Latest recording .. feedback please?

Firstly, I think you sound better than your previous recordings :}
I think your tone's slightly more developed.
I have to say though, your higher range sounds a lot better than your lower range; it sounds as if that may be your natural range. Have you considered practicing songs with a higher key?

Try not to slur your words, especially on the lower parts.
for eg:
The first line "I've been thinking about you", the notes go higher and it helps bring the line out if you lift the 'you', and not "i've been thinkin'abtyeuw"... Lift the note, it brightens the word up and gives emphasis. It also gives the melody more flavour, since it goes higher.
(You did it slightly better on the later verses of the same line)

Generally, my tip would be not to slur too much, especially on the ending notes of each line. Keep it full and supported, or that note is gonna bring down the whole melody. It's supposed to be a song sung about thinking someone, and unless that person is a dead duck, you would want it to sound a lot more livelier.

Good luck~ :}
 
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Thanks sage! I will try out your suggestions.

I would also like to sing higher, but my break is immediately above the highest note in that song. The notes at and just above my break are very unreliable, so I'm going to need more training before I can use them in singing :(

As a result, I have to use those low notes in the verses .. I can't wait to get rid of them, as it's difficult to make them sound good. Either that or learn how to make them as solid as the higher notes.

I'll definitely try your suggestions for the verses. I'm not satisfied with the way they sound either.
 
5 points : Lyrics/Tempo/Pitch/Pronounciation/Feel.

i think your main problem is pronounciation and feel. (sounds you're too distracted from focusing) feel wise it's pretty dead i'm sorry. you're not thinking about that person hard enough. hahah.

pronounciation parts like what sage has mentioned, if the lyrics go "I've been thinking about you" , and all I'm hearing is " ahbintcinginabaot you"

* = flaw points

I* + 've* = 've missing. you're lacking emphasis on "I" (Ai) when I only hear "Ah" than "Ai"

bee*n = you got more "n" than "ee", switch them around, more "ee" emphasis, and make the "n" almost silent. so it sounds more like you're saying "binn" than "been"

th*ink*ing = most of us have the "th" pronounciation problem, open your mouth a little, tuck your tip of tongue in between your teeth and try blow air through the gaps of your teeth/tongue. then retract your tongue. yours sound almost like "cingin" or "tingin"

your "k" is missing and you pronounced it as a G, you pronounce more "ing" than "kin" , if you read the words "tingin" it don't make sense, if you read it as "thinkin" , at least all it's missing is a "G". remember to make the ending "n" (of thinki[n]) a silent "n" so you don't go "thinkinnnnn" like your beennn problem.

"abou*t" = yours is "abaot" when the exaggerated (in a good way) pronounciation to get lyrics out there is "abaowt" , as you read this now, say the words "Ah Woo" , more emphasis on the "W" , so your lips form from an "AH" to a small circle gap of your mouth. now put that into "action" , Er(silentr)+Ba-ow-t. less A, more ow.

you's fine, some people see "aboutchu" (about you) you have them nicely seperated "About.you" . matter of preference. but if you're gonna use aboutchu, remember to keep the "ch" silent. thats the common problem when ppl literally pronounce CHOO.

listening to the remaining of the lyrics when you say "teeth" , I guess you don't have a "th" problem, just went careless at the others. "teeth are over there" , your "th" in "there" needs more "th" than silent "th" . there's too many to pinpoint out, but I believe you understand sometimes singing is very exaggerated english but that's what makes it catchy sometimes (of course don't over do it).
review every word you sing, and review every bit detail of the "start of word" / "center" / and "ending" . as i've pinpointed above. soon it'll be a good habit and you won't have a problem.

recently I recorded a vocalist with a lisp problem and this similar habit and another bad one to join words together. don't think he'll mind me posting the situation because we're all learning here.. the lyrics goes "as days pass I'm gonna love you more"
so what do you get when you join them up in a "slur" ? "esdespasmgonnelove you more"
if you don't pay attention at first like I did, it may sound like "active spasm goner love you more" hehe.

hope this is of help
80¢ worth
 
^^ "so what do you get when you join them up in a "slur" ? "esdespasmgonnelove you more"
if you don't pay attention at first like I did, it may sound like "active spasm goner love you more" hehe.

LOL
 
Thanks blueprint, that's a lot of detail! I will go through it and see if I can make it sound clearer.

I'm a native english speaker so generating the english sounds is no problem, it's just my speech habit is to blur a lot of consonants .. so that comes into my singing too. I really notice it when I'm talking to my 2 year old daughter, and she repeats it back to me with the exact same blurred consonants :)

The only intentional one is the "Ah've" at the start .. in the original, Thom actually sings "..vbin thinkin abouchu", so I tried to copy him at the start. He doesn't sing the "I" at all, but I tried to make it a very light "I", which became "Ah".

I don't copy his "abouchu" though, because I don't like the sound of that .. sounds so R&B :)

Thanks very much, your comment helps me a lot!
 
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oh haha i didn't know it was a radiohead song! interesting , your voice + the way you sang it + the chord/scale (whatever you call it) made it sound like as if it was some frank sinatra era oldie.

yes radiohead's version has alot of lazy pronounciation, i can barely make out some of his lyrics (unless I listen to your version). but the "feel" of his vocals is of course a total different level and ball game (the man who sings the all time classic "Creep" man...)
it's an ironic thing which I noticed, if you sing in a certain way that becomes like some sort of bad habit and your trademark at the same time, sometimes that "personal badhabit/flaw" makes the song sound way better than if you sing it by "standards" (boring).

that vocalist I mentioned earlier plays in this band (http://www.myspace.com/sallysrejex), although it's pronounciation this and that + lisp. but his voice is very distinct. so it all balance up if you have a "style" of your own. there were some songs during recording which I tried to suggest a "fix" for the pronounciation flaw, and surprisingly the "flaw" version sounds better + more "him". so you can play around and see what works best for you as there's no fixed formula for this.

