all he said is that he wanted a singer that sings more like his leaving singer. I wanted to audition for the experience and chance to be the singer and work with the drummer and bassist, but the guitarist cancelled it because he received the video. next time I will not make a video!
here is the video of their leaving singer he wanted me to sing more like:
ya its all in the eye of the beholder. factors like reverb, production, vibe, tone, singing technique... who knows.
Thanks blondie, I see the silver lining in this, cheers the people on this forum rock!!! thanks so much for the listen! I need to do more of that style then, I really value your advice since you have great pipes and all. I am singing more open shining a light down my throat when I practice and raising the soft palate and flattening my tongue as much as possible, glad to hear it is paying off in spades I need to sing a side of U2 bono style! :-)
I've been busy training my mixing and mastering skills in the last few months, and so far it's turning out great, thanks again to @bberg for your tips! They really helped me a lot!
Here's a cover of one of my favourite songs by A Day to Remember:
I like the distortion, cool to hear I would like to hear you sing the full song. to me the distortion sounds good! my ears are not fine tuned enough to hear whether the technique is correct for longevity.
It was after of a college test but I made my vocal training.
Anyway,hope you like it!
Disar
To me, it sounds like you are muscling up to the notes rather than using good placement and technique. This is causing some tuning issues and will hurt you in the long run. In my opinion, it would be a good idea to find it clean, get into those pockets, get it perfectly in tune and sounding easy, then add the distortion and grit later.
Jeff Scott Soto's is real close to the original. As I said, it sounds like you are trying to add all this artificial weight into the sound. That weight is dragging you down and is causing pitch issues.
Really listen to Jeff's version, Steven Tyler's version but especially Ken's version in the 'Line at a time' vid. He only does short excerpts but notice how round the sound is. That roundness and openness of the vowels is what creates the beefy tone but still allows it to be weightless. At the moment, you are a little squeezed and are not quite singing on the open vowels. You are also pretty heavy on the consonents. Remember it all stems from >>>'it's the LAHH Ahh'<<<< that's our openness goal. We are aiming to get as close as possible to that feeling every time we sing.
Watch the Adam Spizzo pro workout vids. Every time Adam tries to add artificial weight rather than a huge open vowel which has the natural roundness (but also weighlessness), Ken calls him on it.
You got this bro, I've heard you do the 'dying cat' exercise in Vol.3 up to an accurate Ab5. So the range and technique is there. We just got to get a little better at applying these techniques into your repertoire.
Hi Dudes & Divas. I have only shared hardrock vocals earlier on the forum here (not counting exercises), so I decided to share somthing different with you today.
I would suggest that you sing this song a little more on the AH vowels.
"Uh" on Up would be more "Ah-p" and would open your vowels a little better. "I" would be AH-e, etc. Try singing this song on the AH, then blending in some of the other vowels, but tending towards the AH.
I just finished watching Bridge of Spies a few minutes ago, and now I wonder if Fat Brother were to go abroad and I were to remain here - there would be some kind of ...exchange? ...on a bridge?
Sorry for my late reply (about a week?) - I just noticed your post today as forum updates get sent to my older hotmail account -- I created a new one once I started using Windows 10.
All the best in the New Year to ya, Mr. Kindig :-)
Well, 'Mr. Kindig' sounded funnier in my head when I was typing it... Sorry bout sounding overly formal, Steve-O
Thanks for the nice compliment. Despite starting my bachelor's in November, I've still been busy writing - I've got about 3 or 4 new songs on the go. Perhaps around Chinese New Year break (early Feb.) I will post my usual annual originals... Be warned! lol ...It's the one time a year when I can actually spend more than a few hours in the home studio and focus on recording things.
Btw, senor Steve, have you since switched over to the e-cigs, or, have you quit altogether?
