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Post by cassie on Nov 10, 2015 16:32:03 GMT -5
cassie wrote: So I think I may be confusing falsetto and head voice in terms of how high a note can be sung, and if falsetto is used by some singers to reach higher notes than they could in their head voice. Are these things right? 1. Adam can hit just as high a note in his head voice as he can using falsetto. I don't know how high Adam can sing in falsetto, but the notes he has sung so far are easily in the range of his head voice.
If that is true, then he would choose to use falsetto for a more breathy fragile sound? That is what I assume. It is a more pop-y sound, as we usually hear guys sing falsetto on high notes in pop music. When Adam uses a light head voice it has incredible ring and beauty. Think of that final note on "Tracks of My Tears." That "neeeeeeeed" has so much ringing resonance, it almost makes your fillings vibrate in synchronicity. Or think of those high, almost operatic sounding notes in "My Conviction". I am guessing that Max and Shellback were looking for something a little .... duller? Weaker? More generic sounding? 2. Sometimes males use falsetto voice to hit high notes they cannot reach in their head voice. It is more the case that they do not know HOW to sing in head voice. Accessing that part of the vocal range does not come naturally. It requires technique learned from a coach/teacher generally. Many untrained male singers have the choice to sing in chest voice for lower notes, or to flip into the wispy falsetto for high notes. They usually push their chest voice as high as it will go, then flip to a sound that is very different when they want to sing higher. Adam has other options: a mixed head/chest voice for belting with power, but without sounding strained, head voice for that crystal pure floating tone with lots of sympathetic harmonics, or falsetto, high, light and lacking in resonance to carry well. Adam also has the technique to blend the sound of the notes so that it has a similar sound and ring from low to high, without a jarring shift. I have no doubt if Adam works on his falsetto he can get it under control and make it pitch perfect as well. I just don't see why he would want to. But I am sure he has his reasons. 3. Adam is hot. From the bottom to the top of his range, with an angelic light touch or the power of a jet engine, caressing or hitting you upside the head, he is always hot. (Except for me, with the falsetto, which he has yet to learn to control, and which is limited in its scope and emotion by the nature of how it is produced). But, Adam is HOT even when he is not singing a note.
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Post by cassie on Nov 10, 2015 17:24:05 GMT -5
Hi Guys, Not sure what happened, but I tried to post this here a little bit ago as per Q3's suggestion. I thought I had successfully posted it, but now I do not see it. So, I'm posting it again. Apologies if this is a duplicate and I just can't see it... Anyway, I posted this on the main thread and Q3 suggested I post it here. I would welcome your thoughts. Here's the original post: On the falsetto front, this is what Sam Smith said when asked about his falsetto: "It's not falsetto, it's just chest voice. I just power through. Sometimes I do head voice. It's hard to explain. I just sing. . .I am technical, but I don't know what it is because I've never heard it before with other guy singers. I belt in my high register. It's hard. It's quite operatic, the way I sing, sometimes."
