I used to sing opera areas. The music I write is more folk/pop :)

How did you make the transition from singing opera areas to folk/pop? Is it something that you have just always loved? What is the story?

I'm English :) well brought up there, I'm actually south American and French but hey. Brill is short for brilliant and skint means broke, I'm just out of money :p

Uh, I always sang jazz and some rock, as I grew older the rock and metal became more influential, anyway my love of singing led me to wanting to have lessons, only lessons available in my school though were classical. Started off baritone till my singing teacher caught me singing beach boys, darkness and queen, he liked my falsetto so taught me classical counter tenor, but my baritone range kind of became stale and I desperately want to increase it

You have enlightened me my friend. Thanks! You are totally brill. See? I used it in a sentence already! :)

I've never sung classical. I used to sing in chorus back in middle school and I used to get a lot of compliments on my voice especially my middle/upper range.I don't know why I stopped singing seriously for a long time. I just started trying to train/learn about two years ago to really sing.

I'm trying to make sure that even when I sing really low notes that I'm still resonating in the mask instead of down in the throat. I'm learning a set of about 15 country tunes to sing and play in my guitar at local coffee shops and such. My wife sings awesome and sings with me a lot.

Tell me more about you, Ben. I am Ben also! Neato!

Hehe you catch on fast! I'll have to teach you cockney rhyming slang too! :D

Um... What do you want to know? And yeah, we bens rule!!

Man, I found that I can actually sing down a lot lower than I though. I've been singing a lot of stuff by country baritones (Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard type stuff) and it's really really easy and natural for me. I mean it's almost like I don't even have to try hard. I think this is how singing is supposed to be. I think it's easy for me to enunciate since I'm from the south. I'm really having a lot of fun with it. I started singing Long Black Train by Josh Turner real low last night and my wife looked at me and was shocked at how good I sounded. LOL! I may have been trying to sing a little too high for my current range before that. Anyway, I love these little breakthroughs in this journey to discover my voice and who I am as a singer. I'm finding my niche. Dude, Michael Jackson was an amazing talent. He was one of those musical prodigies that only come along once a century or something. I remember MJ as being though of kind of as rock music back in the day. I mean Van Halen played the solo on Beat It. Marvin had a very very amazing voice. Lots of emotion there. Oh my, Old Hetfield or new? He used to sing a lot higher (he sounded strained to me) than he does now. He sounds naturally like a baritone that was trying to push his voice too high and hard up. It's like he sang a little lower on each album since Kill Em All. I'd really love to be able to sing some classic rock stuff. My voice is naturally very clean though. It's hard for me to make it gritty without hurting myself. One think to remember is that your voice has it's own natural sound and not to try to force it too much to sound like anyone else. That was a major source of frustration for me. I wanted to sound exactly like some artists but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't. Think about it, all the artists you listed don't sound like anyone else. That's why you love them. They have their own unique sounds and that is why they stand out.

I'm a classical counter tenor but I also sing jazz naturally, but wanna sing rock ad metal to the best of my ability

Man, I'm not really sure what I am classically. I have some tenor and some baritone qualities in my voice. I think I'm most likely a lyric baritone. I know it doesn't matter much for pop music, but it is interesting to know.

I'd love to be able to sing metal, but it feels so unnatural to me. The most "rock" stuff I can sing well is country rock like the Eagles, Marshal Tucker Band, Skynyrd, Blackfoot.

Good luck with your journey.

Hey country rock is brill too :)

Lol not likely, ATM going through the book, but would like to have lessons but being skint doesn't help

Ben, what country are you from? I don't understand some of your slang! What does "brill" mean? What does "skint" mean?