Good for you, man! I'm still going through the 'bigger e-cigs' phase. I was born in the year of the dragon - my colleagues say that this type of behaviour is practically unavoidable for me haha So, I'll keep it as healthy as I can while creating my plumes... In my latest collaboration effort at bandhub.com, some of my friends were asking me if I took some big hauls off of a joint at the beginning of the video... lol I told them it was just my e-cig
Sounds pretty good. I would back off on the consonants a bit so that you are using a little more contiguous open throat. In the long run that will be a lot healthier for your voice.
Have you done the part of the course where Ken advises you to remove all consonants and sing only on the AH vowel? There's more to it than that, but that process will really do a number on the way you sing songs. When you follow the process he describes, your voice will improve in several ways.
Sounds pretty good. I would back off on the consonants a bit so that you are using a little more contiguous open throat. In the long run that will be a lot healthier for your voice.
Have you done the part of the course where Ken advises you to remove all consonants and sing only on the AH vowel? There's more to it than that, but that process will really do a number on the way you sing songs. When you follow the process he describes, your voice will improve in several ways.
All the Best!
Bob
Hi Bob, thanks so much for the listen. Thank you for your insights, I need to do that! I have done that for my favorite songs but only for a few days of practicing like that, he definitely has a science of faking the consonants. For this song I started out doing that - singing more like a ventriloquist and concentrating more, but then other stuff like pitch and tone went south so I stopped. It is a long term thing where you do it constantly and then you dont have to think about it, so I need to work on it harder.
@highmtn thx thats the song we sing alot. We got along way to go. But let me ask. When it comes to singing " alright " lol it takes the breath out of us. What's the best modification for that word. Thx
Those "alrights" are really low. You'll need to pare the tone down and brighten it, or it will tend to sound flat. Because it's so low, you'll need to use support for low notes, which is basically pushing down and keeping the air steady. Low notes are so big in the vocal tract that you can run out of air easily, especially if it's not bright. You just blow air to try to push the note out, but you don't have enough. So cut back on the air, but keep it steady, and use a bright tone.
Your vowels on that should be AH-l r-AH-eht with the "right" being Longer on the AH with a very quick, short roll into eh just before you cut it off with a "T". So it's mostly your basic AH vowel, just really low, supported, small, and steady. It's pretty easy to pivot from AH to eh and keep the throat open.
So I just got the program last week so I thought what the hell I'll try to lay something down and hear what happens.....Im a country singer so this is a stretch for me and it's not perfect but it's a start https://soundcloud.com/david-shelby-2/when-i-was-your-man-cover
Good job, @derrickt. Nice to hear from you again. You keep getting better and better. Nice job on sustaining your vowels. You really utilized the AH vowel throughout the song, as a home base, and your consistency was excellent.
I was waiting for that "F" note at the end. You nailed it, but your breath was just a bit inconsistent there. You should take a quick booster sip of air into your belly just before that note, and maybe start out for a moment without vibrato, then bring it in after a couple of seconds, and keep the vibrato consistent for as long as you hold the note. And, as always, but more so here than anywhere else, strong downward support will help to hold back the air, so there is more air available to sustain that long, high note for a longer time in a consistent manner.
I would give you a standing ovation for this performance if I were listening to it live at a venue (and you were singing it live in your home). You have improved a lot!
Thanks @ highmtn.I knew the final note could have been done better and almost re-recorded it. But I liked how the rest of it went so I posted it as is.
I haven't been around much lately... been very busy, and miss reading & posting, then caught my obligatory annual cold with a horrible cough for about 6 weeks, and just didn't feel like being around singing... almost over it, but not completely. Was really needing to sing and record something, and really like this Adele tune. I know, I know, a guy singing an Adele tune??? Hahaha... I just like this tune. Not my best work, but nice to get "back in the saddle"... Hope you enjoy it.
It's been a year since I've done a full band cover, so I pulled out all the stops. High vocals, awesome bass guitar, and powerful drums. Here it is, Muse's Time Is Running Out!
