Me singing? I am desperate for an outside opinion ;-;

[caelinalexis]

THANK YOUU it's nice to have people give feedback besides "I like your voice" or "Nooo that was good" like if I'm not perfect then tell me what to improve on -_- but thank you for letting me know, it has been a few years lol

[Kaydreamer]

Actual singing teacher here! I'll dot point some stuff.

• You have great pitch! Particularly given the wide pitch range of the song. You don't rely on swooping to hit high notes, and when you do swoop, it's clearly a stylistic choice.
• Lovely tone, too. Gentle. You're singing softly in head voice for the most part, but it suits the style of the song.
• If you're looking to develop more chest voice strength and range, your best friend is deep breathing exercises. Pop on a metronome and breathe in over 8 clicks, hiss out over 8. In over 16, out over 16. Etc. Your stomach/chest should go out when you breathe in, and your shoulders should go back, not up; this opens up your lungs to the maximum amount of air.
• Similar exercise: After breathing in, choose a note and hold it for 8 to 16 clicks. Start mid-range, then work up in pitch. You'll get pretty loud if you stay in chest voice, and you'll use all of that air. This is a good way to develop musical theatre level volume and strength. Even if you don't often sing that way, it's a useful skill to have in your back pocket when you want to really nail the top notes of an Adele song or something.
• You add some gentle vibrato at points, with good control. Very nice!

For the 'break' between chest and head voice, all female singers have that. The trick is to learn how to mask it, and that takes years to master. The best exercise for it is sirens.

• On an 'ooo' syllable, start at the lowest note you can produce and swoop aaaaaaaall the way up to the highest, then back down. At first it'll sound like oooooooOOOOOOOO - OOOOOOOOooooooooooooo... Eventually, with enough practice and a warmed up voice, that break will disappear and you'll get one long, continuous note from low, to high, and back down. It's a magical exercise, and it's what helped me overcome what was once a very prominent vocal break.

You're genuinely skilled, your friends and family aren't wrong.

[therosesword]

horrible singer here (me) but with some training (enough to do a couple way in the back roles for music theatre) and also married once to an opera singer.

Agree on the pitch and loved no swooping. Huuuurrrrraaayyyy.
Head voice was nice and was it just me but wasn't her placement nice avoiding nasal but still there? I could feel it go there and not be capped.

Really wanted to hear her open up (sing out, Louise!)

totally agree with you. A good vocal coach would be great for her.

slight edit, I'm a rabid proponent of diction so a couple of times (if I had to find anything to critique that could use a little help) better diction would be great... but that happens to be my thing and it's born of being in the opera and musical theatre world rather than in popular music.

[therosesword]

See my comments to @Kaydreamer, they're also meant for you. Lovely job.

[caelinalexis]

I- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BESTOWING VOCAL KNOWLEDGE ON ME maybe I will try it on an adele song, hehe <3

[caelinalexis]

AHHH THANK YOU FOR THE FEEDBACK and I can't really sing out too much because my mom was actually in a zoom meeting and I'm not too confident in chest voice, but I suppose I should start practicing to get better.

[Kaydreamer]

wasn't her placement nice avoiding nasal but still there? I could feel it go there and not be capped.

Agreed! It's easy to go over-nasal in head voice, but it was sweet and soft, with just enough contemporary edge to give it some personality. I could also hear that there's a lot more headroom to go higher as well.

I- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BESTOWING VOCAL KNOWLEDGE ON ME maybe I will try it on an adele song, hehe <3

You're very welcome! I'm pretty well versed in helping young female singers find their chest voices, since I teach a lot of shy teens. The most important thing to remember with chest voice is that it will sound wobbly, and uncontrollable, and blah for a while, but that's completely normal. You're using unfamiliar vocal muscles, and like any muscle, you gotta train it before it'll work for you.

You're welcome to flick me questions when they occur to you, I'll do my best to help.

[therosesword]

Do try to find a vocal coach because, and I've seen this happen, sometimes singers will think only practice works but if they're doing something wrong, something that will cause harm eventually to their voice, practicing the wrong way can be damaging. I'm sure @Kaydreamer will agree.

mom's zoom meeting... a totally good reason to not sing out!

Do you have a particular type of music that you like to do the most? I have a friend who's a wonderful jazz singer and also sang for Cirque du Soleil. We used to have a "straight" job working next to each other.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVX4wggrd2webAIHWz-thXg

[therosesword]

yup, hear the more room too! Even with a bad voice I've still got decent pitch (which is why I sometimes hate to go to the symphony because I can hear that damned french horn is off) and I've been around singers for ages. You pick up pointers

Maybe it's because I like it but... a little Julie London there??? mehhhhh, maybe not, but I can see some jazz pipes.

[caelinalexis]

I quite like the 2000s and a bit of the 90s. And some heavy metal but I don't think I can sing that HAHA~

If it's pleasing to my ears, I'll sing it lol.

And also, my brother would have walked in while I was recording and have been like "shut up -_-"

[therosesword]

You've got the pipes, try everything.

[Kaydreamer]

Hahaha, I used to play French Horn. Still can, but it's been years since I've done so properly. I'm pretty certain 12-year-old-me was given a horn over the trumpet I signed up for because my pitch accuracy on the musical aptitude test was high enough that the brass teacher was like "...I'm not wasting her on the trumpet."

And yeah, I agree, jazz would suit her very well! It's the softness and smoothness in her tone which is triggering us there, I think. (Oh my gosh, I just love Julie London, aaaaahhh...)

@caelinalexis
A really lovely 90's song I use in my lessons is 'Kiss Me' by 'Sixpence None The Richer', that's something which suits a soft contemporary/jazz tone and is entirely accessible in a safe chest-voice range. The 90's had amazing music, there's a lot of gold there.

[therosesword]

I'm laughing here. I'm reading our comments back and forth and it's like we're planning her career... I have a little background in costume design from old theatre days, should I start designing her debut dresses???

[caelinalexis]

BAHAHA I CAN CONFIRM most trumpets only knew how to play forte in my band plus they were all out of tune. the horns sounded so lovely I still get tingles when I remember the section 'Here Take This Lovely Flower' from "Simple Gifts" . I play the flute, so I'm a little bit more attuned to pitch now lol.

[caelinalexis]

HAHAHA WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS THREAD. I mean, a singing career was in my interest...

[therosesword]

We have digressed quite a bit, haven't we? LOL

[Kaydreamer]

@caelinalexis
@therosesword

Says the trumpet player: "I can play HIGHEST!"
Says the saxophone player: "I can play FASTEST!"
Says the trombone player: "I can play LOUDEST!"
Says the french horn player: "I can play a note! )

(French horns are devilishly difficult instruments, haha.)

[caelinalexis]

clarinets: "I can play the softest"
flutes: "What is intonation?"
oboes: "I can play the flattest"
tenor sax: "What is rhythm?"

~From my personal experience HAHA

[caelinalexis]

@therosesword @Kaydreamer

also, me mom said if I'm gonna do lessons I better do good ;-; is it okay if i still ask questions from time to time?

[therosesword]

Oh Honey, you better believe it. @Kaydreamer is the one with the best answers. My little bit of knowledge comes from a minor theatrical foray many years ago, but if I have an answer I'll be sure to be here to ask.