carp

First off, excellent cover. And this is my idea of a cover. Where you take a known song by someone else and perform it in your style. As opposed to a tribute performance, where you want to mimick exactly as you may be able what the original performance was like.
Second, and just as importantly, I was auditing that online course that Bzean had shared with us and this was a big time producer and engineer. He said the first thing he will do is try a song in a few different keys with a singer. He doesn't really care if you can sing the song in the original key or not. He is listening for a certain sound in your voice, and that quality of sound can change with range.
A good case in point was Karen Carpenter. She started out singing high, like the other ladies of her time. And one time, she was singing a song in a lower key which was more comfortable to her. And the producer said, in so many words, do that again but let me press record, first. After that, she sang lower and sounded "right" on songs.
I have also changed keys, usually to a higher key to fit more comfortably in my voice. 
And one time, MDEW made a great suggestion of lowering a key and then, it brought out the sound in my voice I was looking for because it made me go low. I was looking for the hung-over hippie sound and lowering about 1 step or 1.5 steps did that. And that song was "Sunday Morning" originally written by Kris Kristofferson but MDEW had me check out the Willie Nelson version, which was lowered to the key of C. Which brought out the low and wooly tones at the bottom of my voice. I have lived every line in that song but doing it up on the key of A, where my voice is bright and shiny was creating a dichotomy and not getting the "hair of the dog" feeling I was envisioning.
So, really, lowering and raising keys of a song is about getting the right sound for the performance or recording.
Singing in the original key can be a good exercise for stretching and how to approach certain parts of the range, so, don't give that up.
But, in so many words, I hear you, brother and I agree, do the song where you can express what it is that you want to express.
 

Robert, thanks very much for the detailed comments.  I will work on those things.

I had resolved that I would not post gratuitous high-pitched screams on here until I had some more practical and sensible performance to seek advice and comment on. However I can't help myself.  I was going through the Foundation Building Routine and whereas I normally* run out of steam at C5, I was able to maintain some control and closure up to D#5.   My control is really lacking on the way back down the octave compared to on the way up.
There is plenty to critique in this (and I'm certainly interested to hear anything anyone has to say) but my main purpose is to share this bit of progress in controlling my wayward vocal tract.   
* By 'normally' I mean after having worked with Pillars for some time.  Before Pillars B4, maybe even A4, was out of reach except as pure falsetto.
 
Greg

Elvis I finally got a chance to listen to your version of this tune... 
 
Ya... nice work!  I like the colors your using... makes me proud as your coach!!
 
- You definitely have those warm curbing vowels working well for you... nice warm, backward resonant position on a lot of these notes.  2:19 is a good example of this... this sort of color pops up a lot in here... nice.
 
- Also a nice dampened larynx , which is contributing to the nice warmth we hear in a lot of this.
 
- 3:02 - 3:07 ... very tasty, nice work!  
 
What needs improvement:
 
- 3:21 "table..." , put this into a dampened, EH... move resonance forward to the hard palette... it may be too G#4 is a bit high for a backward resonant position for most people that are learning, thats why its crapping out a bit.
 
- In fact any moments of instability here, I think are due to probably too much backward resonance... be careful... as I state in the book... backward resonant positions are very seductive... the sound great, they feel great, but they do sacrifice some strength in the glottal compression and you also sacrifice articulation with backward resonant positions... ... maybe around G/G#4... start leaning towards edging positions more.
 
- The biggest point of improvement here is your cues.... you are a bit sloppy on when your coming in and out on the onsets... your late, then your rushing, then your late, etc...  You need to feel the tempo more here and generally speaking, lay back... don't let your emotional excitement make you rush the cue/onset, focus on accenting the down beats and staying in the "moment" of the tempo... 
 
Not to worry... most singers rush the onsets until they learn how to lay back and "swing" more... Ive worked on it myself... it just takes paying attention to it and feeling the accents/tempo better... lock in... you are not throwing darts at the cues/onsets... its not a random, "try to hit it" experience... it actually is locked in and needs to be at a specific moment in time... pay attention to the GROOVE, and stop trying to anticipate the cue/onset.
 
Nice work, like I said, makes me proud... I hear some colors in here that are the result of some of the things the program showed you I think... regardless of that, you did a nice job... but its not done, you have more work to do... edge a bit more where you need to and lock in the groove better. 
 

Duck Dynasty will have to wait. I plan on joining ZZTop. They don't know it yet. I think I can sneak in without being noticed until it is too late.
   I plan on recording this with just the guitar again to see what happens. Maybe I will try a ZZTop Version.

Hello everybody, I'm Giacomo... I just want to share a track I did with some friends of mine, it's an original funky tune. It's my first recording since I started training with The 4 Pillars last July...which by the way, is a great vocal program, it really helped me to have constancy in my performances. Thank you for listening and for your thoughts,
 
Giacomo
 

Thanks Ku for the thoughtful reply.   You're right, the NYA really brings it out.  Interestingly, I can't do the NYA thing above about F4.  I mean I can make the sound, but not get any twang going.    
 
When I go to what I'm thinking is the dampened position, it's hard to maintain the resonant sensation,   Maybe that's normal, or not?
 
Also when I go to the dampened, I have a hard time keeping my teeth showing.  Rob emphasize the fangy bite as part of a good embouchure.  I keep my mouth open, but my lip pulls over my teeth. 
 
I've got a lesson with Rob soon so look forward to exploring these things further.

I'm trying to come to a better understand of the sound/feel of the dampened harmonic vs other sounds/sensations. I'm working with Pillars and trying to use the concepts and terms as laid out there.
 
The link has me doing some basic sirens from G3 to D4.   The first is with what seems to be is in the direction of the dampened sound - darker, dopey maybe.  The 2nd is I guess could be described as 'edging'; its much more metallic.  When executing the second there is much more sensation of resonance in my head, and the sound is more cutting.  Also not particularly pleasant.  
 
Am I interpreting / feeling this correctly?
 

 
 
A related questions - its my understanding that the 'singer's formant' is not the same as the 'dampened harmonic'.  If this is correct, is the 2nd sample (what I called edging) at all representative of the singers formant?
 
 
Thanks,
Greg 

I wondered about this.  I'm generally curious about the interest in being able to sing above A4; there is a lot of music below A4.   Not much Zeppelin of course ....
 
More to the point, managing that E4 to A4 range seems like a pretty solid challenge to begin with.

I wondered about this.  I'm generally curious about the interest in being able to sing above A4; there is a lot of music below A4.   Not much Zeppelin of course ....
 
More to the point, managing that E4 to A4 range seems like a pretty solid challenge to begin with.