Draven Grey

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? 

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.
 
 

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).

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).

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...
...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.

@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...
...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.

Hello and good day everyone!
This post is being created to start a video journal of the learning process. I have no prior experience singing and never considered it until just recently.
I have been going over the material these past few weeks, practicing onsets as I learn them. I can already see this is going to become a much bigger part of this life so I had to make some room for it. I cleared out a corner of one of the rooms and created a permanent setup so I can just walk in and press record anytime I would like to practice.
The first video posted will give an introduction to the setup.
From here, I will continue to post additional videos as time progresses.
It is a pleasure to join you all on this journey and I give thanks and gratitude.
Much love!!
 
 
I was attempting to find a way to share these ongoing videos without creating too big of a mess on this thread.  
To make things as easy as possible, I will be repurposing an old website and utilize the blog for making the journal entries.
In this way, all of the journal entry links can be kept here much like a catalog that can be referenced back to the site.
 
Journal Entry 0001 - Thursday 2-15-2018 - Practicing Onsets
Journal Entry 0002 - Saturday 2-17-2018 - First time Karaoke
Journal Entry 0003 - Monday 2-19-2018 - One More Light (Part 1)
Journal Entry 0004 - Wednesday 2-21-2018 - Ableton Project for Training Onsets
Journal Entry 0005 - Saturday 2-24-2018 - Karaoke (2nd Time)
 
 

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.