20¢ worth cheers
 
Hahahaha!! Everyone is being nice here. Well done guys. And brtherl, so sorry man. That doesn't sound wrong but that doesn't sound nice either. Nice try though!
 
it sounds lyk some bible sermon. try getting yr range there first.then post it up.or u will end up getting ridicued. no point sugar coating my words.constructive criticism is what u should get.
 
Thanks blueprint .. Was it the low voice that made it sound like an oldie? :) I think modern singers tend to sing in mix because it has the higher harmonics and sounds nicer.

Ankh, any suggestions?

Glyph, are you suggesting that I sing higher?
 
btherl : i understand you're singing low to "practise" your lows and posting it up to seek improvement from an outside opinion, so whether you get dissed/ridiculed or not, you're already heading for an upwards positive mindset irregardless of starting from any point of the bottom hill. i'm very sure you sound better singing highs, but hey, the sky's the limit.feel free to expand

if I were to comment how it sounds when you're singing low i'd have to agree with what Ankh said. we all gotta start somewhere. and it sounds like an oldie cos of the way you sang basically and your vocal tone. modern singers.. well if you ask me, "low toned" voices appeals to something "old fashioned" and today's teenagers want higher and higher pitched voices until the male singer's voice sounds almost like a girl. (look at chinese pop for example, andy lau , jacky cheung etc used to all be low toned now it's getting squeakier.. must be the tight skinny jeans.)
 
. yea.should try out more higher pitched songs. btw. the eng music scene nwdaes have few songs that's really gd to practise on ranges. try turning to japanese music.(they are known for their higher range songs) try larc en ciel. the vox(hyde) is probably the best vox on earth.recommended song to practise on.jyojyoshi. master that and u are on the road.babe!
 
Thanks for the suggestions, Glyph. It's not the song that's low pitched, it's my voice :) The song doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned. The original is actually in G, I transposed it down.

I made a new recording of the verse at a higher pitch, in the key of F (once again making the high note Bb). I drifted down in pitch a little throughout. I paid attention to the following things:

1. Pronunciation of vowels
2. Slurring of consonants
3. Approach high notes as if I'm going to continue directly into mix (no raise larynx, no lower larynx, just stay at speech level)
4. Add some feeling


http://www.dynamicdiscord.com/BrianStuff/BrianSinging/2008_08_22_Thinking_About_You_v2.mp3

What do you think of this one? I didn't try the chorus as my mixed voice is far too unstable to even try.

blueprint, yeh I think higher voices are more fashionable. I think it's because high voices simply sound more exciting and interesting, and global competition now has the higher voices rise to the top. Low voices can be nice, but they just can't compete.
 
Thanks daryl. I think it sounds better too :) I didn't intentionally speed it up .. but I did notice it was much easier to sing after doing some larynx stabilization exercises, so maybe that allowed me to go faster.

My old teacher used to tell me my voice sounds slow because of how I sing, even though it's at the same speed as the original. Could be that too ..
 
My bf thinks it sounds like a funeral song :p
He said he could imagine an American Idol audition where the judges would give blank stares and the tv starts playing cricket sounds....


1. Pronunciation of vowels
2. Slurring of consonants
3. Approach high notes as if I'm going to continue directly into mix (no raise larynx, no lower larynx, just stay at speech level)
4. Add some feeling
Click to expand...

btherl sweetie, I don't hear any other difference with the new recording other than the pitch shift... you're still slurring, I can't hear any pronounciation of vowels (or consonents, for that matter), and... the only feeling I'm getting is kinda like how my bf mentioned it to be :p

I've been thinking two things, (other than the comments mentioned by the rest), that it's either because you're relying too much on your speaking voice (which may prove a disadvantage to your singing, like I mentioned in the SLS thread), or you're trying to sing it in the style of Yorke.

The matter of raising or resting the larynx during high notes isn't the matter here, because that's in topic of the range>tone; I think what brings the whole song down was *how* you sang it.. it isn't to do with any vocal mechanics here, it's *how* you bring the words/melody out..

I do feel that this key suits your voice more though. :} It has, however, nothing to do with appeal; I just felt it sounds more like your comfort range.
 
Whatever criticism you're gonna get, I admire you for stepping up to them and not let them get you down. If anyone feels the sort of criticisms you get are sugar-coated, that's just based on how they characteristically deposit their criticisms.

No one here posting their voices asking for comments are necessarily established vocalists, and I'd like to re-affirm that the softies posting here are a mix of both amateurs and professionals.

Personally... I'm sure we all have to start somewhere, as I some years ago, and if anyone would like to mention a particular voice being 'not good', I'd prefer it fronted with opinions as to why, or the postee will never learn. And there's really no point in asking for criticisms if we're not given the chance to learn from our mistakes.


btherl> Could you try songs that isn't Radiohead, so that we could hear more of your own voice? There's too much of Yorke's style ridden into the songs, and it's not easy to distinguish it as vocally capable (especially when some of us here aren't fond or familiar with his vocal style).
I know half of the things I heard on your recordings were close to Yorke's vocality and it's not easy to judge whether you're following his style or whether you can't sing :p Maybe you could try, I donno, rhcp's under the bridge or something? The words are more articulated, it has feeling, the range is wide, and it's not too hard nor too easy.
 
Ok ok, I will try another song :) With any luck I'll have a smooth transition into head voice soon, which will give me a much greater usable range!
 
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