Could someone explain the techniques used in this song?

[simplo]

The song itself is from a live concert in 1981 Montreal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF-x2ycs-vE . I'm an aspiring vocalist, and I'd really like to know more about the songs that I like and how they are performed. Am I correct in saying there's a lot of belting going on, or is there more to it?

[ronws]

I used to know what I called belting but here, it's consistent air pressure with twang behind the sinus. However, to describe Freddie Mercury as belting in just about any Queen song would be inaccurate. That was Freddie's natural voice. He had a nasal quality, probably similar to my problem of living in a world we are allergic to. I think he was shifting in and out of what they call here as overdrive.

[VideoHere]

I used to know what I called belting but here, it's consistent air pressure with twang behind the sinus. However, to describe Freddie Mercury as belting in just about any Queen song would be inaccurate. That was Freddie's natural voice. He had a nasal quality, probably similar to my problem of living in a world we are allergic to. I think he was shifting in and out of what they call here as overdrive.

would think freddie mercury

ron, i can't (respectfully) see how you would think freddie mercury was nasal sounding.

and wouldn't you agree belting certainly occured in "kind of magic?"

maybe i'm wrong, but i hear belting here as well. falsetto phrases as well. calling in the experts....correct me if i'm wrong please

[ronws]

ron, i can't (respectfully) see how you would think freddie mercury was nasal sounding.

and wouldn't you agree belting certainly occured in "kind of magic?"

maybe i'm wrong, but i hear belting here as well. falsetto phrases as well. calling in the experts....correct me if i'm wrong please

Well, I'm not an expert but let me try and explain myself. I can hear the resonance behind the sinus. Because it happens to me. But it's not nasal in the way one might normally think of nasal, such as with some country singers who "sing through their nose", allowing air to escape through the nostrils. And some singers, such Axl Rose, may hide what I was calling a nasal sound in their vocal distortion and in their mic eq. I also can hear how what I was calling the nasal sound is more prominent in more stacatto lyrics that include many vocal stops, especially labial stops, hard and soft, such as p or m for an end of a word. So, I was probably wrong to describe Freddie as nasal, as he doesn't sing through the nose, like a country singer. I've noticed that my "nasal" sound subsides on longer notes with the right vowel. I didn't mean it as an insult of Freddie Mercury. Far from it. One of my favorite cd's is the two cd set of Queen's greatest hits. And yes, I will sing along on every damn one of those songs while I'm driving. What kind of image is that for me, a grandpa, wailing away? One of my favorite Queen songs never got enough air-play. "Hammer to Fall" from the "Highlander" soundtrack. Total hard rock.

In fact, isn't the "cure" for nasal to go even more up behind the sinus with twang and crying?

And yes, now that you mention it, there could be some belting in "It's a kind of magic." At least, as it's defined here. I used to think of belting as what people here now call overdrive.

How did he come up with these techniques considering that such a style didn't really have a pedagogy until recently?