ayleim
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Post by ayleim on Jan 13, 2016 11:03:11 GMT -5
I think I'm in need of either a little reassurance or a slap to the back of the head. I've been following what I can of the concerts in China and Japan, and one thing I've noticed is that Adam seems to be easing off on the number of high glory notes - as in, it doesn't seem like he needs to hit one for every (almost) song. Not a concern, and his lower register is a wonderful contrast.
But there is one, JUST one point that's bugging me. You know Fever has that one glory note during one of the "baby, baby you're mi-i-ine" lines? He's had a couple of mishaps with that one recently, and at this last concert in Nagoya, he decided to forgo it altogether. Is this likely because of the length of the concert (and this occurs pretty near the end)? Are there other likely reasons?
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Post by cassie on Jan 13, 2016 12:18:58 GMT -5
Seems everyone is wondering and commenting on that note! Yeah, not so pretty. It's a problem for a couple of reasons.
1. It is a frickin' G5. A G5. As in the top of my range, and I am a mezzo soprano. Men don't sing that high in full voice. Well, except for Adam. Sometimes. But the slightest miscalculation in placement, cord adjustment or breath control, and it cracks. It is very delicate.
2. It is an octave jump from G4 to G5 with no lead up. It is easier to walk up to a high note gradually, a step or two at a time than to do an octave jump to a different part of your voice and a different way of producing the sound. Think of it as shooting at a bullseye target for a dozen shots and then, on command, spinning around and hitting a bullseye in a single shot, at a different target, in a different direction, at double the distance, in half a second. Yeah, that.
3. He's a bit busy doing other things at the moment. Not time to mentally prepare for it.
I don't think his voice cracks because of fatigue at that part of the show. Yes, he is doing more in his mid and low range and less with the "show off" glory notes. Like you, I find his lower voice yummy, and his mid range is sounding so brilliant and resonant. The D5s and E5s he tosses off are very strong, pure and controlled. That's higher and better than 99.99% of classically trained tenors, so I am more than satisfied.
If he starts dodging anything in the 5th octave, and if his voice becomes more raspy or gravelly, or if he doesn't sustain his notes, I would have reason to be concerned, but he is currently sounding very strong.
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ayleim
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Post by ayleim on Jan 13, 2016 12:43:56 GMT -5
cassie, thank you for spelling everything out for me. So - no worries then! :D
(I tend to forget how much I take the range and beauty of his voice for granted.)
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Post by bridgeymah on Jan 28, 2016 17:03:56 GMT -5
Hey Cassie, interested to know your theory on the Melbourne TISI, weird night one, absent night two and just listening to Adelaide he seems fine in his power band but still seems to be struggling a bit in the "softer" parts of the song with breaks in his register where he usually transitions smoothly... Of course that could just be his interpretive choice for the song but listening to some of the Japan versions I think he might have been/still be fighting off a chest cold (it's going around down here)...
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Post by cassie on Jan 28, 2016 18:25:32 GMT -5
I have no theories about the omission of TISI at Melbourne II. Or the different interpretations. I do not think he has a chest cold after hearing him hit those gorgeous D5s in TISI and Fever last night. And the beautiful E5 at the very end of IIHY, two hours after the start of the concert. Also, his speaking voice during the intro on Australia Day didn't sound nasally, as it would if he had a head cold, or chesty as it would with a chest cold.
As to singing the first verses of TISI lightly with head voice vs. strongly with a belt, it is my GUESS that he has not settled on exactly how he wants to vocally interpret the song. Singing the first part delicately allows the song to build for the finale, but in places doesn't match the emotions of the lyrics. Singing the whole thing powerfully doesn't give him the arc he likes to sculpt when singing ballads. I think he is still playing with the light and fragile vs the rebellious and powerful in that song.
JMHO, YMMV What do you think?