I do not want to talk about Sam per se, but I am wondering what he means re not falsetto, it's chest voice, powering through... etc Sounds to me as if directing chest voice to high registers could be a type of straining, but I don't know anything about singing technique. (Sam's statement came from this interview: http ://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/22-things-we-learned-hanging-out-with-sam-smith-20150204?page=4 Note: I added an extra space after http. You'll need to close that space if you paste it in as the URL on a browser.) peace&love Read more: adamtopia.com/thread/3374/adam-off-china-concert-more?page=20#ixzz3qyjV7HfdI am probably the wrong person to respond to your post, because I really dislike the sound of Sam Smith's singing. But, since no one else had offered an opinion..... I listened to one live performance of the new Bond theme. I definitely don't hear what Sam is talking about. "Quite operatic"? Uh...... where? When? Not the song I listened to, by a long shot. I also definitely hear falsetto when he shifts into those high notes above about an A4. A couple of notes he adds chest voice back into it for more power, but there is no consistency to it. It is the opposite of seamless in transition. You can hear the falsetto very clearly. It isn't head voice. It isn't belting. It is a very light, little boy wisp. You are correct that belting in one's high register is damaging to the vocal cords. I also find it interesting that he says "It's hard". If he is pushing his voice so much that it takes great effort and is hard, he is singing incorrectly. Well, incorrectly if he wants to save his vocal cords and if he wants to get resonance out of his voice. Sam has this tone that sounds heavily weighted with twang and higher frequencies but without the warmth of lower frequencies. Like turning down the bass on your stereo system and turning up the treble. It has a sharpness or brittleness to the sound, which can also sound whiny. I listened to his speaking voice in a short interview, and he seems to have a nice, resonant tenor voice. Don't know quite what he is doing when he sings to lose that roundness to his voice. But, putting that edge to it has proven unhealthy considering the number of times he has had vocal problems and cancelled shows on tour. youtu.be/Z1N9B49TXjs?t=1m37s |
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Post by seoulmate on Nov 10, 2015 18:33:51 GMT -5
I am so frazzled in RL right now... no time to hunt back in the threads for certain videos.
You guys are discussing the TOH performance at the vineyard concert, right? I haven't even seen that particular video. Could somebody post it? I would at least like to hear what everyone was talking about!
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ghost
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Post by ghost on Nov 10, 2015 19:40:50 GMT -5
I am so frazzled in RL right now... no time to hunt back in the threads for certain videos. You guys are discussing the TOH performance at the vineyard concert, right? I haven't even seen that particular video. Could somebody post it? I would at least like to hear what everyone was talking about! Here you go! youtu.be/VMbmL7C5NQAHere's the playlist for the entire concert: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2JICauK-vTYrwBUmqleTJnC8UlLHbLmf |
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happy
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Post by happy on Nov 10, 2015 20:10:50 GMT -5
Okay, I listened again to see if I was being a bit harsh in my criticism the first time I heard this. Nope. It really was bad and so un-Adamlike that it is startling bad. I wonder if Adam has listened to this. He definitely needs to work on that falsetto somewhere private!!! I also wonder if the people in the audience even noticed. I am sure Adam will get it figured out. He worked on producing a lovely head voice, so ...
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Post by theosgma on Nov 10, 2015 21:09:17 GMT -5
Okay, I listened again to see if I was being a bit harsh in my criticism the first time I heard this. Nope. It really was bad and so un-Adamlike that it is startling bad. I wonder if Adam has listened to this. He definitely needs to work on that falsetto somewhere private!!! I also wonder if the people in the audience even noticed. I am sure Adam will get it figured out. He worked on producing a lovely head voice, so ... Startling bad is a good description. But even our members on the main list either did not notice or thought we were harsh about it so don't know what to say. I can't imagine he is unaware there is an issue. |
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Post by red panda on Nov 10, 2015 21:26:14 GMT -5
As always, cassie:
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Post by rihannsu on Nov 10, 2015 21:36:27 GMT -5
