As Time Goes By cover

[Javastorm]

This is my interpretation of the Yoon Mi-Rae song, As Time Goes By from her first album-- It's a Korean R&B song from 2001. Like with most songs where there's a vocal line that I find difficult, I practiced with a piano to match the melody. I've been working on better support, so I hope this is an improvement in part or in whole! I'd appreciate any and all feedback

https://app.box.com/s/egw9t696aldj6d7cftoo

[Xamedhi]

Java, it sounds to me that what you think is vibrato is in fact a shaky phonation. Probably made on purpose to FIND vibrato, but you always do it in more breathy/whispered words. Practice doing a loud EH in C4, not breathy, and imitate ol' granpas kind of vibrato.

[Javastorm]

I just tried it on the C4, and I see the problem XD I need to learn to control that. At 3:26 I think a really slow vibrato happened but I'm not sure, on "You are the one". Sometimes I think it happens naturally at the end of phrases since breath support is being used up...but I'm probably wrong.

[Javastorm]

This is the original song for reference

[Javastorm]

I decided to record the English version of this song, for a change in sound. The words feel weird since it was written after the Korean version, [not a translation] but I tried to interpret it differently again. All feedback welcome.

https://app.box.com/s/jdg980bsnlnpv72y5re8

[Lucca]

Hey, nice one! I really like the english version. You certainly have the feeling and the tone down I think.

But everything is a bit shaky to my ears there.

Xamedhis advice holds true to this version also. Work the support, try entering the call "register" with the exercise Xamedhi wrote down and incorporate that feeling in your song.

It also will help your vibrato. (Here is a cool video about that also

)

[Javastorm]

Thanks for the video! I've always gotten conflicting opinions about vibrato from different people but this seemed to make the most sense. It seems like a combination of things could be happening on the phrases where there is shaky phonation-- tongue tension, closed throat, improper breathing...

Kerri's exercises are really good.

[Lucca]

My own vibrato story (haha, he said vibrato) is also training two different things.

First I did the scales where you alternate between the notes faster and faster and therefore stretch your cords or something like that. Classic SLS. But I gave up after two weeks.

And the month and years after that a natural vibrato came thru because I was just singing more than I had in my whole life.

Now I am better than ever with my technique and I have to take control of my vibrato if I dont want it to just happen. In rock songs its a bit annoying. :D

[The Aspiring Singer]

I really like the video that Lucca shared. Yes, vibrato is a natural function of good fundamental singing technique. It would be hard to practice all of those solid fundamentals on the song that you selected because your song is very note-y and wordy.

I think the shakiness of your voice (or the false kind of vibrato sound) is due to lack of breath management. And it is also apparent in the breathiness of your voice. The breathiness almost sounded like a choice, to perhaps fit the genre or your interpretation of the tone that you should be using for this sing.

To help with your breath management, just like the video suggested, you will want to control the release of air and make it steady. One way that I like to think about it is that when you breathe in, you should get fat. Your abdomen, lower back and lower ribs should expand. If you let yourself exhale naturally, without trying to control it, you will feel everything get skinny again. In order to maintain a better breath management, resist the sensation of getting skinny again and, instead, feel the abdomen, lower back and lower ribs continue to expand as you exhale.

Try this way of breathing and suspending the breath as you sing. Try not to let any tension creep into your throat as you are trying to suspend your exhale. It's really easy for tension to start transferring into other parts of your body when you're trying to control your breathing, so just make sure your shoulders stay relaxed and down and that you feel no tension in your throat. You should start to notice right away that your tone is going to be less breathy. The natural vibrato may take more time as you start to understand the coordination of all the different physical aspects of singing. Once you get really good at all those physical aspects, you won't have to think about it so much and the vibrato will come naturally.

I hope that makes sense! :)