Voice Analysis & Constructive Feedback, Bill Withers-Ain´t No Sunshine

[newsinger]

Hi!

I started singing a few weeks ago, i am curious of the qualities of my voice and what in particular i should practice on. I have heard from another singer that i probably have a bass-baritone voice. What i have seen is that the majority of modern singers are tenors, some are baritone, but i haven´t seen or heard of a bass or bass baritone singer. Am in away screwed if i want to sing pop or rock? I a´m currently a good trummer and want to be a really good singer, but wondering if it´s worth the time or not, due to my voice type.

Here i sing some to Ain´t No Sunshine by Bill Withers, i sang it along the cover since it was easier to be in tune.

https://soundcloud.com/aram-aydemir/test

[beghelli]

I really don't think that the voice type it's important outside classical music. And it is not only the range that determines the voice type there, it's also the tone, which is completely irrelevant in the popular scenario. Some singers have a pretty strange voice and do some success, like Bob Dylan.

There are so many variables that makes somebody successful or not. But there are key things that I believe makes a difference: your will, creativity and luck.

If you have the will to carry on, can create or interpret music that people enjoy, if you have charisma, if you have luck to know the right people, etc, it doesn't matter if you are bass, baritone, tenor. The contrary is also true: if you don't have those things, it doesn't matter your voice type.

Also, if your only aim to sing is to be successful, you are already loosing the battle before starting. People sing because they like to do it, they don't think: is it worth to sing or not? And they don't ask because they like doing it, they already have the feedback they need to keep going on, that's happiness.

Related to low voices that made success, without thinking too much I just give you one name: Johnny Cash.

Your sound is offline.

Cheers.

[newsinger]

Thanks Beghelli for your long and good answer!

I am aware that there are many other important factors. My only aim isn´t to be sucessful, i love to sing and it makes me happy. Though i´m uncertain whether i want to practice hard and work with vocal exercises and more, if it is a particularly long and hard road, which will take away time for drumming and performing which i love. Like it would perhaps feel wasted time, if i spent day after day, correcting my posture, breathing correctly, doing funny sounds with my mouth, and those natural steps in every skill which can be hard and not funny.

I know of Johny Cash and other old artists who had love voices but i haven´t found any modern sucessful singer.

I noticed that now and here is the correct link.

I look forward to hearing how my voice is like and what i need to work on. :)

[MDEW]

You started off on pitch (an octave lower) but when Bill went to a higher pitch you stayed where you were. Go ahead and try to sing the song at the same pitch that Bill is singing. You may think that it is too high for you but it is not.

Almost every beginning Male singer thinks they are a Bass or Baritone when they are not. They try to sing the songs lower than they should believing that the proper note to start on is too high for them.

[circecovers]

Even if I agree with Beghelli on the indifference of voice type for being a successful singer.

Although, you have to choose the song you feel comfortable with. Do you feel at ease when you sing 'Ain't no sunshine' ? I can't decide if your not at ease or if it's the recording that give me the impression.

I advice you to project your voice more, add some volume. Sing like you had to hear distinctively heard from the other side of the room (without screaming). You can look for some exercise on youtube (not only for singers actually: teachers, actors, commercials, sellers,...).

There is plenty or alto or mezzo female singer today but I have no low male range singers in mind right now.

But the range is something you can work on, I'm sure you can actually hit Withers' pitch if you work on it.

Let us know when you upload a new sample

ps: I'm not a expert at all, I just speak with my little singer and comedian experience.

[newsinger]

Thanks for the answers guys!

I can actually hit Wither´s pitch, i can hit pretty high as well. Though when i sing high i strain my voice alot, sounds unnatural and bad. How i sang it on aint no sunshine, is what i am most comfortable with and which comes most natural. I am not completely in ease when i sing now, being a new singer, having a hard time thinking and doing all the things you should do to sound good.

What qualities do you think my voice have and what should i work on besides range and volume?

[MDEW]

Sing Wither's pitch. Don't hit it. Seriously, singing more in that range will make that range stronger.

It will feel easier singing on the lower pitches but you are not singing you are speaking on pitch. There is a difference. Start with songs where the singing pitch is slightly above your speaking pitch.

A main factor in singing is breath control/support. You would normally sing louder than you speak. With the pitch you where using on "Ain't no sunshine" I doubt that it was as loud as when you speak normally. That is one indication that you were too low in your range.

[ronws]

Thanks for the answers guys!

I can actually hit Wither´s pitch, i can hit pretty high as well. Though when i sing high i strain my voice alot, sounds unnatural and bad.

Define "unnatural." If you say "contrived," everything we do with sound is contrived. We absorb it in the accent we learned as children.

Take one kid, raise him in Alabama, USA. He will sound like a hick.

Take the same child, start over, raise him in Tashkent, USSR (back when there was a USSR) and he will sound a smidge georgian while speaking russian.

I worked with a guy that was born in Germany but most raised in the Ukraine. That was fun.

[newsinger]

Reply to MDEW:

Thanks for your advice and i will do that. When i recorded i had the computer mic far away, so i didnt sing so low actually, i can sing pretty high and powerful with that voice. Though i tried later on which pitch i could sing the loudest and with most power, it was a bit higher, but still pretty low. I also believe that i can train my range alot, become really strong with high notes. But from what i heard from others singers, is that you should sing after your voice and what it is comfortable with, if you don´t do you can risk injuring it and it won´t sound as good, also that your natural timbre sounds best at a specific range of pitch.

Reply to Ronws:

Yeah it feels contrived and strained. I agree with you that everything we do with sound is contrived, with the example with the kid, how adaptable your voice can be and how much it can be change. However these are in the early stages of life and in the early development of the brain. I have read psychology at the university. From what i read with languages and sounds, in the early years it is very easy, you can pick a new language and new accent perfectly, but if you start when you are adult, it will be very hard and you may never perhaps speak perfect. Its like with immigrants who come to countries, learn other languages, but you can always hear that they are not native.

i tried different voices on hit the roadjack to test, see and show else my voice is like.

I sang hit the roadjack shortly with a rock voice and with a light and high voice.

:)

[ronws]

Don't worry, I agree with you on some initial conditions, such as genetics, whatnot.

As a boy, my voice was high. As a teenager, I sounded like a woman and was often mistaken for one, especially on the phone. A person who didn't know me would adress me as "ma'am," a southern honorific for an adult female.

Even today, when I hear my voice on a recording, I hear my mother's voice. I've learned to accept it.

Anyway, styling is one thing and certainly, you can control some stylistic elements. However, I think you might want to pay more attention to intervals. Even I can falter until I find the melody line I am looking for. It happens. Now, rather than aim for a certain range, first get the intervals, or space between notes right in a comfortable spot in your voice. For example, a C4 to an E4. That is an interval.

[newsinger]

Reply to Ronws:

Thanks again!

I´m sorry but i didn´t understand what you wrote in the last paragraph.

I don´t know about intervals and all that singing theory.

Could you perhaps explain in a simplier way?