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Is it possible to change your timbre?

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ferg12

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Generally speaking, trying to emulate a voice of the opposite gender is a crapshoot, gimmicky IF done well, and in my opinion should just be avoided. You can maybe imitate up or down one voice type, but there's no point in trying to sound exactly like Whitney unless you want it to be a gimmicky thing.

Maybe try to imagine what the male equivalent of Whitney would sound like, and go for something similar to that kind of timbre. That will come across more genuine.

Within the same gender you can adjust and emulate timbre a lot.

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i think what ferg is really trying to say (correct me if i'm wrong ferg) he wants to get a similar tone.

owen,

i believe there's a lot to be said for emulation..as long you don't get obsessed with it. i say this because when you learn to emulate you have to learn to configure things and when you learn those configurations they can get used on other songs.

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Bob, I'm not against imitation on the whole, just not a fan of doing it in a manner as extreme as a baritone trying to sound like Whitney, whose voice a good two or three voice types higher. But for instance, a baritone working on sounding as close as they can to Steve Perry...it can't hurt to try. Some baritones will be able to come close. And learning that kind of sound could prove very beneficial to improving their versatility as a vocalist.

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there are lots of limitations but you can get 'close', here you have some examples of non classical 'countertenor' technique:

(very diverse styles, but all these singers are males)

bell nuntita, he does it pretty well, but it is mainly soft:

pico and sekihan, jpop singers, notice that they use changes of dynamics (volume, weight) when imitating the female voice:

nick pitera on ellen, notice here that he also uses dynamics (changes of volume), this is the best i have heard for know, cause it isnt 'classical', it isnt always soft, and it isnt like an anime cartoon female voice hahah!

Good find! How is nick pitera able to switch from baritone to girl-like voice is it falsetto? it's different from the other links

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Bob, I'm not against imitation on the whole, just not a fan of doing it in a manner as extreme as a baritone trying to sound like Whitney, whose voice a good two or three voice types higher. But for instance, a baritone working on sounding as close as they can to Steve Perry...it can't hurt to try. Some baritones will be able to come close. And learning that kind of sound could prove very beneficial to improving their versatility as a vocalist.

I'm not trying to be gimmicky, but I've always loved her voice and I really really want to sound like her. All my idols are female singers with Whitney being the biggest, so I don't don't have in me to try to sound like Steve Perry. You said it cant hurt to try to sound like Steve Perry, but shouldn't the same be said for baritones trying to sound like Whitney Houston, or any other female singer?

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Yes you can lighten up your timbre.

I have a deep and dark voice naturally also. LIsten how I lightened it up to sing Michael Jackson:

http://themodernvocalist.punbb-hosting.com/viewtopic.php?id=8170

Practice all your scales with a very bright timbre. I try to be as bright as possible actually. this brightness will grow over time and distance of training.

I'm talking about lighten it to the point where you sound like a girl as those links geran posted

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I'm not trying to be gimmicky, but I've always loved her voice and I really really want to sound like her. All my idols are female singers with Whitney being the biggest, so I don't don't have in me to try to sound like Steve Perry. You said it cant hurt to try to sound like Steve Perry, but shouldn't the same be said for baritones trying to sound like Whitney Houston, or any other female singer?

I don't understand, do you want to sound like a male vocalist with a soft feminine voice, or do

you actually want to sound like a female vocalist?

If people listen to you sing, but can't see you, do you want them to think it's a girl singing or do you want them to think that it's a guy who sounds like a girl?

Anyway, check this out... I was sure this was a chick singing and was blown away to find out it was a guy.

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Get a program to beef your headvoice/falsetto up. So it can carry weight, then it's about mimicing.

Test this:

Sing 5 Whitney songs aday minium in falsetto. Pay extra attention to the vowels so your doing exactly the same.

Record your first day.

Do this for 2 month and then record again, you will hear alot of improvements

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I have been asking why people want to sing the way they do for the past 30 years.

Of course now with youtube you can find that there still are people who want to sing decent songs you just have to look for them.

Then again I am old and I like what I heard as a teenager. They don't make songs like that for sale anymore. I have to make them myself.

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How about this? I personally don't think he sounds like a girl, but I do think he sounds very feminine. Is this the sound you're after?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocXiwmkISU0

That's not it, the sound I'm after is a girl's timbre

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Ferg12, Your voice is beautiful. You just need to refine it.

