ok so I'm still working on volume one (been super busy and just haven't had a lot of time to really get around to using the videos like I should) but tonight I wanted to experiment a little since I was by myself.
So I decided to do a country version of a daughtry song.
Karma Police has been my labour of love. I have no hope in matching Thom Yorke's style or timbre for Karma Police - he is so much smoother in his higher range.
I love the song, but even hearing what I posted last night again this morning, I hate it.
I feel like my voice feels like it's a "constant whine" up in that range when I have to sustain it throughout a whole song, and I'm not sure how to get it to have a different timbre.
Sounds great @marc ! If I heard this without context I wouldn't question that it was a professional working singer. You've definitely come a very long way from the rather strained timbre you had a few years ago. The guitar sounds great as well so I really have nothing in the way of critique to say here
Don't be so hard on yourself. You still have some things to learn, but you are making progress, and the sound of your voice is not bad. Most of us have to get beyond that cringing feeling when we hear our own voices recorded.
That is another reason to really, really record yourself just about all the time, every time you practice, and listen back to it. It's important to not beat yourself up, either.
The more you record, the less sensitive to the sound of your own voice you will become. Eventually you will catch yourself liking something you've recorded before you realize it's actually you! Then you'll realize how wrong you were about not liking the way you sound. It's just that you sound different when you're not hearing your voice from inside your head.
Over time, your voice will maturate and the techniques you are practicing on will begin to have a positive effect on the sound of your voice.
I think you have a great singing future ahead of you!
Listen to Demo practice at Car by Steven Kindig #np on #SoundCloud
So this is me. Made a short clip practicing support. Sure its off key but its about developing support. What your thoughts. This one was just pulling the diaphragm down tight.
Demo 2
Listen to Demo 2 by Steven Kindig #np on #SoundCloud
The second version sounds a little more stable and supported.
Listening to this and recalling all of the conversations we've had about support made me think of this:
As you are pushing down on the diaphragm (or in your case, your umbrella), you DO want the surrounding beach ball to be held tight. Not squeezed inward, but held, such that you won't have the tendency to wobble. It will be a firm, steady pressure that you have full control over. You're not quite there yet, but you are very close.
@highmtn the second version I'm really controlling the downward push. But it it pretty tense possible from the strength I don't have yet to really control it. Pressure is building up like I can't open up any more. I'll keep at it. Should I try not take such a big breath.
Yes. Try with a smaller breath. Estimate how much you need to do the scale or line in a song that you think you need, and no more. If you don't get enough, use that information to adjust how much you need.
Taking too much air creates too much pressure in the lungs and makes you want to blast it all out too soon.
Experiment with trying to estimate just how much you need. When you have long notes or long scales coming, take a little more air, as needed. No need to overfill your tank. It's wasted energy and more difficult to control.
I think I'll post my first video here of my singing. Yesterday I was at a concert where I had to sing one song. It was All I Want from A Day To Remember. That was a really hard song for me because when I first started to learn this song I had almost no stamina, but Ken told me some exercises to do when we had our last session and I practiced them everyday since then. That was about one month ago. At that time, I could hardly finish the 1. verse and chorus, and yesterday I did the whole song! Unbelievable! KTVA really is the key to success at singing!
After the show, some friends came up to me saying how much I improved from the last time I sang at a show (1 year ago), that was an awesome feeling.
I know, the performance wasn't perfect at all, but it was really hard and new for me, because I'm not used to sing with a band and so I had the tendency to oversing or sing with more force than I needed.
Oh, and yeah, and I once forgot the lyrics, lol. That only happens at the performance day, as usual.
Also, my pitch wasn't that spot on from time to time, but as I said, it was the first time singing with a band for a long time.
The video was filme with an iphone 5s, so don't expect the quality to be that good. ^^
here is a video of my band "The Unknown" playing Peace Sells By Megadeth. I am the one playing drums and doing vocals. Tell me all what you think. do I sound a little bit like dave mustaine.
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This is a different placement for your voice. Much different from the baritone-based sound you've used in most of your other videos.
