Great tone, just needs a tad more confidence. There is a sadness to the tone and I like that you are keeping the "ee" sound pure as opposed to turning it into "ay" so low in the range like LaBrie tends to do (I don't know why, he's a Tenor!).

Thanks a lot all for your replies!
Didn't expect this kind of response, it's a bit overwhelming (in a positive sense).

I guess I've been down in a rut lately, and it's been messing with my head more than I thought.
But I do feel a lot more motivated at this point, and eager to start working with my voice more on a daily basis.

all of your feedback is really appreciated, especially when knowing that it comes from a group of talented singers.

and @phil, I'm gonna get to those AH-recordings when I get the chance. It'll be interesting to hear what you have in mind!

I think Phil just has a fascination with the most open of mouth positions.

Axl doesn't sing it in real full voice.
His style is the only unortodox type of singing I figured out myself. I did it by practicing Nightrain.
I can't really explain it to you, but when I sing that way, I have a lot of power, sustain, and range, although the voice is sooo hard to control, and I can't sing that way every day.... Some days I just wake up unable to sing anyway else than normally.... and the tone is too gritty, just like Axl's but I don't like singing that way, and I bought the book so I could learn to sing more like Myles Kennedy, you know, clearer voice... In meantime I got my normal range up a bit by practicing (prior to buying the book) so I can pretty much reach most of gnr songs, but I have a hard time catching breath (made a topic about it)

I think Axl sings with a reinforced falsetto alot while imitating a furious chicken to get that sound. :)

In reply to your initial post Anton, I'm feeling like I'm repeating myself and pushing for self-promotion I'm believe me I'm not trying to do that at all but sometimes, books leave a lot for interpretation and what you think you are doing right, may be you're not completely. There are so many things that can affect your instrument that it's hard to isolate what you are doing wrong based on a few posts. If you can, I would strongly encourage you to book a lesson with Jaime or myself. Then you can clarify where the problem lies exactly and waist less time. Good luck!

Val

Thanks for your reply Oiselle. I understand what you're saying, and you make a valid point about having a real instructor/teacher instead of just words on print.

I did take some lessons last year, but that teacher was mainly focused on style, pronounciation and basically experimenting with the voice.

I would like some lessons in technique, and mainly support and grit.

I'm confident I've got the right support on higher notes. When I do sirens, I top at B4, and the last couple of notes before that (G4, G#4 & A4) are the ones that comes with the least amount of effort.

The issues with support I'm experiencing is in the middle range, and with certain vowels:

The "Ah" used in "father" or "I", keeping it pure without making it into more of an open wovel ("ey", like James LaBrie of Dream Theater often does).

And the "E", used in "live" or "feel".
One good example of that is the word "Live" in "with or without you" by U2. I can sing the whole song with ease, except for that vowel..

("I can't liiiiiive, with or without you")

My voice gets stuck in my throat, and I really struggle to maintain that note. But if I broaden the vowel (to an E like in "Hey"), it's easy. But I don't like the sound of it. It gets shouty.


And of course, the everlasting grit issue. I can't find that starting sound, the low grit...! I can do the sigh-grit, but when I try the normal grit, I edn up grunting and hurt myself.

I can't help you wit grit. It's normal to use vowel modification as you ascend the scale.

oiselle is right, vowel mods are needed, but the audience won't know your actually singing an AYE (as in EIGHT) instead of a hard EEE when you get in that upper range if you are doing it right.

can you send me an audio clip on phil.moufarrege@gmail.com with a sample of you doing your vocal exercises.

Haha Ben, this made my day!
I'm gonna keep that in mind..

Holy **** i thought it is Labrie singing when you started. You have an awesome voice man.

No problem man...if you're creative there is a lot you can do with your current range. If you're a baritone topping at A4, you probably have 24+ notes of full range voice - there are TONS of songs you can do with that. How high the notes are in a song isn't the biggest thing, it is the difference from the highest to lowest note in the song that is key - if you can cover that gap there is a good chance you can come up with a good cover of the song.

An example: I'm a huge Alice In Chains fan. I wanted to cover Man in the Box forever but that powerful, sustained Bb4 just was not happening with my current range. Eventually my band decided to just change the key; we knocked it down 4 semi-tones, turning that Bb4 into a Gb4 which I can sing with power without trashing my voice (or worse - sounding awful!). Changing the key was no problem because I have enough bottom range to cover the low notes in the song (which also went down 4 semi-tones). Other than the key change we play it pretty close to the original so a typical audience isn't even going to notice the change.

If you get audacity, you can play around with changing the key of songs to find comfortable keys that sound good for your voice.

As to the mid range - I find the transcending tone and siren from RYV excellent for strengthening that area just below your top notes. I used to push really hard for anything from E4 up but now that I am used to doing these exercises up to Ab4 (TT) and A4 (siren) the lower notes are much easier. And I'm even pushing less on the very top notes so maybe my range is increasing (very slowly!). As long as we keep working at it and never quit we'll get there!

anthon send me a soundclip of you singing a piano scale on the AH vowel. also, a siren on an AH vowel up to a note that you consider is hard but possible to reach.
phil.moufarrege@gmail.com

PHIL! What the hell are you doing with all of these AH vowel recordings? You got some kind of AH vowel fetish? That's sick man! hahahha! Just kidding. Seriously though, what do you check for when someone sends you a recording? I might send you one some day.