Have any of you ever been on or use bandhub? I've connected with a lot of different musicians from all over the world - just as we do here at this forum.
If any of you who also play instruments would like to collaborate on a song, I'd love to give it a go. It's a fun way to practice our KTVA skills and also a cool way to make live music.
If you're ever interested, please let me know :-)
Here's the latest collaboration I've done with a guy called Ian who's on the guitar. For those of you who like Alice in Chains, you may like this song 'Down in a Hole'...
Oh, and for this song in particular, we're still looking for someone who'd like to play bass and drums - and even someone willing to contribute a 3rd harmony vocal line. It's open and free for anyone to submit tracks.
Hey all. Here's a video of the two of us performing 'Falling Slowly' from the musical Once. Recorded a few months ago now. Please feel free to comment and critique! Enjoy. Thanks https://youtube.com/watch?v=CgMSFfff8a4
Been working with Volume two for a little while now. Here's a cover of Earth Wind & Fire's September. Some honest and constructive feedback would be much appreciated.
Would you mind taking a listen to some of my demos and give some feedback? I´m enrolled "seriously" with the course since march/2015. These I recorded somewhere around April/May-2015. Sorry for the bad quality of my phone recorder and for some wrong lyrics.
Thanks for your advice on the Earth, Wind & Fire track – this was something I picked up on when listening back...it's made a big improvement
I have another track for you take a listen at for me if you don't mind?.....Journey's Don't Stop Believing....quite a song!!
I recorded this a key lower from the original (D), as during a 2 hour performance I don't quite have the stamina for the original key...yet. Do you have any advice for my vocal performance on this track, and ways I can work towards getting close to the original? It would be nice to see a video of Ken singing this track and how he approaches it.
The same things apply to this song, as well. Look at the song as a whole, and figure out how to widen all of the vowels from the more narrow vowels that make up the straight version to becoming more "AH".
So "Just" is a little more like "J-ah-st". Not overboard, but you widen the narrow Just into more of a Jahst.
J-ah-st ah sm-ah-lt-ah-ng-ah-l
You do that throughout the song, reducing the prominence of the consonants, and making the vowels as contiguous as you can.
When you can stay on AH, the vocal tract will be at maximum open. It closes down for every word, consonant, and different vowel. It becomes more resonant when we stay with our main vowels that we train on. When we change vowels, we want to try to go to a neighboring vowel in the family of vowels. Check out Ken's Pro video on that.
Write out the whole song doing this process. Then work it out, bumping it up a half-step as you begin to get better. Eventually try to take it to a higher key than the original, for practice. That will make the original key seem much easier, but don't oversing when you are doing this and be sure to support well. Give yourself plenty of time and work the song gently at first if you want to take it higher. Use glottal compression to cut back the air.
Making more contiguous phrases will help.
You don't want to sing Mid nite train go ing an nee where (exagerated) It will be more "mednaht-raingahwehnehnehwheh-ah" more like one long word with easy "AH-eh" transitions. The vocal tract barely has to change from AH to eh, because they are neighbors.
EE up high is difficult. Make "cheap" be more towards "ch-eh-p". It can still have a touch of EE but should be more like "eh" as in led. In this case you would be closing down the ee vowel, which is the widest vowel.
Good job on "in the N-AHHHHHHHHH-T!"
At 3:35 you need to shed some more weight and support like crazy.
I've been busy training my mixing and mastering skills in the last few months, and so far it's turning out great, thanks again to @bberg for your tips! They really helped me a lot!
Here's a cover of one of my favourite songs by A Day to Remember:
Hi Guys, recorded a new song - this time plus video. Check it out!
Learned two things from recording this one: 1. Don't try too hard to sing really good when recording - rather have fun doing it. (I figured this out for instruments before but it took a while to grasp the same thing for voice;) 2. When there's a verse that simply doesn't pop it's a good idea to record my voice phrase by phrase. Record one phrase a couple times until I like it and then the next one.