Sounds like you're getting comfortable with this sound. You have to be a little more careful with your support in this smaller sound.
You seem to be venturing into the zona di passagio... home of the mixed voice.
Nice Job!
Bob
Thanks Bob, you're right. I'm trying to practice the mixed voice. Using my falsetto now and then and hopefully strengthening the upper range. Glad you enjoyed it.
About a year back, I attempted this song and got some pretty decent feedback but I didn't feel like it was where it needed to be.
I just attempted it again tonight, I have to admit that it sounds just a little bit better vocally now than it was back then (thanks to the ken tamplin vocal coaching).
You did a good job on this song. My favorite spot is the line at about 1:26. You had your support at its best there, and nailed the line.
In general, I think you need to work on your support more throughout the song, to help give your voice more consistency. It sounds a bit short-of-breath sometimes, and increased support will help with that.
I think you could brighten your tone a bit as well. That may help with your breath, as good cord closure can help to brighten the tone, as well as to conserve air.
okay, next time I will try to get my band to cover peace sells again on my phone and then I will try uploading it to youtube instead of facebook. @highmtn
I'm not sure what you mean by shifting between head voice and falsetto. In Coldplay's version, he is shifting between upper chest voice and "airy" head voice, which you could call falsetto. That is just a matter of singing those intervals and practicing how you want to do it... smoothly bridging or letting the voice break, or intentionally making the speed bump sound.
He's singing like F#4, to D#4, and C#4. So the F# is in head voice and the D# and C# are in a light chest voice. You can just sing those notes in a loop and practice how you want to transition from one sound to the other, and how smoothly (or how much you want to intentionally break) you want to connect.
Falsetto and Head Voice are essentially the same register. Falsetto has a lot more air and is a hooty, airy version of head voice.
Just practice doing that portion of the melody and experiment with how you can shift between the registers, going to head on the F# each time.
Good job with your two latest hits. You seem to be getting quite a fanbase on singsnap.
I think the big money note at the end of Power of Love was just a few cents flat. That one may take a little more support to get centered on the money. Good job, though. You keep getting a little better each time.
@highmtn - I have thought thus far that head voice is a more "connected" sound than falsetto on the same pitch, and a way you can tell the difference between the two is whether you can do a vibrato, but there is also a distinct timbral quality to each as well.
I have not encountered this distinction in KTVA in the terms described above, but I was introduced to the concept previously and empirically the distinction between the two seems to have held true for me me. Am I completely off base on this? (ie: the airiness of the falsetto is because it's disconnected)
Assuming I'm not bonkers, it sounds to me like Chris Martin sings the F#4 disconnected and then shifts into a connected "mix" register that includes some chest resonance for the D#4. (this is from listening to the timbral quality of the sound)
I find that I can sing F#4 in either falsetto or head voice, but which one I pick has a distinct impact on the timbral quality of my sound and I prefer falsetto, as does Chris.
But my bigger challenge is is getting down to the D#4, which to me sounds like a "mix voice" with distinct chest resonance in it. That is where I run into trouble if my F#4 is disconnected - there is a distinct "speed bump" I cannot figure out how to get past to get back to a mix voice in D#4.
There are ways I can sing the loop - if I do F#4 and D#4 both in head voice, or if I do F#4 in head voice and D#4 in mix. But F#4 in falsetto and D#4 in mix is where I am hitting a wall.
In more laymen's terms, I find Chris Martin has perfected applying the craft of yodling in popular music. I think this is what he's doing in the chorus of the Scientist.
Normal Head Voice and Falsetto only differ by the fact that Falsetto has a gap between the cords, so part of the air comes through as only an "air" sound, and there is less vibration of the cords. It's a "hooty" sound. Normal head voice has cord closure, and does not make the hoot sound. The difference is the presence of or the absence of good cord closure.
Connection is a term indicating that there is not break, or yodel, at the passagio, so the chest voice blends smoothly into the head voice without the yodel at the bridge.
The D# and C# are probably in your zona di passaggio. You're calling it a mix. Some would call it simply the Mid voice or Middle voice.
