I know we tried it years ago. Wonder if we could revive an ego free singing thread, posting up stuff and listening to it, especially since it's so hard for the average male to sing in any frequency that allows people to understand the intonation, letting alone chopping from chest to head voice, which takes years to master. Is Drew still about or did he die? Also, you're not born with it, it takes years of practice and muscle memory, just like any other instrument. Shame low baritones and bass singers don't cut through the mix with the melody, although I think we are in changing times and all will change and it is, albeit slowly.
Backdoor Children Of The Sock
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As far as I know I'm pretty solely head voice, I don't really have a chest voice that is useful (it sounds terrible)
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I'd love lessons but I just don't have the balls for it starting from such a low place.
As such, I feel like I pretty much reached what I was capable of doing pretty early on in the journey - only really started singing in mid 20s (mid 30s now) but fairly quickly I was able to sound pretty much like I do in the recordings so I do frequently get bored of trying it as there isn't any interesting music to get my teeth into nor any real way I can change what the voice does to do the music I'd actually like. I'm a good actor so I can do stuff like that without people realising I don't really like it, but there's very limited scope for that kind of music in a performance setting
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
https://m.soundcloud.com/davemc-2/andy-warhol-bowie-cover
Don't know how to make a proper link.
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Thanks very much, very kind.
I only have that many listens because I used to do some guitar playing collaboration with a guy that was very prolific on there
That was ages ago. Soundcloud was better then I think they ruined it. There was a while on the old music radar forum when there was a nice wee bunch of guys sharing and collaborating.
I've heard some of your stuff before and always enjoyed it. Bit more professional sounding than mine.
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Well it's working.
You say you can't sing the kind of stuff you would like to, what would that be?
I reckon you could get a bit more growl if you pushed it a bit. Do you use any distortion or fx normally?
I get by. I was much better when I was younger but I have breathing problems and blocked sinuses now which make things a bit more difficult.
I'd love to have Peter Gabriel's voice though, he gets me every time! I don't, but here's me trying a PG track during lockdown.
@LastMantra in a lot of things I've learnt more how to hide my deficiencies than I have how to reduce them, not just in musical stuff. It's got me by but ultimately obviously isn't great for my self belief knowing that I'm a bit of a fudger of things. What I liek to listen to and what I can play on guitar/piano cross over in a few places I guess, but the voice capabilities don't cross over as much. The vocalists I enjoy playing the music of, tend to be on the one hand melodic stuff like Jeff Buckley, Chris Cornell, Jacob Collier, that kind of thing, then on the other hand quite percussive, wordy and percussive stuff like Jack White, Laura Marling, Lou Reed. What I end up having to do when performing is stuff like Simon & Garfunkel, Dylan, or various female singers transposed down slightly (for example You've Got a Friend Above), or when I'm writing my own stuff to record (for example the second song above) I have to stick to things like "What if person X did a mellow chilled song" and kind of collage a few things together. For example that one was kind of "if Damon Albarn sang a Life on Mars style Bowie song accompanied by Bridge over Troubled Water piano". Interesting for a while but limited enjoyment once done.
Re distortion/growl etc, I can add a bit of punch though it's hard to actually get a gravelly sound without having a bad throat to start with, however it just doesn't sound very good. The same element of luck which makes my brethy head voice sound ok has made my belt or punchy voice sound unpleasant! I have occasionally added distortion fx on my recordings to try and help with mixed results.
I feel like it works on this original track:
But sounds awful on this cover:
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
@thecolourbox have to disagree with you about the second track there, I think it sounds great! Cool original track too and some very nice playing.
Some days I struggle with breathing/lung capacity and that really affects my singing. I can't hit notes and I can't hold them either. Some days I've nearly fainted when I'm singing and I can only assume that means less oxygen is getting to my brain. Total pisser!
Trust me, however bad you *think* you are, they've heard worse! It's just that first step, you'll be fine after that
@thecolourbox if you feel your voice is limited then lessons could help expand that. There's certainly something there for them to work with!
IMHO anyway.
People get very self conscious though, I do anyway. You need to be relaxed really.
What I do is record a bit and listen back and figure out what I like and don't like. When you're recording at home you can break it right down to each line, each word if you want, until it sounds how you want it to.