Bridge area notes

[RNBJR]

I am working on my singing and have been taking lessons. My issue - I seem to do okay with head voice when I go above G4. However, when I try to see in the F4, G4 area on certain songs, it comes out “shouty” and harsh. I can hit the notes fine, but I am not getting quality. If it is a softer, quieter song, I don’t have this issue. I have this issue when trying to do fuller sounding notes in this area.

 

I would greatly appreciate any feedback anyone cares to give. I am not a great singer yet and am trying to learn.

 

Thanks!

[MDEW]

8 hours ago, RNBJR said:

I can hit the notes fine

The first thing to do is change the idea of HITTING the notes to singing the notes.

 

8 hours ago, RNBJR said:

If it is a softer, quieter song, I don’t have this issue. I have this issue when trying to do fuller sounding notes in this area.

You have to lighten up a bit in this area. There are 2 main muscle groups in the Adams apple that control the voice. One set for thickening the cords and one set for stretching. The thickening set is stronger than the stretching set. You have to back off a little so the two sets can work together.

There are several ways to help balance things out.

Vowel modification...Some vowels work better in this area.

Think lower to sing higher.....Like when someone is using a pulley to lift something heavy. You pull down on one end to lift the object on the other side of the pulley. So bend you knees a little and drop into the higher notes.

You can think of the notes being farther away instead of higher.

Or you can think of the notes as getting smaller and tighter instead of higher.

[kickingtone]

Here's another consideration.
The attitude and shape of your vocal tract is very important, which is why some vowels work better than others in certain situations.
Resonance is "sound build-up" due to favourable vocal tract geometry (not extra effort). It is resonance that produces fuller sound without getting shouty.
When you sing, you are continually tuning the vocal tract geometry for resonance, according to the pitch and timbre that you want. Where the tuning is less accurate, there may be a tendency to try to compensate by pushing the sound out (getting shouty), or limiting yourself to softer sounds.
You can experiment and practise getting a relaxed and fluid vocal attitude, and finding good resonant configurations. Experiment. Play around with different sounds/noises. See where you feel them resonate. Bridge of the nose? Eyes? Tip of the nose? Back of the mouth? etc. etc. Play around, and get relaxed with the configurations. That will start to reduce the effort and shoutiness.

[Felipe Carvalho]

Depends on how this shouting sounds, the songs you are trying to sing, and what your teacher is trying to get you to do.

For most males shouting is the very first step that is necessary to learn how it feels like to use your voice with a moderated amount of energy on the middle range, and to correct possible posturing problems related to vocal fold closure. If you start to avoid this before you control it really well, you are setting yourself for frustration.

Can you provide a sample of how you sing one of these problem songs?

[mcgregor's shafter]

if the singer is advanced enough then can bridging take place where it likes?

[Felipe Carvalho]

13 hours ago, mcgregor's shafter said:

if the singer is advanced enough then can bridging take place where it likes?

Sure, or just not bridge if that's the choice.

It's also common when you listen to high level performers to find the use of transitions as an interpretation resource, as part of the dynamics of the song, instead of just a technical means to execute the high range. Something like changing from full head voice to chest on the upper mid range (A4-C5), in heavy metal, Dio and Bruce Dickinson did this a lot.

Other singers change from a more aggressive style to a more melodic one using the different registers as different characters.

Many, many choices!

[Robert Lunte]

Good stuff.

[mcgregor's shafter]

15 hours ago, Felipe Carvalho said:

Many, many choices!

But all depends on the song you are trying to imitate; many many songs