THE VOICE CONNECTION
SOUND OFF

Welcome to The Voice Connection Sound Off; a forum for users of books like Raise Your Voice, Melody to Madness, The Ultimate Breathing Workout, and Unleash Your Creative Mindset, as well as a place for Vendera Vocal Academy members to interact.

This message board was created so that singers could come together and "sound off" to help support each other during vocal development and the creative process of unleashing the creative spark that occurs when writing and producing music. Currently, myself and vocal coaches Ben Valen, Ray West, and Ryan Wall are here to respond periodicially to your questions, with new vocal coaches coming soon. But, feel free to help each other too:)

This board is here for you to ask questions about my and my fellow coach's books, videos, and MP3 programs, as well as offer others help with our vocal techniques. You may also post videos of yourself and your band to share your music and ask for critiques.

Please refrain from negative comments, profanities, spamming, and inappropriate criticisms of vocal methodologies, vocal coaches, and singers. All negative posts will be deleted and subject to banning without question. I will not respond to negative posts, because, as Mark Twain once said, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” With that said, positive criticism is welcome because that is how you'll grow as a singer during the training process.


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Chris Cartier
Feb 21, 2007 - 4:24AM
Steve Perry's vocal deteriation despite perfect technique.

I once read somewhere that Steve has perfect technique for rock, Roger Love said this I think.

However you can hear the deterioration setting in around the time of Frontiers and then more so on Raised on Radio.

I don't know if this was a concious desicion on Steve's behalf, adding in that raspyness on 'Faithfully' and then pure vocal shred on 'Be Good to Yourself'.

The shred reaches an all time high on 'Oh Sherry' from Steve's solo work.

I'm wondering if this is why he chose to leave Journey because it was so vocally demanding?

Still on the Escape live DVD in Houston, around 1981, Steve has PERFECT technique throughout the entire set, a perfect Bell like tone.

Funnily enough, his voice becomes more and more emotional and mature as the shred sets in. 'Message of Love' is very powerful as is 'Positive Touch' which I'm enjoying now.

I think to sum up, with Steve you get 3 flavours: The pure tone everything up to and including 'Escape', the grit of 'Frontiers' and 'Raised on Radio' and the shred of his Solo work and his final album with Journey - 'Trial By Fire'.

Other than Sam Cooke, who were Steve's major influences?

j
John
Feb 21, 2007 - 8:46AM
Re: Steve Perry's vocal deteriation despite perfect technique.

yeah, I really like his voice. He is able to do alot of things with it.

But it makes me wonder;when does your voice start detoriating? Because some does it faster than other's do. I would think because of not being taken care of.

Or alcohol and cigarettes...

j
Jaime Vendera
Feb 21, 2007 - 2:23PM
Re: Steve Perry's vocal deteriation despite perfect technique.

He wasn't losing his voice. I know what was behind some of it but cannot say. I heard Steve live on his second solo tour and he sounded clean and clear even on the raspy songs. As of today, I am not for sure what state he is vocally in but back in the 80's it was sort of purposefully.

JV

a
andy
Feb 21, 2007 - 7:23PM
Re: Steve Perry's vocal deteriation despite perfect technique.

Steve Perry is a superb vocalist. I don't think his skills ever deteriorated. He left Journey to have artistic freedom. He briefly rejoined and when it was time to tour he hurt his hip. The band wanted him to get a hip operation and get on the road. He wanted to explore other rehab options that would take too much time for the band. So they hired Steve Augeri and went on tour. Jaime probably knows the full story, but I believe that Augeri had some vocal problems and they replaced him with Jeff Scott Soto, who was Yngwie's original singer. Moral of the story, the guys in Journey are pretty ruthless in my mind and I will not see them without Steve Perry. There is a tribute band from Long Island called Evolution and they are as close as we will ever get to the Steve Perry era. Their singer's name is Hugo and he is almost exact in vocal style and look.

m
MATT
Feb 22, 2007 - 12:49AM
Re: Steve Perry's vocal deteriation despite perfect technique.

Not one to gossip, but he did go to AA, I'll let you connect the dots... I'm sure if he put his mind to it he could probably still sing circles around most

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