Gsoul82

Did the original version recently. Any and all feedback welcome.
https://app.box.com/s/z4pem1kzthgsv7y2iandr7oliyqt5qnw
 

Thanks for taking the time to mark all these points with timestamps, it really helps! I agree with everything you said about each problem spot. This was recorded a little before the Christmas cover, so I wasn't really working on lower falsetto notes, but I definitely am aware of it now and am trying to build more resonance with them. I agree that if they are too quiet and I'm trying to do a run or something it is not worth it if people can't hear the run properly defined. I kept going back to the lines after the instrumental break and yep, "had" and "my" are pitchy. I'm grateful for the constructive feedback @Gsoul82, thanks again for listening.

All in all, this is a pretty solid attempt. In my opinion, few things could've been done better. Nice riffs throughout. I could feel the emotion.
Here's what I found noteworthy.
1:09 The shift into falsetto in the phrase "All my feeling was gone". I think you can make this smoother. Matter of fact, I know you can.
1:50 Very nice melisma!
2:24 Sing "gone" stronger. Sounds like you may have been having a little support dilemma there.
3:10 to 3:19 Your falsetto was getting quiet again, like we talked about before. Just noting it here, in case you didn't catch it.
3:44 The break here, while singing, "Dry my eyes," was a nice touch for the tone of the song. You're good at the use of little accents like that. Kind of like how I complimented you on the hint of rasp you used in your Christina Aguilera cover, a few weeks back. Keep this in mind, going forward.
3:47-3:48 The shift into falsetto here, at, "I had my," sounds just a little flat.
4:20 Nice transition into falsetto and nice ending. Was a little quiet here as well, but it's not as problematic. The difference between it there, and where I mentioned it at the 3:10 to 3:19 area is you don't want that happening in the middle of those smooth runs. People will miss them.
 

Hi Mike, 
Thanks for sharing your questions with the TVS community.
Ok, you are confused about those vowels a bit.  I did not say that "Ah" was the treble knob. I more likely said that "ae/a" (fat cats) was a vowel that amplifies higher frequencies, and thus, is your "treble knob". "A" as in "cat"... "Ah" is the TVS neutral vowel, as in "father". It is important that you are calling the right vowels and writing them properly. See the IPA tables in your copy of The Four Pillars of Singing. 
Yes, I did. Mike go to the red pages in the back of your book and look at the illustration titled, "Speaking Vowels" vs "Singing Vowels" with the color stripes... the Singing Vowels illustration shows the colors gradient, or blending. This is a visual way of saying that singing vowels, or formants are actually a combination of more then one vowel color at one time. Be sure to watch the lessons in the Formants and Vowels module of your copy of The Four Pillars of Singing... its all explained in those lesson. But here is some videos I did on it on YouTube.
Notice the first illustration in this presentation below:
Mike, that is correct... when we train our workouts in TVS, at the top... as you move higher in frequency, a well tuned formant would have a blend of "Eh & A", Red edging vowels that resonant in the forward palate and "Uh & Ou", Blue curbing vowels that resonant in the backward, soft palate position.
Watch this video as it demonstrations how, when we assign colors to vowels, we can show the vowels blending into formants as we change in frequency.
Yes, you can... as the above video explains... and this is not a silly question. It is insightful... you sound like a TVS student that is beginning to "get it".
Mike, make sure you go to all the lessons and take the quizzes in the training system.

I was going to do Ribbon in the Sky by Stevie Wonder, but the instrumental was the original key, so it was too high. I also realized, while I can sing my higher notes without much trouble, they happen more prone to pitch error.
This is probably Musiq's hardest song for me. Not quite sure why. Might be the emotion he puts into it. The original: 
 
 
 
 
Yup. I can't ask other people to challenge themselves if I don't do it too
I wasn't really nervous there. I just heard wrong, so the pitch was off. I'll agree that I think it got better as I went on. Musiq's songs can be tricky, especially if you try to do them the way he does them, because he's almost constantly singing, and when there are no lyrics, he's usually filling in the space with improvisations. Posted the original song above your quote.

Here's my challenge to myself. I took a shot at Don't Change by Musiq Soulchild.
 
