Draven Grey

On 1/4/2019 at 2:26 PM, VojtaNovy1 said:

Thank you so much for your answer.

I need to ask you, is there a good video on what is the difference between falsetto and head voice? Cause I thought I understood it, but as I can see now I was wrong all along. I watched this video and though I got it, but if you are right, then you've confused me. And teacher told me as well that the "And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again" part is a falsetto.

About the vocal teacher, she never told me anything about these stuff. I don't even know how are these things called in my native language (Czech). We usually just warm up and they I sing a couple of songs. Sometimes she tells me it was good and then we go on, sometimes we correct some notes, runs that were not in pitch, a lot of times she tells me to sing lower songs, because my voice sounds good there, but I always disagree there. And yes, she does say that I should sing inside my comfort zone and when it will sound good, I should move higher and I do partly agree with her, cause I do think it is important to sound good even at around G3, but I should train the high notes as well.

All I have learned, I learned from watching youtube videos and picking, what seems to work for me. I don't really want to stick with one course as there are so many and sometimes, the teachers can be wrong. For example I saw Ken Tamplin (he is always in the recommended videos, don't really like him, but he did show me the lip roll warm up) and I saw the lizard tongue thing, which was just weird. 

It really flatters me to hear my colour sounds like Paul McCartney but I have a long way to go  But truly thank you, as almost everybody I didn't really like my voice on the recording.

I did hear about Robert Lunte and I am thinking about watching some videos or even buying some stuff. I did spare some money and I really want to train my voice to sing pop/rock with ease and beatiful tone. But I think that Robert sings a lot different than I would want to sing. He uses a lot of screams and distorted sounds and I am not really into that. I do like it sometimes (John Lennon, Oasis), but just subtle use of it.

The difference is as I said. Falsetto is a vocal mode that is characterized by being open and airy. It's a "false voice." Head voice is a range. Within head voice, you can have difference levels of push/mass, compression, resonance, and chest voice musculature mixed in. Sadly, there are a lot of teachers who think falsetto and head voice are the same thing and use the terms synonymously. In that part of the song, you're singing in what I would call light-mass head-voice. 

A warm-up and then singing songs while she "fixes" various parts of your song isn't training. That's what you should be training to be able to do for yourself. However, I've had many students with whom that's all they wanted to do. Have you communicated clearly with her what you would like to train for?

Also, training to bridge and connect your voice into the head voice range will do amazing things for your voice. Training above your bridge utilizes many more muscle groups, requiring you to learn much more fine-motor skills and fine-tuned coordination. Even for my students who mostly sing around E2, I still train above their bridge over half the time, because of how much coordination and strength you can build by doing so.

I like Ken, but his technique had me straining my voice in higher pitches. Robert's course is far better, and much more comprehensive, especially if you focus on learning the onsets and acoustics, and jump into the training routines as soon as possible.

Of course you can sing it! 

Allow me to address a couple of things before praising you on your incredible voice. Reading the things your teacher said to you, I'm infuriated.

Let me ease into it from the least to the greatest offense. First, that's not falsetto, it's light-mass head voice. Falsetto is a vocal mode defined by being open and airy, usually within the head voice range. Jo Estill defined vocal modes in the 1930's, and any teacher above $50/hr should know the difference between falsetto and light or disconnected head voice. But that's not the main issue here at all. Telling you it's outside your vocal range is saying she doesn't know how to train you to sing that high. Is she working with you on bridging and connecting the voice?Saying it's outside your comfort zone, as if to say you should stay within your comfort zone, is a way of saying she doesn't want to or know how to train you to do what you're wanting to do. But saying it will never sound good? She's projecting her insecurities on you, and you need to find a better teacher, and not be afraid to tell her why you're looking elsewhere. A teacher should never think that of a student, MUCH LESS say it!

From some that knows how to train you to belt that high, or use any type of voice you want to that high...
You have a great voice. Yes, you have some work to do on resonance, relaxing into your upper range, and opening your diphthongs (e.g. "Way" as /w/+/eh/+/ee/, the /ee/ should only be the last 5%, not really sung),. However, your current sound color reminds me of Paul McCartney in his prime. That's incredible! Great job! 

If you're good with self-study, I highly suggest Robert's Udemy Course. If $20 is too much right now, even just looking up Cry or various other videos on Robert Lunte's YouTube Channel will help. I'll be recording a video this weekend about increasingly range as well, that addresses cry vocal mode and exercises to do that will increase your range. Cry and lifting resonance into "up and out" soft palate resonance usually increases a students comfortable connected range by 5 to 7 notes immediately.