Your primo passagio is probably somewhere right in there, and your secondo passagio is right around F or F#, which is why you are having troubles there. That is an area that you have to work with to smooth out and connect without a vocal break. That calls for working on it at low pressure and low volume and experimenting with it until you can sing through it without a break.
Working on a song that deliberately breaks there is not a good idea if you haven't yet learned to sing through the passagio without a break. You need to imbed the feelings of good connection, instead of imprinting the feeling of always getting a speed bump there.
It takes some students a bit of time to accomplish that successfully. You mentioned in another post that you are having some problems with your speed bump after having recovered from laryngitis.
Your best course of action would be to work on smoothing your connection between chest, mid, and head voices. This requires light singing and low air pressure.
Here's my two cents worth. I agree with Bob that the answer is working on your connection between chest, mid and head voices rather than worrying about joining your falsetto to other voices. I've been where you're at. For most of my life my highest note (barely} was an E4, and then only if I was really belting it. The breakthrough for me was implementing open throat singing. I realized that, in the past, when I started going higher, I was trying to do all kinds of things with my throat to try and hit the note. When I started doing the opposite - focussed on keeping my throat fully open and my soft palate high, the higher notes just became part of my normal voice. It also helps to ignore your natural tendency to want to use more breath and sing louder as you go up. The other trick I use is to think of the word "uh" as I sing higher which helps to keep my tongue from rising and creating tension. I now don't think in terms of chest mid or head voice anymore. It's just one voice connected by a fully open throat. Here are a couple of songs that I had wanted to sing all my life but until recently couldn't because I couldn't hit the high notes.The miracle of open throat technique! If you listen to them, you'll find that you can't really tell between a chest, mixed or head voice even though there are quite a few G4s in there. Hope this helps you.
Thanks @highmtn and @derrickt. From reading your responses, I realize how long I have yet to go to understand both what I am *hearing* and what to *focus* on.
Bob says above that the interval Chris Martin is singing is F#4 to D#4. I realize now that this is where my first mistake was.
After playing around with this on the piano, I just realized that the interval I have been trying to sing is F#5 to D#4 (not F#4 to D#4). I can hit both notes, but there is a distinct bump when I do that interval. (perhaps bump is not the best word?)
On the other hand, when I just sing F#4 to D#4, there is no bump here, but my natural tendency is to include chest on the F#4 which makes it sound very blah overall because it doesn't have the same contrast of Martin's rendition where his F#4 has more head voice (I hope that is a more correct understanding).
After playing around with this for about an hour tonight, I realize for me to intentionally remove chest on a given pitch takes a lot of concentration and I need to be able to hear myself to do it right, to get good tone and not over sing.
If I am playing the guitar while I sing, I really can't tell if I'm removing chest or not because I am hearing the bass strings of my guitar. If I do it acapella, it is a lot easier.
I realize what I do a lot of the time is just try to copy what I hear... this is because I don't have enough musical depth yet to just say - oh that's an F#4... It's more like "That sounds like a falsetto" and I try to match it, but in this case I was off by a whole octave in doing so.
I seem to be having the same kind of problem on a song like Karma Police which I posted earlier and expressed some frustration about hating it a day later.
Unless I'm mistaken, the first note the first sung note in that song is a C4. But when I sing a C4, it has a lot chest in it and it sounds blah. I can remove chest, but I have not been able to in a way that sounds good. If I sing it light (like the F#4 of the Scientist), it lacks the presence of the verse in the original, but if I give it more volume it sounds more like a wailing siren.
Is this where I just have to learn where and how my voice sounds good?
@derrickt - I tried clicking your links, but I am not clear what I need to do to listen? Do I have to install some sort of music player? I have never used singsnap before.
@steves I have the same problem with trying to here @derrickt songs but i click a link of the song below it and then hit back and for some reason I can now here it.
You mentioned that you played around with some of this melody on the piano and came to a few realizations about the notes.
I think that it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with where you are on songs you are having troubles with. Get to know your voice. Practice your KTVA scales and follow along on the piano if you can.
