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From Metal Screams to Tom Jones! My vocal evolution.;)

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Holy Sh*t Snax...I wanna party with you!

Insane pipes. Now I'M confused...obviously a huge shift in style/genre here(metal to Tom,) but I'm NOT hearing a HUGE difference between your chest and head(compared to "other"singers.)

Really great.

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Holy Sh*t Snax...I wanna party with you!

Insane pipes. Now I'M confused...obviously a huge shift in style/genre here(metal to Tom,) but I'm NOT hearing a HUGE difference between your chest and head(compared to "other"singers.)

Really great.

Thanks Analog! I think that based on what I'm starting to now understand, I used to pull chest weight a lot and therefore would need to strain for certain notes. Nowadays I can effortlessly sing many of those same notes without even warming up because I'm leaving that chest "weight" behind. Not drinking alcohol any more certainly helps too I'm sure. (Well, the occasional light beer here and there but never when I'm singing any more.)

What would be helpful to many of us is for someone to post a video of themselves singing a phrase or two of any popular rock song and demonstrate it in a pulling chest, falsetto and then head voice. It would help us hear and see the differences in tone.

To me, when I hear a singer like Steve Perry it sounds like he has one seamless voice that doesn't lose that smoky tone when he sings higher. He also seems to sing many songs in that awkward "throat notes" range right around the chest/head passagio. It's one thing to learn to bridge into head voice from chest but how on earth do some singers sing right in that one in between head and chest range?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Snax: I enjoyed listening to your rendition of 'Thunderball'... its very expressive, and while you are stylistically reminiscent to Tom Jones, you've made it your own with some personal touches.

One of the things that I hear which are not (IMO) in the style of this particular song is the use of breathiness. I think the tone should be clear and solid all the time, even when using the dynamics to full extent. For those, I'd suggest letting the softer sections be even softer than they are, so that when you let it roar the effect is greater by comparison.

When listening to Jones singing this song, especially in the upper middle part of his voice, he selects vowel pronunciations which are very resonant, which sound 'rounder' or 'darker'. He is doing that to more smoothly connect the tone there with the solid lower voice, and spectacular top. This technique, in classical terms, is vowel modification, or 'cover', which shapes the vowels into a form that will transition to the powerful, sustained top voice on the last note.

If Tom were to sing that last note down an octave, you would hear it for what it really is... an 'oh', (sung with the mouth fairly open) rather than an 'ah'. In performance, because he has darkened the upper middle, this pronunciation sounds perfectly acceptable and consistent as an extension of the lower notes.

As a practice aid, you can sing this note down an octave until it is very full and ringy to your own ear, and then just jump up the octave retaining the pronunciation. I think you will be pleased with the overall effect, the ring and ease of the note.

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Wow, thanks Steve! What great feedback. :) I've got to be one of Tom Jones biggest fans and I especially love his very early stuff. His voice is nothing short of incredible with tender moments intermingled with raw explosive power! Definitely one of my all time biggest vocal influences.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's a song I never thought I'd be able to sing till i learned from all of you here! http://www.box.net/shared/ye5noqanez

Now if only I could afford a nice Pearlman microphone instead of using my Shure SM 57! lol

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