 
 

It's good that you're noticing when that happens. You're closing in on getting it taken care of. That could be the reason it happened, but in any case, I believe you can improve that, so moving things down a couple tones won't be any issue.

About a week ago, I said we'd be having several challenges running at the same time. Several people had hinted in the past that they wanted this one. Leaving this here to be filled in a little later (probably tonight).

He's right, Rosa. It doesn't have to be a polished, studio-quality recording. There were a couple of times where I ended up running low on time and I submitted something that didn't even have an instrumental track behind it. It's not about competing with everybody else, it's about challenging yourself.

He's right, Rosa. It doesn't have to be a polished, studio-quality recording. There were a couple of times where I ended up running low on time and I submitted something that didn't even have an instrumental track behind it. It's not about competing with everybody else, it's about challenging yourself.

Anybody get started yet? I'm trying to decide between about 3 songs. I kind of want it to be something fresh, that I haven't tried to sing at all before, but there is also this pretty difficult song I've been trying to do since I started. I think I might be at the point now where I can just about pull the thing off. We'll see.

Anybody get started yet? I'm trying to decide between about 3 songs. I kind of want it to be something fresh, that I haven't tried to sing at all before, but there is also this pretty difficult song I've been trying to do since I started. I think I might be at the point now where I can just about pull the thing off. We'll see.

Welcome, Jon!

And what performance? Someone would have to hear you in order to make a judgement. And getting a review here requires a membership. There are button links all over for that.
 

Hello Robert and Hello to all!
 
I just ordered the TVS program and am excited to start working on my singing.
 
Quick bio. 48 Y.O. male from southside Virginia. I have played lead guitar since 1988. After taking many years away from home recording, I got back into it about 18 months ago and had to learn the new DAWs etc from scratch.
To make a long story short, I have about 50 "songs" on my hard drive that need vox. I also have quite a few lyrics written without any music etc. It has been difficult (impossible) for me to find any singers to work with so the next logical step is to just develop my own singing voice more. Hopefully it is not too late. Besides which, I love to sing even if I am not very technically aware at this moment.
As far as singing, I want to sing rock, classic rock, 80-90s rock, grunge, bluesy styles etc. In my songs I generally find myself in sort of the style of VH, Rainbow, Whitesnake, LedZep....sort of melodic and bluesy stuff. (at least thats the aim, hehe)
My fave singers in no order. Ann Wilson, David Coverdale, Goran Edman, John Sykes, Glenn Hughes, Mark Slaughter, Marq Torien, Barry Gibb, Layne Staley and many others. I am not fixated on copying anyone though, I just want to develop my own innate abilities. My dream song might be "Love Kills" by Mark Slaughter when he was with Vinnie Vincent, but again, its not a fixation. (Im aware Mark had a pretty high voice lol)
My current estimation of my singing abilities? I have potential to have a nice voice etc but am pretty clueless technically and totally untrained lol. Just from browsing vids etc I think I have a good understanding of some of the terminology....chest voice, head voice, falsetto, bridging etc. I understand the concept of vowel modification but have never tried to practice it myself.
I am probably like a lot of other untrained people. If the song happens to "fit" my current capabilities, then I sound decent. But if it doesn't, I sound like a frog that spent the previous day hollering at a sports event. Sometimes I can sing along with the verse to a song but when it goes into the higher chorus part I cant hit that.....or I can hit it but I have to jump up to head voice with no bridging going on lol.
I think my head voice is developed to some degree but there is a no mans land between my chest voice and head voice. If I work on a song I tend to get into a lot of pushing/straining/choking lol. No bridging currently happening. On occasion I also like to throw in some BeeGees falsetto.
Anyway, I am excited to get to work and am looking forward to some nice progress.
I am throwing in this link to a "before" song where I sang and played guitar over an existing rhythm track. This was in Jan 2014. Pretty sure all the vox are doubled. (manually sang twice) Im pretty good at doubling...since I have never thought my voice was good enough to stand on its own yet lol. Any feedback on the singing is welcome. Id be interested as to what my natural range is. I understand it isnt going to be that impressive as it is an untrained voice but maybe we can get an idea of what we are working with and what potential for range and style I might have etc
Thanks a lot for any feedback!
https://clyp.it/egudjvlp
Peace, JonJon