Been really enjoying putting Ken's coaching tips into practice at bandhub - more so in the past 3 months as I've connected with some other cool artists spanning many different styles.
It's interesting when comparing 2 songs like 'Mad World' (Gary Jules) and 'Fell On Black Days' (Soundgarden), both songs are kinda day and night when it comes to volume and energy, however they both demand the same amount of attention on the moving targets and all the other great stuff which Ken has instructed and coached us on.
Songs in a lower register can be equally as challenging as songs that are up in the higher registers, since it can be easy to forget about maintaining support and singing contiguously - because we can hit all of these notes easily. When we sing higher, we may be more conscious about open throat technique and support since if we do not do them correctly, we will most likely fail to hit those notes, or we will hit them but they will not sound very full and bright.
Later I will post the Soundgarden song as we're waiting for bass & drums to be added this weekend. Here's the cover of Mad World.
Any feedback is appreciated. I can tell some places needed more consistent support as well as contiguous phrases, and I would like to hear other suggestions from fellow KTVA'ers.
You keep improving. This is sounding very nice. As you've already pointed out, more "contiguity' will help. It's a bit choppy at times, but stylistically it's still interesting. You should work to lighten up the consonants, while you're stringing the vowels together a bit more.
The sound of your voice is nice to hear. It has a very listenable quality to it.
Hi Bob, thank you for the suggestions. And thanks for the nice compliment.
I think practicing with headphones on would be helpful. I tend to practice w/o them, but then I record using headphones... There's a much different sound going on in them than in a room.
If I'm not mistaken, you have suggested this to others - as well as recording our practices.
It takes a bit of extra effort to fire everything up, but I can see the benefit when it comes time to record. It becomes a more familiar environment that we can associate with our exercises.
I have a small mixer on my desk, with a condenser mic plugged in at all times, and a set of headphones. My computer audio outs are plugged into a stereo channel. So I can play YouTube videos and have the sound in my headphones, and I can mix my voice in with the playback. Same thing on the KTVA scales and lessons. I can put Ken on the left side and myself more to the right, and easily hear the difference between his voice and my own.
The big advantage to that is, as you said, being used to hearing myself in the phones, so that when I go to record, I am totally used to hearing my voice in that environment. A mixer with reverb and echo makes it sound a little sweeter.
By monitoring my voice in that way, using a microphone and hearing myself, I can work out just how my voice will be picked up by a mic, so that it's very similar to how I will sound in the monitors at a gig. I can practice at home on a new song, and then show up at a gig and perform it in front of a live audience, and I already know how I need to approach the various notes and parts of the song, because of learning the song in a mic/headphone environment.
I'll play guitar along with Ken's exercises, or keyboard, and the mic picks those up, too.
It's a very active way to practice and introduces a way to sing along to other artists, or sing without them.
This latest collaboration was an absolute pleasure to take part in! Some first class musicians on electric guitar, drums and yes - even a banjo. Can you guess the song? Well? Here it is, going in a different direction from 'Mad World' on the decibal level.
If you'd like to see the video, you can go to the bandhub website, and type my 'band' name: SOULSTOKED. It's the 2nd one on my page...
Any comments and feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Hi Bob, thank you for the suggestions. And thanks for the nice compliment.
I think practicing with headphones on would be helpful. I tend to practice w/o them, but then I record using headphones... There's a much different sound going on in them than in a room.
If I'm not mistaken, you have suggested this to others - as well as recording our practices.
It takes a bit of extra effort to fire everything up, but I can see the benefit when it comes time to record. It becomes a more familiar environment that we can associate with our exercises.
Peace,
Johan
Yes, practice as much as possible in a format that's possible to hear yourself in 3rd person. Imo it's almost practice X2.5.
Hi @marc, I just tested it out and it 'could' be one of these two things:
The link name shouldn't have 'www' in it - just https://soundcloud ... and then it should look like the exact name of your track with hyphens between each word after your username...
