Can a Bass sing rock
stratman
Pro, 2.0 PRO Posts: 364
Hi
I have a question regards the ability of my voice type to sing high in a rock voice.
Here's a description of my current range:
E2 ... Lowest note
A3 ... Can bring falsetto/head? down to here i.e. I can 'flip' at this point
D4 ... Can reach here with very strained chest voice
G4 ... Can use vowel modifications to sing chest to here (from approx C4)
G5 ... Can phonate and sustain pitches to here (very strained though)
The C4 to G4 in chest was never possible until I learned vowel mods from ktva. This new opening of range feels very weird; it is very loud but very low air pressure required. In fact, it's difficult for me to quiet it down. I can't seem to transition to head from it yet.
Does anyone else have these experiences?
Am I a Bass voice?
Thoughts in general?
Rob
Comments
@stratman,
If you have the KTVA program, could you post a complete exercise of the basic LAH?
These fragmented snippets are hard to get a consistent look and listen to your voice. It's helpful, but one complete exercise would demonstrate a wider range and more consistent note-singing. That way we could get a little more complete picture and possibly better answer your questions.
Your low note at 0:02 is an F2. Your highest note at 0:07 is a G4. Your No Vowel Mod notes are B3, C4 (middle c), and D4.
Your low "falsetto" note is a head voice note at A3. That's about right for a lot of male singers. My voice is higher than yours, but my head voice does that around G3 which is one full step lower than your A3. I'm working on getting it lower, but it's slow-going. Your "Mix?" voice is more of a mid voice or "call voice", like we would use to say "HEY YOU, GET AWAY FROM MY CAR!!!" It's an upper-mid chest voice that we use when shouting at someone when we're excited. You took that up to F4. That's a pretty normal place for many male voices to run out of steam, until they've worked to stretch chest voice.
I wouldn't put too much concern into labeling your voice. It's good to get to know it, and work to increase range or improve technique. You are most likely capable of a lot more than you think you can do, but you need some structure to your approach and proper methods so you don't hurt your voice.
Bass singers can sing rock, but they will have a bigger-sounding voice than Baritones or Tenors. They may not be able to sing as high as Robert Plant or Smokey Robinson. We don't know for sure what the range of your complete voice will be.
We can learn a lot more about where you're at vocally from a structured LAH scale from Volume 1. The first AH vowel scale would do fine.
Bob
Bob
@stratman,
Be careful when you go as high as you can go, to not go as loud as you can go. You can overblow your cords that way. Keep it gentle when singing up near your limits.
You don't sound like a "Bass" to me. You do have a big low end on your voice, but you also have a healthy range. You may be a Bassaritenor. ; ^ )
You seem to be shifting from chest to head around F4 to G4, because you're in head voice by A4, after the break you had just below that. Learn to smooth out that break and you'll be connected.
Your uvula is rising as it should. Everybody looks just a little different in that respect, but your throat is doing OK in that regard. The "L" of your LAH sounded a little off, but I think that was because you were trying to keep your tongue out of the way of the camera.
You just need to spend a lot of time doing the exercises and giving it some time for your voice to grow.
You should also upgrade your forums status if you are a KTVA student. To do that, copy and paste into an email to ktvaforums@gmail.com a copy of your KTVA purchase receipt and ask for a forums upgrade. Include your username here, in case it's not on the receipt or email that you present. There is much more to this forum than you can view with your "Member" status.
@sspatrick (Scott) may give you some more feedback on these videos. He always hears things that I miss.
Bob
One more thing, before I forget...
When you are in head voice, and especially on the way down, you had a hard time with connection. You will need to bring the volume WAY down on your head voice and also on the passagio to be able to keep cord closure when in head voice.
Practice singing in this register with very low volume until you can sing it without difficulties in getting your cords to stay together. Low volume will also help you to get over the speed bump. Only bring up the volume as you are able to maintain connection at the passagio AND cord closure while in head voice.
Are you sure he's not just a low baritone?
; ^ )