How do I sound less like Mickey Mouse in my head voice?

[archer]

https://app.box.com/s/hipoe5h4ahmj0f3f2n58hvkgkmy4du15

Here's a clip of me singing the chorus to "Lay Me Down" by Sam Smith. The highest note I'm hitting is an A4 (I'm singing it a half step higher than the original).

As a comparison, here's a guy singing it on "The Voice": https://youtu.be/zAaVoMLblDY?t=34s

To me, his sound is so much meatier and much more chesty. To me, my voice sounds like Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees or an Axl Rose. Nothing wrong with either of them, but not the effect I'm going for.

Basically, my question is:

If I continue to do meowing exercises / sirens / slides, will my tone eventually darken? Or am I doing something completely wrong to generate this tone?

Other sub questions:

Should I be enunciating these vowels more with the "ng" sound to try to resonate it more in my nose? Or should it feel more like a "ha" sound to try to bring up my chest more into the mix? 

Lastly, here's another sample of me singing high notes with a more "bottom to top" approach up to G4 (Wise men(G4) say..). My problem is, I feel like I'm definitely "pulling up" my chest voice to hit the G4 with that tone is pitchy and strained. The A4 I'm hitting in Lay Me Down doesn't strain me at all but it doesn't have the same timbre quality as this G4.

 

[Amir Martin Chamma]

I like yours better actually, very clean

[archer]

18 minutes ago, Amir Martin Chamma said:

I like yours better actually, very clean

Thank you so much! I think we've all had the experience where when we've listened back to our voices, it just doesn't sound "right" to our own ears. But I'll take your compliment nonetheless! Thank you.

[Amir Martin Chamma]

haha ya, definately i've been there! You're welcome

[aravindmadis]

I have had a mickey mouse voice for several years.  Only very recently I learned to get over this problem.  It will disappear when you trust your true voice and fully start believing in the capabilities of your voice.  Then you can start with almost a conversational tone in your voice and bridge to stratospheric highs without "thinking" about it.  You will also sound more like yourself across your entire range.  

Needless to say, it will involve countless hours of singing, recording, listening and rinse and repeating this process over and over again.  

[Robert Lunte]

You need to work on building the musculature for belting / TA muscle work. That will increase the closed quotient of your vocal folds and keep you into chest voice, instead of a weak position which is making you sound weak. It sounds weak, because it is weak. The way you fix that is to train and build the belt muscles.

One of the best ways to do that is with Glottal Attacks, or what we call "Attack & Release Onsets" at TVS.

Hope this helps... 

 

 

[archer]

On 2/13/2017 at 9:00 PM, Robert Lunte said:

You need to work on building the musculature for belting / TA muscle work. That will increase the closed quotient of your vocal folds and keep you into chest voice, instead of a weak position which is making you sound weak. It sounds weak, because it is weak. The way you fix that is to train and build the belt muscles.

One of the best ways to do that is with Glottal Attacks, or what we call "Attack & Release Onsets" at TVS.

Hope this helps... 

 

 

Definitely really helps! I actually within this year had a thyroidectomy and the surgeons had to cut away a lot of the muscles around my thyroid. Hasn't been the same since

[Robert Lunte]

I am sorry to hear that, but I doubt that your surgery has anything to do with your ability to strengthen your TA muscles. TA does not stand for "thyroid". Your probably fine.