great. But they were not aware of the problems I was having or my diminishing abilities.

For anyone interested in such things, here is the person Perry took most his cues from. You should here and see TON of similarities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj46JgAP_OE

Yes that's exactly what I meant. Good ear! There are certain notes that are a bit more "pinched" so to speak. That's a result of that lack of airflow I was speaking about and results in a bit less of a warm/big sound than his. The trick is to allow as much air to flow past the chords without sounding "falsetto" and weak. Its a balancing act. But one I am getting more comfortable with all the time. Perry was the absolute master at this..... The usual advice is not to emulate a singer. But in my mind that's because there are a TON of bad singers out there that one would never want to learn from. Every voice is going to be unique for sure and there is no point in that regard in trying to "sound" like someone else's voice. That being said, there are some singers past and present that simply had incredible technique. Those are the ones to listen to and emulate technique wise. In my mind, that's Steve Perry for men and Celine Dion for women. These people are worth studying in great detail and both do an incredible job of locating those higher notes in the nose and moving a lot of air when they sing. I also make a distinction between who I like to listen to or a song I love and a singer I want to learn from. Some of my favorite songs were sung by guys who were very mediocre in terms of vocal ability. But they wrote incredible music. The opposite is true as well. There might be songs I don't care for that much but the vocal technique is ridiculous. Anyways, I am rambling now. Time to get ready for the game! Go HAWKS!!!!

Nope. Not nearly that smart! I have a LOT of fun. There is some risk in what you say but I guess that all depends on the person. I can guarantee you that the best singers in the world are quite anal when it comes to such things. Not that I am putting myself in that category mind you, just saying its not a bad trait to have when it comes to recording. You raise a very valid point here. The answer is that most of those categories resolve themselves by focusing primarily on the 1st one. Almost all of the areas in which I consider this vocal lacking are directly related to a deficiency in that first category. So the things I listed are NOT all things I "think" about when I actually sing, only things I notice lacking in the vocal as a whole. I never used the word hate? And isn't it amazing that in years past vocals like Perry's were accomplished without the aid of things like Autotune? The more someone works at their craft, the less they have to rely on such things. I am trying to work towards that end. The goal would be to get to the point that singing this way is second nature. Alas, old habit die hard and I am no Perry! Indeed, my goal is to get to the point where I can open my mouth and it just falls out naturally. Thankfully I can report that I have to "think" about it less and less every day now. I have not recorded the entire song. I was just taking a pass at that one line to see how it would turn out as it's my first attempt at Journey stuff.

What does IDGI mean? Oh. No not fishing. It's just what my ears tell me. I break these things down into minute detail. Its a bit of a curse in some regards, but in other ways its a blessing if one is trying to record music on a regular basis. I spend a lot of time in the studio and have been around quite a bit of mixing/recording/mastering. So I just hear stuff that perhaps others don't or are not trained to hear. I hope that does not sound condescending, its not meant to be. So I am speaking in terms of recording not how I might feel about singing this live had I done so. And what my ears tell me is this particular vocal is about 70% of what it should be if I was looking to record this song for real. Any decent vocal producer would most likely say the same. Now, keep in mind when I say that, I am speaking about a WHOLE host of things. Not just whether I hit the high note without strain. I am always looking for the following in every vocal that I would consider a "keeper": 1. Massive air 2. In time 3. Tone/texture 4. In tune 5. Stress free 6. Passion All of those things combined make a great vocal. If I was grading on a scale of 1-10 each one of those categories would get different marks on the sample I posted. Some higher than others of course. The part that is closest to being a "10" in all those categories and sits "right" to my ears is the one highlighted. "Only so many tears you can cry, till the heartache is over, now you can say, YOUR LOVE WILL NEVER DIE..whoa whoa whoa." My two cents..... Thanks for the kind words by the way!

I recognize that we are always more critical of our own voices. That being said, I would never keep these for final takes simply because I know it can be done better. Thank you for the kind words though! Lol! I think I will do that when I can clear some time. It's only been in the last 2-3 months that I radically changed the way I was thinking about vocals. I wouldn't have even attempted a Steve Perry tune before. I still need to make some adjustments before I feel I can record a full song and pull it off. I just needs to be a bit more second nature yet. Getting there though..... You won't find any disagreement with me on this! He's simply incredible. Interestingly enough, what he's doing is not "difficult" in the way most people use the term. The difficulty comes in thinking correctly about it which I often times fail to do . When I do think right, it comes out with no effort. The wail part I actually re-recorded right before I posted this morning about 30 minutes after I got out of bed. While I don't advocate NOT warming up, I find the need for it drastically diminished singing the way I do now. Before if I was not totally warmed up and if the stars where not aligned perfectly, it wasn't going to happen. Now, not so much. Yea, this I know. One of the main reasons I hesitate to do one of his songs in it's entirety until I know I can nail it. Even singing fantastic will pale in comparison to Perry and the equipment he captured his vocals on. Soon though hopefully I will give it a try. I like Arnel's voice and love the whole story about how he came to be with Journey. But hes not singing anything like Perry in terms of technique. Arnel is a belter. Steve's notes are being accessed very differently. I hate using these terms because it creates so much chaos. But I would describe what Steve does as almost falsetto with a ton of air behind it if that makes any sense. Whenever I sing higher notes now, I sing them all falsetto several times through to get in touch with the sensation I want to feel in my throat, neck face area. Which is to say almost zero. Then I push a ton of air behind that "falsetto" when I want to record it and it becomes something else. That probably makes no sense at all but its working for me.