Also, something I'd noticed in the past was after pasting the link, being sure to hit [Enter] after - sometimes even twice. And then to continue your post, just [Backspace] to remove any extra spacing in the post.
I joined a heavy doom band similar to Black Sabbath, Im the guitarist on the left with the Orange stack, not doing singing in it but glad to contribute as a guitarist, Here is us live from a week ago:
original demo I haven't had a lesson with Ken, but I do practice with his warm up and live studio performance scales. I can make it through the lessons fairly easy now. Maybe I should sign up for a few sessions.
@derrickt I was wondering why when I listened to you sing "My sweet lady" I could here you singing... "Sun shine on my shoulder" now I see it's a Denver song to lol.
Comments
they had this song on youtube with their old singer, so I just recorded over it Wink (they said it was ok to do this)
here is the video of their leaving singer he wanted me to sing more like:
That's why an audition is more likely to get you in.
Thanks blondie, I see the silver lining in this, cheers
thanks so much for the listen! I need to do more of that style then, I really value your advice since you have great pipes and all. I am singing more open shining a light down my throat when I practice and raising the soft palate and flattening my tongue as much as possible, glad to hear it is paying off in spades
Im working on a U2 cover of "Beautiful Day" hopefully will have a video up in a day
I've been busy training my mixing and mastering skills in the last few months, and so far it's turning out great, thanks again to @bberg for your tips! They really helped me a lot!
Here's a cover of one of my favourite songs by A Day to Remember:
Hope you like it, it really was a lot of work, but I also had a lot of fun!
sounds great!
Really listen to Jeff's version, Steven Tyler's version but especially Ken's version in the 'Line at a time' vid. He only does short excerpts but notice how round the sound is. That roundness and openness of the vowels is what creates the beefy tone but still allows it to be weightless. At the moment, you are a little squeezed and are not quite singing on the open vowels. You are also pretty heavy on the consonents. Remember it all stems from >>>'it's the LAHH Ahh'<<<< that's our openness goal. We are aiming to get as close as possible to that feeling every time we sing.
Watch the Adam Spizzo pro workout vids. Every time Adam tries to add artificial weight rather than a huge open vowel which has the natural roundness (but also weighlessness), Ken calls him on it.
You got this bro, I've heard you do the 'dying cat' exercise in Vol.3 up to an accurate Ab5. So the range and technique is there. We just got to get a little better at applying these techniques into your repertoire.
It's been about a Year!! Since "Fat Brother" Maybe this is the year you meet the mystery man himself??
My bohemian cover, hope you enjoy it!
dowload it here:
LYRICS ARE BELOW
I played all guitars, bass, sang, mixed, and programmed drums.
All my time, inside my mind, Are you everything I bleed
The truth is what I cherish of you, Your everything I feel
Ive been outside of my mind
What was stolen, I will find
My heart and my soul in this life
Ive been so far away
In conscience, I cant stay
opiating, Im rising Im fading
This fire rises burning inside my mind, I watch tV going blind
You are here, Illuminated in my sight In my soul I feel the shining light
All my time, inside my mind
I have only shared hardrock vocals earlier on the forum here (not counting exercises), so I decided to share somthing different with you today.
Here's my first try on Josh Groban's You Raise me Up:
Johan
I would suggest that you sing this song a little more on the AH vowels.
"Uh" on Up would be more "Ah-p" and would open your vowels a little better. "I" would be AH-e, etc. Try singing this song on the AH, then blending in some of the other vowels, but tending towards the AH.
All the Best.
Bob
Hah! Stranger things have happened, eh?
I just finished watching Bridge of Spies a few minutes ago, and now I wonder if Fat Brother were to go abroad and I were to remain here - there would be some kind of ...exchange? ...on a bridge?
Sorry for my late reply (about a week?) - I just noticed your post today as forum updates get sent to my older hotmail account -- I created a new one once I started using Windows 10.
