aravindmadis

This brings me to something I am curious about. Am I a tenor? These are the characteristics of my voice - I struggle a lot with the lowest notes(like for e.g. in Silent Lucidity, I just cannot seem to sing the intro). In fact the lowest notes in this song(think it is a Bb2) is I think about as low as I can sing and even here I cannot sing any louder - I like to sing in the headvoice and prefer to bridge down than bridge from below and like Ronws would say, go lighter as you descend and allow strong chest muscles to take over. I never knew one could do this till a couple of months ago, yet, this is now my preferred singing style and I can't believe I haven't been singing like this all my life. - I am most comfortable bridging early if I have to bridge, although I prefer to avoid bridging altogether if I can by being in the head voice. - I can belt in a chesty sounding notes upto a C5(for e.g. the "We'll keep on FIIIIGHTINNGGGGGGG, in the song "we are the champions"), albeit not with a high degree of consistency..Based on this song, my highest non modal note is F#5 & I think I can go higher I know that the vocal Fach is only indicative and not a rule. I think I can sing these songs with more confidence if I know I am tenor(even a low tenor). As a kid, I listened and sung Indian music, which had mostly bass/baritonal range, so maybe psychologically, somehow I still have a bit of trepidation when I approach songs in the true tenor range.

Wow.. Thank you for such a detailed feedback. I am really humbled about the similarity in my voice with Lou's. I never thought of it that way and Lou is a great role model for his singing technique and versatality.. Never thought movement and mic position would be the cause behind some of my issues, infact I have never thought much about breathing at all, so thanks a lot for this feedback and I will definitely try out the exercises. I have always tried to go deeper when trying to sing high notes. I don't know how to explain it, but it's like a well, my mental imagery is that the higher the note the deeper I have to dig. The lack of punch in "I wanna FEEL what love is" is mostly due to laziness and in retrospect, definitely breathing issues..

Gneetapp, I have always visualized singing as a physical co-ordination and the whole "visualize the note before you sing" is something that I tend to struggle with. I have always felt that singing should not involve strain and maybe I tend to mentally relax a little too much(which I guess is counterproductive, unlike relaxing physically, which actually helps a great deal). After all these songs are pretty hard and looks like I need to work on my mental aspects as hard as I work on my technique.. About your question, I am not sure what I am doing here. I am definitely using a mixed voice and all notes I have tried to sing with power, so I think it is definitely a mixed voice belt.. Is it harmful for vocal chords.. Have heard belting is bad, but I guess if you don't push from chest(which I am not doing here), it should be okay??

Thank you.. The high note is a mixing error.. It was way too loud and just did not sit in the mix correctly. I do these recordings at home and I am just learning to use a DAW correctly, looks like I made it too soft and used more reverb than required here.. I have never had a vocal lesson, and I live in India where it is not possible to get vocal lessons for the style of songs that I like to sing. So while you can say I am a "natural talent", it will convey only half the story. I work very hard and practise regularly. And I try to get as much feedback and to be honest, I have got a lot of help on this board. I would not be half the singer I am today without this help.

Hi Ronws,Geetnap,BHB,Adoney,Wabba_trends, MDEW and other good folks... Please check out and give feedback.. I have recorded a video this time.. Please see if you can spot some glitches in my technique.. The video was recorded after the audio, so it is meant to be an illustration of my singing technique, so please ignore the sync issues!! This song is kind of my personal mount everest.. I have been trying to sing this for the past 1 year and now I feel confident about posting a version.. There are days that I just can't pull this off.. What do I need to improve my consistency?

MDEW,, Thanks Adoney, surely you are being too modest about your vocal skills When you are talking about range, are you referring to tonal variety? Surely you have a much larger vocal range than me I am building strength to hit the notes with power.. Right now I feel that my voice will break if I try to make it more powerful.. maybe I am doing something wrong:(

Gneetapp.. I am definitely not using Falsetto, just a very light headvoice, perhaps I can work on the closure and breath control to cut the airy sound. The other thing that could be a problem is how I have recorded it.. I have an untreated room(basically my bedroom!) in which I do my recordings.. I also tend to keep moving back and fro between the computer and the mic... Wabba_treads.. That is classic me! Working really hard to get the tough notes and slacking on the relatively easier notes! I have a long standing problem with end of phrases and I have improved, but looks like I could do a lot better.. It just goes to show how difficult it is to be a really good live singer!! Thanks folks.. your feedback is encouraging and it helps a great deal..

I don't consciously work on the vowels, so I am a little intrigued when you say that the EE's are good.. what can I do to improve my vowel sounds? I am very lazy to do any kind of scales, even for warm up.. I tend to warm up with singing lighter songs, move to songs that are on the passagio and then move to songs where power is required.. So, if there is something that I can do, like exercises and achieve a better control and getting warmed up, please let me know what I should do..

