Home VOCAL DEMONSTRATIONS for the Bold!

"Lord I Need You" - Feedback much appreciated!

maotleemaotlee Enrolled Posts: 5
https://www.box.com/s/99c855d7431fafaa0e27

Hello folks. I am the new guy on the block and I just wanted to post you a demo.  A little background on myself I have never taken vocal lessons and have just gone by trail and error.  Ken's DVD's have been my first systematical approach at singing and I've been practicing it for about a week.  I just wanted to get some feedback from you fellow singers and that would be much appreciated.  I realize I'm a bit pitchy and need to work a lot on my breathing but I have no clue what vocal range I fall in or anything.

Please note that the main vocal track was recorded simultaneously with the guitar (the bridge was cut) and the backing track was done later.  I picked this song because for me it is challenging given the writer goes from low to high then to low.  Thanks and Praise the Lord!

-Mao

Best Answers

  • sspatricksspatrick Enrolled Posts: 1,278
    Answer ✓
    dude,

    i think you have some great tone going on.  good work in the lower range.  you could focus the tone more to the roof of your mouth, bring some more resonance into the tone without having to work any harder.  Think of the LAH exercise.  so many people forget about the lower range, and worry about the "Money Notes".  I love what you are doing.  sounds great.  Make sure to keep supporting those notes in the lower range as well, not forcing, but just giving enough support to keep those notes strong and resonant.  I always visualize each note riding along the roof of my mouth before exiting.  You could modify the Ee vowel in the chorus a little more towards Ah(eight), or (led) for the high harmony to ease up the voice a little.  and add a little more Ah(as in up or luck) to Righteousness in the chorus.  I think support and proper vowel modification will help with the minor pitch problems.  Kick ass man, good work.


  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    Answer ✓

    Mao,

    You're off to a good start.  Your pitch is pretty good.  I'd like to hear the low notes a little brighter, that would help with ascertaining pitch a bit on the lows.   You will find as you continue to practice the exercises and the KTVA methods, your voice will grow in many ways.  Just keep practicing and as your voice grows, so will your Tone and vocal character. Keep recording yourself and you will improve even faster.

    Welcome to the forums!

    Bob

Answers

  • maotleemaotlee Enrolled Posts: 5
    Thank you so much guys, I will definitely keep working on the roof of my mouth and I guess I need to smile a little more.  I will be back to re-read your posts again so I can make sure I hit all the things you say to work on as well.  Again thank you guys for listening.
  • maotleemaotlee Enrolled Posts: 5
    I notice it is a lot harder to go from very high to very low then very low to very high.  Do you guys have any suggestions on how to mentally think about the muscle interaction in your chords? Thanks!
  • sspatricksspatrick Enrolled Posts: 1,278
    keep the support constant, back off the volume a little and see what happens.  most of the time we are so concerned about nailing the high note that we think we can take a break on the rest of the notes on the way down.  Not the case, don't relax the diaphragm until you are done the exercise.  try doing some sliders from a high note to low note, and the Ah or Ay vowel.  do them quietly, and then build up the volume.  see how that works for you.
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    edited May 2012

    Ken has said that it is much harder to sing a song that goes in and out of a low-to-high range than it is to just sing a song that is high all the way through.  That's because you have to shed and regain the weight of the low notes over and over.  Getting that part down consistently makes wide-ranging songs much more challenging than songs that just belt down low or just belt up high.  This is not really a belting song, but the principle remains the same, just at a less intense level. 

    This song also has no actual midrange portion.  It goes from a low-end verse to a higher-end bridge, so we don't get to hear much in the passagio region, which has its own minefields.

    Still, this is a very good demo from someone who is just getting started with the program, and shows much promise for development.  Like Mao, in another post, putting up demos early on is a great way to get feedback from fellow students and also to hear yourself on playback.  Ken highly recommends recording yourself and speeding up your development in that way.  That is a really powerful way to advance your implementation of the KTVA methods.

    Bob

  • maotleemaotlee Enrolled Posts: 5
    sspatrick: Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to back off on the volume a little. Sliders are very challenging for me as I have looked on a head to the 3rd DVD and Ken has some of those exercises in there.  I will be working my way up there in a couple of weeks once I'm comfortable with the 1st and 2nd cd's.

    highmtn:  Thank you for the technical input, I am a technical person myself so I'm getting where you're coming from.  I totally agree that recording yourself makes huge gains!  If you keep listening to it (even though you might think the sound of your own voice sucks) you somehow subconsciously end up making the proper changes to breathing, pitch, and tonality.

    I really appreciate the expertise and encouragement, if anyone else has anything more to add please feel free.  FYI, the box.com file sounds not as clear as the MP3 in my opinion and is a tiny bit muffled compared to my iTunes player.
Sign In or Register to comment.