Serotonin

Month 2 progress update thing, Greenday, Wake Me Up When September Ends:
 

Messa di Voice is more difficult for me. But I'll practice it a bit more in future.

 OP means original poster.

Absolutely, probably the most useful for me so far. Actually, wind and release was at first the only phonation I could use in my head voice and passagio. I strongly advise OP to practice it if they haven't already.

Robert is right. Your octave sirens are very good. Obviously as you approach the passagio it will get harder to do it seamlessly but the onsets are designed to make that easier. Your Q&R is very good. Have you tried wind and release? I don't know what stage you are at but W&R is incredibly helpful for both learning to bridge and mastering the different vocal modes. Q&R involves lots of compression while W&R involves a lot less compression and a falsetto mode. So transitioning from Q&R to W&R is vital for training to bridge and training vocal modes.

Welcome! I'm fairly new to this too so I can't really give informed advice. But I will say, keep at it. Bridging and connecting is literally the holy grail of singing. Nearly everything you do in 4Pillars is specifically designed to help you bridge the passagio. But it isn't an overnight thing. It might take months to hear results and longer still to be able to bridge seamlessly. Right now it probably feels like you're sitting on your own for an hour making stupid ugly noises that sound nothing like singing, but keep at it and the benefits will come later.

Okay, here's the song with the instrumental. I reckon I'm singing flat - bit blocked up at the moment, but here it is anyway:

This song is beautiful yes, just wish it could be a bit longer haha.

Anyway, I'll try and get a chord sequence or an instrumental on my phone and sing with it, it won't be great quality but I hope it's enough to judge my tuning.

It's now been a few weeks since I got the programme so I have got well into training. So, given that this is a progress thread, here is my "step 1" recording. Something that other people did in their threads so I'll do it too. It's a song that I'm fairly comfortable with as there aren't many high notes. Please Please Please by the Smiths. As I progress I'll probably upload more but this will be the last recording I post for at least a month or so. So yeah..here it is.

Okay, I won't be able to book lessons for awhile for financial reasons but I hope I will be able to in future. Until then I'll keep progressing on my own, not as effective but the only viable option at the moment. I'll use the demonstrations to gauge whether I'm doing stuff right.

Yeah I'll probably ease off with the updates later on. It's just that I want to make sure I'm not making mistakes early on. If I get the foundation wrong the rest of the whole process will take far longer. Of course, I don't expect immediate results, but I'd rather avoid unnecessary setbacks. So I'm just sharing as much as I can in the beginning to ensure that I don't learn mistakes and lay the best possible foundation.

In terms of psychology, I haven't been using the programme very long but I noticed that I'm much more comfortable with high notes after watching the "Stop hitting high notes" lecture,when you actively think about singing in a deeper position rather than just shouting at high notes, it makes a noticeable difference. The whole myth-busting section of the book is an interesting read as well, gives a much better understanding of how the voice works too.

Oh and by the way, sorry if I'm uploading stuff sort of sporadically and not in an organised and well-planned out way. I just jumped into Four Pillars and with the enormous amount of content that's vital to practice and get right it's a bit hard not to try and do everything at once. In future I'll try and organise stuff a bit better.

Alright, so clearly, one of the first and most vital steps to learning to bridge the passagio is to master onsets. I'm not sure if I should try master the technique of each onset within my comfortable range first before moving on to try them in my head voice where I'm more likely to break into a falsetto. For example, I tried W&R again but this time around an A3, it isn't pretty by a long shot, and I don't know if I did it right (I kind of just began very breathy then broke into the note).

PS. Sorry it's a bit quiet, I was far away from the mic because it's not got a great....volume tolerance...the quality is pretty bad anyway though so the "windiness" at the start just kind of sounds like indistinct rumbling. I'll see about getting a new mic at some point so it's easier to listen to and give feedback, but for now I'm stuck with this one.

hmmmm...I thought as much. Like I said, anything in passagio/head voice is currently a long shot so I'll have to just keep practicing. And refer to the book for anything on W&R. 

I feel more confident with my breath control though and my vocal cords already seem to be strengthening slowly but surely. So the programme is already putting me on the right track and I think I'm getting there.

I'll keep using this thread for feedback and advice then

Okay, I'll keep practicing and try to squeeze as much as possible on Q&R.

As for wind&release onsets, my head voice and passaggio are fairly weak at the moment, so I'm not sure if my W&R onsets are any good, I think I can get the notes okay but the onset still feels weak.

Thank you Elvis.  

I've been working through the lectures, just starting on the whole onset thing. I really want to make sure that I'm not making mistakes so I've recorded myself doing a Q+R onset nut i need some feedback on whether doing the right thing here or not.

I think I get a bit breathy towards the end, is that a sign something's wrong?

Hi

I was overjoyed to finally be able to afford Four Pillars, and I can't wait to jump right in.

I've seen other users create progress threads for their journey through the training programme so I thought I might as well do the same. This is where I'll ask questions/embed sound files of me doing the various exercises in the programme and singing songs so that people can give feedback.

BTW, I was just wondering if I should approach the book like a sponge and just read it cover to cover absorbing everything or if I should dip in and out as and when I need to, using the videos to guide me through my journey then referring to the book when necessary. Which approach would be better or do I need to do a bit of both. I can't wait to get started, but I hope you'll forgive my being slightly intimidated by it. That said, it is a challenge that I am now willing to take on more than I was before.

Okay, I'll just wait til I'm home alone again and yell the same song at a more...antisocial volume, and upload it again.

Thanks for the positive feedback! I might have a look at another few songs and add them here, I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet when it comes to a vocal coach if it really is so important to learning. Thanks again, the comments from both of you have been a massive encouragement.

So....just sing louder? Even at the detriment of the quality of the sound?

Is there no way to at least get started in learning not to sing like I talk? I'm terrified of getting a vocal coach, social anxiety (don't ask).

Okay,  thanks for the encouraging feedback. What is meant by 'singing like you talk'? It just seems natural to sing like that, my only other options would be a consistently lower, rather atonal chest voice or right at the peak of my upper register which I only reach by breaking my voice.

Don't know if this is allowed here but....bump. (please forgive me if it's not)

Forgive my density, the links are embedded properly now -.-

So, as the title implies, I have just started singing, I don't know nearly as much about how the voice works as many here do, so here's the result of me spontaneously singing a song that I'm fairly familiar due to it being the first one on my spotify playlist (I'm lazy like that).

Anyway, this is what the original song sounds like, I've tried to copy the singer's breathing pattern and such to keep in time, which is also what the long periods of silence and humming are.

 

And here's my rendition, bear in mind that it's my first time recording myself so please be constructive  

EDIT: Oops, forgot the soundcloud link - 

Just listened to it, god my voice is so shaky :/