Hi Folks.. Gneetapp, Ronws,Adoney etc Please suggest areas of improvement.. This is an extremely tough song for me.. And it is an effort several months in the making. I have a much deeper voice than Steve Perry and it is always a dedicate balance for me to sing this song. I am pretty happy with the output, but would love to hear from the experts on how I can make it better. I am getting more accustomed to mixing and for this song for the end I have used more reverb(think the original song also sounds very washed towards the end). Ronws, I remember your input about singing differently from spoken voice. I have gradually become more accustomed to singing this way and it renders well to certain type of songs. I have a question, how do we improve the ability to take the headvoice as low as possible.. For me after a certain level, I feel that I don't have strength in my lowest notes.. https://soundcloud.com/aravind-madhavan/faithfullyjourney-karaoke-cover

Bump!!

Hi Ron/Adoney and all the good folks.. Please listen and give feedback...

You are able to hit the notes, but it sounds a little lacking power .. Did you try involving more of the diaphragm.. I used to have a similar issue until I found a way to sing from deep inside even for the headvoice.... This will likely cause more air flow and will lead to your voice sounding more breathy(which also happened to me :-) ), but you can sharpen the resonance by changing the shape of your mouth, by either making it wide or making it round(like when you say to).. This is what works for me, so try it out! Just curious.. How did you get across the soundcloud ban?

OMG!!! This is awesome!!! , but I guess you hear that a lot.. I am almost embarrassed by the version that I had posted!! I have such a long way to go!! I learnt the concept of "mix voice" only a few months ago, so I am hoping I can improve more!! Couple of questions.. How long have you been singing.. Your mix voice is so exceptionally strong at the high notes for a low baritone.. Is this purely a question of practice? How do I improve the final mix?

Thanks.. Last time someone mentioned that I tended to crash on the ending of the lines and this time looks like I tried to be too conscious to avoid that and ended up stretching the sentences a wee bit in the chorus! I wasn't too keen to do an exact replica of Bruce, and it is simply impossible with my voice to do it anyway.. Just one question.. Is this technique damaging to the vocals? I do not feel stress of any sort even if I sing for an hour or even longer.. When I do a more chest heavy belty type of voice, I tend to run out of steam towards the end of the hour..

I am sorry, what is a "quacky sound"? I did not want to create the Dickinson sound, and frankly with my voice, I am not even sure it is possible! While I have a relatively light voice, it is still much lower than Bruce! If I do try to belt, I simply do not have control at the stress points.. On a related note, does the voice get stronger over time? This 'head/mix' technique is something that I have been learning only for the last few months and while I can see improvement in the power, I am wondering if it can be made stronger!

Thanks Ron.. I am humbled I guess most casual listeners do not know/understand how difficult it is to sing Bruce's songs, let alone sing it in a way like he does & sound as good as Bruce does :-) I am an agnostic by nature, but when I listen to Bruce at his pomp, I cannot help but feel it is a voice that has been touched by a higher power.. Mere mortals like me can only aspire to improve to sing the best version of themselves..

Any tips on how I can do this? I use a AT2020 microphone, Scarlett 2i2 and Ableton Live for my recordings.. I use basic Gate, Compression and Reverb that my limited knowledge allows.. I do these recordings at home with no proper soundproofing, so any help on how I can improve the mix quality would be great..

Hi Folks.. I have done a second take of Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden.. I wasn't happy with how the first one turned out.. I did a few things differently here 1. Used a lighter voice throughout that suits my voice.. I realized that Bruce's voice is a higher voice so he is able to sing the high notes with more chest in the mix.. I was unable to hit the notes with more chest in the mix without belting and it caused an impression of strain.. 2. Someone told me that I tend to crash on towards the end of sentences.. I have corrected that mistake.. 3. I approached the whole song from the head downwards and added chest instead of building the verse from the chest.. I found out that it is a lot easier to sing this way.. https://soundcloud.com/aravind-madhavan/run-to-the-hills-take-2 Please do listen and give me your feedback..

Hi Ron... Firstly thank you for such a detailed feedback.. It feels so amazing to be in a connected world where you can get such good feedback from a person in some other part of the world. I just could not have improved this much 15 years ago without help from people like you.. When you say "sharpen the resonance", what do you mean? How can I do that? Also, I need to learn vowel modification.. I have learnt to go easy on the consonants and stress on the vowels, but I am from India and though my spoken accent is relatively neutral, I do not always get the diction right while singing