Do them in chest and learn your limitations. Do them in head voice and learn your limitations. Take a few notes (no pun intended). Pay particular note (no pun intended) to what your voice is doing in the transitional zones, between full chest, mid voice (lighter chest), and head voice.
Figure out where and why you are starting to add all of the air that you do as you ascend (re: your threads on your cords drying out).
Voice, meet @steves. @steves, meet your voice. You two need to have some get-acquainted time.
: ^)
It kind of helps to map a few things out when you feel a little lost in the songs you sing.
That's where the fixed, controlled environment of singing graduated scales helps you to do a consistent development of your full range.
Once you realize where you are doing well and where you are doing not-so-well along the length of the piano keyboard, you can begin to shore-up the weaknesses and convert them into strengths. You will have some overlapping areas of strengths, and possibly some gaps in capabilities. Identifying those areas is a good step in the right direction towards building an extended range in different textures that has no gaps.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with @steves (and the rest of us). I think you hit upon several key areas that are important for all students to know.
Your voice has grown a lot. We're all in this together.
Nice job of bouncing between the baritone lows and the mid voice. You're getting a good balance in both configurations. Your singing, dancing, and fan-holding partner is doing a good job as well, and you two look and sound good in unison and fan-holding.
She's got you beaten in the ballet realm, I think.
Nice job of bouncing between the baritone lows and the mid voice. You're getting a good balance in both configurations. Your singing, dancing, and fan-holding partner is doing a good job as well, and you two look and sound good in unison and fan-holding.
She's got you beaten in the ballet realm, I think.
: ^)
Bob
Thanks Bob! I'm glad my mid voice is finally coming along. Our fan-holding skills are unparalleled. And I haven't shown off my ballet skills yet
I'm hearing a lot more air in your voice than I think you should be using. It doesn't sound bad, but it's not good for overall vocal health. A little more cord closure and bright tone would help that.
On your higher notes where your voice gets loud, you should apply more support to keep your voice at a more even level. It will get a bit louder, but if you hold back your air more on those notes, it will be a better end product.
You should try to get your tongue a little lower in your jaw.
The other thing I noticed was your chest rising and falling on most of your breaths. You should use ribcage expansion, and keep your ribcage suspended and expanded throughout most of your singing, with only a few spots between phrases where you take a quick break and then quickly resume that posture. Most of your breathing movement should be in your abdomen.
You had the camera too high or too close to give me a glimpse of what you are doing abdominally while you sing. That would be helpful in future demos.
You have good pitch and an interesting tone to your voice. I think you will do well as you continue to work on your voice. Work on that support. It's your friend.
here is a better song I did, this is another dream theater tune I worked on called "Fatal Tragedy" from Metropolis pt 2 (Scenes from a memory). I may have messed up a little bit with the first part and maybe my chest has moved a little bit sometimes when I am taking my breath. I think this sounds good though and I thought I had some good support because I didn't feel uncomfortable with my singing. but anyways, some feedback from you all would be great and I will continue to work on my voice. I am almost to volume 3, which is the nitty gritty to perfecting a song.
@ALEXDEITEMEYER first off if your already on volume3 you should ask for an upgrade from member to pro in the forums. I forget the help email. I honestly have lots of work to do on ktva pls spend the time working the program ask for feedback of your lah exercise volume 1 with your pro status in 2 or 3 weeks using the idea of support and all that Ken teaches in vol.1.
You can't watch the videos and your voice magically grow to pro. Takes time for your your voice to grow in strength. Trust me I'm taking the slow road but the voice is getting stronger at a slower rate. The time my voice grew the most was when I watched the videos and worked the program daily. I'm kicking myself in the head telling myself to follow my own advice and get back with it....
@SteveK. I am going to keep practicing my volume 1 and 2 exercises first before I go to volume 3. I also plan on doing a couple of Skype lessons with ken tamplin himself before I go to volume three just to make I am doing the exercises right. Whenever I warm up my voice, I always use the bright Timbre AH vowel to warm up. I sometimes use the AA EE and OO vowels too to get use to the vowel modifications in certain songs that are difficult to sing.
