r/singing

I don’t know if this is the right place to do this and asks this but I feel like I’m more likely to get a singer that knows about placement than a screamer.

aswell as that I consider screaming to be a part of the art (albeit a much more vulgar and less popular use of the voice)

I have experience in choral singing, but am just beginning to learn how to sing an individual harmony part. I have some questions that will probably seem like dumb questions to many of you, so please be patient.

I’ve found a singing partner who is much more experienced than I am, but who seems willing to put up with me. 😊 He plays acoustic guitar, and we are working on some folk/light rock duets. He is probably a baritone, and I’m a mezzo who sang second soprano when I was in a chorus.

So far we’ve worked on “If I Fell” by the Beatles and “Teach Your Children” by Crosby Stills and Nash. I’m obviously singing a male part in both of these songs, but they work pretty well for me, as the Paul McCartney and Graham Nash parts are unusually high for male parts - they both go up to an A4. Some of the notes are low for me, but I’m looking at it as a chance to improve my chest voice.

But, he has now proposed that we learn a duet by the Everly Brothers, and the higher part (the part I would sing) is lower than that of the two songs we’ve done before. I’m thinking it’s not going to work well for my voice - and definitely won’t play to my strengths. My solo voice probably sounds best in the range of about D4 to B4, and most of my part would be below that (my full range is more like E3 to G5, but some of that is definitely not good quality solo).

1. Are there ways we can adapt songs with close vocal harmonies like Everly Brothers songs, that were originally sung by two men, so that they work for a male and female voice? A few thoughts I had were just moving the key up a few steps (assuming he could sing in the higher key), or even turning the song upside down, so to speak, so I sing the low part an octave above and he sings the higher part in the original octave. Maybe the latter would sound terrible - I just don’t know enough about music to know.
2. If you think we should just avoid songs like the Everly Brothers, are there pop/light rock/folk/country singer

s or songs

1. you can think of who have harmonies that would work for a male and female duet? I’ve been trying to think of male/female duos and mostly drawing a blank.

I should add that we are amateurs and are just doing this for fun and as a learning exercise - this is not about performing gigs or anything like that.

And please don’t suggest we create our own harmonies. That is way above my head right now. Maybe someday! But right now, I am a beginner who is really just learning to hold a part by myself.

P.s. Sorry for the formatting. Reddit won’t let me fix it. :-)

I’m looking for someone who could give me some advice on this. I have a problem that I can’t solve on my own.

I was on a Discord server dedicated to this singing method.

I asked for advice today and mentioned my health issue. The moderator of that Discord, with great arrogance, obsessively latched onto one of my points regarding my health issues—which I’ve come to understand through years of observation—trying to dismiss them as untrue.

I was just there to ask for advice and talk about my health issue. We completely misunderstood each other. He couldn’t accept my point of view because of his immense arrogance and unwavering conviction that he was right. Then he blocked me. He was just messing with me out of spite—I already knew that, but I kept talking to him because I was hoping for some valuable advice. That’s why I’m looking for someone with whom I can communicate clearly, who will understand my problem and help me.

Best regards!

Would you consider adding reverb to my vocals to be 'faking it'?

I want to improve my quality of videos but I really don't want to fall into the 'over processed autotune/pitch correction vocals' stereotype/rabbit hole.

So yeah, would reverb seem that way to you?

I’ve had my braces appointment set 6 months ago due to a very long wait time but just yesterday, I just got invited to open for a big act 10 days after my braces installation. Is that feasible? I have been told to prepare orthodontic wax but other than that I’m wondering if that’ll affect my abilities significantly (I sing everyday if that helps). Thank you in advance!

I posted last week about having my first vocal lesson, and I had my second one today. I am writing this as just a tool for myself to document my progress. I struggle with severe anxiety and my vocal coach is the only person I have sung in front of since middle school lol.

Today we worked more on breath. I have good breath support, but I tend to disengage on higher notes or even just randomly. We’re doing lip trills with a song. If the trill stops that means I have separated a note or have stopped engaging my breath support. We go back and do the same lines again until I can complete it without the lip trills failing.

We didn’t work on much more, my lessons are only 30 minutes, but we will be increasing the duration once I become more comfortable.

Other notes for today’s lesson are that she equated my singing to Amy Lee. Huge compliment lol, I think she meant more of my vocal style and range, but I will take what I can get haha.

One of my managers at work, who went to school for voice as well, told me about a technique that I have been utilizing. It’s basically just where to put your hands. So I have been placing my hands on my stomach to help keep myself engaged.

I am very nervous and excited to continue on my singing journey, and would appreciate more tips if anyone has any, or if this post has helped you at all let me know! :)

I am completely and utterly vibrato-less. It doesn’t exist anywhere in my range, which is really tough because I’m a soprano, so while I can easily hit very high notes they just sound kinda meh or piercing. I’ve had three voice teachers; with the most recent one I specifically said vibrato is what I wanted to work on. However, it was so entirely nonexistent that she literally gave up and we worked on other stuff instead. I remember on the first day she asked me to do a “spooky ghost voice” to get me completely relaxed and was surprised by how straight-toned it was. I know I definitely have a lot of tension because I also have really bad vocal agility, but even if I let my jaw hang completely limp and focus only on my breath, there is not a quiver in my voice. Is there anything I can do to focus on vibrato?

It also might be worth mentioning that I have some sort of issue with the ligaments in my jaw. If I open my mouth too wide, it dislocates… it’s always happened from yawning but I am wary of the whole “drop your jaw” part of singing, so that might be a factor.

I‘m a musical theater singer and I know I sing well. but in lessons, I make so. many. mistakes. We’re working on a really tough song (No Good Deed) and I‘ve yet to have a performance-ready take yet. I can do each section well on its own, but when I put it together I find it so hard to not run out of stamina and so I end up pushing through, losing breath, pulling up too much weight, etc etc.

And then I see my favorite Broadway stars totally soaring in their performances and I think to myself, “how are they so good? Do they also have cracks, moments of poor placement, spread vowels, jaw tension, etc etc? Am I just a terrible singer?“

Yes, I know there are numerous clips out there of Broadway singers messing up, but it feels more like the exception than the rule. Do they have tough voice lessons or is it just us amateurs?

I just feel like I’ll never get to that level :(

Okay this might be the DUMBEST question ever, but...

I have been listening/watching a lot of operas recently. Naively, I thought that what makes opera singing so recognizable was that the singers were singing either really low frequency notes or really high frequency notes.

BUT, the thing is that there are parts in operas for every tessiture possible, so including medium frequency notes.

So what really makes this kind of singing so "opera-esque"?

Sorry if there would be any mistakes, english is not my mother tongue