You Know I'm No Good, By Amy Whinehouse: Codyknight22

[Codyknight22]

Big thing is always feedback for me. I tried this a couple of times and the karaoke versions were just not working for me so I decided to do a version without karaoke, and voila here we are. I had to sing quietly so that I don't wake anyone up at my house. I do play a bit to my nasaly quality, but I hope it's not obnoxious and if it is, let me know. Anyway more feedback to try and help me improve as this website has already done so much for me.

Here's the video:

[Adoney]

There is too much nasal. It is limiting your articulation, cant hear the lyrics. You should probably wait till tomorrow, then edit your post singing a lot louder. Seriously, we can't help you if you are singing so quitely.

[Adoney]

You have to think, classical singers often have to broadcast their voice to an entire audience without any microphone, as loud as possible. Whispering in the night is hardly singing, man! I would also sight classical singers for the purposes of articulation, as a large part of their task is to pronounce different languedges very clearly for the performance, as well.

You might not like classical, but there is something to be learned here. With the invention of the microphone, singers were able to get much quiter as effect, but you should still be able to broadcast your voice, or else, it is weak and must be strengthened. It's okay to sing quietly IF you are getting a good tone. I would reccomend learning to sing loud before quietly, really.

It will help you :)

[Codyknight22]

Thanks again Adon, and if you want a video of me being louder it may take a while. My parents (I'm 13 in case someone reads this next bit and is confused) don't know about all of this, and I don't plan on them knowing for a little bit. Making videos is tough, and unless you want a video of me in the shower, you (and I) will have to be patient in terms of videos. My only chance for 2 weeks to make a video and it manifests itself as a time when everyone is asleep. So it may be a bit longer than I would hope for for a new video, and I'm sorry because the length of time it takes is all on me not having enough courage to tell my parents I want singing advice.:(

[Adoney]

A reccomendation I've given to a few friends before is to sing in to a pillow, just hold a pillow and sing in it, to muffle your sound when you practice. That is how I practice when people are around and I need to get really loud.

I am not a stranger to singing softly. I started by singing so quietly that I convinced myself that I sounded good and that it would be easy to sing. It wasn't until I got louder that I discovered the voice behaves differently.

From that point, singing loudly, but still controlled, became a better sound, one that could carry over to singing softly.

[ronws]

Please, Cody, no videos of you singing in the shower. My psyche is fragile and delicate, just now and I don't need the horror stuck in my mind.

just kidding. ( you would have to know me to know that I mean no disrespect by that smart aleck remark.)

But Adon is right. You are going to have to sing louder than that, just in practice, let alone making a vid or sound file for us to hear. Granted, no one could get a way with stage concert volume at night when the rest of the family is trying to rest or thinking about wandering off to bed.

You mentioned that you are 13, quite young indeed, and already you have the "man" voice. I never had that. I sounded like a woman and still do, to some extent. I've come to peace with that. Adon is right, you've got too much nasal going on and I know why that is. Many of the modern r & b singers, especially women, are singing extremely nasal through the nose. So, read this next part carefully. You need nasal resonance to sing properly and have good tone but that is not the same as singing through the nose, which actually involves some constriction, believe it or not. Watching you, I can see you are pushing tone through the nose, rather than using sinuses for resonance chambers, which is what you should be doing.

Back to your voice as it is, now. You've got some nice full tone on the lows. I hope you don't lose that. I can't do baritone but I admire those who can. It's an artistic thing.

I don't know how to help you with the family thing. No one in my family stopped me from singing. And it was okay to work on my music after my homework done and if Billy Graham was not on t.v. I was required to watch him when he was on. Lost my guitar privileges for a month because one night, I wanted to play my guitar instead of watching him torture math to make his point. But I digress.

Maybe your family will think that you singing is a waste of time. Or, just want to present yourself as a fully developed singer. None of us are fully developed, as it were. We continually improve. Even the vocal coaches here seek out help and advice from other coaches. So, you will never be "finished." But finishing is not the goal. The life-long journey in pursuit of our passion, singing as an art form, is the goal. I sing because I cannot contemplate not singing. Good, bad, so-so, whatever. I must sing.