@ALEXDEITEMEYER I may have jumped the gun as I only listened to the first part where you were singing with a lot of air like in your first video. But you sound a lot like me when I first started out it sounds like your squeezing out a lot of your notes continue to work the program daily as time allows. And get that status changed. There is so much more info for you.
You're still blasting a bit on the high notes and need to support a little more to keep a more consistent level even when you go up to your high notes. Your volume on the high notes gets too high all at once. You should be counterbalancing that volume with support to create a more even level.
You are doing a little too much chest-breathing, and need to hold your chest expansion more through individual belly breaths. Your belly is not moving as much as it should, because you are using more upper chest breathing. That will prevent you from being able to utilize more of your support easily.
Your tone sounds good, but I would like for you to include a low-level accompaniment music, so we can hear some key reference. I don't think you are, but you could be totally off-key, and we would never know it. Also, you may be slowly drifting and we have no reference to where the songs you are singing are supposed to be. So please, add a little bit of reference track rather than total acapella.
And please be sure to include a basic Lah arpeggio so we can focus on ensuring that your basics are in line. There are so many things going on in a song that there could be a hundred things to discuss in it, and many of those can be covered by going over the basics first. Songs are more appropriate after covering all of the basics.
I think you are doing well. Let's just not skip past some important details before getting into more complex areas.
Your voice is sounding very nice. You have a nice tone.
@0:57 when you increase your volume for the high notes, you need to hold that volume back by using more support.
That will hurt your cords to hit them with that much pressure difference. That's why Ken teaches us to hold down our diaphragm and regulate the pressure of the air down when we go up to the higher notes.
Don't get me wrong. It sounds good, but I don't want you to hurt your voice or go hoarse... and from a listening standpoint, you don't want to beat up your audience's ears with hard-hitting high notes.
I strongly recommend that you start studying up on support and practicing pushing down on your diaphragm when you ascend to the higher notes.
This sounds quite good, and I have high expectations that you will seriously work to get more consistency in your voice. That consistency will come from mastering support. Dig in and continue your efforts to build your voice on a more serious routine.
@highmtn when you use your diaphragm to take your breath while you sing, is it normal for your chest to move. because I tried singing some scales with the bright timbre AH vowel using diaphragmatic support and its not too bad but I notice my chest moves a little bit when I do that.
When you expand your chest and keep it there, you should have very minimal chest movement when you inhale with a belly breath. Most of the movement will be the expansion and contraction of the belly area.
When doing that, if you press down on the diaphragm as you reach a high note, there could be a slight movement in the chest, but really it would be more so in the abdominal area as you press down there. I'm not saying that your chest can't move any at all, but it would normally be minimal.
I've been working through Volume One for the last 6 months which has been very insightful and I have learnt a lot about my voice. I've also recently purchased Volume Two which is really begun helping me on my way to where I want to be as a vocalist.
Here's a live video of myself performing Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud. I thought would be a good way of documenting my progress, and some constructive feedback would be much appreciated – Good & bad points please.
I have similar videos of my original music for you to take a look, but I do understand how busy you guys are.
I really like your voice on this song, Dude. You sing it with feeling and conviction.
Excellent job of playing and singing at the same time, in a nearly flawless live performance.
You need to work on your support a bit. You are using some support, but especially on the higher parts, you need to support more to give your voice more evenness and consistency. More support will buttress those higher notes, and pull the volume back to smooth the sound out there more.
See if you can open up your mouth and throat a little more, just to let the sound come through a little less closed. Your posture has your head down a bit. I know you've got the mic down low to get a good mix on the guitar and vocals at the same time, but that puts a little bit of constriction on your airway, and I'd like for you to open that up some more.
At around 3:05 is your only real pitch deviation. A bit more support there would help you to be more sure of yourself at that G# and the surrounding notes.
These are my suggestions for improvement. I liked your performance, and the sound of your voice.
