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TommyM

Evenin'

I thought I'd share this one on the main demonstration thread instead of my own practice thread as it represents a major change in my style vocally. I've always loved this song but I never had the skills to sing the chorus properly without belting it and taking away all the lovely subtleties...until KTVA. Today, it really finally clicked in terms of balancing the engine of the diaphragm with releasing into head voice. I've always belted in the 3rd and 4th octaves, but singing this involved controlling it all within the 3rd octave, singing it with much more precision and ping than I ever had before. There's a few duff notes here and there, and I'm not 100% on the head voice/blending thing yet but I do know that this song is literally the first time I've properly projected these notes using resonance rather than pure volume. I also sustained a really clear note for 20+ seconds (faded it out manually in the mix) using practically no air and solid compression!

My tone too sounds radically different; much lighter and sweeter, but not as thin and weak as it would've sounded a year ago. Much as there's mistakes I need to sort out, this is just a demo run that I mixed down a little more clearly as I was happy overall with the vocal. Let me know what you think and if you can offer any advice if you hear any major screw ups. I know I'm not modding my vowels correctly at times and I'm gradually unlearning my bad habits so that I can 'reprogramme' the right things this time, but I may well have some blind spots that you can help with.

[Deleted User]

Lovely cover. I never expected to see this song chosen.

I am just a beginner so this is mostly just personal opinion. I think in the first chorus, when you sing "spark", that it would help to have the nice tall "AH" vowel with the open throat there.

I liked what you did with the middle section, where you shifted to almost a spoken voice, deeper-pitched sound. I found that I was wishing you'd maybe have it just a little bit higher in pitch, though, because of how different it was to the rest of the song. So keep that difference, but maybe lighten it just a little.

Thank you for sharing this.

TommyM

Thanks for taking the time to check it out and give some feedback, @Sophia! I agree completely, the AH's and the OO's both need to open up more so I'm working on this as we speak. This song is the first time I've really sang properly at a reasonable volume in this register instead of belting, so it's a real challenge for me. That said, I'm finding that the highs are actually far, far easier than even the mid-range stuff if I do Ken's techniques properly. I still slip back into old, bad habits but I'm learning all the time!

I tend to do fairly weird or unexpected cover versions anyway, like the cover of the Duck Tales theme song or doing a Whitney Houston song. It keeps me on my toes and forces me into new ways of singing, so it's a great way to maintain the fun aspect of it all. If you want to check some other covers out, here's a link to my YouTube page: IdentMusic

Diego

Nice one Tommy! I like your tone overall.
Sounds like this was pretty effortless for you.
Good job!

-Diego

TommyM

Cheers @Diego! To be honest, it was far from effortless! I kept losing coordination with my support slipping back into belting the chorus part, which was incredibly annoying and inappropriate for the song. Like I said in my practice thread recently, I think I underestimated it based on the seeming simplicity, but Neil Finn is actually a really good singer and seems to, knowingly or otherwise, get quite technical in his style. I underestimated him too until I tried to sing more of his stuff. I always thought he was quite bland and uninteresting, but one of those rare singer/songwriters who've also go the voice to back up their songs.

Thanks so much for checking it out!

Diego

I kind of want to try sing
(I'll post it) this song lol.
Is that okay?

TommyM

DOOOOOO EEEEEEETTTT!

Furious_Phil

Very cool, I like really what you did with this piece!
Very nice resonance, sounds very effortless, even though I know you said it was far from that

Diego

Can you please send me the background music you used for this one If you can please?
@TommyM haha, that'd save me some time.

TommyM

@Diego Aye, no worries! I'll e-mail you it soon.

Diego

Thanks! @TommyM

Diego

I sent something to you via email btw @TommyM !