A change is gonna come - a capella

[jonpall]

Hi guys,

Here's me using full voice sirens (curbing on the top notes) in order to prep myself for the right kind of tone for Sam Cooke's song "A change is gonna come":

http://www.box.net/shared/q3tly8adjb

I actually find it easier to sing like that when there is no loud music in the background to interfere . I'm getting happier with how I sing this type of stuff but I'm not sure what the majority of people out there would think of it. What do you think they'd say? Hope you like it. Critique and honesty are welcome.

[joshual]

It sound really great!!! Congrats bro your voice seems to be free and so relaxed...

Just try to keep more "full tone" on words like "river" i think you are thinning them too much but that s more a stylistic choice i think

[SH]

Well, I think most people would think that was great (the vocal performance), but I think generally an audience prefers backing music to a capella (if that was part of the same question). Personally, I'd take those sirens a little farther (up), and slide down as well as up. Definetely finish on a down slide. I only listened to the first half of the recording - children need me!

[akarawd]

Jon, I listened very carefully and spent quite some time trying to sing along with you.

Your sirens and singing sound balanced to me in terms of "fullness" and your singing voice

sounds really open and unrestrained. Maybe the onset of the 2 top notes in the sirens sounded just

a little bit "shaky" - but that's me being anal. I loved how you used rasp at will

and how you sang the little nuances of the melody very convincingly. In fact, if I had known it was you

I would have said "another lucky bloke with a great voice".

I think you've got great command over your voice and your sound is as convincing as any pro singer out there.

Your determination in your quest for YOUR sound is really commendable buddy, I really applaud you for that.

I really hope Steven and Robert comment on this clip - I'd be very interested to read their opinion.

Cheers,

Thanos

PS. It took me a while to adjust my voice and be able to do what you do and still the "ee" parts were problematic for me

- then again I'm going through mild tonsillitis - but it proved to me how far you've advanced. I had to use only a little volume (enough

to initiate curbing but not more) and your sound was a great guide.

[devaitis]

I really hope Steven and Robert comment on this clip - I'd be very interested to read their opinion.

Right. I'm waiting too.

[jonpall]

Thanks guys. Yeah, my soft palate is too low on the word "river". It might work for an Aerosmith type of song but probably not as well for a clean tenor song like this. So I apparently have to be concious about placing "river" very high up in the back of my throat to lift the soft palate. Also, the word "too" in "it's been tooooo..." is slightly shaky - not much but, a bit.

I think it's actually very easy to slip into the old, trusty (not!) shouting type of singing, even after figuring out how to sing like this (more curbing/mixed voice), because my muscle memory tells me to shout. So I really need to put in the hours practising this sound with lots of songs.

I think Steven and Robert rarely visit this part of TMV, so I'm unsure if they'll see this. But I've received good comments from you guys, plus from Stew and others, so thanks again for your help, guys. It's invaluable and I'll try to help you in return if I possibly can, being the relative beginner that I am. Peace out!

[Steven Fraser]

I think Steven and Robert rarely visit this part of TMV, so I'm unsure if they'll see this. But I've received good comments from you guys, plus from Stew and others, so thanks again for your help, guys. It's invaluable and I'll try to help you in return if I possibly can, being the relative beginner that I am. Peace out!

Jonpall: Hi! I thought I would stick my neck out and offer some reactions and suggestions, if its ok ;-)

To my ear, you are developing a stylized declamation approach that is by-and-large, very effective. There are two things I hear, quite subtle, that I would suggest could be improved:

1) Phrase starts, and

2) Phrase ends.

Its in those two circumstances that you tend to shorten the note values, giving less time on the vowels for those syllables. Your vibrato, which is otherwise very gentle, lyric and attractive, goes away on them, and they sound just a bit disconnected with the fine sound for the rest of the phrase.

My suggestion to remediate these is to set up the vocal freedom from which vibrato arises before the singing starts, and to conceptualize the beginnings and ends of phrases, with whatever note lengths you chose, with vibrato in them, even if very short notes.

As to the effectiveness of the siren, I think you could vary the speed a bit, so that some sirens grind up slowly, and some just launch.

I hope this helps,

[gno]

jonpall - it sounds really good to me. Very free, relaxed and controlled tone. I never thought of doing sirens like that to prep for a certain song. That's a great idea and it seems very effective. Thanks for sharing.

[Marcus]

This sounds really really good! I know you've been working on singing with a more clean approach, and that work seems to be paying off! You have a really nice tonal quality throughout this, and I get the feeling that it's very free and relaxed singing. I want to hear more! :D