Jeremy Mohler

Most men have a little trouble around C#4... Actually before you hit the passagio around E4 some ajustments need to be made. Some people call this upper chest, it's important that you don't start spreading the vowel there. If you get this area figured out the passagio will be less of a problem.

 

 

The main idea is to even out your voice in your lower/mid range and be able to sing there with consistent quality and set your voice up for the higher range. That's easier to do with a teacher but if you have a good ear and maybe record yourself it is doable.

This is exactly what I've been practicing for the last few months and I can already notice that part of my range is evening out more.  I have good hope for the future at the moment based off the results I've been getting.  Your advice reminds me that the main reason I believe I've struggled to get my range up is because until just recently I've always approached my passagio by spreading the vowel and adding weight instead of dropping it.  I think I just need to practice a little bit quieter on smaller vowels for awhile and things will start coordinating much better.  

Awesome cover man, good production as well.  This song is a personal favorite of mine.  Some of the phrasing could be refined a bit more but I'm not really in a place to give vocal criticism so I'll just leave it that for now heh.  Keep up the good work bro, looking forward to hearing more.  

You can try ascending or descending 5 tone scales (C D E F G F E D C) in your comfortable range (up to about C4 or maybe D4). Lip rolls and other semi occlusives will allow you to balance your airflow and closure but when you do them you should also focus on keeping your tone even. After that, try different vowels or consonant/vowel combos that work well for you, make sure the vowel doesn't change as you go up.

 

If your chest voice is more centered you will sound more professional/polished and also more in tune. That should also help you with your passagio troubles.

Nice tips, I definitely understand your criticism and will begin to implement it immediately.  Through my three years of being self taught I'd say only in this last year have I really started to understand how to efficiently practice the voice where as to not set bad habits up for myself.  In the past I used to keep belting way above where I should and just assumed that's how to "stretch your range."  Nowadays, I take an honest look at where I first start getting uncomfortable (around C#4) and make sure not to push for notes that I don't truly have.

 Your scale advice rings true to me for that reason as it reinforces the idea to keep the intervals where they are comfortable.  Hopefully you are right and as my voice starts to settle more in the range I do have the good habits will build and carry me up past my pesky breaks.  Thanks again for your criticism and tips.  It's nice to get genuinely good advice rather than just compliments.  

Lou Reed is not flat he's just all over the place pitch-wise haha

 

Jeremy, I think I've said it before but your voice really fits that kind of music. On the technique side there's still some things you need to figure out in your chest range. You need to be able to sing with a consistent tone quality even if it is just in your chest voice. That means your tone should not change noticeably whether high or low in your chest voice, your vowels should be more equalized also airflow and closure must be in balance. Once you can do that you can begin to color the voice for style but you have kind of a "middle place" you can work from if that makes sense?

Yeah, definitely!  Thanks for the tips, I will work to even out the voice in my chest range more.

I like your tone. Lennon profile maybe helps, ha. My first advice is maybe just center your voice middle channel. It's disconcerting having you on my left side hanging out. I keep wanting to look over there. Is the John Lennon faced guy over there? 

 

On technique, I like kind of flat singers, like Lou Reed. But I think the area around 2:02 is heading a bit in that direction. So I think it could get some extra polish. It sounds like you might be a chest pusher, like I used to do and sometimes still do... cause I like it, but it's tough to have fine tuned control (not impossible). There are a lot of techniques that can get it a lot easier to control with numerous names and ideologies. I think I kind of twang moan.

 

But anyway, it's a good tone, I already like it. Keep working for control, but if you flub notes, now and then live, I'd forgive it. Dunno about modern audiences though.

Great review man, was not expecting anyone to anyone actually write out one.  I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to all these covers, it's cool to know there are people like that around here.  As far as your criticism, part of my mic troubles is that it's always recording my voice in the left channel for some reason even when I mix it center.  Also, I'm definitely a chest puller lol, at least when I get past C4.  I'm trying to learn how to get in more of a easy mix sound but so far so slow.  Thanks again bro.

My microphone is having some troubles today but I decided to this doors cover anyway.  Might do some tweaks later but here it is: http://picosong.com/LuR5/

Hey thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it. Btw, is there any part of the recording that I'm singing on pitch? Just wanna take it as example of "on pitch". And also, is this woman singing on pitch? 

There are quite a few bits where she is going off the melody but most of the verses are fairly solid pitch wise.  Not perfect, but easily forgivable due to the strong tone and charisma of the performance.  

off pitch and changing keys, simultaneously.

That is no small feat!  

To the OP, what you need to be doing is taking your voice to a perfectly tuned instrument (preferably piano) and work out matching pitch on a single note.  Record yourself and really listen to the intonation differences.  Once you can get one note down start working on changing pitch on the smallest intervals you can.  Don't get cocky and try to sing songs if you can't even hold the pitch from a B to a C.  Learning good pitch is just a matter of internalizing the sound.  Eventually you will not only be able to hear the note before singing it but (if you train this way) your muscle memory will remember exactly how to make these changes in a way that will be effortless to you.  Cheers mate.