You train to learn a new skill, get better at a skill, and continually improve. The question isn't if you're good enough to take lessons. The question is, why would you wait when you can have someone show you how to learn and improve on that skill?

You tend to default to a really good cry vocal mode, which can do amazing things for your voice. If you purposefully use the cry reflex throughout your singing, it can help immensely. (I encourage you to look up Robert's and my videos on Cry. Certain vowels and consonants seemed to knock you out of that beautiful cry vocal mode you kept finding your way back to. A big help for that could be touching your tongue to your upper molars while singing. This keeps your vowels on the tongue, resonating at the front of the soft palate or in the hard palate, while still being able to utilize cry behind it.

On higher notes, you want to be able to first sing it lightly without constriction or tension. Then you can learn to use what I described above to hold resonance and increase it (like a ball of sound getting bigger) from good appoggio/breath-support/sigh. Just going for it without first being able to control the fine-motor skills involved in lighter mass, you'll just end up yelling. Try light and whimpering at first, then slowly increase resonance the sound color of your liking - similar to a classical Messa di Voce exercise.

Most of your issues are from inconsistency. While the above will help, the only way to work that out is through a regular training routine. Are you a part of one of Robert's or my courses? If so, I can go much deeper into what to do.

From what I can tell, you're not really singing, but rather speaking with pitch. But great job on developing an ear for pitch! That's very difficult to do. 

As opposed to speech vowels, that form more in the throat, singing vowels will resonate away from the throat and a lot more in the soft palate. If you must use YouTube, go to either Robert's videos or mine. It's not ideal, but you will get results. Start now by humming and buzzing the lips through songs. Also try to whimper, top-down into your singing. Your main goal in this is to get out of your throat and start controlling resonance in the soft palate instead. There's so much more you can do though! Robert's programs will do you wonders.

A very oversimplified summary, since you brought it up:

• Chest Voice = The pitch range that you naturally speak within. Not the resonance per se, but rather a pitch range. For a male, everything below E4 that has a defined pitch.
• Head Voice = From F4 up to Whistle Register (which varies by the person).
• Mixed Resonance = Head Voice range with chest voice musculature brought back in for a chesty resonance mix.
• Falsetto = A light, open and airy phonation usually within the Head Voice range.

Go for the lite version on Udemy for much cheaper. Here's a link from the footer of this forum:

https://www.udemy.com/become-a-great-singer-your-complete-vocal-training-system/?couponCode=TMV_WORLD_DEAL

If you don't get the vowels out of your throat and into your soft palate, you will constantly struggle with pitch, constriction, and yelling instead of singing. Again, are you training with a teacher or program like Four Pillars of Singing?

I can tell you were trying to use cry vocal mode with good resonance support! Still too much push and constriction, but it can take a while to get used to singing from the soft palate rather than the throatiness we experience in speech.

One big issue is your diphthongs. Anything time a word changes between two vowel sounds, it throws your placement off, causing a very unique accent and a lot of singing from your throat rather than your soft palate. For example, words like "dark" were sang as /d/ah/oo/r/k/, when it would be better sang as /d/ah/k/, with perhaps 5% of an /oo/r/ if you absolutely need it. The idea is keeping the resonance in the soft palate and then out from there, only out from there.

However, that's only one of a host of issues you're dealing with. Are you currently training with a teacher or program like The Four Pillars of Singing?

Since I'm already here for giving paid reviews, I thought I would go ahead and take a moment to review yours as well.

Great character and stylization! One great thing about getting over a cold is that, if you have a voice, it forces you to sing more correctly.

The lower/neutral larynx position you're using will hold you back once you get into higher pitches. It gives you a great sound color for this song though. I highly suggest a bit more breath support and volume (just a bit), and then try learning to sing more from a cry vocal mode - the same feeling you get in the soft palate when you cry or are really excited to see someone. Cry will soften and round out your voice to where you can get a similar sound color to what you're using the neutral larynx for, but also have a lot more control and flexibility because of being able to utilize much more breath support. It also neurologically places your body into a position it associates with extreme emotion, which can cause a much more emotional performance. Additionally, it adds very specific sounds colors to your voice that other people associate with extreme emotion. It can take some getting used to, but once you learn it, you'll hear just about every pro singer using it.

You're too twangy with vocals compression here, when you need a bit more mass in the vocal folds. Go back to my other Journey song review and practice the /w/ onset I talked about there.

Another possibility is that you're relying on twangy compression because you don't have the musculature built up for good mass. Sometimes that can happen from E4 to A4. Resistance onsets can help you build that musculature. Dampen & Release, Attack & Release, and Contract & Release (in moderation), will all help build a bit more bulk in your voice.

