Hey Guys,

I haven't uploaded any clips of me in a while. Been working with a teacher and have begun to conquer my issues with bridging between head and chest voice. Now I just have to work on the actual singing of songs.

I wanted to post some stuff here so here they are. All recorded a cappella (due to my poor software capabilities).

1) **** you - Cee Lo Green: http://www.box.net/shared/7ypj2jmbu4
This is so popular right now so I thought I'd give it a go. It's a seriously cool song.

2) Big Guns - Skid Row: http://www.box.net/shared/1buz23xtvr
I seriously messed up the first line as I wasn't really ready. Was unusual doing this song without my mic + amp. Might have screwed it up a bit.

3) Whole Lotta Love - Led Zep: http://www.box.net/shared/ln4fg4i5kx
Old favourite.


Recorded on windows sound recorder (I seriously need to buy better software soon). As always be honest and harsh and stuff.

Cool I like it. I'm not able to say any advice on how-to but hopefully I can point something useful out for you. There's quite a lot of shakiness sometimes, especially on the Skid Row song. That one didn't quite stay on pitch either. Sometimes it got a little squeaky at some high notes, like at the end of the whole lotta love. Might be just control issues, but you do have a nice tone and you can reach high notes easily and with better control I suppose it will sound really great!

yeah i agree with ozzyslant. i used to have issues like that but i found i got rid of them by practicing the song a lot in a light headvoice/falsetto whatever you want to call it. it lets you master the pitch and timing etc without worrying about getting a full voiced intense sound. i find its good to just go over your song once in falsetto/light headvoice before you record your full voice one. helps me anyway.

Thanks for your great feedback guys. Big guns was definitely the worse one, I was a bit unprepared when I started recording tbh.

Speaking of control in the upper range, I recently had a breakthrough. In these recordings (which I made about a week ago) I was definitely in head voice... But it felt kinda shouty, like I had to make a huge effort to stay in there. I recently (literally 2 days ago) found a way to keep the intensity on those notes, whilst the feeling is easier. It's kinda like I can now flip between the registers, not slide up to it. I'm not talking about a massive noticeable change in the passagio, just a case of less effort being used to make a less strained sound.

I want to record this and show you all, but that will have to wait as I've destroyed my voice with this cough I seem to have contracted due to the recent cold weather. I'll give it a go in a few days :D

open your windows mate, or turn a fan on. air electrifies and purifies itself through movement. people close the wiindows in winter which results in stagnant air, then they think its bcause of the cold weather they got sick. you don't get sick because of the weather temperature.

if you could explain more about how you got your freedom in the upper range that'd be great, or did you just "stumble into it"?

keep posting nathan, you're definately improving.

Well I'm lucky enough to be working at the moment in a store which has no central heating and keeps it's front doors wide open all day. I live in England, so you can imagine how cold it gets. I've actually shunned the uniform in favour of my big coat, it's that cold!

Really I sort of stumbled into it, but I was aware of the steps I took to stumble into it. It wasn't like "Wow, how did I do that?" It was more like "Wow, that exercise went better than I expected".

In RYV and in Four Pillars it says you should be singing with a 'top down' phonation. So at first I get into a headvoice, which I do with simple perfect 5th sirens. Adding a ridiculous amount of twang and dropping the jaw (not merely opening the mouth, but dropping the jaw) are both necessary.

Once I got that head voice, I just tried pulling back on it. Making it as quiet as I could and eventually flipping it into a light falsetto sound (at this point, there will not be any twang left on the sound as you'll want to be slowly reducing that too). Then from that falsetto, I added a little twang to get back to just a quiet and soft head voice. Then I just take that down scales trying to maintain that feeling. Eventually it will go into chest, but if you're keeping the same feeling it will be a top down type phonation. It has improved my tone quite a bit and I will try and get a recording of it too, once I'm a bit more over this illness.

I'm not a teacher or an expert. Nor am I yet an amazing singer (as you'll hear in my recordings) but these are the things that helped me get this one element down. Hope this helps.

1 tip: Slow your vibrato down just a bit. Good job, though!

interesting nathan. what do you mean by "top down phonation"?