The Trooper - please critique

[Olem]

Ok, it´s not perfect, maybe it´s not even good but for the first time i was able to sing a whole song of this caliber without interruption. Please critique - what needs to improve.

http://www.box.com/s/ir1vhqouevaolyli020a

Thanx in advance/ Olem

[ronws]

You had the right tone for the verses. On the "Oh" chorus, your version of it near the end was closer to my sense of aesthetics for this song than earlier. In essence, smile just a smidge to brighten the tone. Again, not a technical problem. But, if I were a record producer and used to being God, I would say brighten the tone on the chorus. Pitch was good, timing excellent. And your accent was barely noticable. A really good job. Just as importantly, I think you have the feeling of this song down just right.

[darkclaw3000]

if would even nice if u add some distort/raspyness into it!!

[ronws]

Actually, I think Olem is singing it just like the original, which is not a distorted raspy singer, Bruce Dickinson. And I don't say this just because I have a clean voice but one does not need to have rasp or distortion for a performance to be "rock." What one needs is feeling and attitude and Olem has that.

[darkclaw3000]

true that! i was merely suggesting. but great job nonetheless!

[ronws]

And I should add that it's a matter of aesthetics. Some rasp might work for some voices, and not so much, in a particular song, for another. It's a song by song decision. No offense taken, no offense meant.

[Olem]

Thanx for ur answers, Ron and darkclaw 3000. Well, i think some more rasp would be more according to how Bruce sings it but right now i clench my throat too much when i add rasp. I am most pleased with the last verse, in the beginning i tense too much i think. Right now i am in brazil so i will not be able to publish more efforts for awhile, i stay here until the 20th of January 2012, but i will check out this site now and then.

[Daug Poland]

Great Olem!

Nice voice here. It would be more pleasent to listen if you set vocals deeper in the recording mix and than no rusp would have really metter. These days Bruce also not using any on higher notes

From techniqal point - It's seems you're tight and closed. You should pay atention to vowels.

Regards!

[Olem]

Hi, Daug!

Thanx for your tribute, man, you are an excellent singer by the way. I use closed vowels alot, isnt that what you should do when u apply curbing? I will never learn how to find the right vowel choice . I know Bob gave me some suggestions, maybe i will have to lock back for it.

[Daug Poland]

Thnx Olem - you're very kind. I'm just an amateur of singing and techniqal stuff behind it.

Look here is a little trick for you (i do not know if somebody said something like that to you) - Try to sing with just ONE vowel. Find your most comfortamble vowel that you feel most free to go high . If you wonna go to curb check I(sit) and O(woman) or Uh - pick ONE - and add a little(!) hold/cry to it. Try it with the melody and later add consonats to it. And sing with that ONE VOWEL with added consonats.

I find a lot of guy's thinking simly too much on how to transfere vowels. After a while singing with one vowel instead -you should have the idea correct and then you can "stretch" this vowel to sound more natural (no really metter for that, when sining very high)

Regards!

[Olem]

That sounds interesting, Daug, i definately would like to try it. Thanx alot. I have tried to buy only the sound samples from CVT but it is not possible for some reason. It is because i have heard that it is very important to be dead on centre, to have a very centered vowel or else you would fail. So my question is, since you seem to be very familiar with CVT, if you could do me a favor and post a sample of how you would sing I (sit) O (woman) or Uh (hungry?) way up there, perhaps a siren from D4 to D5 or something? Or if you know i link to a place where i can find that.

Thanx in advance/ Ola

[jonpall]

Note that it's not until the very highest notes that you do an actual vowel REPLACEMENT, but until then you should only MODIFY the vowels.

[gno]

Olem - it sounds like you are more relaxed and in more control than before. Sounds good!

[Olem]

Hello, Geno!

I definately have more control, now, in the matter of that i have more endurance. But i am still not satisfied with my tone, it is still strained and i am still not sure if i add too much chest, if i can go with this weight and are able to improve it further. Since i have made progress i think i will experiment with it a little more and see how far i can go. I have a very strong voice in my lower range so i do not know if it just takes more time for me to develop my voice in the higher range. Thanx for ur tribute, Geno, i am looking further to hear more songs from you here in this forum, u have one of the best voices here, especially for melodic rock.

[gno]

Olem - I started expanding my range the same way as you - very heavy with thick folds - lots of TA and very "chesty". To go higher you are going to have to thin the folds, and at a lower pitch. I couldn't sing lightly up high until the beginning of this year. This has really helped me. I can now do messa di voce at any point in my range where that was impossible before and high songs are much easier for me now. You can learn this just like I did. The exercises that helped me were the "Neutral without air" exercises from CVT and the "Connect Chest with Head" exercises from Tamplin Stage 2 and Stage 3. I still do these exercises every day. I know there are other ways to learn this, but these are the ones that did it for me.

Basically it is learning how to get your CT involved at a lower pitch and backing off your TA muscle. I would strongly recommend that you learn this. My voice is naturally heavier like yours, but you can definitely learn to sing much lighter with much thinner folds - and it will help you.

[Olem]

Well, i feel that i thin out around E4 and F4 like i shift a gear when i do sirens but maybe i will have to do it more i do not know, what i know is that if i go lighter it sounds too thin and too girlish. I do not have either of these excersises you advocate but one day maybe i will buy Ken Tamplins singing kit.

[gno]

Yeah the girlish sound is why I resisted thining out so much as I built my head voice, and it's why I tried to stay heavier up high. I didn't want that lighter head voice sound. At first, transitioning into head for me was going too light - like a falsetto but stronger. I didn't like that. But as you build the head voice, the head voice can sound just like chest. And you can adjust the "heaviness" to whatever you want. The Tamplin chest to head exercises really helped build my "single voice" where you can't hear the different between chest and head. You can feel it - like switching gears, but you can't hear it. It took me a while to develop it.

[Keith]

Yeah the girlish sound is why I resisted thining out so much as I built my head voice, and it's why I tried to stay heavier up high. I didn't want that lighter head voice sound. At first, transitioning into head for me was going too light - like a falsetto but stronger. I didn't like that. But as you build the head voice, the head voice can sound just like chest. And you can adjust the "heaviness" to whatever you want. The Tamplin chest to head exercises really helped build my "single voice" where you can't hear the different between chest and head. You can feel it - like switching gears, but you can't hear it. It took me a while to develop it.

Hey, do you have YouTube links or sound files that demonstrate those exercises?

[gno]

No I don't - Ken's exercises don't seem to have proliferated on youtube. They are basically 1 octave and 2 octave jumps with very smooth transition inbetween notes. And the best part of Ken's exercises is his "coaching" and reminders inbetween.

The other thing is tongue position on "ah" and "eh" - keeping it down and concave. This was hard for me to do at first, but let's say you are singing an "ah" at C5 with the right vowel mod. If I look in the mirror, when I lower the tongue so that it is concave against the bottom of my mouth, and I can see the back of my throat clearly, the 2nd harmonic is amplified significantly. In other words the tone gets a lot brighter. It is the strength of the 2nd harmonic and the brightness of tone that makes the difference between Chest and Head. Chest is brighter of course because of that 2nd harmonic. When you lower the tongue in Head, it sounds like Chest. Ken doesn't really talk about that, but this is what I've found to be true - and I really noticed on Ken's exercise.