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singingnewb

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Everything posted by singingnewb

  1. Are you maybe singing the female songs an octave lower than the actual pitch? In Let It Go, for example, Idina Menzel ends the "Let the storm rage OOOOOOOONN" on an Eb5, which is a very difficult note already for females to hit. If you can sing it as a guy you won't have any problems singing Blake Shelton or Ed Sheeran (most of Ed Sheeran's songs only go up to like an A4). Unless you're really singing an octave lower, so you'd be hitting an Eb4 on Let It Go. You would still be singing in key but it wouldn't be the original pitch. The note Eb4 should be singable for almost all guys, with or without vocal training. You might be squeezing a bit to hit that note in your chest "belty" voice due to bad technique. If that's the case then it makes sense that Ed Sheeran would be too high for you.
  2. Hi JJ, Thanks again for the detailed reply! I just wanted to clarify that when you say head voice you mean a purely CT dominated sound? (Only asking because there are so many definitions out there it's hard to keep track, lol!) My current teacher's definition of pulling chest is maintaining a 100% TA sound up into the higher register. From what he's told me, it's impossible for any guy to do that beyond F#4 ?
  3. Thanks JJ, That makes sense. I think breaking it down into stages like you suggested is very practical. I can do step 1 on my A4, and am working on step 2. I can feel it becoming easier day by day. SN
  4. Quick question to any vocal coaches willing to give some advice As someone very new to singing, the current note I'm training is my A4 (which seems to be a problem note for many). I can just about maintain cord compression and keep an open throat if I'm just touching the note in a phrase, but only on a closed vowel - i've recorded an example below to illustrate what I'm doing: https://vocaroo.com/i/s0l0Ga7xiHob (I know I still have some pitching and breath issues - I'm working with my vocal teacher on those) The phrase "and I'll tell YOU all about it" follows a d4-f4-g4-A4-g4-f4-d4-c4 melody. With enough support, I can just keep my cords closed while singing that line. However, there's another song I've been singing along to in the car which touches an A4 on the word "day". I'd really like to be able to sing that phrase, but for some reason I'm finding it incredibly difficult to articulate "day" without splatting the vowel and having my cords coming apart . I've been taught diphthongs, and I can sing an A4 on the "ay" vowel during my scales - but of course singing a scale and singing an actual song are two different things. My teacher says that I just need time to continue training my support and larynx muscles so that my vocal cords become used to being stretched so thin. I believe him, but in the meantime I was wondering if there are any other tricks that anyone here knows of that can help with maintaining cord closure while singing wider vowels on A4 and above? cheers, SN
  5. Do you mean an Ab4? As mentioned above Ab5 is really freaking high. 4 notes higher than your current max F4 would be an Ab4 I'm really new to this forum and singing in general (I only started taking weekly voice lessons 2 months ago), but i felt like replying because your frustration sounds a lot like how I used to feel! Prior to taking lessons, my highest consistent note in a full 'chest' voice was an F4, with a lot of straining. I could strain up to an F#4 but half the time my voice would break. Today I hit a C5 in full voice during my vocal exercises - check it out -> ^that was a bit of an extreme case, though. All things considered I'm still reeeaaaallllly new to this and I don't quite have the muscle coordination yet to articulate words on a C5. But I can definitely sing on an Ab4, which already is higher than I ever dreamed I'd be able to sing! My top "eureka" tips that came to me over the past 9 or so weeks since I started training would be (in order): 1. Support - draw the breath in real low and push down when singing high. Make sure the diaphragmatic squeezing is actually getting airflow out through the vocal cords though, and not just constricting your abs like you're constipated. That was the biggest breakthough for me. For the first few weeks my voice teacher would say, "Push with your stomach!" and I'd clamp my abs so hard my whole body went sore, but I still couldn't stop constricting. Until I realised I needed to actually to have a healthy airflow through my vocal cords. 2. Frontal resonance - Or "mask", which is a term my teacher doesn't really like, lol. But bringing the resonance from the back of the throat to the front part really helps to slip naturally into your higher register. I was practicing this technique with some nasal twang on scales up to F4 and suddenly discovered if I just kept the same feeling of forward resonance and tried singing higher I could do an F#4, and then a G4, etc. I guess this is how I found my "mixed voice", and I can tell you it feels totally different from what I imagined a mixed voice would feel like. It doesn't quite feel like chest voice but it's a completely different beast from falsetto. The sound feels like... it's built in separate pieces. I can't describe better than that. For me, my vowels hit the hard palate, the brightness rings in the nasal twangy area, and the chesty resonance is in the back of the mouth pushing against the soft palate. 3. Vowel modification - This one saved my life. Trying to do a scale on the word 'give' was a real killer around E4-F4 without widening to prevent constriction. Now I'm doing scales up to Ab4. Hopefully these help! I'd say the best thing you could do would be to find yourself a good vocal teacher, I seem to have gotten really lucky with mine! Although, even he was shocked at how fast I've progressed in such a short space of time Bear in mind I'm by no means a good singer yet, I've been focussing on expanding my range but my tone quality is still pretty amateurish. If you want to hear me singing something around an Ab4 though, let me know and I could probably do a short recording to show how I do it. Best of luck!!!
  6. Hi! I'm new-ish to this forum, posting here for the very first time because I'm super excited to share my progress. I'm male, 23, started taking singing lessons only 2 months ago. Prior to that I was a rubbish singer. I'd read a lot about vocal technique in the past i.e. chest, head voice etc. but it was all rather abstract - especially when it came to the mysterious mixed voice (what the what?). Anyway, I couldn't sing for my life until recently when I bit the bullet and started seeing a voice teacher near where I live. Only 2 months later and I CANNOT believe the progress I have made! This recording was taken today - I usually record myself doing vocal exercises at home - and has me doing a vocal slider up to C5 while adding some cord closure and lots of support. Although I could only hold the note in full voice for a couple of seconds, I managed to get a tinge of vibrato in there and the release felt AMAZING! 2 months ago I was straining to even hit C5 in falsetto! https://vocaroo.com/i/s0ecsVplMXIH Just goes to show that practice and patience works!
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