Sexy Beast

Hey Alberto! I only heard the one in Spanish but you should key it up for your voice. Are you doing the female version an octave lower? There's a reason it's keyed the way it is. That key works for a female: chorus in the 1st bridge and climaxes in the 2nd bridge (Eb5). As a tenor you should key it up a 4th or so. The key you are doing it in right now does not serve the interpretation in my opinion...

 

This along with your comments on some of my other songs are among the most valuable bit of advice I have got in this forum.

Nice to hear I was able to help

 

'No' Is very chesty and that is very good advice for Bono. Just be prepared that it will be very loud. If you try to hold back too much of that volume, you'll likely end up squeezing. The way you described that is perfect, spontaneous, natural, and emotional. Like conviction. So yeah, don't be timid on that one.

Well I was not really giving Bono any advice here... In fact I'm sure he already does a lot of scales on 'no' with his teacher... It's not so much about the consonant/vowel combo nor the volume but more about the intention behind the sound. I use all kinds of consonant/vowel combos with my student as long as he keeps that basic intention behind them. Yes you are right trying to hold back the volume is a bad idea, if you are a little loud that's fine as long as it's free not pushed or yelled... If you do it right you will feel connected to your body. Primal/emotional sounds are good tools for teaching voice.

What I find is that you need that kind of sound to experience any stability in your first bridge range and above. With time you can learn how to sing with less volume but from that full voice place.

 

Sexy, yes maybe I should vocalize with a stronger sound in my chest voice. When I started singing I used to squeeze a lot, maybe now I´m placed in the opposite extreme? maybe I´m holding my voice too much? Is this what you mean, guys? Or am I still squeezing?

Sometimes people get confused because they think that a stronger sound will result to more squeeze. This is not always the case. I don't teach much... but currently I have a student who tends to not engage enough of his voice (and sing too bright) and when he uses his voice like that it starts to get uncomfortable around D4 and he starts to squeeze a lot.

I'm getting him used to a strong/firm sound, you know the kind of voice you would use if you want people to really listen to you and pay attention to what you're saying? A good exercise for him is to say "no" like he means it. It has to be spontaneous/natural/emotional. Anyway with this sound he can vocalize and sing comfortably up to a Bb4. He even hit a C5 in a nice mix yesterday. The hard part for him is to engage his voice properly: if he gets into the proper setup for singing his mid's and high's open up. 

Are you guys hijacking my thread?

Of course not! But yeah this is not an easy song... I don't sing ballads much because I think they're hard as f$ck!

Recorded on my shitty laptop mic of course

https://app.box.com/s/kjjbhen8r73jw5pon3orul9jf1pdd7qj

I like the little wink at the end... Here's to you sir:

I think you should get used to vocalizing with a stronger sound in your chest voice. Getting more "anchored" in your chest voice will help your high notes.

Thanks everyone, I'll work some more on it today. Multi tasking is so hard!

You sound great

I wish i could sing like that!

Nice to hear some jazz around here

Sounds good. I would suggest you practice the guitar part more (with a metronome) so that you can do it on auto pilot and just focus on singing.

Also you put too much reverb I would say.

Thank you sir!

 

I interpret Beast's comment on finding a fuller sound as starting from chest(spoken voice) and finding a configuration that works.. I am finding that while it does give me some good options on lower notes, when I reach around my passagio, I am always confused whether to approach from top or from bottom.. 

 

If I approach from top, there is a limit beyond which I cannot access my full sound..  This is what I meant..

Speaking the words to a song before singing them helps most people but pay attention you don't suddenly change everything as you start singing. You have a fuller, richer, rounder sound than what you are currently using. I really think most people would like to hear that. Also a fuller tone at the bottom will give you a fuller tone at the top and more powerfull high notes. It's about using your voice as efficiently as possible. Why sing with 70% of your voice when you can use 100%? Unless of course you like that sound in that case we're all good.

Keith Sweat sings very forward like you and he's one of my favourite singers:

I don't understand what you mean by approaching from the top or bottom... As I said before the way you currently sing may have helped you with your higher range I just think it might be time for you to move on.

 

Levine's tighter tone

Levine sounds like he's singing everything in an 'ng' or french 'on', 'an', 'un' kind of position...

Just one question.. Based on what you have heard of my voice and the timbre in various songs, am I a "low voice" or a "high voice"?

Aravind, you are some kind of tenor I would say but does this really matter? What matters is that you learn how to use your own voice. It's deeper and fuller than you think it is.

 

I still cannot get a lot of volume on low notes, but I guess it is not an issue since the listener really hears only an auditory illusion of the singer

I think you will get more once you tap more into your true voice! But yes you are right. A lot of tenors can get down to an E2 but that doesn't mean they have any real power down there...

 

Now, will I be able to persuade you to upload your songs to soundcloud or youtube so you may have some fans following you ?

Fans... lol

Thanks for listening Ron! yeah seems like everybody wants to sing rock'n'roll around here

Vamos a la playa?

Aravind this is good! Nice interpretation. You definitely need more songs like this.

Also a good thing about this song is you can learn to use more of your natural voice without worrying about things like range. To me you can still sound more "natural" on this but I'm just talking about your tone here. I would like to hear a deeper warmer tone. I know you have it but you've been hiding it from us

 

Whenever I try to do this crysih thing up as high as you went in this tune it thins out a bit earlier. I've wondered how much weight has to do with this and how much is technique

I think it has to do with how big your cords are and how good your technique is.

 

The only thing I'd mention, is it's a great performance, but since this is a highly competitive genre, if you were to make like a demo tape for a record company, you might want to comp an immaculate take. Your pitch is already better than I could do in this style. But like 1:07 through 1:09 are a bit flat on the irreplacea 'ble' part.

Yeah I'm a little flat in places. This is a one take recording. I can't do a song perfectly from start to finish without singing at least a couple of flat/sharp notes haha

And I have no dreams of becoming a pop star... Singing at parties and stuff would suit me just fine! I'm a simple man lol

Posted a new take

 

Sounds good, but to be really honest I heard again the cartoon sound.

I agree with Bono.

Aravind, I would love to hear what your lower range sounds like. Could you post something?

How you're approaching your lower and mid range is quite important for your higher range. A lot of people take the lower range for granted just because they speak there and can sing there easily but that doesn't make it correct... The small mistakes you make in your lower range will often turn into big mistakes by the time you get to your higher range.

Range is not a problem. Instead you should focus on quality. You need to get familiar with how your voice is supposed to sound like. What is "home base" for your voice. A teacher can help you with that.