Travis Dickerson Recording Studio Forum

Quotebut can you reproduce it?

Good question! It takes a bit of practising to get the physical memory established, but then, YES! Well...most of the time    I find nerves make things fly out the window sometimes.

I have only just got the CDs in the mail, so haven\'t had a chance to try them yet.  I went for Breathing & Warmup, since those are the areas I feel the most need for. They don\'t have a relaxation one, which is the other biggie, but I can craft one of those from stuff I own.

This business of trying to hear your own voice is a tough nut to crack. No matter how good the reproduction, it\'s still going to be qualitatively different from what you hear in your head. I still find that my coach tells me something is better and I can\'t always hear it. Funnily enough, though, I can usually feel it. More comfort in production usually means better sound.

Really enjoyed that, svale. Folk-rock, just a touch of blues (but not the overly whiny kind LOL). Nice tune, lyrics & arrangement. It\'d be good to dance to, as well! I found myself harmonizing right away.

Do you work with this group a lot? That\'s you singing? If that\'s typical of your material then WOW  

That gave me a start, SV, thanks! I found this link  http://www.vocalcoach.com/ and it looks like it has some stuff I could use. Plus, they have a sale on right now. I think I\'ll try a couple of their CDs, and see if it helps. Breathing & warm-up are my critical points. Let\'s see... of course, that doesn\'t mean I\'m giving up my real live voice coach, but she takes the summer off!

OK, I\'m shamelessly bumping my own thread with a question:

Have any of you used vocal exercise books to help improve some aspect of your singing, and were any of them any good? If they were, which ones & how did they help?

QuoteSorry Oldfolkie, recovering from a flood this last weekend in my Condo. ...
Wanted to Talk a little about your folk influences. I am guessing that you sing folk (duh   ) and am curious to your style and the voices that have inspired you.
To get things rolling I will start with mine. Of course, touching on it earlier Karen Carpenter is my biggest influence but not really considered folk. In the folk genre, and even though her popularity has only recently surfaced my biggest vocal inspiration is Eva Cassidy. ...
Reaching back in time though I have to say I love Sandy Denny. My love for folk generates from the simplcity in the vocal stylings and in that they vary so differently with each performer. I find it interesting that alot of repeated renditions (or covers) of various songs that you hear nowadays, first came out originally as a folk song. Any thoughts??

My turn for apologies, sngwthme. I\'m on a big project at work & entirely swamped. Soon off for a much-deserved vacation. Will have to resume our discussion when I get back (not until second week of June). Was sorry to hear you had flood problems. There\'s a lot of that going around lately, it seems. We\'ve got wet basement woes ourselves. The trials of home ownership are endless.

In the meantime, yes, I sing folk. Mostly traditional, for a long time. By which I mean Western European & North American traditions, heavy on the British Isles. Early influences would be Ian & Sylvia, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Mimi & Richard Farina, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan (the 60\'s version), Tommy Makem & Clancy Bros. Also my Dad\'s country & western stuff including Jimmie Rodgers & Hank Williams.

Hit the folk festival scene early & often. Discovered Martin Carthy, the Watersons, John Roberts & Tony Barrand, Friends of Fiddlers Green, Fairport Convention (which is why I agree completely with you on Sandy Denny!), Steeleye Span, June Tabor, others too numerous to mention. Not just folk, classical, blues, rock, bluegrass, reggae, metal. Came late to punk & jazz. Totally avoid most pop & lounge stuff (apart from the occasional song that hits me just right).

Have also begun to discover some other Western European bands, from Brittany, Spain, Holland, Sweden & Denmark (usually seen first at the Old Songs Folk Festival or Champlain Valley or our local one in Ottawa). Current favourites are my local trio (& good friends) "Finest Kind".  

I currently sing a lot of shape note (see fasola.org if you\'re interested) which is great fun. Also play 12-string guitar & sing an eclectic mix mostly for myself; the occasional open stage too. Once in a while I sing with a group, obscure Christmas stuff.

Eva Cassidy doesn\'t ring a bell, but will look her up. Thanks for the tip. Karen Carpenter...well, I have to confess that by the time she was active I\'d gone deep into trad. folk & didn\'t re-surface until she was gone. So I have no opinion!

