Sea Legs - The Shins

[guitarheaven]

I'm performing this song in a few days. Some of the entrances are a little bit off because I haven't fully memorized the lyrics yet. All criticism is appreciated. Don't hold back.

http://www.box.net/shared/1e890kigi8

[gno]

Sounds very good - all the pitches are right on and it sounds like it is pretty comfortable in your voice. The only critique is that some of the held vowels ( "sun" "night" etc.) sound like nicely formed darker vowels, but they don't sound as natural to me. It sounds like you are trying to make them sound all like an "ah" vowel. I would just say sing them naturally, and a little brighter. Great job and good luck with the performance!

[ronws]

I hadn't thought about that but what Geno said makes sense. Anyway, great performance. Well done and you maintained breath support, even in the low end, which many of us mistakenly back off of just because it falls in our normal speaking range. Your consistent breath support brought about a consistent tone.

[guitarheaven]

Thanks guys. Guitartrek, your observation on the held out "sun" clarifies things for me. It's always felt a little off, if you know what I mean. Like, it's not uncomfortable, but it the resonance doesn't feel like it's optimum. The odd thing is, how you said it sounded like I was trying to make "sun" sound like "ah", I was actually trying to add more twang. It probably didn't work out properly because of my slight sense of "offness".

[jonpall]

Agreed with Geno. I think that your next step in your vocal journey would be to get a more solid chest voice instead of focusing TOO much on the high notes. One thing you could do is try to learn how to do vibrato, in particular a beautiful, relaxed one, i.e. not too fast and not too slow sounding. I think it could get you to that next level. A tip to learn vibrato is to do volume pulses (alternatively increasing and decreasing the volume slightly), first slow and then increase the speed. After practising that for a few days or weeks, it will suddenly become very natural.

[guitarheaven]

Agreed with Geno. I think that your next step in your vocal journey would be to get a more solid chest voice instead of focusing TOO much on the high notes. One thing you could do is try to learn how to do vibrato, in particular a beautiful, relaxed one, i.e. not too fast and not too slow sounding. I think it could get you to that next level. A tip to learn vibrato is to do volume pulses (alternatively increasing and decreasing the volume slightly), first slow and then increase the speed. After practising that for a few days or weeks, it will suddenly become very natural.

Isn't pulsing volume more for tremolo? Or does the pulsing produce vibrato? I guess I'm just curious as to why volume pulses would produce vibrato. I'm one of those people that wants to know how everything works.

[gno]

guitarheaven - there was a good thread on vibrato recently. There are different approaches to it - one of my early classical teachers taught me a method very similar to Steven Fraser's recommendations and what jonpall is prescribing. Sing a 5 note ascending scale - notes 1 2 3 4 5 and hold the 5. When you do this, slightly accent, or pulse each note. When you hold the 5, keep that pulsating going. You have to really try to eliminate any tension and become very loose. Do it in your most comfortable range. This may seem like we're describing a tremelo, but when you are really loose, the pulsating sensation produces a nice natural change in pitch and timbre. Once you've mastered it in your most comfortable range it will be easy to apply it to other parts of your range.