Joe Naab

Perfect. Got it. In my younger days I used to try to imitate. Now, I'm focused on developing my own sound so I can start working on originals soon. These submissions will be using covers, but to showcase my sound. If pitch and rhythm are sloppy, that's huge to know. I'm going to tighten it up right away and I'll still try to bring in more of the "spirit" of the original. Thanks.

Thanks so much for the follow-up. To be clear, I wasn't at all trying to mimic the melodies or timing of Geoff Tate. I haven't heard the original version for years, intentionally, because I want to resist the temptation to imitate while I'm working to develop my own sound. So, to seek some clarification, are my melodies and timing bad, per se, or simply different from the original? Or, maybe put another way, if you'd never heard the original before, would you have thought the song well-sung? Along those lines. I think you may have answered this when you said you liked it as a work of art. Yeah, "world-class" is tough to define, and such a personal thing, anyway. When I say "world class", I'm first referring to rock singers as opposed to all singers, which would include opera and theater. So, the 9's and 10's might be guys like Tate, Steve Perry, Freddie Mercury, Chris Cornell, Robert Plant, Bono, Bruce Dickinson, Dio, Miljenko Matijevic,— understanding that they might not be technically perfect, and there will still be people who don't like their voices. I guess what I was after with the "scale of 1 to 10" thing, is an approximation. Maybe "10" could be "huge wow factor", "head turning", "awesome original sound", with the rest of the numbers falling off in quality.

Hi Robert, and thanks for the review! Couple of things,— No need to apologize for honesty, that's what I'm here for. I just bought the karaoke track you mentioned. Also, as you know, I can't do skype lessons as I don't have internet access at home where I can sing. I hope to see you for some work when I'm home next in May/June of next year. To clarify something, I'm not at all attempting to sound or sing like Geoff Tate, though I do understand what you mean when you refer to the expectations of others at Youtube and elsewhere. I wanted to use the song to showcase the sound of my own voice and the way I like to sing. So, yes, if there's pitch and timing errors, or issues with tonal quality, those are important. Not sounding like Tate, or singing his exact melodies, is less important (at least for the purpose of reviews at this forum). If you don't mind, I'll work on it all week with the new backing track, I'll listen to the original version, and I'll record it over the weekend trying for more of a "tribute" attempt, and I'll post it in this thread on Monday. Thanks again!

Thanks, ronws. I do actually try to sing low notes with a lot of volume. I'll try backing off tonight. So was there nothing to like about the performance? Did anything in the two pre-chorus/chorus sections sound decent, i.e. good tone/timbre/resonation? Even if you could simply rate my voice on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being "world-class", 5 being "could front a medium quality local cover band, and "0" being "awful beyond imagination", that would help. No obligation, though, I already appreciate what you've shared!

Hi everyone! First post to the forum and first submission for review. Any impressions would be appreciated. If there's a section, phrase or even a word that you thought I sung well, please let me know. There's a bright edge coming into my higher range and I'm wondering if it sounds too bright, or squeezed, or forced. Any thoughts? FYI,- I think it gets better as it goes along. I don't sing low and soft so well, yet. Anyone know how to embed the Box.com player in this forum? Soundcloud rejected the upload for license issues. Share URL from Box.com: https://app.box.com/s/2it19y1ezvsja4ujtpjj8oadzsmkuqg9