"Ave Maria" Sample. Also a clip of me singing a Double Low C Comments appreciated!

[Mikey]

You heard it right folks, I walk down the scale and end up singing a note FIVE LEGER LINES AND A SPACE BELOW THE BASS CLEF. You have to hear it to believe it, link's right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz8rZZLTw7Q

To sooth your ears after hearing this piece, I have for you a sample of my attempt at "Ave Maria". The words aren't all right, but I'll hope you'll forgive me. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOYSbf_9mSM

Hope you enjoy!

Self Critique- I believe that on the Ave Maria that Pitches were right on top for the most part. A few very slight rough edges, but other than that I believe I sung it very melodically. I gave out a rich color, if only I would have remembered the words and the rest of the song! Other than that though I found that it was fun to listen to.

On the first video- I amazed myself. Yes the notes qualities do diminish, but let's face it. There's no need to point that out. Can notes that low even be as musical as most others? The fact that I reached these frequencies is awesome in itself. I'm sure the quality will go up as I get older. :)

[Mikey]

Awww..nobody wants to take a listen? :(

[HiLoPe]

Hey dude, that was amazing :-) !

[Mikey]

Why thank you, glad you liked it!

[BigTUnit1]

I found the low note to be quite shocking. You must have a ridiculously large lung capacity to sustain a note like that:shock:

[Mikey]

Yup, I've been doing breathing exercises for quite some time now. It's true about what they say- Breathing from the diaphragm is the best way to do it. :)

[Prissi]

pretty impressive! I'm not sure what the utility of being able to croak out the note is vs. being actually able to use it singing is, though. *G*

re: Ave maria--
you have a lovely voice... the only thing is it sounded... forced? it sounded very jerky and uneven. the notes themselves were great, it was just the transitions between them that were kind of jerky. I would like to hear the full thing, though :D

[Mikey]

Thanks for the critique! You're right Ave Maria was a bit forced. Probably should have warmed up before I recorded, haha.

As for the low notes, that was a sample of me using a technique called Vocal Fry. As a matter of fact just last night I have discovered a way to finally make this range singable! Lucky me, I discover this after I put up the Vocal Fry flip, lol.

I'm going to repost this and give my recordings everything I got next time. No more samples, time for the real deal. :)

[Mikey]

pretty impressive! I'm not sure what the utility of being able to croak out the note is vs. being actually able to use it singing is, though. *G*

re: Ave maria--
you have a lovely voice... the only thing is it sounded... forced? it sounded very jerky and uneven. the notes themselves were great, it was just the transitions between them that were kind of jerky. I would like to hear the full thing, though :D

I hope you won't mind if I critique the critique.

Explain further what you mean about jerky and uneven. To my personal ears I hear the sounds to be very legato like. Why I even slur up to some of the notes. As for forced, could you explain that further as well? The sound I created doesn't sound unatural or harmful. Maybe you mean I was too loud?

And for the croaking...well see croaking a note means that the sound being created doesn't have a musical value. And if you listen closely to the lower registers, although the quality of the notes could be better they are making a definite value. The notes are c/b/a/g/f/e/d/c. A croak means you couldn't distinguish a value of any of these. I think what you meant to say was "well it's impressive, but I don't think you'd use these notes in a real song. After all the quality of them seem to be pretty low."

The reason I did all this was because I realized that after responding to your critique I wasn't sure what you meant exactly, lol. I don't mean to come off as rude of course, it's just that your critique went completely against my own, which confused me. Where as I thought that my intonation was off in some areas and that I sung it in a very melodic manner, you said that my intonation was fine, where as I sung it in a forced and jerky manner! So as you can see I was very confused, lol.

It's all good though, I'm going to re record and give you the finalized version of a song. "You Raise Me Up". And I recently found a way to make the lower notes of higher quality *WOOT!* so I'm going to rerecord that as well.

[Whatocean]

Damn, I wanna go that low!

I like your operatics! Reminds me of choir in my high school. =)

[Prissi]

I know exactly what I meant to say. :P

by forced, I am not referring to a harmful sound, I mean:
1) your "ave mar-" was lovely. "iiiia" sounded like you were struggling to keep the notes even. I am basing this on your keeping to the piano.
2) "gratia plena", and the line to follow... did not sound smooth between the notes. it sounded like you were running out of air or something. it was very "o-o-o-o-o blahblahblah". and that was what I found most uneven.
3) your voice is lovely. which is a high compliment in my book (though I suppose it means nothing anymore from me :P); I'm really picky with my male voices.

Nothing to do with loud, and yes, I heard the slur on some of the notes, like on the "ave mar-" part I noted earlier.

As for your vocal fry technique... honestly for F, E, and D... I really could not tell the difference between the notes, and I listened to it again at least eight times. For the low C, it was a while into it before you matched the note.

also "well it's impressive, but I don't think you'd use these notes in a real song. After all the quality of them seem to be pretty low." would be a pretty mean thing to say, that last line, and that is not what I meant at all :P I mean something more along the lines of "that's really awesome. right now where you're at, though, I'm not sure they're singable in the context of a song quite yet."

And because it feels to me like you are offended a bit by my comment (even though your reply does not feel rude at all, no, I just kind of felt that you were a bit defensive), I'm not trying to discourage you or anything, or tell you that you're anything less than amazing for attempting this. Anyone who listens to me sing knows that I've got five thousand vocal problems of my own, and when I first started out here in... well, wayyyy before the VAA was formed, ugh. I found some stuff and I should probably post it just for kicks -- it was terrible, and even at a time when I thought of myself as a decent singer. :P you should bug someone for my attempts at belting, before I realized that it was okay not to be a broadway show belter.

I just figured on you being receptive to critique since you asked for comments, and so I tried to give you a constructive comment. :) But I do apologize if I came across as too critical or mean -- I'm in the middle of three weeks of major exams and so I try to keep things short. medicine is srs business :P