 

Hello Elise...
BTW, I fixed your header in your profile page... looks better now... 
Regarding your Review Here:
I love your productions... and your voice is beautiful. Way to go ... just keeping at it and singing, singing, singing!  Your doing great.
:57 - "Truth"... this is flat... you might want to consider modifying this vowel from "truth" to "truhth"... you can keep with the closed "oo" vowel, IF you can pull it off, but sometimes it really doesn't matter and isn't important. And sometimes, a modified vowel just sound prettier because its more open and you can get your larynx down better, etc... anyways, if it is going to be flat, then you should try the modified option.  
I like the compression on your voice. Since we last heard you, it has grown in strength. It is sounding more beefy and womanly now... you have a very healthy glottis. Probably from all the singing your doing.  
You have mojo... like the way emote and interpret Elise... its very artistic.  
2:07 - 2:48 ::  Great vowels, great legato, good mojo, etc... good singing.. nice work!  
4:06 - 4:08 ::  These open vowels are a little bit flat... open the soft palate more and tune in a little bit more ae/a ("cat") in the formant color, that will tune it up. The Formant alignment is just a pinch shallow for the frequency. Other then that, it is a really lovely shot... just tune it up... needs more "a" (cat)... just a foggy hint... don't go overboard!  
Good Job Elise. I can see you are still singing a lot and your hard work is paying off!  KEEP going... if you ever want to train, let me know, I'll give you a special TMV World member deal... I would like to help you. We could work on some belt techniques to fortify your muscle strength.
Coach

The voters have it! This is the Lover's challenge! The cool thing about this challenge is that there's only one constant here; and it's that the subject matter needs to be about love. Besides that, you can choose to sing any song you desire. Let's run this challenge until January 17th.
 
Looking for instrumentals to sing over? Check out the link below.
 
If, for any reason, you feel this challenge isn't for you, don't worry. There will be more, on the way, before this one has run it's course.
Let's get singing.

Finished listening to it. Not a disaster at all. It was decent. What I would say is to try to work on the falsetto volume, so you don't get too quiet, and work on the execution of the melismas (runs within words). You have nice dynamics. Nice tone in full voice, you've got good elasticity, which is allowing you to switch between falsetto and full voice, and I liked that hint of rasp you threw in at 2:00. You can get this one down.

Yeah, I'm thinking that type of sound is more reserved for Rock. I'll probably do some Rock covers at some point (I'm a Jersey boy, and there's Bon Jovi and Springsteen), where I'll use that.
Who knows though. I know it's got that airy quality to it because falsetto mode is involved.

Now listen carefully to this.  It a $5,000 mic (or more, I'm guessing), he's a breathy falsetto and very light head voice. Listen to his speaking voice.
 

I post in a critique section expecting a critique. Sometimes we are not good judges of our own sound and choices. Family and friends can not be trusted to give critique and advice on our choices either. They either want to encourage us through undeserved praise or give us bad critiques out of jelousy. Better to be reviewed by those who have no stake in our emotional well being and will give an honest opinion, Either good or bad.
   No, it should not be a judgement of some ones character, But you would post something that you have just started working on to find out if you are on a path that seems pleasing to most or not, then adjust as necessary.
   I would much rather have people on this forum give me a heads up that my choices for a songs presentation are bad than to present that song to a live group and be booed off stage.(This is not about the song presented here, just my view on the critique section itself)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Sounds good. Confirms I am where I need to be, because I learned about the purpose of onsets on Friday, and I've just started learning the differences between them.
 
Absolutely. I remember seeing the concept of modes in CVT. I thought, "There's no way I'm going to be able to learn this stuff from a book and just some audio clips of them being used."
I know I'll be able to get all of this down, because I know I can always confirm, if I'm ever unsure. 

Sounds good. Confirms I am where I need to be, because I learned about the purpose of onsets on Friday, and I've just started learning the differences between them.
 
Absolutely. I remember seeing the concept of modes in CVT. I thought, "There's no way I'm going to be able to learn this stuff from a book and just some audio clips of them being used."
I know I'll be able to get all of this down, because I know I can always confirm, if I'm ever unsure.