Okay, I listened again to see if I was being a bit harsh in my criticism the first time I heard this. Nope. It really was bad and so un-Adamlike that it is startling bad. I wonder if Adam has listened to this. He definitely needs to work on that falsetto somewhere private!!! I also wonder if the people in the audience even noticed. I am sure Adam will get it figured out. He worked on producing a lovely head voice, so ... I doubt the general public noticed anything. I just listened again and were it not for the discussion here about how supposedly bad it is I would not have noticed. I don't think I have totally tin ears because every time I've tried one of those pitch test I pass and am told I have excellent relative pitch. I understand that some people have extremely fine tuned ears and slight pitch problem can sound really bad but honestly at the time this discussion started I had only listened to a download of the stream and the sound was not great. Listening to this video I am mystified because I don't hear anything as awful as you are all claiming this to be. I totally understand if it's not pleasing to your ears but to the vast majority of people there would be nothing noticeably wrong with this performance. To be honest that performance of Heaven on Their Minds from years ago that everyone raves about sounds absolutely atrocious to my ears but I don't attribute that to Adam but rather the combination of the acoustics of the room and a crappy phone recording. I don't think it's that I can't tell when he's off either because I had no trouble realizing he was off key for that Ray of Light performance on Diva's when he couldn't hear himself. This was not anywhere near as bad as that. LOL, I also have no trouble determining that Bono's falsetto sucks ass so have absolutely no problem with saying when my heroes aren't perfect but seriously this didn't stand out to me at all. Sorry but no way is that any kind of atrociousness that is going to turn people off. We are talking about the pop world anyway. People pay money to hear infinitely worse performances. Remember how awful (for Adam) the AMA performance was? NOBODY but his hard core fans noticed. As a matter of fact casual fans commented on how awesome he sounded. |
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happy
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Post by happy on Nov 10, 2015 22:00:40 GMT -5
Okay, I listened again to see if I was being a bit harsh in my criticism the first time I heard this. Nope. It really was bad and so un-Adamlike that it is startling bad. I wonder if Adam has listened to this. He definitely needs to work on that falsetto somewhere private!!! I also wonder if the people in the audience even noticed. I am sure Adam will get it figured out. He worked on producing a lovely head voice, so ... I doubt the general public noticed anything. I just listened again and were it not for the discussion here about how supposedly bad it is I would not have noticed. I don't think I have totally tin ears because every time I've tried one of those pitch test I pass and am told I have excellent relative pitch. I understand that some people have extremely fine tuned ears and slight pitch problem can sound really bad but honestly at the time this discussion started I had only listened to a download of the stream and the sound was not great. Listening to this video I am mystified because I don't hear anything as awful as you are all claiming this to be. I totally understand if it's not pleasing to your ears but to the vast majority of people there would be nothing noticeably wrong with this performance. To be honest that performance of Heaven on Their Minds from years ago that everyone raves about sounds absolutely atrocious to my ears but I don't attribute that to Adam but rather the combination of the acoustics of the room and a crappy phone recording. I don't think it's that I can't tell when he's off either because I had no trouble realizing he was off key for that Ray of Light performance on Diva's when he couldn't hear himself. This was not anywhere near as bad as that. LOL, I also have no trouble determining that Bono's falsetto sucks ass so have absolutely no problem with saying when my heroes aren't perfect but seriously this didn't stand out to me at all. Sorry but no way is that any kind of atrociousness that is going to turn people off. We are talking about the pop world anyway. People pay money to hear infinitely worse performances. Remember how awful (for Adam) the AMA performance was? NOBODY but his hard core fans noticed. As a matter of fact casual fans commented on how awesome he sounded. I doubt if most people at the concert noticed either. I certainly don't claim to have a perfect ear, but Adam usually sounds so good to me that when I listened to that TOH video the first time, I thought "ouch!" Still thought "oh my" the second time around. I think it is also that I know what a beautiful head voice he has. I just think he needs to do some work on the falsetto if he wants to sound his usual Adamself! I wonder if he still works with a vocal couch. I know that opera singers continue to do that throughout their careers. |
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happy
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Post by happy on Nov 10, 2015 22:20:46 GMT -5
Okay, I listened again to see if I was being a bit harsh in my criticism the first time I heard this. Nope. It really was bad and so un-Adamlike that it is startling bad. I wonder if Adam has listened to this. He definitely needs to work on that falsetto somewhere private!!! I also wonder if the people in the audience even noticed. I am sure Adam will get it figured out. He worked on producing a lovely head voice, so ... Startling bad is a good description. But even our members on the main list either did not notice or thought we were harsh about it so don't know what to say. I can't imagine he is unaware there is an issue. Nice new avi, I see! I didn't bother commenting on the main thread because there didn't seem to be much point once it had been mentioned. Since the discussion was moved here and Cassie put in the effort to explain the difference, I thought I would let her know that her input is appreciated. Maybe Adam is in China working on his falsetto right now! LOL It would be fun if he had the time to go to a Chinese opera -- lots of dissonance and high pitched singing and costumes! |
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