Male version of Let It Go

[gno]

I was inspired to produce this song when Kaleb's version popped up here a couple months ago. The original "broadway" arrangement is great, but not as heavy as I prefer, so I added some rock elements to the orchestration - heavier drums, power and lead guitars, etc.

You can hear my terrible low range right away. Anything below D3 is a struggle for me, and the beginning parts are really low - to the very bottom of my range. I wish I could sing that F2 with full fold closure.. I'm barely hanging on down there. If anyone has any advice on how to get a fuller tone down there please let me know!

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12761603

[Javastorm]

I really like this arrangement! I think it suits your voice dynamically, especially with the added instrumentation. I've never heard a rock interpretation of this song. I was really impressed with your higher range (and your stamina), and the problems with resonance in your lower register didn't bother me too much; it was a good cover!

[Owen Korzec]

Love the instrumentation! I thought at the beginning it might have been too heavy over your quieter vocal dynamic in the low register, but everything under the higher parts fit perfectly and made the song a lot more badass!!!

For the lower range, you basically just need to engage more intrinsic musculature so you can get better adduction and engage more body of the vocal folds to add a fuller spectrum of higher harmonics to the sound. And it takes time to train this. Try training it on a very bright AA sound. Onset with a glottal attack or vocal fry or maybe a simultaneous onset. The goal is to hold the notes as long as you can through the correct support and as loud as you can through the correct resonance. And of course start with a comfortable low note and move down by a half step after you get each note down.

Go for power and tone first, not range. Just trying to seek the lowest extension of your range right away, you will probably "cheat" and end up getting a weaker airier tubbier sound like what you got in your song, which may be the best you can do in performance now, but it's not the best foundation for training power into the low range. When you train the low range go for bright tone, a feeling of using the full thickness of the vocal folds, and if you can't hit your absolutely lowest note anymore, have no fear, you are probably more on the right track that if you can. Because if you work on the more comfortable low notes in at way where you're not just cheating with extrinsic musculature and you're just seeking an efficient approach to power, you're putting yourself in better circumstances to work the intrinsic musculature which will allow you to lean in more on lower notes. And I'm pretty sure if you continued this over time, the ability to apply that intrinsic musculature would extend to lower and lower pitches.

I've only done this a bit but it's helped me a little bit, if anything, to just add more power to my comfortable low notes. It hasn't increased my low range per se but made it more impressive to listen to. The very lowest notes are still tough, but I've yet to train with this approach consistently so I can only speak for a small portion of the process. The power will definitely increase if you train the low range bright and thick and that is key.

[ronws]

Cool beans, Geno. And a few woofy notes at the low end, like mine, are not a reason to try and train "baritone" into the voice. I had those same problems doing "Silent Lucidity" and "Friends in Low Places." I think the bottom note in SL is an E2 and it sounded good because I edited the track for eq and volume boost. So, I know the challenges you are facing.

Which means you were never baritone, as I think you once described yourself. I like what you did with the arrangement, too. Maybe your voice, powerful as ever and flexible as it is, is a testament to your diligence and the things you have learned with KTVA, among other things.

So, I echo Java's review.

[gno]

Java - Thanks for the feedback.

Owen - I'm glad you like the instrumentation. I raised the vocals a little in the first verse in response to your comments - you were right, they were a little buried against the guitars and drums. And thanks for the tips on the low notes. It seems I can keep it bright to a certain point, and then any lower it gets thin.

Ron - thanks for the positive feedback. I can definitely relate to you regarding the low notes. E2 is about my very lowest - but I can only sing it bright when I have a cold, otherwise it's flabby. I've never been able to sing lower baritone stuff.

[ronws]

Ron - thanks for the positive feedback. I can definitely relate to you regarding the low notes. E2 is about my very lowest - but I can only sing it bright when I have a cold, otherwise it's flabby. I've never been able to sing lower baritone stuff.

I can totally relate. Flabby is the word. Or what I call woofy. It reminds me of how I approximate woofing like my dog. And for the few songs I like to sing that have such low notes, I can live (and no doubt, be called "lazy") with it, rather than trying to "retrain" as a "baritone." 98 percent of what I sing is in the tenor range around the 4th and some 5th octave and it has been more important to me to make that flexible and resilient and endurable than the very bottom of my ability to generate sound.

So, maybe like Jens, we are "rocktenors." We sing rock and pop songs in the tenor range. Whether we fit someone else's ideas about tessitura, or not.