All the best in the New Year to ya, Mr. Kindig :-)
Peace,
Johan Kalevi
Lol Mr. Kindig .... Why so formal. I should be calling you by yours lol. 1 of the ktva greats.
Keep singing and writing....
Steve
Well, 'Mr. Kindig' sounded funnier in my head when I was typing it... Sorry bout sounding overly formal, Steve-O
Thanks for the nice compliment. Despite starting my bachelor's in November, I've still been busy writing - I've got about 3 or 4 new songs on the go. Perhaps around Chinese New Year break (early Feb.) I will post my usual annual originals... Be warned! lol ...It's the one time a year when I can actually spend more than a few hours in the home studio and focus on recording things.
Btw, senor Steve, have you since switched over to the e-cigs, or, have you quit altogether?
Peace
I went to e-cigs... Back to cigs. Then to bigger e-cigs for more vaper and flavor. Then now I quit altogether.
Thx for asking
Steve
Good for you, man! I'm still going through the 'bigger e-cigs' phase. I was born in the year of the dragon - my colleagues say that this type of behaviour is practically unavoidable for me haha So, I'll keep it as healthy as I can while creating my plumes... In my latest collaboration effort at bandhub.com, some of my friends were asking me if I took some big hauls off of a joint at the beginning of the video... lol I told them it was just my e-cig
http://bandhub.com/s/567eafc84feee0bb533e57d5
Best of luck to keeping off the tobacco - you've accomplished something almost unthinkable for hundreds of millions of people! Way to go!
Peace,
Johan K. P.
Yep my wife and I were cloud chasers.. Lots of vaper. We both quit. Nice sound on band hub. Keep at it....
Sounds pretty good. I would back off on the consonants a bit so that you are using a little more contiguous open throat. In the long run that will be a lot healthier for your voice.
Have you done the part of the course where Ken advises you to remove all consonants and sing only on the AH vowel? There's more to it than that, but that process will really do a number on the way you sing songs. When you follow the process he describes, your voice will improve in several ways.
All the Best!
Bob
Thank you so much for this great advice, cheers
Here's my new cover of the song Pieces by Sum 41, hope you like it!
The high belt in the middle was my favorite part.
Bob
Haha yeah it was mine too!
Listen to Wife and I 010916 by Steven Kindig #np on #SoundCloud
Thx for the listen
Steve
Steve
Ace of Spades (Motorhead cover by Ron, RIP Lemmy)
Those "alrights" are really low. You'll need to pare the tone down and brighten it, or it will tend to sound flat. Because it's so low, you'll need to use support for low notes, which is basically pushing down and keeping the air steady. Low notes are so big in the vocal tract that you can run out of air easily, especially if it's not bright. You just blow air to try to push the note out, but you don't have enough. So cut back on the air, but keep it steady, and use a bright tone.
Your vowels on that should be AH-l r-AH-eht with the "right" being Longer on the AH with a very quick, short roll into eh just before you cut it off with a "T". So it's mostly your basic AH vowel, just really low, supported, small, and steady. It's pretty easy to pivot from AH to eh and keep the throat open.
Bob
Steve
Good job.
Bob
Steve
I was waiting for that "F" note at the end. You nailed it, but your breath was just a bit inconsistent there. You should take a quick booster sip of air into your belly just before that note, and maybe start out for a moment without vibrato, then bring it in after a couple of seconds, and keep the vibrato consistent for as long as you hold the note. And, as always, but more so here than anywhere else, strong downward support will help to hold back the air, so there is more air available to sustain that long, high note for a longer time in a consistent manner.
I would give you a standing ovation for this performance if I were listening to it live at a venue (and you were singing it live in your home). You have improved a lot!
Bravo!
Bob
https://soundcloud.com/ray-crosier/when-we-were-young-cover-of-adele-song
You have picked up a few new notes while you were away! Nice to hear from you. This is a cool tune.
