How many singers do we have in here? I looked through and saw a couple of posts from singers like gangstaman asking how to get better, and I think it'd be cool for we singers to ask questions, give each other tips, and (I know this is terrifying, but...) maybe post some snippets of us singing to get feedback on our development.

I wouldn't call myself anything close to an expert, or even a very good singer, but I was classically trained (more full description of my background here). Not that I prefer opera. I just wanted to have good technique. I honestly prefer singing pop music...

My full-voice range is b3-b5. It's been a while since I sang in falsetto, but the last time I checked my falsetto range it went to the end of the 6th octave. Lately I've returned to the basics, just singing scales and solfège to work on perfecting pitch, breath support, dynamics, and vowel alteration to keep a vibrant, free sound through the passaggio and the different vocal registers.

Come on, singers. If we get enough of each other in here maybe we can move full speed ahead and form the official 2+2 a capella group...

Thread-saving music joke:

Q: How many tenors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Six. One to do it, and five to say "It's too high for him."

I sing and play the guitar. Falsetto is key, hitting a note soft and hard is only possible with falsetto. Practice hitting pitches, softly and full voice. scales. removing tension. it's an internal process, your listeners will hear every strain you have in your voice. the goal is to make everything effortless.

what is mix bel canto and why should i care?

I'm a singa. With the moona and the spoon or something something? And the T for two and eye for you or however that I like to singa song goes.


I play guitar and do vocals imo.

Mixed voice is how a good singer sounds. There's debates on this but for me, my voice can be divided in two registers, chest and head/falsetto. Normal talking is in chest, silly voices/etc is falsetto. A muscular balance can be achieved which allows someone to sing beautifully and flawlessly up and down pitches in their "mixed voice". Not everyone's mixed voice has the same range but it'll sound nice and professional once you hear it.

Bel canto is Italian opera school of singing basically. There's a lot of dogma but also some gems that you can find in the teachings. Obviously opera voices are very nice in certain ways, I find them lacking in others but you should be able to mix in your own individuality to the genuinely good information you find in bel canto. hundreds of years of legacy is not a small thing.

There's a difference between head voice and falsetto.

Was about to post the same reading the above post, then saw yours.

If one does not develop the ability to access their full voice registers above chest voice, then I think the above is good advice. Develop your falsetto so that you can sing beyond one octave and do so without belting or screaming to push up your chest voice range. The latter is a quick way to wreck your voice.

I'm not sure what you mean by "soft and hard" notes. If you mean soft resonance but loud volume, not at all. Falsetto is one way to hit higher notes softly but loudly, but you can also develop your ability to access your upper full voice registers and practice altering dynamics on higher pitches.

By soft and hard I mean the way you attack the note. It will affect volume and the way it sounds. Like say F above middle C. That's a pretty high, difficult note for most guys. Some people can only hit it if they really belt it. I sing a lot in falsetto so for me, it is just a note. By blending your head and chest I can hit it soft and easy and lean into it if I want to get more power. Falsetto is just a light headvoice for me I think it's more simple that way than coming up with like 5 different registers like they do on the internet.

I guess it depends on how much you want to develop your voice. I don't think it's wrong for a singer not to concern themselves with a ton of technical terminology. I certainly don't expect someone to say "I'm going to try that sotto voce" instead of "I'll try that softer." And I don't think it's necessarily wrong to ignore classical training entirely, even though the latter will almost always help a singer better perform in their style of choice. There is no singer who would not benefit from practicing breath support, scales, how to keep the voice sounding open, how to transition from low notes to high notes, etc.