I don't know where you can find some private space and time but you will need to progress past the whispering in a 5 tone range thing to get where you want to go. But good for you for transposing what is essentially an alto almost mezzo-soprano song to what sounds like baritone, on you. For right now, do what it is your voice can do. Success breeds more success. Later, after you learn some technique and learn more about how your voice works, you can then continue doing what it is your voice can do. Which will be unique and awesome.

And if you listen to anything this old man has to say, I am blessed for it. Life has never awarded me the blessing of having children. But I like to help when I can, regardless of the age of the person. I am not a voice teacher or vocal coach. I am an electrician, I am operations manager for an electrical sub-contractor, and I have taught electrical work in a government-funded educational program. And some of my greatest rewards were in teaching. But just seeing a young person get that glimmer of understanding and unleashing their potential, that is magical, it is priceless.

Good luck and welcome to this forum. Some people are going to be brusque, state things in ways that seem harsh, but they really do mean well and the goal is to have you sing amazing and we expect you to do so. No one here expects you to fail. Only you can expect you to fail. We are in your corner.

Peace, bro.

[Codyknight22]

Thanks Adon and thanks Ron. I have plenty of pillows to sing into and as long as I don't get too much spit in them, I'll be fine. For the future Ron, I come from a long line of smart alecks, so those kind of remarks are more than welcome in my book. Plus I think showing a video of me in the shower might be illegal...

And I have no idea how my parents would react to me wanting to improve on singing. I'm sure I'd get at least attaboys from my mom with lots a smart remarks from my dad. But truth be told I'm afraid to tell my parents about this. I'm too afraid to tell anyone about this. On the Internet I'm anonymous. My real name is 't even Cody, that's my dogs name, (he has heard me sing, he won't say too much about it). But here, I can expect all the abuse in the world from you guys. My resime consists of 1 musical, which I refused to sing in...

That's how afraid I am, I don't even want to SING IN A MUSICAL. I'm here for feedback and confidence. And it's amazing what you can learn about yourself, for example, I never really knew how nasally my voice was until omming here. I'll continue to learn and continue to try and improve with a new song comming on Monday(shoutout to veterans day) for a new song, and here's the o e question that I could never answer, what song choice do you think I should do? I don't care if I've never heard of it, or if I like it, but what song (no Bieber is my only request) do you think I should do? Just this once answer me (types while on my knees) for that question.

I should probably end this right now before my parents walk into the room or I forget what window this is and I close it. Thanks again to you both for helping a lot throughout these 3 songs.

-Codyknight22

[Adoney]

I sort of know what you mean. I actually never sing in public, though everybody knows that I do sing. Still, the shyness I have doesn't carry over to stage performance. As soon as I am on stage, there's just too much pressure to be shy, so you have to be extroverted.

If you're into pop, why not sing something by a male? how about that 'somebody that I used to know"? that guy has a gooid voice. But you have to get loud for that one.

[Codyknight22]

THANK YOU! You have no idea how happy I am to see a song suggestion. I had such a hard time picking o e and this one makes some sense. I have a deep voice (so everyone tells me) and this song doesn't quite require the notes that some of the others do. Thank you do much Adon.

-Codyknight22

[ronws]

I sing in public whenever I want to and get away with it. Then, again, I am tall and look like a biker and I think people are just waiting quietly for me to go away, on my own.

Well Cody, I've got plenty of smart aleck up my sleeve. My step-grandfather fostered that ability in me.

Then, an understudy with my friend and grand master of smart-aleck, Lee, made it razor sharp. One of my favorite examples. We would go back to work after a hefty lunch and some mom-and-pop diner. He would say, "Man, I am full and totally useless." And I would respond, "How do we tell the difference between now and before lunch?"

Good times, good times. He passed away in 2005. Even in death, he has to get there first...

My brother and fellow member, slstone, came up with one that sticks with me, today. "I laugh at pain .... your pain."

Awesome.

The avatar in my posts, that is my dog, Shadow, a mix of siberian husky and lab. Mostly siberian, with 4 colors. Black, brown, red, and a white undercoat (he is double-coated, unlike a purebred lab.) He is prettier than I am and that is why he is my avatar.