I also find the diversity of folk endlessly interesting. It bleeds across all the lines into other genres of music. Everything starts with it. I don\'t always care for the covers, but I love the way they develop. The "folk process"!

QuoteCan\'t wait to talk folk with ya!

I\'m around, sngwthme, if you want to chat via pm or in this thread. I find the differences between the various styles of singing intriguing. So many things that can be done with this on-board instrument we have!

QuoteI honestly don\'t know anyone who doesn\'t remark "Do I really sound like that?"  When hearing themselves mic\'d.  

I agree with you spencer. My coach encourages me to tape lessons, and I\'m usually horrified at how awful a lot of it sounds. Just when I\'d think I was making some progress, some awful squawk comes out. Yeesh! It sounds so different from inside your head, doesn\'t it?

Say, you don\'t need to do it all by Tuesday, you know! Voice lessons can wait a little while. They\'re fun when you get to them, though.

I will do that, sngwthme.

Used to do some yoga & tai chi in my more bendy days, but with 2 artificial knees it\'s a little harder to find do-able exercise. The Pilates I\'ve been shown is much modified, but still follows the principles. Aquafitness & swimming are also very good.

Well, it\'s not exactly singing, but fitness certainly does play a role. Singing is hard work - as in strenuous physical activity. But great fun too!

Hey there! Got back from my trip on Friday, but we had a "do" to go to yesterday & am just getting into the net now.

Specially for spencer & the_fawnky_fangers, let me share a couple of things.

First, I\'m a firm believer that almost anyone can learn to sing if they really want to. The number of people who are truly tone-deaf is extremely small. I think one of the things that puts men especially off learning to sing is the whole voice-change thing. I have a good friend who was told to stand in the back & look tall with his mouth shut (in school choirs), who then didn\'t even try to sing until he was over 50 and has turned out to have a very respectable bass voice. Without immense pain in the learning, either.

Second, I agree with everyone else that breath is the thing. Well, d\'oh! But it\'s the expansion stages and the support and the control and being sensible of vocal health that make it more complicated. But not THAT complicated  

Sngwthme, what you said about proper breathing is so true. Probably what made the difference between Maria Callas & Renee Fleming.  Abuse of vocal cords is the fast road to no voice.

One thing I have found interesting. I\'m not much of an exercise buff, but another friend is really into Pilates, so much so that she\'s got her teaching papers. The spine, muscle and breath control in that system is really in sync with the same stuff you use for singing. She\'s just about convinced me to take a class. Anyone else try this?

Oh goody, another singing junkie!   I\'ve been singing since forever too.

I\'m just this minute packing for a business trip but will get back to you again next weekend. Maybe we can coax some others out from the woodwork too cough*gkg*cough...

For now, I\'ll just say that I am so with you on the incorporation of fundamentals without compromising style. Folk & opera really don\'t mix well. But it\'s necessary to get the basic training in breath control & support in order to make life easier on your vocal cords, no matter what you sing.

I\'m not an opera fan, but I admire certain singers and certain material. And operatic singers sure know how the thing is done!

More later, you can count on it!

I\'ve been taking lessons from a voice coach for several years now, and am interested in trading stories and hints with anyone else trying to improve on their voice production.

I know most people around here are instrumentalists, but there are surely a few other vocalists?

To get the ball rolling, my teacher suggested I read Renee Fleming\'s "The Inner Voice". Now, I\'m not an operatic singer, nor do I want to be   but the fundamentals of voice production apply across the board, and she has some really interesting hints for visualizing tones and voice maintenance, among other things. Anyone else read this book yet?

Thanks spencer, I\'ll keep that in mind. I\'d like to get a nice 6-string acoustic, but am taking my time. Don\'t get enough time to play as it is, without adding another underplayed instrument to my collection. That\'s got to change.  

Thanks, Jonny. I\'ve tried both the Baby & the Big Baby out at the Taylor booth at the Old Songs Festival in Altamont NY, but have never had the chance to really sit and play one long enough to get a really good impression, so I was curious. (There isn\'t a local distributor where I live.) Of course, Martin is very nice too! I\'m a Guild 12-string player, myself. But strictly folk & self-taught, I\'m no virtuoso. Love to listen to those who are though.  

Interesting site and mood pieces.

I\'d like to hear your thoughts on the Taylor Big Baby.