I'm not sure if you're trolling with your comment about people coming up with five different vocal registers on the internet. Apologies in advance if I missed the joke. I'll just proceed as though you were serious and rely on you to tell me if you are LOLing at me

"Vocal registers" isn't something people on the internet came up with. The voice has been broken down into a science. Do you need to know there are different vocal registers? Of course not. Do you benefit from knowing the difference between head voice and falsetto? If you want learn how to sing high notes in full voice instead of falsetto, and to do so well, then yes. Does someone need to know what the passaggio is, and how a person's vocal type determines how they need to alter their vowels so as to negotiate the transition from their lower to upper register? You don't even need to know the word, but for someone like yourself who (I'm guessing from your descriptions) only knows how to reach high notes by pushing up their chest voice or flipping into falsetto, learning to negotiate the passaggio might help you discover a range of dynamic high notes that sound even better than your falsetto. Even a "natural" singer would discover untapped potential.

Anyway, besides anything about different registers, I personally care more about performance than range. There are plenty of singers who barely sing within one octave, but god'amighty, they do more with that one octave than I can with four.

I didn't mean any comments as a slight against you at all. I am stubborn and set in my ways though so it's going to be hard to get me to change my mind.

You said the voice has been broken down into a science. If that is so, why are there so few talented singers out there? I would argue that if anything, quality of singing is declining. I found a voice teacher named Anthony Frisell who's blog (http://www.anthonyfrisell.com) and books available on google ("The Tenor Voice", etc) whose writings made more sense to me than any other writings. I'm going to paraphrase horribly and say that an opera singer's ringing high notes that project and give chills to the listener are based off falsetto. I use those ringing high notes not as the end-all-be-all of singing but as a standard that could be achieved. Only falsetto shows the singer how to direct air up to the head, where if combined with perfect support from the body over years of training, everything falls into perfect acoustic harmony and a great tone is released.

For me I boil it down to a top/bottom falsetto/chest way of training because that's what works for me. When actually singing I can't think about what I'm doing at all in order to get that extra oomph.

I'm going to get really out there right now because this is something I'm passionate about and have been striving towards for a few years now so I might sound like a kook but for me it's the truth. Maybe someone could gain something from this. I practice yoga and you might be familiar with chakras (centers of energy on your spine related to different aspect of life) and nadis (invisible veins that run through the rest of your body carrying this energy). This energy, sometimes called prana, is closely associated with the breath. So singing, which uses the breath, is an activity directly correlated with the health of your energy body and nadis, most importantly your throat chakra, which governs your larynx, jaw, tongue, hands, and arms.

So any blockages in your throat chakra are going to be very detrimental to singing. I have knots in my biceps and upper back which I can feel are blocking proper flow of energy. These knots could be manifestations of personality imbalances like selfishness, outspokenness, timidity, or whathaveyou. I'm not sure about the origin of mine but on a physical level these knots affect my tongue position, range of motion of my jaw, and breathing which most definitely would affect my singing. When I do yoga and meditate I slowly dissolve these blocks and there is a very direct correlation for me towards the health of my singing voice.

So my current goal is perfect posture, no tension in my body/spine that would stop a free flow of air. Some people are born with open throat chakras. These people just have it. They might suck in other facets of life but they have a brilliant singing voice. Good for them, it shouldn't stop you from working on your own voice.

This is already too long...maybe I'll post a clip of me singing I'm nothing special but I'm working on it.

https://soundcloud.com/mike0292/vocaltest

Give me some critiques. It definitely sounds weird at times lol don't record myself that much. I know I've got some holes in my voice but I'm always working on it. Just wish I could write a song that fits my range, then I could really try and make something of music.

mike,

No worries, I did not take anything you said as a slight against me. I take it as us having a healthy debate on singing pedagogy.

As usual, it might take me a few days to give a substantial reply, but I saw you posted a sound clip and had to give some feedback. Bravo on an excellent performance. For your style of choice, you're absolutely correct to use some light full voice and occasional light falsetto. Nice phrasing throughout, and I like the gravel you slide in here and there for the Springsteen. Only part I didn't like was the falsetto outro. Completely a matter of taste, but I'd prefer to hear a light full voice for the outro. Falsetto and full voice have different characters to their sound, and I think a light, sort of sobbing full voice would be more appropriate for the phrase "Now your crosses are running down..."