Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chung

kworam

Here's a fun tune from the 80s, please let me know any feedback you have on my performance.

https://www.smule.com/recording/wang-chung-everybody-have-fun-tonight/2943495289_4568485121?channel=Copy-Link

@michaelmusic @Klaus_T @Maarten @SingForSoup @RLV @Diego @Murbles @DannyOc3an, I have found your feedback really helpful in the past, and would appreciate you giving this one a listen.

seanvz

It sound like your voice was straining a lot from possibly oversinging. And not letting go and letting your training take over. Also, did you warm up?

Those are the three biggest issues for most singers. I'm not saying you had issues with those is why I asked you questions about those just in case.

Your heart and soul was into it for sure, and you hit the lows very good with great soul.

Keep on working my friend, getting better with each iteration!

Also, have you thought about just picking one song to master before moving onto other songs?

This is a sidenote, and sure it will help anyone sing better. I use the app a lot and have improved my singing by 20-30% along with "hard' training.

Meaning I don't put too much stress and strain on my vocal cords when singing. When they start to feel strained, and it is affecting my voice and almost hurts to sing is when I stop singing for the rest of the day.

kworam

@seanvz Thanks for giving it a listen, I appreciate it! I always warm up before recording a take that I want to post. I like to work on multiple songs at one time, and I only post the ones that I am struggling to master so i can get help from my fellow singers. Which app are you using? And I agree that if a singer is feeling stress and strain, they should stop and rest and not push into damage. Here is my latest take on the song.

https://www.smule.com/recording/wang-chung-everybody-have-fun-tonight/2943495289_4572466841?channel=Copy-Link

kworam

@DannyOc3an You gave me great feedback on my first post of "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", would you mind giving my most recent version a listen? I think I have addressed some of the problems you pointed out

https://www.smule.com/recording/wang-chung-everybody-have-fun-tonight/2943495289_4572466841?channel=Copy-Link

DannyOc3an

Hello!
Sorry for the late reply, somehow notification emails are not working anymore, I just had a chance to login today to see what's up..

Well, had a listen, and yes, good job, you did improve on the mask and pointy tone in relation to the other rendition, this sounds brighter, notice how this alone helps you with pitch as well...

Now, as you have a natural low register (bass), doing a relatively high song like this one, while entirely possible, it needs some extra carefulness around the technique. First, be sure to be using the STRENGTH in your abdomen to place the voice, the higher the range, the stronger you should feel your abdomen fueling your sound so it bypasses your throat tendency to strain and raise the larynx (this is a bad habit we all should learn to control, in some degree). A good strength from the abdomen will feel like indeed your singing is being fueled from this area. Try to be aware of it all the time... And of course don't forget to fully relax your belly between phrases

Then when you are sure you are feeling this breath/support engine doing the job on these high notes, I would watch the larynx so you gain some control over it and be aware when it is rasing to a point it gives a froggy sound. I've found this to be a not so easy thing to handle and the best way is to train your daily scales with the habit of lowering it to a yawning sensation/position. So you can then clearly tell when it's raised or when it's closer to a yawning position. You don't want to sing your songs necessarily with a lower yawning position in fact many songs require a neutral position but if you don't train to have control over your larynx you won't be able to keep it from raising more than necessary on high notes and affecting the tone. This relates closely with support too, since when you feel your abdomen fueling your sound, naturally your larynx and throat tend to stay relaxed...

So, good support, controlling your larynx and keeping the brightness you now have added, and I think you may improve it even more!

Btw, I don't know if you're into head voice and mixed voice volumes 4 and 5 yet? I ask because by training those areas, with those workouts, eventually songs that are higher than your comfort range can benefit from residing in a natural head and mixed placement from the start, as oppossed to getting into a higher placement by pulling chest up and consequently carrying your larynx higher in the process. When you start in a higher mixed or head voice placement, then there's no "pulling chest" sound (as if trying too hard to sing high) and the sound is lighter and easier instead. But this comes by developing those registers, by exercising them... So you may try this same song after some months with head and mixed voice training to see how it goes in this regard... Meanwhile you could try to fine tune the support/larynx/brightness thing to watch improvment

kworam

@DannyOc3an Thanks again, I really value your detailed and accurate feedback! I think I am beginning to feel things like mask placement and higher placement. And maybe also get that feeling when my larynx is creeping up.

I am still in volume one of Ken's course, I fell off the wagon and started performing at open mics, karaoke singing and doing my first gig after many years, and stopped doing my daily workouts. I'll get back into them and try to graduate from volume one to volume two in the near future.

DannyOc3an

That's great, you have a great singing voice and you sound good. On high notes, on the falsetto (or head voice) portions of this song, you do a good job, so you already have some resonance going on for you in head voice, which is good news. The mixed voice area is a bit tricky, because we can hit this range of mixed notes in many ways: pulling chest high (belting), mixing percentages, or in pure head voice. We choose what to use for singing these shared notes in the mixed zone. Here is where we should pay close attention of what are we using at any given time.

In this rendition while you do hit these notes, -and at the very beginning you use a good sounding register, a good mix from the get go- there are some moments around the middle of the song where you may feel you are pulling chest up and your tone becomes a bit different as if the larynx is starting to raise, while in the beginning you were fresh enough to use a good mixed voice.. I've found that training some mixed voice workouts can help with consistency around this, so all in all, you do have many good things going for you, it's just a matter of working out frequently (especially mixed workouts in your case) in order to do high-mixed songs as this one with full consistency

kworam

@DannyOc3an yes, I think the big challenge for me and probably all singers is mastering the mixed voice. It is a tricky thing, and I am trying to focus on songs lately that require me to use mixed voice. I think you are right that I get a bit fatigued later in the song and don't maintain the same tone that I had in the beginning. Can you point me to the mixed voice workouts that you use? I'd like to build those muscles and techniques so I can maintain a good, consistent tone longer. Thanks again, I really appreciate your help!

DannyOc3an

Well, the course has its own structure, from vol1 to 3 you work all the fundamentals, grow your ping, stretch your chest voice, grow stamina and learn to bridge smoothly (broadly speaking). On vol 4 you grow your head voice and stretch it lower into chest register, and then on Vol 5 you work on fusing together chest and head registers. The thing is that a nice and strong head voice (vol4) is required first before working on mixed voice workouts (vol5) due to the nature of the fusing process. So maybe you can try a more patient approach, see if you can self regulate or post some lah scales on the students area so people here could help you listen if you got the fundamentals right and you're good to move into Vol 2, then after some time working on 2 (which mostly handles vowel mods), you may post again or self regulate and listen how your mods are sounding, then move onto Vol3, and this is the one you will settle with for the long run as your go-to workout routine. Then you don't leave Vol3 workouts behind and just add Vol 4 workouts after doing Vol3 workouts. Then when you feel your head voice is decent (decent ping, resonance) you can add Vol5 workouts to the entire routine and there you will train mixed voice. You don't stop doing Vol3 workouts since this chest stretching done here is crucial for your voice health, this sustains the work you'll do with head and mixed, without chest workouts you may risk losing some of this platform that sustains your singing voice. That would be the correct approach.. For some this could take years while for others maybe not too long at all. Just notice what's the idea behind this structure and assess your current voice situation against it to see where you can settle for now with workouts, and then keep moving on as you hear improvement following this scheme...

kworam

@DannyOc3an thanks for outlining how the course works through the five volumes. I plan to get back into the course this weekend, and work to graduate to volume two