Hi Folks, Please listen in to my cover and critique.. I am happy with the outcome, but I look forward to any feedback. https://soundcloud.com/aravind-madhavan/we-are-the-champions-karaoke-1 I also wanted to share my journey over the last 9 months which led me to doing this cover. I used to sing in my college band in my university days.. I always dreamed about singing like Freddie or Bon Jovi, but never could pull of the really tough songs. Now in my thirties, I have a strong urge to become the best singer that I can become. So I started singing last June after a 10 year gap. "We are the Champions" was a holy grail for me and one of the songs I desperately wanted to sing, but somehow never had the skill or technique to pull of a tough song like this. I am no Freddie, but I have attempted to cover this song, the studio version and I am happy to be able to sing all the notes. Here are the things that I discovered during my journey. 1. Building an effective bridging mechanism :- The "But I've come through" part I had never heard of a term called "head voice" before in my life. Consequently, I used to belt out songs like this and higher pitch meant more volume and effort. I used to get stuck regularly in the verse when it goes "I've come through". I learnt to cut the weight upon ascending the scale and bridge into my head voice early and I could sing this portion more easily 2. Effective usage of falsetto:- The portion "We'll keep on fighting" This was a big problem area for me. I used to sing the preceding like too heavy. Consequently, I just could not get into a soft falsetto without making it sound like an abrupt shift. I learnt through trial and error that it is easier to get into a falsetto from a lighter tone, than a heavier tone. This is a pattern Freddie uses in many songs and it took a long time for me to learn. 3. Singing low parts high in the headvoice :- The bloody tough chorus This took a long time for me to learn. The chorus where it goes "We are the champions" second time around was something I could simply not understand how to sing. I just could not belt it and if I tried in my head voice, I just did not get the power and it simply did no gell with the earlier "We are the champions" which is a chesty belt. Then I came across an instruction video that said that to sing like Bruce Dickenson, you needed to sing the low parts high. This was a bit puzzle to me. What could "Sing low parts high mean"? After many months, I got the answer. Having never been a trained singer, I always used to approach the note from below, and build it up from the chest. I tried to hit the notes by approaching them from top, which meant I had to let go bad habits and muscle memory from several years of improper technique. Once I was able to "descend into the note" instead of "ascending up to the note", I was immediately able to generate a lot more power in my tone without nearly causing that much strain. This helped me leverage a strong head/mix voice and I could then choose to increase the amount of chest component in the voice. I found that it is a lot easier and consistent to add chest to the mix than the other way around and I began to re-orient my singing style to sing from head and descend to the chest. 4. What is your true voice :- The Baritone curse One bad habit all untrained singers have is to try and imitate the singer exactly. This is a bad habit for two reasons, one it robs you of the individual quality your timbre brings and second, more importantly, it really restricts what you can do. For a long time, I thought singing those really high notes was impossible for me and I needed the high vocal Fach of a Bruce Dickenson, or Steve Perry to do it. I could not have been more mistaken. Most of us, especially high baritones can definitely sing in the tenor range through training and hard work. For this song, the more I tried to sound exactly like Freddie, the tougher it was. Even if you have a similar vocal Fach, the extent of chest in a note, the power of distortion, the lightness of the voice in a soft falsetto are all impacted by our individual voices and register breaks. I forgot all about trying to sound like Freddie and tried to understand how I could hit that note. It became a lot easier. 5. Practice, Practice, Practice.. Today, after a mere 9 months of dedicated practice, I am able to sing songs that I never thought I could sing before. I may not be a Freddie Mercury, but I can definitely become the best singer that I can become with hardwork..

Hi Folks.. Appreciate your feedback on a Queen cover that I did.. I love this song and I have tried to do it to the best of my ability! If you have any pointers for improvement, it will be great! Typical of any Freddie song, this is high octane stuff.. I have tried to do a gritty version, but if I were to do it live, I would use more of the headvoice and sing it in a slightly less stressful way.. https://soundcloud.com/aravind-madhavan/i-want-it-all-karaoke-cover Does this type of music suit my voice? What do you think?

HI Folks, I am a new joinee to this forum. I have started singing after nearly 9 years and at 34 years of age, I have a desire to be the best singer I can become. I have learnt a great deal by reading posts on these forums.... I have to say that I am NOT A TRAINED SINGER.. I have never had any vocal lessons and I have spent a great deal of effort trying to improve my singing technique. I have had to rely on google search for lessons, since I am in India and it is difficult/impossible to get a good rock singing coach. I am also a newbie in the art of mixing and this again I have learnt by browsing and reading on web. This song represents an effort that has taken several months. I have had to unlearn a lot of my bad techniques/habits and have had a real fun journey in my quest to become a better singer(starting with accessing the head voice, learning distortion, usage of diaphragm and vowel modification). I still feel that I can improve quite a bit but I am lost for direction at this stage.. I am a baritone and so this is an extremely difficult song for me.. Please listen and give feedback on areas that I can improve.. Plus, I am from India, so there may be accent related issues :-) https://soundcloud.com/aravind-madhavan/run-to-the-hills-cover