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I'm stuck with a key problem.


CasterClown

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I confess I sorta got tired of this place for a few reasons but I have to concede that this is one of the better musician-centered forums on the web. Sorry for doubting you guys, I can't help it when something shoves a burr under my saddle. ;) In this case though, I can't easily find a solution on my own, so I need some help.

 

All righty then. I've been trying to learn to sing, learn being a good word for it. I can hold pitch perfectly IF and only if I have something going in the background to give me a word for word pitch reference. In shorter phrase, I can sing wonderfully almost any song recorded, providing I can hear someone else sing it whilst I sing. This is helping since I can put on a collection of songs and sing with them. I don't exercise my voice hardly at all, so it seems to be helping me get it working.

 

The problem I've discovered is that the singers I like, and the songs I want to learn to sing are a little too high for my voice. Alan Jackson songs bear heavily, and almost all of his uptempo ones are a little too high. I can run with him during most of the sections, but when he goes high, it's like he climbs out of my range. He'll do a small section, like a bridge and he sings the whole thing uncomfortably high for me. Love's got a hold on you is one such song when he climbs up in the ladder and leaves me waiting at the bottom.

 

Also, I notice that when I sing two or three songs in a row along with the CDs, I have a funny feeling in my throat. It's hard to describe, it just feels like something in there wishes I'd leave the singing business behind and take up ping-pong. I suspect it's just my voice letting me know it's getting tired, and it may be that the songs I'm working with are just too high for me. My voice is pretty deep to begin with, when I sang in the church choir I was shoved into the bass-baritone slot, and made fun of for it. (What our choir jerk told me was that it wasn't a good place to be, I needed to either come up to meet the baritone or go down and meet the bass, being the odd duck just made me not 'mesh' with the tonality. I don't know if he was right or not, but I refused to wear undies four sizes too small just to meet his vocal expectations!)

 

Any tips on possible 'fixes' for my voice, singer suggestions in the country genre, and what this cooky tightish feeling is in my throat after a few songs?

 

Thanks,

CC.

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use software to lower the songs u want to sing by 2-3 semitones. I use sound forge, U can also use audacity.

 

it sounds as if you have too much tension in ur throat, which is the leading cause of getting tired while singing. the vox teacher i occassionally see has me hold a mirror up when I sing. If I see any veins popping out, or just any tightness, she lets me know i'm doing it wrong. Approximately 95% of my lessons are me getting told I'm doing it wrong. lol

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lol@ choir jerk

 

Yeah

It sounds like your technique might be lacking, it should never actually hurt

If you were getting tired (or even winded) typically people will sound a little flat.

 

Junior Brown might be a good artist to sing along with

his voice is a bit lower than Alan Jackson, and his range is even more restrictive than Alan's.

he's a bit more honkey-tonk and a little less traditional than Alan but worth checking out.

 

In terms of you being able to sing-a-long w/ a recording,

are you saying that w/out another vocal to follow (or emulate?) that you are no longer on pitch??

Can you karaoke?

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Duke, I've got audacity on this machine, so I'll look into it.

 

Precisely J Paul. If I don't have a vocal reference, I can't hit the right pitch. I've got enough guitar experience that I can create a humming melody and then play it, and I can recall a played melody and play it myself, but singing seems much more dynamic. For example, when I wrote the first post I was goofing around singing with my CD in the computer and doing well, now, I cannot sing the song again with any accuracy on pitch. On an old PC I had there was a gadget software that came with the PC (I recall the name Realtek for some reason) that would eliminate most of the vocal part of songs for the purpose of karaoke, and it would totally screw me up. I could not tell whether my voice needed to go up or down, I just noticed it was definitely off somehow. Without the reference, typically I find myself not going up or down enough, I have a baseline and I really don't go up or down much unless I can hear some other reference.

 

Thanks for the Junior Brown tip.

 

Could it be that I'm straining my voice *trying* to match pitches that are too high or songs that use too much range?

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as a trained pro singer i can tell you that you need a good vocal instructor that can LISTEN to you and then analyze your voice and teaches you how to sing properly. I think the best instructors are from speech level singing..i suggest you that you buy cd's from seth riggs...he is a master of speech level singing...but cd's are not enough, because you can sing a lot, but nobody can hear if you do it correctly...

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Tight feeling is vocal strain from pushing the throat. High songs will do this to you. Either transpose and/or do full breathing and regular vocal warm-up exercises (keeping a loose jaw and open throat and head still). Really needs a singing teacher to help with this kind of stuff.

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