Are you training The Four Pillars of Singing or with TVS material?

A lot of what I mentioned in the Journey review applies here as well. However, I want to specifically address your distortion in this song.

What you're doing sounds throaty and compressed. On higher pitches, that type of distortion can be very harsh both in sound and wear and tear on the vocal tract. If you're in The Four Pillars of Singing, I suggest you work more with the lesson on decompressed overlay distortion. Otherwise, or perhaps in addition to, instead of squeezing that distortion out, try to bleed the glottis. That means allowing more air through without all the extra hyper vocal twang compression.

One way to help develop that is, while still trying to keep the voice lifted to the soft palate, and still utilizing cry vocal mode as described in my Journey review for you, try alternating between a spoken smoker's voice and singing clean at pitch above your bridge. At some point, while alternating back and forth, you'll feel like you can combined the two. Then, instead of squeezing for distortion and getting a throaty sound, it will feel like you're simply using more air than you need to and thereby activating the false cords for distortion.

If it hits your throat, you need to lift more, and move towards /ae/ sound colors. Again, this is similar to what I described in the Journey song review. 

If the distortion still feels like it's hitting your throat, rather than above the throat, spend more time trying to raise pulse/fry up in pitch, where it sits on top of the throat, rather than in it. That area is a good placement for distortion, especially if a lot of the vibration is then transferred to the soft palate.

Your pitch is good when you're relaxed. The higher in pitch you went, the more tense you got, to the point of almost yelling, rather than singing. Your vowels are too narrow in your upper range to resonate well. There are two main things I recommend for this.

First, try to get into cry mode. It's the same feeling in the soft palate as if you're crying or really excited to see someone. Whimper there a bit, to get a solid feel for it. Them try to isolate your upper pitches with that cry. It will also soften your your voice a bit in your lower range. Since higher pitches want to pull deeper into the soft palate, cry will help thin out the glottis better and help pull the voice into a deeper placement, so less pressure is required to sing those pitches. Also, once into higher pitches, you may need to add a bit more /ae/ (he vowel sound color of words like ash, cat, hat, etc) in order to keep a consistent sound color across your range.

Second, place much more emphasis on everything supporting good resonance. One great way to do this is using a /w/ as your onset. If you're using good  horizontal embouchure (smile/sneer), it will help lift your voice to the soft palate. If you sing from that lifted placement with a /w/ + /oh/, it gives you both good support and a defined feeling for good resonance. Once you feel that resonant energy on the front of your soft palate, towards the hard palate, or towards your nasal cavities, try to place all of your vowels and consonants in a way that supports that resonance. Singing is all about supporting that resonance, and the sound only moving outward from there.

With everything turned all the way up in my studio, I can t still only barely hear it, as if I have everything turned all the way down. Can you upload a new one that is louder? 

5 hours ago, Danizzz said:

Thanks Robert and thanks Rufus,

 

There is a strange thing happening to me.

After 1 song in high key my voice start to distort and become hoarse. What do you think is the problem.

Which exercise of the program do you suggest?

Making more use of Sob vocal mode on higher notes will help you sing those notes without pushing or having to get loud. Also adding more curbing acoustics in general will relieve extra tension because you won't be compressing as much as you currently are. Another thing that may help is a type of Messa di Voce, but I actually adapted it from Contract & Release. On those high notes, sing it in light-mass but resonant head voice at first (reinforced falsetto, if you can), then turn on the TA only enough to be in a stable mixed resonance. Once you're there, amplify forward vowel resonance while opening your vertical embouchure a bit more to tilt the voice a bit forward (a bit twang, a bit edging, a bit vowel modification to /a/). This process put you into a belt vocal mode by stepping you through sob and a little dampening before adding twang. The end result is a solid belt sound color without needing to be loud or add extra tension.

You have a nice, smooth voice. A bit pitchy, for sure, but singing acapella and staying in key will take time. I imagine you're more on pitch when singing with music. Am I right about this?

You need to be doing things to strengthen your TA musculature to help with better vocal fold adduction and dynamics. Glottal attacks can also help with this. But you'll need guidance to do both of those things correctly. For something you can do right now, in order to help improve your resonance, pitch, and adduction, place a finger on your bottom lip and try and lift your voice up and over it as you sing. Additionally, start to hum and buzz your lips through songs as much as you can stand it. This "semi-occluded phonation" will help you built better resonant placement, better cord closure, and start pulling you out of your throat while singing. 

Lastly, start doing this straw exercise a few times a day. It will help you build better balance with glottal and sub glottal pressure, better breath support, better resonance, and help you learn to relax your voice more while staying resonant.

