The Aspiring Singer

Place one finger on each side of your head, directly in front of your ear, right at the top of your jaw. Now drop your jaw like you're about to yawn. You should feel the flesh cave in a little bit. That should give you a good idea about how much space you can create inside your mouth with your just your jaw. Basically, you want to keep it loose and flexible so that it doesn't get in the way of creating your best and most open sound. Usually, jaw tension just means that you're not allowing the jaw to have its full range and it's getting in the way of your sound. Sometimes it can mean that you're overworking the jaw and that you're chewing the words, so try not to go to that extreme. I wish I could be better help, but it's tough to describe without showing you. If you get a chance, go to my website. It's brand new. I will be offering these exact kinds of vocal training tips through videos. (There are no videos up right now, but they're coming soon.) Right now, I have a few articles up about some basic singing technique. www.theaspiringsinger.com

You have a unique and interesting voice - in a good way! A unique voice will help you stand out from the crowd and get more attention. I see that you posted these same questions in the forum, and I responded over there first. Now that I've heard your song, I want to REALLY encourage you to practice more. You did this song well for someone who I would actually classify as someone who doesn't practice. I don't mean for that to sound harsh, so I apologize if it comes across that way. Like I said in my response in the forum, when you only practice twice a month, then you're not really improving between sessions. If you did this well for someone who doesn't really practice, then I can only imagine how well you will do once you start committing to practicing more. Your tone, overall, has a little bit of tension and I think that it sounds like the root of that tension is in your mouth/jaw and how you sing your vowels. I listened to another version of this song on YouTube and it was in a different language, so I'm not sure if you are mimicking someone else's vowels or if they are your own. In either case, I would spend some time trying to loosen up the jaw and let the vowels open up more. Your tone gets quite lovely towards the ends of a few words when it sounds like you relax on that tension that I'm referring to. Overall, you have good flexibility and range. But I will emphasize it again. The more you practice, the more effortless the song will sound on your voice with all those big jumps and the more even your tone will be from top to bottom. Hope that helps! :)

You're welcome! Glad it was helpful.

LOTS of great potential here! Nice voice. Great articulation. Definitely record with a better mic. It's tough to hear some of the finer details with the quality of the sound that you posted. The best thing to work on right now is breath support. You probably didn't want to hear that because I'm sure you hear it all the time from your choral teacher and you might have been hoping to hear something more interesting. But I can't emphasize enough how getting really good, solid fundamental breath management will improve the quality of your sound ten fold!!! Don't get me wrong. You have a great sound. But this one little fix of breath management will enhance what you already do really well. And by "little fix," I really mean that you'll be working on breath management for your entire singing career - just like all singers do. Upon initial listening to your recording, some of the words jump out of context because of where they lie in the phrase, where they lie in your voice, or because you are emphasizing those words. But that's really just a secondary fix to the main fix: breath support. When you solidify your breath support, the phrases will be more consistent throughout. There is also a little bit of tension in your vibrato such that the vibrato sounds almost fabricated. Vibrato is a natural function of good vocal fundamentals with (I'll say it again) good breath support. You have potential for a really nice vibrato. Here's my article with 7 tricks for better breath support: http://www.theaspiringsinger.com/betterbreathsupport/ Give it a look. I hope it helps! :)

Great song for your voice! It starts out very well. Great first verse. You start to lose intonation in the chorus when it gets higher in your range. I'm guessing this is where you are working on the lighter vocals. This could be a great song for developing your lighter vocals. I'd be interested to hear your stronger vocals. It sounds like the intonation issues are from a weaker breath support. Usually, when we attempt to sing lighter, we weaken the breath support, which is why I'm interested in hearing your stronger vocals. If your songs with stronger vocals have better intonation, then you are definitely weakening the breath support in this song. I can also hear some tension in your sound, which would stem from the weaker breath support. A few tips: 1. Watch yourself in the mirror when you sing. Are you craning your neck forward or raising your chin up as you sing? That's a definite sign of tension and a very typical crutch when trying to hit higher notes. Those notes are definitely in your range, so you shouldn't be experiencing this kind of tension. Work to keep your shoulders down and your chin level. 2. The tension can be helped mostly with better breath management. Breathe low and keep the lower part of your breathing mechanism engaged as you sing. 3. When you go for the higher notes in the chorus, one exercise for keeping the breath low while keeping tension out of the throat is to think of a downward motion. When you sing "I'm more than a bird," physically point down to the ground on the word "bird." Don't just point. Use a strong physical gesture where your hand starts high near your head on the word "I'm" and moves strongly down towards the ground as you sing the whole phrase ending with your finger all the way down on the word "bird." This exercise helps to remind you to keep the lower breathing mechanism engaged and to keep the larynx relaxed and down. 4. Support the end of each phrase. When the ends of the phrases are weak or lose intonation, that's another sign of weak breath management. If you sing each phrase intending to finish the phrase strong, then you'll have better breath management throughout the whole phrase. Think of each little phrase as like running a marathon. You're not going to slow down as you near the finish line. Instead, you want to run as fast as you can as you near the finish line. Caveat: I'm not talking about finishing the ends of the phrases louder. I'm just saying to sustain the energy throughout the completion of the phrase. I hope this helps! :)

I can tell that you really connect with those lyrics. I like how you change the tone/dynamics on phrases like, "I burn every picture of yours. Is that not enough?" and "Do you cry my name in the dark, like I do yours?" Nice work! Shows some real sensitivity.