Don't worry, I would never subject you to the Bieber. How about "Brandy" by Looking Glass? I usually dedicate it to my friend, Lee, who I mentioned before. He was a Navy SEAL in Viet Nam, 1964 to 1969, with 3 active combat tours, way deep "in country. " The Big Asian Vacation. And to my first step-father, Navy, boiler tech 2c aboard teh USS Ogden.

Here's the original.

If you can't view an embedded link, here it is:

[Codyknight22]

@Ron

I like you, and if I were to ever show my Dad that post, he would be proud. I checked out the song and I think I'll get a little more comfortable with it before I sing it. Thank you for the song choice and not subjecting me to Bieber. Just thanks Ron.

(Also note that I say proud because my Dads friend cut off his finger in a blender while my Dad worked in resteraunts, the next day the comments he got were, how are the guitar lessons going, strawberry milkshakes on sale, etc. After someone cuts off his finger, it's polite to insult them in my family ).

[Codyknight22]

Oh and I probably should of said this earlier, but speak to me in 5-year-old-daddy-I-want-to-sing speak. My music teacher (manditory in middle school where I go too) has never been very good at occuping my rather short attention span, and my music teacher also was not a very good teacher. Sometimes, you just gotta give up on the song matching puzzles. Anyway, I learned about 1 term under her and that term is 'Note.' Turns out, more than just a piece of paper with writing on it. But aside from that, nada. I can't read music at all, I do recognize the term saprano (forgive my spelling, autocorrect is not being helpful 'sales no') thanks to help from America's favorite coaches on the voice, but I'm not sure if it's low or high (high I'd bet on). So again, ease speak to me as if I know nothing, (I'm above that with my 'note'), because I virtually know nothing. I'm the oddest person to pick singing to pursue. I'm 5'10" (may of have butchered the order of " and '), I'm fast, I'm strong, I'm ugly. All of these make me a basketball player, and while I will be playing for my team, I don't believe I will take this to the NBA, who have also failed to grasp my attention span with their long seasons. But apart from that, music has always been so far away from me. Even in modern music people will say a band and I'll have no clue who it is. The term 'singing' was lost on me for 12 years. Then I had kidney surgery (sucks by the way don't try it). They play the strangest songs in hospitals and for whatever reason, I took to singing. 13 years down the drain, but I still got old plenty more to go. So right about you're wondering why I'm telling you all this. Well the reason is it's 1 in the morning and I'm tired and I can't go to sleep so I type without thinking really. But the main point is that speak to me like I know nothing. Like ugh as apposed too saying the official word, please just say deep voice. Much appreciated for the thoughts, and for the patience if you ever get to this point.

-Codyknight22

[ronws]

Oh yeah? In 1994, Timmy, a co-worker and I were pulling in wire for frost biters, these heaters put in place to keep copper water pipes from freezing. But we are pulling into an energize switch gear (480 V 3 Phase, 600 amps) Timmy is the one on there pulling and I am feeding at the other end. Every thing stops. Timmy's fish tape had kinked around and shorted between ground and one of the hot lugs. The arc flash from the bottom fed lugs rose up and burned the gear interiors and burned Timmy 1st and 2nd degree on his face and hands.

So, one guy runs him off to the hospital. And the rest of us finish uor wire pull. Once again, feeding the wire, it stops. So, I go to where the guys are pulling and I said are you done? The boss man said, no, we're finished. Timmy's done.

Can you feel the love in the room?

Last time I broke a bone at work it was the middle finger on my left hand. So, the doc put a finger splint on it. And so, I would go around showing everyone which finger I hurt.

It helps to laugh at adversity. Tony Iommi thought his guitar-playing was over when he lost the tips of middle and ring fingers on his right hand in a metal shear press. Then, his boss at the factory brought him an album of Djengo Reinhardt, the guy only has two fingers on his hand to play with. So, that's when Tony Iommi set about messing with thimbles and leather covers to place over his missing fingertips. And then, he helped create an industry demand for lighter guage strings. He would go a guage lighter and drop tune 1/2 to 1 whole step, because it was easier to play, which created a heavier sound, accidently creating an entire genre.

So, even on your worst days, don't give up.

That's a lot of conditions to remember in how one phrases to you but I'll try. Or, you'll have to do like the rest. Pick out the words you like and leave the rest, like a salad bar.