I don't have time to listen to it, but I do want to comment on one thing. Don't ever let someone tell you that "you're not cut out for it", whether singing or anything else you would like to do. It's BS. If someone says that, then they're either being mean, are lazy and don't like working for what they want to achieve, or just plain ignorant about how things work (and too lazy to find out).

@ReiKoko
Beautiful song. Good choice. I think your voice would open a quite a lot with training. The issue is that you're currently singing from a speech position, which is keeping your from resonating well. Your pitch is on, but your resonance is not. Speech vowels and singing vowels are in very different locations. Speech vowels and words tend to start in the throat and the add sound colors from there and up (bottom up), where as singing is top down. It's essentially like learning a whole new accent, perhaps even a new language. Knowing how to resonant in the soft palate and out from there will definitely smooth out your voice, and bring out your true singing voice.

For instance, the part where you sing...

Quote

It was an accident and it was fate
I knew I would have better not to know it
I touched your warmth
By your smile, by your motion I would be broken

...Your lower notes are dampening/dropping your larynx and completely changing your sound color. It can't be helped when you're in speech mode. However, place a finger on your bottom lip and sing "up and over" that finger, trying to place your vowel resonance in the front of your soft palate, rather than in your throat. The difference should be apparent immediately. 

I highly encourage you to check out The Four Pillars of Singing. It's by far the best singing course out there, and an amazing deal too.

While I don't currently have time to do a full review, I do like your voice. However, I'm really curious as to why you dropped the key? Are you training to be able to sing that high? Because simply not being a high tenor doesn't mean a lot when it comes to training. You can train to be a soprano and beyond if you want. I'm naturally a baritone, and sing with my soprano students all the time. Vocal categorization like that is to help people give you pre-written part for a musical, opera, or choir. When singing contemporary, it's more about range. And upper range can be trained and extended much higher than more people realize. Like I said, I'm a baritone naturally, but normally sing up to C5; up to C6 with a few students; and I'm working on E6 to G6 right now.

1 hour ago, hobbit rock said:

Thanks Draven! What do you mean by "dynamics in power"?

Where Robert said more connection and amplification, vs staying airy and soft.

I was going to, but Robert said exactly the same things. Great voice! I would love to hear more dynamics in power.

Great voice! Good pitch and sound color. I love your vibrato! Are you currently training with a teacher or program?

What are you wanting to build in your voice?

The only critique I have would be on adding power in your dynamics. You stayed pretty soft, so I don't have a lot to critique there in your technique. However, I could hear you fall out of solid resonant placement a bit on higher pitches and louder parts. That also plays a part in singing in pitch consistently. You may want to work a bit more on anchoring the resonance of your vowels in the middle to front of your soft palate, and learning better breath support. There are other things that come along with those too, but I'll let this speak to that:

Robert Lunte and I put this free mini-course together. I think it will help you.

https://vocalathleteintensive.com/minicourse/

Again, I really like your voice.

2 hours ago, Noah Covey said:

Wow, thanks so much for the reply. Seems very in-depth, and I think you totally understand my problem. One follow-up question: do you have any tips or exercises for training the "correct" head voice? 

Both of the linked videos have tips. If you need to, start with an /ou/ vowel, focused towards the front of the soft palate. There are ways to color the head voice with chest voice musculature (among other things) once you get used to singing in a more resonant head voice.

Great mixed voice! You have a really great voice with a lot of emotion. I would love to see/hear you take this beyond Smule! Where are you hoping to take your technique from here? Rather, what else are you wanting to learn, or what do you think you have problems with?

You're resonating a bit better, but it almost seems as if there's not enough support for you to stay in pitch. That could be partly the air support, but also from singing too low of a pitch. You might try an octave higher. You should be able to get just above a middle-C from good resonant placement alone. From there, the voice shifts a bit, but it's still only a matter of knowing how to build the strength and coordination to take it further.

12 minutes ago, r00dris said:

Is this really such a bad idiosincrasy, may I ask?

 

 

It's extremely limiting for range, sound color, stability, control, sound colors/timbre, and just about anything else about singing, and can be more harsh on your vocal cords as you try to bring different pitches into it. Something as simple as smlining or sneering can help lift your voice. In the vide, I mention also using a finger on your bottom lip and singing up and over it, you have a similar mental tool and result when singing "up and over" the microphone. Resonating in the soft palate and forward is what makes the voice ring out and be what's considered beautiful about singing. Start Tracking (humming while buzzing the lips) all the time, if you want to get more used to proper resonant placement.