: ^)
Bob
Bob
: ^)
Have any of you ever been on or use bandhub? I've connected with a lot of different musicians from all over the world - just as we do here at this forum.
If any of you who also play instruments would like to collaborate on a song, I'd love to give it a go. It's a fun way to practice our KTVA skills and also a cool way to make live music.
If you're ever interested, please let me know :-)
Here's the latest collaboration I've done with a guy called Ian who's on the guitar. For those of you who like Alice in Chains, you may like this song
Oh, and for this song in particular, we're still looking for someone who'd like to play bass and drums - and even someone willing to contribute a 3rd harmony vocal line. It's open and free for anyone to submit tracks.
Peace,
Johan
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CgMSFfff8a4
You compliment each other well; nice chemistry and energy :-)
Peace,
Johan
Been working with Volume two for a little while now. Here's a cover of Earth Wind & Fire's September. Some honest and constructive feedback would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Chris
Some of the "er's" like remembER and SeptembER could be more AH, especially the higher ones. SOULS could be S-AH-LS, etc... Day could be D-eh...
It really sounds good.
All The Best!
Bob
Would you mind taking a listen to some of my demos and give some feedback? I´m enrolled "seriously" with the course since march/2015. These I recorded somewhere around April/May-2015.
Sorry for the bad quality of my phone recorder and for some wrong lyrics.
Thank you!
https://soundcloud.com/user-145249181
@highmtn
Thanks for your advice on the Earth, Wind & Fire track – this was something I picked up on when listening back...it's made a big improvement
I have another track for you take a listen at for me if you don't mind?.....Journey's Don't Stop Believing....quite a song!!
I recorded this a key lower from the original (D), as during a 2 hour performance I don't quite have the stamina for the original key...yet. Do you have any advice for my vocal performance on this track, and ways I can work towards getting close to the original? It would be nice to see a video of Ken singing this track and how he approaches it.
Regards
Chris
So "Just" is a little more like "J-ah-st". Not overboard, but you widen the narrow Just into more of a Jahst.
J-ah-st ah sm-ah-lt-ah-ng-ah-l
You do that throughout the song, reducing the prominence of the consonants, and making the vowels as contiguous as you can.
When you can stay on AH, the vocal tract will be at maximum open.
It closes down for every word, consonant, and different vowel. It becomes more resonant when we stay with our main vowels that we train on. When we change vowels, we want to try to go to a neighboring vowel in the family of vowels. Check out Ken's Pro video on that.
Write out the whole song doing this process. Then work it out, bumping it up a half-step as you begin to get better. Eventually try to take it to a higher key than the original, for practice. That will make the original key seem much easier, but don't oversing when you are doing this and be sure to support well. Give yourself plenty of time and work the song gently at first if you want to take it higher. Use glottal compression to cut back the air.
Making more contiguous phrases will help.
You don't want to sing Mid nite train go ing an nee where (exagerated)
It will be more "mednaht-raingahwehnehnehwheh-ah" more like one long word with easy "AH-eh" transitions. The vocal tract barely has to change from AH to eh, because they are neighbors.
EE up high is difficult. Make "cheap" be more towards "ch-eh-p". It can still have a touch of EE but should be more like "eh" as in led. In this case you would be closing down the ee vowel, which is the widest vowel.
Good job on "in the N-AHHHHHHHHH-T!"
At 3:35 you need to shed some more weight and support like crazy.
Good work.
Bob
Learned two things from recording this one:
1. Don't try too hard to sing really good when recording - rather have fun doing it. (I figured this out for instruments before but it took a while to grasp the same thing for voice;)
2. When there's a verse that simply doesn't pop it's a good idea to record my voice phrase by phrase. Record one phrase a couple times until I like it and then the next one.
Been really enjoying putting Ken's coaching tips into practice at bandhub - more so in the past 3 months as I've connected with some other cool artists spanning many different styles.