Keep doing what you're doing, and see if you can work on these small details, as well. You're on a good track.
Thank you for your reply. Your advice is really helpful.
I think in general it's always a little more difficult singing whilst playing guitar. There's a lot to think about, and I think I struggle with making sure that I'm holding the guitar in a comfortable position, as well singing with a correct posture etc. I'm considering booking in a Skype lesson with Ken, and perhaps he may be able to through a few pointers my way in regards to this.
Thanks again, and I will definitely take on board the points you've mentioned
Well I haven't posted anything in a long time. Had a cold for, well, just about forever it seemed. Still not 100%, but getting closer. I finally was able to have my lesson with Ken, which was great, and I've been trying hard to keep open and keep my larynx down, but after so many years, it's really difficult to do.
So yesterday was the 40th anniversary of our graduation of high school, and an old friend posted that this song was the #1 song that day, 6-13-1975, so I couldn't resist doing it. Some rough spots (my excuse is that I sang for 3+ hours with no breaks last night)... but I do think it's better than my old recordings, too.
I think I'm not the greatest singer and my voice really is a work in progress (still struggling with support and stuff). Didn't stop me from recording a new EP though, because I strongly believe in putting music out there regularly and try to do the best I can. I find these challenges more helpful than trying to become a perfect musician - that's never gonna happen anyway;) On the contrary every song I record helps me with my singing because it's once more trying to deliver the best I can. Oh - and it helps to have a great background singer;)
So, enough "philosophy", here's one of the new songs:
I just finished mastering a song I did for a school project, it's a Metalcore cover of the famous song called "Mad World". Hope you enjoy! I know the growling I did at the end of the song is not a healthy thing to do and I don't do it very often, but I wanted to try to do something aggressive there.
@bberg I think your work-in-progress voice sounds pretty decent. Nice song and you have a pleasing voice, especially between 1:21 and 1:30, that sounds pretty good to me! Keep it up!
Thank you! Great range you have und I do like the growl! Just one thing - as you seem to do the mixing yourself - it would help to turn the drums a bit up and the guitars a bit down (I know that in metalcore drums get a bit buried by the guitars at times - but here the loud guitars are killing these well-played drums).
@bberg: Yeah, you're right, the drums are a bit too quiet. It was my first time mixing and mastering a song, so I didn't really know what I was doing, but that's how I learn: by trial and error. Next time I'll try to get the drums a bit louder. I'm already recording the next cover so it's good to hear some feedback.
@highmtn: I recorded the growls and the clean singing separately, so I didn't blow out my voice by transitioning wrong from really high singing to really low growling.
Comments
@brad1983,
You did a pretty good job on this song. Your pitch is good. Your support could be increased. I'd like to hear your voice a little higher in the mix.
All the Best!
Bob
It's pretty scary going higher because I feel like I may go off pitch and scratchy if I go higher but definitely something to work on.
For support, I can go back to working on the vol 1 videos to see if they help and maybe drink more water before recording it again.
I appreciate the advice. I can't get anyone local to listen to this so it's always nice to come here and get your opinion.
@derrick,
Nice job with the wide intervals. Smooth.
It's subtle the way your voice keeps improving over time, but you're definitely getting better all the time.
Bob
Nice job!!
@marc,
You are sounding better than ever. You have been practicing and doing what you need to do, and it shows up in your demo.
Keep up the good work.
Bob
Interesting, @steves.
I can hear improvements in the timbre of your voice. You sound a lot like Cat Stevens on both of these tunes.
Sounding good.
Bob
@marc,
Cool! Thanks for the update.
You sound very confident in this tune. Very accurate and nice compression.
Bravo!
Bob
So this is me. Made a short clip practicing support. Sure its off key but its about developing support. What your thoughts.
This one was just pulling the diaphragm down tight.
Demo 2
Listen to Demo 2 by Steven Kindig #np on #SoundCloud
The
Steve
@SteveK,
Yes. Try with a smaller breath. Estimate how much you need to do the scale or line in a song that you think you need, and no more. If you don't get enough, use that information to adjust how much you need.