Thanks MDEW - I do appreciate the encouragement. It's a difficult thing for me as my ear makes these things stand out like sore thumbs. I ALWAYS find stuff I want to redo, even after a song is finished. With a quick sample like this one, what I hear is some laziness in the airflow which leads to a tone quality that I don't much care for in several but not all spots. The notes are not difficult in terms of singing but they are such that if laziness creeps in, its super noticeable because of the range they are in and the low level of the music. The voice is really just "out there" almost accapella with nowhere to hide. Now I just want to go home and resing it....... By the way, I am sure you CAN and often do get great tone yourself. :)

Yea, I might try and do that. I probably should not have posted this though. I listened to it this morning with fresh ears and it doesn't sound to hot. I don't care much for the tonal quality and now the little things that annoyed me at first sound huge. Oh well.....

So, I thought last night I would take a crack at the high point of the song (to me anyways) - the iconic "wail" in the bridge. I would not keep these takes for a final recording as I hear lots of little things that drive me batty and I don't have time to re-sing it plus really get into the deep mixing/timing and mastering issues that would help this sound a lot more polished. But it was fun to mess around with! I am recording a lot of original music at the moment, but its always a nice break to sing someone elses material. Steve still continues to amaze me whenever I listen to him........... I'm thinking if I get time I will record the whole song.

For some reason I did not see the links! I just listened. You sound very relaxed and I would imagine that if I were to see you sing, you would appear to be as well. That's a great thing because that's 90% of the battle. In terms of tone, power etc., the only thing that is lacking to my ears is the air. The second song in particular. While sung in tune and very pleasantly I might add, there is a notable lack of power and intensity. If there was a scale to measure such a thing and a maximum of airflow was a 10 and the minimum was a 1, I would say that you were singing at about 50% air flow in that demonstration. In order to get where you want to go, you have to be able to move that up into the higher percentages.

Hello Sai, I am new here but can share a couple of things that will make this easier. 1. Our own ears are perhaps the worst tool we have to give us real time feedback on how we are singing. The sound is transferring past bone, soft tissue, atmosphere and THEN back through soft tissue and bone to get to our brains for analysis. FORGET what your ears are telling you and focus entirely on sensation. Which is to say that through your low notes, and highest, you should feel almost zero sensation in the throat, face, neck, mouth, tongue etc. A buzz around the lips/nose is what you are looking for sensation wise. A complete and utter lack of sensation everywhere else is what you want. If you start to feel a squeeze or tightening anywhere in the scale - stop. That's the wrong direction 99 times out of 100. 2. Try to imagine your face, neck and shoulders full of botox. In other words, utterly and completely relaxed and unavailable to you in order to sing the notes you want to sing. Most singers will contort facial muscles and therefore neck muscles and everything else in order to reach for notes. That's inefficient singing and only leads away from singing powerfully. Anything that leads you away from the "botox" mentality, I advise running away from. I know its a stupid analogy, but I think a pretty powerful mental picture of what you want to strive for. 3. Practice in the mirror. You will think you are relaxed until you sing in the mirror and realize you are anything but. Do this a lot. It will force you to sing a particular way in order to move throughout your entire range. It will eliminate the "cheating" for notes and keep you on track. 4. When I am singing difficult material, I always sing it softly, and very gently a few times to get in touch with the lack of sensation I need to have when I am actually going to record it. I will not keep a take if I cannot sing it with almost zero sensation in the areas I mentioned earlier. I would suggest doing the same. Take a line that seems challenging, sing it softly without regard to how it sounds for now and focus on "0" sensation. Remember to do this in the mirror. 5. Almost without exception, when a singer "feels" powerful, he isn't. Singing when done right will most times feel very un-powerful and unimpressive to the singer but the exact opposite to everyone else or the recording. In my opinion this is because all of the energy/air is leaving the body and not staying inside the body when done right. 6. Lastly, focus on air speed rather than sound volume. I like to think of the singers number one priority is to move as much air as possible as efficiently as he/she can. When you sing a line, try and expel all of your air as effortlessly as possible in the process. Let me know how it goes! ~Stiletto