[gno]

Flabby is a good word for it. Its like I have a rubber band that I keep on loosening up and it barely vibrates. That's a good point about working on the part of your range that counts.

I just got over a cold where my voice was really low. I was thinking about re-recording the low stuff but never got around to it. Would that be considered cheating?:|

Brett Manning figured out how to sing really low with full adduction. I wish I could do that but don't know if it's even possible. Any of the exercises I've tried really haven't extended my range downwards. Any teachers have some advice for extending range downward?

[ronws]

I just got over a cold where my voice was really low. I was thinking about re-recording the low stuff but never got around to it. Would that be considered cheating?:|

Not really cheating. You know me by now, master of useless trivia.

David Lee Roth would only record bottomed-out lows, like on "Ice Cream Man" after a special preparation. He normally would not drink much during the week. And only smoked cigarettes when he drank. So, Friday night, he would go out to a club and have drinks and a cigar or two. Then go into the studio in the wee hours and create those impossible low tones.

I distinctly remember reading an interview with Melissa Etheridge. She would sometimes do her "rasp" overdubs and more bluesy stuff when she was suffering from allergies or a cold, because she liked the tone and the producer agreed. Try and train that!

[jco5055]

Hey Geno, one thing I've learned about singing low (which may echo what Owen said) is in a sense to think you're singing high once you get to a certain point. What I mean is doing stuff such as singing as bright as possible, thinning out the cords, heck even the vowel modifications you do as you ascend but also do them as you descend. It's definitely helped me, though i don't know if it's possible for a non-bass to sing in the first octave with any kind of power, but it's at least not breathy for me.

[Owen Korzec]

It's such an overlooked practice, it's a shame.

I'm surprised that females don't seem to be making the opposite effort of the lower voices and training to extend their own ranges downward. It seems like all singers, regardless of voice type, are focused more on the high extension.

The SS coaches do seem to be putting in the biggest contribution regarding teaching extending the low range, but I find their demonstrations of it a bit disappointing, leaving more to be desired. It doesn't sound "convincing".

But what they do definitely involves gradually incorporating more fry quality and TA activity into the low range instead of losing adduction and letting it blow apart.

It's almost a pressed voice down there...

[gno]

Yes - I don't know about the other SS guys, but Brett certainly does it. If I try do keep adducted down there I produce more and more tension. There is no vibrato and it's like I'm forcing it. Brett doesn't do that.

Sometimes I seem to be able to strengthen that part of my voice, but not through singing. I sometimes give factory tours - a couple weeks ago I had about 20 people on the tour, and I had a mic and they had headphones, but it is very loud in our factory. I was talking non-stop for an hour and a half. I wasn't shouting, but I was talking loudly. The next day it seemed my TA muscle rebuilt itself - like it gained muscle. My low notes were much stronger and I could go lower fully adducted. But my passagio was trashed for almost a week. This isn't the way to do it, but it gives me hope that somehow there is a way to train for it.

[jco5055]

haha yeah I noticed when I went out a few weeks ago and the next day my voice was shot but I had more powerful low notes then I do when I'm not hungover...

[gno]

Not really cheating. You know me by now, master of useless trivia.

David Lee Roth would only record bottomed-out lows, like on "Ice Cream Man" after a special preparation. He normally would not drink much during the week. And only smoked cigarettes when he drank. So, Friday night, he would go out to a club and have drinks and a cigar or two. Then go into the studio in the wee hours and create those impossible low tones.

I distinctly remember reading an interview with Melissa Etheridge. She would sometimes do her "rasp" overdubs and more bluesy stuff when she was suffering from allergies or a cold, because she liked the tone and the producer agreed. Try and train that!

Well I guess I'll have to induce another cold (OR NOT!):D

[andyravelo]

WOW! That was amazing! Mind giving me tips on how you made it seem effortless singing in that "Steve Perry" range hehehehe

[gno]

andyravelo - Thanks! Well, your rendition of Grenade sounded really good to me. I worked for the last year on that lighter Steve Perry'ish weight. But it is not as effortless as I would like - still working hard at it. Journey Ballads continue to be challenging for me. "Let It Go" is easier for me than Journey Ballads for some reason. The things that helped me were Bristows program, Daniel Formica's approach (check out his video on support) and Seth Riggs.

[gno]

Thanks for the positive feedback Phil. Glad you took a listen.