It's interesting when comparing 2 songs like 'Mad World' (Gary Jules) and 'Fell On Black Days' (Soundgarden), both songs are kinda day and night when it comes to volume and energy, however they both demand the same amount of attention on the moving targets and all the other great stuff which Ken has instructed and coached us on.
Songs in a lower register can be equally as challenging as songs that are up in the higher registers, since it can be easy to forget about maintaining support and singing contiguously - because we can hit all of these notes easily. When we sing higher, we may be more conscious about open throat technique and support since if we do not do them correctly, we will most likely fail to hit those notes, or we will hit them but they will not sound very full and bright.
Later I will post the Soundgarden song as we're waiting for bass & drums to be added this weekend. Here's the cover of Mad World.
Any feedback is appreciated. I can tell some places needed more consistent support as well as contiguous phrases, and I would like to hear other suggestions from fellow KTVA'ers.
Peace,
Johan_Kalevi
You keep improving. This is sounding very nice. As you've already pointed out, more "contiguity' will help. It's a bit choppy at times, but stylistically it's still interesting. You should work to lighten up the consonants, while you're stringing the vowels together a bit more.
The sound of your voice is nice to hear. It has a very listenable quality to it.
All the Best.
Bob
Hi Bob, thank you for the suggestions. And thanks for the nice compliment.
I think practicing with headphones on would be helpful. I tend to practice w/o them, but then I record using headphones... There's a much different sound going on in them than in a room.
If I'm not mistaken, you have suggested this to others - as well as recording our practices.
It takes a bit of extra effort to fire everything up, but I can see the benefit when it comes time to record. It becomes a more familiar environment that we can associate with our exercises.
Peace,
Johan
The big advantage to that is, as you said, being used to hearing myself in the phones, so that when I go to record, I am totally used to hearing my voice in that environment. A mixer with reverb and echo makes it sound a little sweeter.
By monitoring my voice in that way, using a microphone and hearing myself, I can work out just how my voice will be picked up by a mic, so that it's very similar to how I will sound in the monitors at a gig. I can practice at home on a new song, and then show up at a gig and perform it in front of a live audience, and I already know how I need to approach the various notes and parts of the song, because of learning the song in a mic/headphone environment.
I'll play guitar along with Ken's exercises, or keyboard, and the mic picks those up, too.
It's a very active way to practice and introduces a way to sing along to other artists, or sing without them.
Bob
Thanks, I'm going to be trying your suggestions, and having the practice area with microphone & headphones at the ready ;-)
Cheers!
This latest collaboration was an absolute pleasure to take part in! Some first class musicians on electric guitar, drums and yes - even a banjo. Can you guess the song? Well?
Here it is, going in a different direction from 'Mad World' on the decibal level.
If you'd like to see the video, you can go to the bandhub website, and type my 'band' name: SOULSTOKED. It's the 2nd one on my page...
Any comments and feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Peace :-)
Practice x 2.5??? Well, sign this guy up for that! haha
I think the headphone idea is probably more practical than a shamanic approach to achieve that 3rd person perspective. Maybe not as fun, though but...
Cheers!
Hi @marc, I just tested it out and it 'could' be one of these two things:
The link name shouldn't have 'www' in it - just https://soundcloud ... and then it should look like the exact name of your track with hyphens between each word after your username...
Also, something I'd noticed in the past was after pasting the link, being sure to hit [Enter] after - sometimes even twice. And then to continue your post, just [Backspace] to remove any extra spacing in the post.
Hope either of those two things work...?
Peace,
Johan
Good luck!
Peace,
Johan
Peace,
Johan
original demo
I haven't had a lesson with Ken, but I do practice with his warm up and live studio performance scales. I can make it through the lessons fairly easy now. Maybe I should sign up for a few sessions.
She's out of my life http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/c4b24f43d
My Sweet Lady http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/bea4c718d .
Beautiful as always. You always put in the time to perfect each song.
Steve
Steve