2 questions about singing

[Pelegcarmeli]

Hi.. I am new here..

Im working about singing on my own and i realy improve my vocal.. Some questions:

 

1. I dont know if im a tenor or bariton yet, i found an easy exercise that make my vocal sounds deeper and warmer, can it disturb my high notes? Can i change from a tenor to bariton? (If im a tenor) maybe this exercis is just littel warm up for the low notes i dont know..

 

2. If i sing and i can feel my sound in my nose, not in the chest and not in the head is it a mixed voice?

 

Thank you for your help

[WRGKMC]

The question about weather you are a tenor or baritone comes down to vocal cord length. If you are young and still developing, changes are the voice will get deeper. By the age of 21 or so, your vocal cord length shouldn't change much. When does happen, as you get older you tend to put on more weight and your tones can become a bit deeper and richer.

 

As far as learning to sing properly, it takes a number of disciplines. you not only have to have good diction and be able to formulate words well, but you often have to create those words with a steady tone at a slowed down speed. A single simple word like "Hey" which takes a second to produce may be stretched out to " HHHHHH...eeeeeeeeeeeeeee...yyyyyyyyyyy' which might last 15 seconds. You have to refocus the pronunciation of that word and speak it in slow motion at the same time you're holding a pitch.

 

Or you may have to speak that word repetitively within a short span of time like a machine gun and wind up becoming tongue twisted.

I've never been great at doing the "Peter Piper" but I've picked allot of pickled peppers. I know some singers who can speak words at very high speed and get the diction right. I can get up a pretty good speed, but I do better with emphasizing syllables.

 

In music its more then just pronouncing the words too. You can have someone pronounce the words and hit the pitches perfectly yet still sound like dead fish in back of a mic. The key to a great singer is the emotional content expressed in the words in conjunction with the timing of the music.

 

An actor too applies a great deal of emotion to his words (or at least they did at one time) A singer has to apply not only proper pitch but add emotion and time it all properly to the musical tempo.

 

There's also the technical aspects. learning to sing is one thing. Learning to sing through a mic well and use it as a tool to help express the vocals takes time to learn. Add to that working with other singers and being able to singe your part without being lead astray when someone else singing a harmony can be extremely difficult. you really have to know your parts well before you can jump ahead and take on advanced challenges like that so there is a normal order to educating yourself in singing well.

 

This is where learning the essential basics is paramount. If your foundation is weak, whatever you build upon it will be a house of cards which can be blown down with the slightest gust of wind.

 

The question is how serious about becoming a singer. Most who become professionals have a passion for becoming the best at what they do and neither hell nor high water will stop them from becoming the best. You need that kind passion and dedication to get through the basics and learn the craft well.

 

If you have that passion then my advice is simple. Go take vocal lessons from a good teacher. Its the best way of avoiding dead ends and pitfalls that get you no place, and ends in discouragement. When you consider most good singers have a limited number of prime years when they either make it big or bust, a kid who begins singing in grade school will usually peak by the age of 21.

 

From there they can mature but the likelihood of then succeeding beyond that dwindles. mainly because there is little money in music and when you can no longer be supported by others you have to take a full time job in some other field and that becomes a talent killer. You can no longer spend 8 hours a day or more perfecting your craft and even though you may know how to sing, you are handicapped because you cant exercise it like you used to.

 

If your goal is self pleasure, taking lessons is still the quickest short cut. Alternatives can be joining a group of singers in church, a club, a school, a college etc. There are a number of video lessons you can take too. I don't have allot of faith in them because you get zero feedback on how well you are progressing and have no idea if you are advancing at the right speed, nor can it give you homework to work to strengthen your weakness, diagnose impediments, or give your work around methods best for your voice.

 

With other instruments, you can advance quite a bit through self education and the likelihood of it damaging your hands using a bad technique is less likely (but it can happen there too). Bad habits are the worst there. you learn things the wrong way using bad techniques then have to undo them and learn to do things the proper way in order to advance.

 

With vocals you really only get one shot. If you do things the wrong way and fail to develop the voice properly it can not only wind up being that house of cards I mentioned, but you can do allot of irreversible damage. I know many singers who wound up getting surgery because they just pushed too hard in too many wrong ways and under the pressure of performing where the adrenalin is flowing, they didn't know how much damage they were doing till the next day. Repeated abuse can totally wipe the voice out, as well as drive the customers out the door.

 

So all I can ask is what are your long term goals. If its is to check the waters and to see if you might like it, best suggestion is to start hanging with some bands at rehearsals. Ask them for an opportunity to try singing a song with them, then ask for honest feedback, and not just a pat on the back for a good try. Believe me they will give you that feedback and you may not find it pleasant. The truth rarely is. If you are sincere they will give you pointers. Musicians can be the kindest people when it comes to mentorship. They don't always have to time to coach for free however. you may do quite a bit of buggy lugging, helping them carry gear or giving them a high five when they need it most.