We have had Whitney. Yes emulate her if that is what you want to do.

The beauty is in the soul. The expression. Every thing that made up Whitney the person. Not just the sound.

Expess the beauty that is in Ferg where ever you find it.

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We do.

It does not mean that its the best idea in the world... Or even that you really know what is it that you want.

Do you really understand what you find beautiful on her voice? Because if you worry too much on tonal emulation, you can end up missing the good parts and being left with something that has not much to do with it (using falsetto to sound feminine)

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You will probably want to look into countertenor techniques. As Felipe already statet, in terms of technique it is not really recommended to go that far away from the natural "center" of your voice, but it is still valid from an artistic perspective and there are still successful countertenors out there even though more than one classical teacher are doubtful about the healthiness of their technique.

For countertenors it is important to get early into a tuning of your vocal tract where the fundamental dominates in terms of acoustics. Falsetto is a really good start because exactly that tuning basically comes "for free" with it. However, falsetto alone usually sounds too airy, so you have to experiment with adding a bit of twang or even a little more mass to the phonation. If you use too much of either you will start to sound "manly" again, so this is really an act of balance. Using enough compression to not sound too airy, but using few enough to still sound girly.

This is the balancing act of the countertenor voice, but at the same time it is the biggest point of critique that is sometimes uttered, because they use a very low mass setup that is derived from falsetto, but at the same time add compression to that. But compressing a very light phonation puts quite some physical load on the outer layers of the folds, which are the most fragile part of your folds.

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Get a program to beef your headvoice/falsetto up. So it can carry weight, then it's about mimicing.

Test this:

Sing 5 Whitney songs aday minium in falsetto. Pay extra attention to the vowels so your doing exactly the same.

Record your first day.

Do this for 2 month and then record again, you will hear alot of improvements

I did what you instructed and I found a local classical teacher and told her that I no longer want to sing in my chest voice/or give any hit of a male sound and that I would like to sing like a mezzo-soprano/or an alto, and I don't want to study arias, and she said that she never heard that before and it's very odd, but we are going to work on counter-tenor techniques, and getting me to belt in falsetto/headvoice.

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I did what you instructed and I found a local classical teacher and told her that I no longer want to sing in my chest voice/or give any hit of a male sound and that I would like to sing like a mezzo-soprano/or an alto, and I don't want to study arias, and she said that she never heard that before and it's very odd, but we are going to work on counter-tenor techniques, and getting me to belt in falsetto/headvoice.

Bravo, for you. As is often recommended here to get a teacher or coach, you are doing that very thing. Good luck and bless you for taking your craft (of singing) seriously.

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I m not a baritone but I can sound really girly when I try do sing in a classical way.

Try to thin your headvoice, and above all never push, search for maximum resonance. I can fill a 1000 persons room without forcing. If only I could have this power when I sing normally...^^

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I did what you instructed and I found a local classical teacher and told her that I no longer want to sing in my chest voice/or give any hit of a male sound and that I would like to sing like a mezzo-soprano/or an alto, and I don't want to study arias, and she said that she never heard that before and it's very odd, but we are going to work on counter-tenor techniques, and getting me to belt in falsetto/headvoice.

Great! Thats the first big step :)

Some Words of wisdom.

1. Practice the entire voice, even if you Will be spending the most time singing in falsetto/head having a strong chestvoice will Only be of benefit. Also just training one part of the voice often leads to unbalance in the voice, so i Belive dropping 10-15 mins of chestvoice aday is more of a timesaver and gonna get you faster to your goal.

2. Get a vocalprogram to strengthen your headvoice/ falsetto, i like the 4pillars by rob. It's not exactly the sounds your after so it has to be modified abit(ive Done so to suit My needs) but boy it helps your headvoice like crazy.

3. The 30/70 rule and that means 30% exercises (pillars,head chest scales breathing exercises) and 70% singing i mean it sing like crazy! you can have the best exercises in the world but Only singing will make you a Better singer.

If you follow this your bound to success, however it's very hard work for years to come. Also we have some killar coaches on this site, so if you find your geting into a roadbump hit them up.

Robert lunte, Felipe carvalho, Daniel formica are all topnotch coaches and i Also reccomend all singers i meet to try them out during their career. You get so much better it's scary

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