GrungeManiac Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Hey all. I hope everyone is doing okay. My question today is how can one add more emotion to his/her singing while singing lower notes ? everything below the end of the fourth octave. I've noticed, as a guy with a bit of a deep voice (I don't know if I'm a baritone or not anymore, I used to believe I was) it is easier for me to bring emotion into my singing when singing over the end of the fourth octave around F4 - B4. But anything below that seems mostly just plain boring or bland, unless I forcibly sing breathy and lower my volume, which isn't really practical in most situations. Suggestions ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Suggestions ? Listen to Anthony Kiedis and tell me he doesn't sing with emotion. Granted, it is not thrash metal, but just as important. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerKu Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 For me it is 100 percent Frank Sinatra. These three albums opened my eyes and gave me a great low register with emotion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Wee_Small_Hours http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_Swingin%27_Lovers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra_Sings_for_Only_the_Lonely Brassy Boisterous Breezy Downtrodden Desperate Clinging Tender Loving Delicate Playful Humorous Jealous Upbeat Jaunty Wistful Excited Wispy Mournful Boastful Confident Masculine Regretful Mysterious Pondering Pining Bitter Conflicted He had about 2 octaves and could convey more emotion to me in these albums than 99 percent of singers could with their entire discography and fancy ranges to me. He makes a lot of singers sound like boring robots who hit pitches mechanically and monotonously in comparison. So I do know what you're talking about and I had a similar problem in my low range feeling lifeless, but now I find it equally, if not sometimes more expressive due to the amount of shading and emotional prosody that is available there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VideoHere Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Emoting well in a song has nothing to do with range. It comes through when your being real and honest. But Elvis did a good job with it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrungeManiac Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Listen to Anthony Kiedis. Yup, undeniably great example. For me it is 100 percent Frank Sinatra. Haha yes he is a good example, and actually one of my influences as far as vocals are concerned. Emoting well in a song has nothing to do with range. It comes through when your being real and honest. But Elvis did a good job with it too. Agreed, all I was saying was my voice sounds more engaging on the ''mid-high'' ranges. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Well, considering your avatar is Eddie Vedder, you might be good on PJ songs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDEW Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Hey all. I hope everyone is doing okay. My question today is how can one add more emotion to his/her singing while singing lower notes ? everything below the end of the fourth octave. I've noticed, as a guy with a bit of a deep voice (I don't know if I'm a baritone or not anymore, I used to believe I was) it is easier for me to bring emotion into my singing when singing over the end of the fourth octave around F4 - B4. But anything below that seems mostly just plain boring or bland, unless I forcibly sing breathy and lower my volume, which isn't really practical in most situations. Suggestions ? What style songs? It seems that Raspy growly, Airy; soulful........would all be easier in a lower range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felipe Carvalho Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Adjusting the chest voice, and with a good interpretation line. Kinda the same as in the high range. Emotions alone will not do much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDEW Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Perhaps an example from GrungeManiac is in order. No telling how to help without hearing what you are doing in the lower range, The higher Range also would help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerKu Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Adjusting the chest voice, and with a good interpretation line. Kinda the same as in the high range. Emotions alone will not do much. Disagree, take Joe Strummer on this song: I can hear all sorts of alterations he probably wasn't consciously manipulating. Those little sobs, the angst, the spitting, the empathy, the pained whispers. It can be an extension of the speaking voice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_prosody I agree learning to shade vowels and alter a chest voice is really useful, but ultimately emotion can call these things into action for a lot of singers when they are emotionally honest with the song and have empathy with the story. Frank never sang the same song the same way twice. It wasn't like he calculated in advance how to sing each performance. I actually heard my friend who is a beginner singer snarl like Johnny Rotten in a Radiohead cover. I was really proud of her. She struggled more with pitch on that section, cause she wasn't used to singing like that, but that's the emotion she felt and she went for it. So we might as well train her so she can snarl on pitch. A singer's identity in a lot of ways is found by what sounds come honestly. Thom Yorke wasn't snarling. That was her interpretation, it really fit the line. Maybe he should have tried. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felipe Carvalho Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Well killer. Frank Sinatra could just breath and it would be the coolest breath you ever saw. I am not Frank Sinatra... ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerKu Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Well killer. Frank Sinatra could just breath and it would be the coolest breath you ever saw. I am not Frank Sinatra... But you're a phenonomal singer and could train other aspects of your singing so emotion does more. It can do something, if you let it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDEW Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Hey all. I hope everyone is doing okay. My question today is how can one add more emotion to his/her singing while singing lower notes ? everything below the end of the fourth octave. I've noticed, as a guy with a bit of a deep voice (I don't know if I'm a baritone or not anymore, I used to believe I was) it is easier for me to bring emotion into my singing when singing over the end of the fourth octave around F4 - B4. But anything below that seems mostly just plain boring or bland, unless I forcibly sing breathy and lower my volume, which isn't really practical in most situations. Suggestions ? If you feel that the notes are too easy to sing to get emotion into them try adding resistance to the air flow. To me it is kind of like holding back a shout. Like yelling at a child in a crowded room and you do not want anyone to hear it. Use that holding back feeling but without lowering the volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felipe Carvalho Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 I never said it cant killer, what I did say is that *alone* it wont help... For example: He is also someone that, like Frank Sinatra and others, in my humble opinion, transcends... The audience gets so into it, that everyone knows when he is finished by the end simply because of his body language. Emotions, prosody and the study of the interpretation on music are related. I have no idea of how to train someone to do what a Frank Sinatra or Karajan did with their music, but well, when we are talking about a *boring* low range, then I do believe there is quite a few things that can be done about it. And by paying attention to what Sinatra did, you can learn it from him, the musical language he used will teach you... It doesnt have to be My Way (hehe) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felipe Carvalho Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 lol, and I just found him saying what I meant: He is much better at that too hahahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyL Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 I have to somewhat agree with the OP: tt always seems that the lower range is a good place for relaxed singing and relaxed emotion. It's easy to be gloomy (Leonard Cohen?), happy, cool, full of love - just not really excited... works great for some of my favorite blues singers: Muddy Waters, Albert King... Buddy Guy's style seems to be built around his voice going from mysterious sounding lows to banshee cries in the same phrase... This is the range that expresses my emotions very well, BTW. One just needs to think Mark Knopfler and Barry White instead of Axl Rose or Rob Halford. Also why is singing lightly with more air and lower volume is not practical how loud is our band/playback? lower volume is actually my trick for conveying more emotions to lower notes. Otherwise I sound like an awful wannabe opera singer... not that I'm much better now, but still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felipe Carvalho Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Live the lower dynamic levels are indeed more restricted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDEW Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 I don't know how to express this correctly. My lower notes are usually light without power BUT I was trying something different for me. The Doors "Light My Fire" Using my normal lower singing voice did not work on this at all. What I ended up using was More compression at the vocal folds and More air pressure. Almost like forcing the air out but holding it back at the same time. This allowed for a Forceful sound and gave the feeling of singing in a high energy song but still being in the low register. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 I would guess this is where the whole "fach" thing shines. Me, as a tenor, have the easiest time expressing myself between A3-G4 just because those notes are really consistent for me and i can sing them most easily. Everything lower is kinda linear and uninteresting. But i would note that the more i am relaxed and less i frustrate on getting the pitch and tone right i perform alot better in my lower range. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyL Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I've listened to Gun's Swagger album on the way to work. Mark Rankin has the ability to keep a sense of urgency while staying mostly on lower notes, not 'wild-man excited', but still very emotional. I suppose that the fact that most of their songs sound like a sped up ballad has something to do with it: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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