 

Helping is a two way street an if they do help you get going, be sure to return the favor. That's what the brotherhood of being a musician is all about, sharing talent with others. Just remember, having talent is not some gift given to you by the gods. Talent is an aptitude for doing something which is followed by hard work to develop a high skill level. When people go see some musician and see them play they think his talent is a gift because they cannot see the thousands of hours of hard work it took playing that instrument or singing that song.

 

All they see is the finished work, They don't see that building being constructed day by day, layer after layer. The simply leave town for a year and when they come back they are surprised by seeing a new building with no idea of how it was built.

 

Talent is the same way. Learning to build that voice comes in countless numbers of baby steps. Unless you have the passion and patience to build that talent, advise is difficult because there are no short cuts, no magical methods of obtaining the skill. You will need to do countless hours of singing Do Ray Me Fa So La Tee Do is 12 major and minor scales, learn theory, inversion, tempo, timing which can be ultra boring to most people. To singers, they thrive on the boring stuff till it comes out their ears.

 

This is only part of it. I cant possibly explain it all here. The one thing you will realize is what you get back from performing rarely pays you back from all the hard work you put into becoming good at it. Simply ask any musician or singer and ask them if they are ever compensated for the time either emotionally or financially for there talent and you'll get a resounding no. If you take on becoming a musician don't expect or even want to be praised for your talent because its going to be at best as shallow a reward as you can get. People just don't appreciate good music and would rather steal it from the musicians then pay for the pleasure of listening to it. These are hard facts that simply need to be weighed against what you get back from being a performer.

[PipeDreamTenor]

Working on both your bottom and top notes will balance the musculature of your voice nicely. Keep on! :-)

[brendenpannell]

1. When finding your range, you can follow the traditional standards: Baritone goes from a low F to the G after Middle C. Tenors go from low B's to a High C. If this is too technical, just know that a vocal coach can definitely help you locate where you stand vocally. If this is not an option, then here it is dumbed down: Basses are the lowest of the low. Baritones are a mix between tenor and bass. (think Lou Rawls) Tenors are the higher male voice.

 

2. A lot of people have different placements. The way I was trained is that when you are using your nose as a resonance, you are entering a completely nasal tone. Some people equate this with their mix, but a mix voice is the area between your falsetto and your chest voice. Using nasal tones is a stylistic choice, not necessarily a biological one. For a beginning singer, I would recommend staying away from this until you learn how to sing as clearly and strongly as you can prior to moving to stylistics.

 

Hope this helped!

[kickingtone]

i found an easy exercise that make my vocal sounds deeper and warmer' date=' can it disturb my high notes?[/quote']

 

It depends on the exercise.

 

A good exercise would improve all your notes, not just the ones you are targeting.

 

2. If i sing and i can feel my sound in my nose' date=' not in the chest and not in the head is it a mixed voice?[/quote']

 

It depends on the dimensions of your nose, lol. People are different, and I doubt there is any standard sensation for a mixed voice.

 

I think "mixed voice" terminology comes from building the voice in two parts and joining them together. There are techniques that build the voice as one.

[kickingtone]

The way I was trained is that when you are using your nose as a resonance' date=' you are entering a completely nasal tone.[/quote']

 

The tip of my nose is tingling like an electric current, here, but I don't think it is nasal, at all.

 

 

I agree that the best thing is to find your placement, naturally. Don't try to force it. Just start with your best central notes and work your way outward, patiently.

[itrytosing]

1. Dont worry! A vocal range is typically fixed and exercises serve to increase your range whether be it higher or lower. That being said, practicing lower notes will only affect your high notes negatively if you do not trained them as often as well, as they will be underdeveloped. Try doing vocal exercises upscale to balance it out.

 

2. The mixed voice is typical characterised by a chesty tone but the focal point will be in the head such as the mixed voice.

 

A typical tenor's range spans from C3 to C5 where a bass should be from E2–E4.

 

 

[davie]

Hi Pelegcarmeli,

 

To answer your first question, I would not worry about being tenor or baritone. I recommend focusing on training your voice to be free of strain and learning the concepts to balance your voice (eg. proper breath support, resonance). Try to avoid forcing your voice too much. Some people may not know this, but forcing a deeper voice is just as bad as screaming up high. To find the proper balance, make sure you practice your entire range, not just the low notes, not just the high notes. You know your voice is balanced if your middle notes are strong and resonant. The thing you described in your second question is a sign of nasal resonance which is a part of head resonance. There may be varying degrees of resonance in your chest, and head depending on how high or low you're singing, and also by the way you're colouring your voice. Nasal resonance is a normal and healthy thing as long as you aren't sounding with a tight and pinched tone. All the best.