Need critique and advice - Never Say Never & 18 and Life Cover

[RHan]

I need your opinion on my singing and how to improve it. I also still looking the best genre that suits my voice, whether for alternative, pop, or rock. Hope you guys can give honest opinion and if anything is suck, just say its suck. Im willing to take harsh critique so that i can improve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPYEeUQl7EM

[RHan]

Thank you for the response sir and I'll try to work on that based on your advice. Anyway im still clueless about my voice type and what kind of song suits me best. I dont have any vocal teacher, so thats why i think this place is great for me to learn more about my weaknesses and mistakes in singing.

[Nick]

On the 18 and life video: like said earlier, I think you should avoid straining the overdriven parts too much. It sounds a bit strained, and I think it would sound better if you would just do it clean. I get what you're trying to do though.

Another thing, I think you need to work on you pronounciation/articulation, there are alot of words where you leave out letters or pronounce them weird (examples: 0:28 "worked", 1:28 "kept")

Is English your native language?

Overall I think you did a good job though

Sebastian Bach's a studio singer and can't cut it live.

I disagree, I like him live

[RHan]

Haha yeah actually im trying to sounds 'rock', thats why i purposely make that strained voice. And you're absolutely right on the pronounciation too, im working on improving that. Im asian so english is not my native language. Really thankful for your feedback sir.

Anyway i agree about Sebastian Bach is great even live, at least when he was younger. I have no idea how he is now.

[ronws]

Don't worry, I'm american and sometimes, it feels, English is not my native language, especially when I write.

At first, I thought you had a breath support problem because I listened to "18 and Life" yesterday but did not comment.

I listened again, today, and then also, to the Fray cover. And it sounded more like a vowel thing. You have more of an eh sound which is okay. I have found that the higher notes go stronger with ah, as in father. And it can take a while to get that ah just right. Many people,especially americans, tend to round their ah to aw. Others go to far back and sound like the a in cat. Which gets splatty, which is okay, if you are looking for a splatty rattle sound. That's what Ronnie James Dio would do. Listen to him on "Rainbow in the Dark" at the Waacken 2004 Festival. Every time he had rasp or rattle on a note, he was singing that note like the a in cat.

I have a feeling that if you play with vowels, you will find your breath support changes to match what you need. This will give you a little more volume and clarity. Pitch was pretty good.

Of the two songs, your voice sounded more like a natural fit with the Fray cover. I'm not saying that you can't sing Skid Row because, obviously you can. I remember when I kicked my own butt with "I Remember You."

Anyway, good effort on both songs.

[RHan]

I didnt really understand about the vowel thing, so actually what should i do or change anything in my singing of the vowel? or maybe you can tell certain kind of exercises that can help me to improve on this vowel thing? haha actually i already feel that this "18 and life" doesn't really suits me because i dont think my range is as high as sebastian bach, but i couldn't resist to give it a try since i really love that song. anyway thanks for your advice sir. im kinda excited to learn more about those vowel things :D

[ronws]

Well, at least we agree that while you can sing the Skid Row song and there's nothing wrong with doing it whatever way that you want, it's more of a lark than a direction for you.

So, here's the exercise. First off, find the sweet spot. A number of different routes but one that is fairly quick. make a light h sound with the middle section of your tongue, kind of like the german ch sound. it will be near the juncture of the soft and hard palate. That is where you should "feel" the note. That's the easy part.

Here's the harder part. Pay attention. You will say, "pay attention to what?" Exactly. Pay attention. Learn to make the ah sound, especially on higher notes. Right now, you are using the eh sound, such as in the word, men.

This may take some repetition. And more than one evening or day. So, that's the hard part. Practice it every day and pay attention. And don't practice very long. When you find yourself drifting, stop. Go do something else, like laundry, underwater basket weaving, solving Paul Dirac's 4 dimensional equation that shows gravity as a decreasing value over time duration.

Reason being that,when training, it is better to concentrate on the right thing than to constantly fight the wrong thing. So, you do only the right thing and learn to let the wrong extinguish itself through lack of use.

[RHan]

Oh my god, its really work! But im not sure whether im doing it right as you directed, what i do is try to change my vowel when i sing for higher note since you said that i used the 'eh' sound. First i try to use the a as in the cat, then i can hit higher note much more easily without much effort and cleaner than before. I tried this vowel because there's a video in youtube explaining how to hit high note with this 'cat' vowel exercise. But i suppose that you asked me to use the 'ah' sound as in father, can i use the same exercise but just change the vowel sound? Another thing, on lower note i suppose to use the same vowel 'cat' or 'ah' and get rid of my 'eh' sound?

Sorry if my english is quite hard to be understand, i rarely write in english actually.

*anyway i tried using the 'ah' vowel sound to sing higher note, i dont know whether i did it right but it feels like it much comfortable and stronger when i use the 'a' as in cat vowel.

[RHan]

thanks for the information sir, but this vowel things really confusing me a bit haha. so i guess now i should practice the 'ng' sound with the eee (i) vowel? start with lower range then higher after sometime? i look for videos at youtube about this vowel things but theres not much about it, its kinda hard for me to understand by just reading all these because im afraid i will do the wrong thing by misunderstanding what you guys trying to tell.