If (Bread) Jam - Falsetto + Full Voice

timliu92

Dear all,

I recently jammed to If by Bread, trying to practice singing falsetto and full voice at the same time. Not an easy song to do - David Gates has one of the best mixed voices I have ever heard in my life.

By the way, the chuckle was me just having fun with it, not a screwup lol. Feedbacks are highly appreciated - this is recorded from a smartphone so ignore the slightly imperfect recording quality!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8CiHwDlUuGpcXJEM1lJZ19TbGs/view

Regards,
Tim

highmtn

This sounds really good. It could be better if you were able to match up the high part in timbre a little closer to what you are doing on the rest of the song. It's hard to do.

I listened to a live version of David Gates doing it. He's up a full step from where you're doing it, and he's using a lighter voice for the main part of the song, so it isn't as apparent when he does go to his falsetto... in other words it matches super-well because he's already using an airy sound on the main part of the song, so when he goes to falsetto, it doesn't suddenly sound airy there. Singing it up a full step higher can help you to be on the verge of falsetto in the first place, in order to use some of those soft-voice qualities before you actually shift into head voice.

So you could try that strategy, and just sing the whole verses with a little more air, simply for the sake of matching up more seamlessly to the falsetto part.

OR, you could practice adding a little more timbral sound to your head voice... split the difference.

That's just my take on how David set us up for that high part... by singing the whole of the song in a "pre-falsetto" voice so that we wouldn't see the falsetto coming once he pulled it out of his hat.

You did a good job on the song.

Bob

timliu92

Thanks Bob!

Just one clarification though - when you said 'a little more timbral sound to your head voice', do you actually mean adding a fuller sound?

highmtn

No, I meant more cord closure, to get a brighter timbre, yet still soft enough to not go into a belting, call voice mode. A head voice with less air in it and more tone.

jonny

to be clear, when you sat "full step" up you mean Gates tops out at about A4 correct?