Taking too much air creates too much pressure in the lungs and makes you want to blast it all out too soon.
Experiment with trying to estimate just how much you need. When you have long notes or long scales coming, take a little more air, as needed. No need to overfill your tank. It's wasted energy and more difficult to control.
Bob
forget what I said earlier. here is the actual video
https://www.facebook.com/alexander.deitemeyer/videos/vb.1763721941/4636571569980/?type=3&theater
@ALEXDEITEMEYER
I tried to follow your link, but got the message below:
This content is currently unavailable
@overdriveisclassy,
This is a different placement for your voice. Much different from the baritone-based sound you've used in most of your other videos.
Sounds like you're getting comfortable with this sound. You have to be a little more careful with your support in this smaller sound.
You seem to be venturing into the zona di passagio... home of the mixed voice.
Nice Job!
Bob
@rcrosier
Hi there you two - thanks very much for your comments and sorry for my untimely reply.
Peace,
Johan
But you have it !
Still working on it but not quite got it down yet.
I appreciate the feedback and I'll definitely make a recording again when I feel I've mastered this technique.
okay, next time I will try to get my band to cover peace sells again on my phone and then I will try uploading it to youtube instead of facebook. @highmtn
Stevek
Steve
@ALEXDEITEMEYER,
I'm hearing a lot more air in your voice than I think you should be using. It doesn't sound bad, but it's not good for overall vocal health. A little more cord closure and bright tone would help that.
On your higher notes where your voice gets loud, you should apply more support to keep your voice at a more even level. It will get a bit louder, but if you hold back your air more on those notes, it will be a better end product.
You should try to get your tongue a little lower in your jaw.
The other thing I noticed was your chest rising and falling on most of your breaths. You should use ribcage expansion, and keep your ribcage suspended and expanded throughout most of your singing, with only a few spots between phrases where you take a quick break and then quickly resume that posture. Most of your breathing movement should be in your abdomen.
You had the camera too high or too close to give me a glimpse of what you are doing abdominally while you sing. That would be helpful in future demos.
You have good pitch and an interesting tone to your voice. I think you will do well as you continue to work on your voice. Work on that support. It's your friend.
Good Job!
All the Best!
Bob
here is a better song I did, this is another dream theater tune I worked on called "Fatal Tragedy" from Metropolis pt 2 (Scenes from a memory). I may have messed up a little bit with the first part and maybe my chest has moved a little bit sometimes when I am taking my breath. I think this sounds good though and I thought I had some good support because I didn't feel uncomfortable with my singing. but anyways, some feedback from you all would be great and I will continue to work on my voice. I am almost to volume 3, which is the nitty gritty to perfecting a song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkAka7iZMc4&feature=youtu.be
You can't watch the videos and your voice magically grow to pro. Takes time for your your voice to grow in strength. Trust me I'm taking the slow road but the voice is getting stronger at a slower rate. The time my voice grew the most was when I watched the videos and worked the program daily.
I'm kicking myself in the head telling myself to follow my own advice and get back with it....
Steve
Stevek
@SteveK alright but I have one question. How do you change your status to pro?
So yesterday was the 40th anniversary of our graduation of high school, and an old friend posted that this song was the #1 song that day, 6-13-1975, so I couldn't resist doing it. Some rough spots (my excuse is that I sang for 3+ hours with no breaks last night)... but I do think it's better than my old recordings, too.
Keep it up!
Steve
Didn't stop me from recording a new EP though, because I strongly believe in putting music out there regularly and try to do the best I can. I find these challenges more helpful than trying to become a perfect musician - that's never gonna happen anyway;) On the contrary every song I record helps me with my singing because it's once more trying to deliver the best I can. Oh - and it helps to have a great background singer;)
So, enough "philosophy", here's one of the new songs:
Thank you! Great range you have und I do like the growl!
Just one thing - as you seem to do the mixing yourself - it would help to turn the drums a bit up and the guitars a bit down (I know that in metalcore drums get a bit buried by the guitars at times - but here the loud guitars are killing these well-played drums).