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Singing Technique


Ernesto

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I hope not to sound impolite but is there any studied technique to get that efortless-like sound at high notes? or it comes out naturally...

Of course I don't want any secret revealed to me(neither seriously believe it to exist) but Eric Carmen and Roy Orbison are two of the very few pop (I mean non-operatic) singers I've heard crossing through an E or F note without sounding as if their neck was about to explode or opening the mouth as if they wanted to eat a whole watermelon at once and thought that maybe not a secret but there could be a technique besides of nature being generous with them.

Regards,

Ernesto (from Argentina, not a native speaker in this language, please don't pay attention to my mistakes)

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A HUNDRED WELCOMES TO YOU, ERNESTO!!! HOLA!!!!

:spin::spin::spin:

You made a beautiful first post and there is nothing wrong with your English! It's much better than my Spanish!

I hope you enjoy being here! You will learn a lot about Eric and Raspberries and the music and love the interaction!

ENJOY!!!!

:) --Darlene

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Hah! no, please, don't take it bad! I just wanted to give a clearer image with my brackets and the only purpose of my post was to mention that I was wondering how could Mr. Carmen sing in a ligh tenor (?) range in such a gentle way withouth tension between chest and head voice neither shouting heavily in high notes.

Meanwhile I'll keep trying :lol:

E.

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If I may chime in - I think the answer to Ernesto's question is that Eric has a smooth transition from natural range to falsetto (or "head voice"). It is a technique that can be developed over time with practice, although I cannot explain exactly how to do so. I use that technique myself all the time.

Bri

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Thanks for the opinion Brioohs!

Do you think he goes into a falsetto? I still have serious doubts.

Even when having said "head voice" I still referred to a "whole" voice not a falsetto which (to me) is what Brian Wilson did (I bet you know Wilson better than me but listen to "no go showboat" as an example) it has another colour and happens to be powerful near an operatic C5.

What caught my attention was the range, for example, from E4 to... A4, not more. At that E (more or less) any (non trained) tenor would find some strange feeling of change in vocal cords (because of a physiological matter) and the voice still sounds "whole" and full of air but still (even A4) is a low pitch for a Wilson-like falsetto (unless you sing at a very low volume). Almost all singers start to "pull upwards" and sound a bit forced (e.g. The Wonders) but our dear Carmen (or Orbison) still sound very comfortable, "round" and full of air what to me is astonishing (and even more if they do not have an intentionally developed technique).

Anyway, it would be interest to have Carmen's own opinion about this, maybe someday he can tell us how that beautiful sound feels when it comes out of one's own throat. If that never happens, I guess we will only know it from the other end, when reaching other people's ears.

Thanks again!

E.

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Ernesto, I think another reason why the singers you have cited (Eric, Brian Wilson, Roy Orbison) sound particularly good singing in this way is that they write their own songs, and therefore take advantage of their "special" abilities to deliver the performance as their individual talents allow.

I agree with your assessment about the "upward pull" (and Mike Viola is the voice of The Wonders to whom you refer - good example). I think the trick is knowing at what point you are capable of "shifting gears" from full natural to full-toned falsetto. There is such a thing as a nicely resonant falsetto, although not every vocalist is capable of producing it.

I do hope Eric will add something here as it would be interesting to read his thoughts on the subject.

Bri

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Maybe... that is sometimes also known as Passagio (with a) and there exist enough different theories as to discuss for a whole life. As each throat is different each singer gets his own sensation so names and things tend to mix up. I have heard of two passagio zones determining three different "parts" of the vocal range. The lower part known as a chest voice, the middle part sometimes called falsetto and being (if everything is ok) of a symilar colour (timbre) of the chest voice and the upper part always called falsetto, very sharp in sound and in a child-like colour(like Brian Wilson). The interesting thing is that the first two "parts" can be treated as only one thing covering an alarmingly wide range without colour changes and this happens when using an operatic technique or when being owner of a specially relaxed throat (usually property of very calm people with huge quantities of air) I don't know if Eric has a training or just owns one of those friendly sets of vocal cords but from the outside it is nice to see him singing terrible notes without putting strange faces or convulsing to reach them.

E.

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Here's something interesting I noticed about the new live album. Eric avoids the highest notes of Tonight (You look too young) and yet goes for and hits the ridiculously high points of I Wanna Be With You (So Bad....) Ecstacy (tonight....) and I Don't Know What I Want (Someone Give me a clue..)

Whatever, he still sounds great but it's a puzzle.

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