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Post by bridgeymah on Jan 31, 2016 13:58:24 GMT -5
I have no theories about the omission of TISI at Melbourne II. Or the different interpretations. I do not think he has a chest cold after hearing him hit those gorgeous D5s in TISI and Fever last night. And the beautiful E5 at the very end of IIHY, two hours after the start of the concert. Also, his speaking voice during the intro on Australia Day didn't sound nasally, as it would if he had a head cold, or chesty as it would with a chest cold. As to singing the first verses of TISI lightly with head voice vs. strongly with a belt, it is my GUESS that he has not settled on exactly how he wants to vocally interpret the song. Singing the first part delicately allows the song to build for the finale, but in places doesn't match the emotions of the lyrics. Singing the whole thing powerfully doesn't give him the arc he likes to sculpt when singing ballads. I think he is still playing with the light and fragile vs the rebellious and powerful in that song. JMHO, YMMV What do you think? Sorry missed seeing your response here - thanks for that. I agree he's still playing - while quite a few other songs are pretty consistent in delivery (improvs around edges but core stays same), TISI changes almost nightly and might just be how he's feeling in his voice and mood. Not sure which approach I like better - is gorgeous both ways. |
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Post by red panda on Mar 3, 2016 13:40:54 GMT -5
Still thinking about Alisan's voice. cassie, would love to hear your thoughts.
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Post by cassie on Mar 3, 2016 14:03:04 GMT -5
Still thinking about Alisan's voice. cassie, would love to hear your thoughts. My reply is here, in the thread about other singers than Adam. adamtopia.com/post/725492/thread |
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Post by Craazyforadam on Apr 19, 2016 14:39:51 GMT -5
Bringing the technical article about Freddie's voice here, for future reference and discussion. Quote: New scientific study confirms the obvious: Freddie Mercury had an unparalleled singing voice A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers sought out to examine the Queen singer's incredible vocals consequenceofsound.net/2016/04/new-scientific-study-confirms-the-audience-freddie-mercury-had-an-unparalleled-singing-voice/ Endquote. Trying to entwine the gooble-de-goop and attempting to extract something in common, plain English, I came up with the following: (Feel free to chime in, I am totally outside of my league here, and just trying to hang on...so corrections are welcome, as well as probably needed). a) Freddie was a Barritone, based on speaking voice. b) He trained his voice to sing through the complete tenor range (and quite a bit beyond) c) Based on their study, they define his range a F#2 - G5, 37 half-steps d) His vibrato is not quite as smooth and regular as Pavarotti's, but displays a distinct, controlled and specifically recognizable vibrato, that has to be interpreted as his specific and characteristic style of vibrato. It is more gruff sounding in nature. e) Sub-harmonics: During each vibration of the ventricular folds the vocal folds completed three oscillations. Similar vibratory patterns of the vocal and the ventricular folds as synchronized oscillators were observed in previous studies involving the same (14) and other singers. So, if I would translate this to what we know about Adam, the parallels are striking, and the differences are notable too. I would love to see these guys do a similar analysis for Adam's voice (and we could obviously provide sufficient samples, and should Adam be willing, he could provide any sample that might be missing). Anyhow: a) Adam is a tenor, based on speaking voice. b) He trained his voice to sing through the complete counter tenor range (and quite a bit beyond) c) Based on our own 'study', we seem to think his range a A2 - B5, 38 half-steps , is that right? d) my guess is that Adam's vibrato will be holding its own with the classically trained tenor voice, lacking the distinctive gruffness. Would be interested to read what these guys think. e) There must be smooth and regular sub-harmonics in place for Adam too. That is the famous '3-D dimension' that we all keep talking about, would love to know more abouthow this study would come out for Adam. This last talking point kind of reminds me of the Nikki Costa video (and obviously Adam is clowning around and therefore not singing with pure and pretty sound, and therefore most likely not with clean sub-harmonics), but the vibrations of the vocal folds can be seen here and compared to Nikki's, and that is pretty spectacular...so here it is the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrG46ojeC5s |
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Post by Craazyforadam on Apr 22, 2016 13:46:43 GMT -5
Just bringing this video over. I don't think I had seen it before. Range comparisons are always questionable for me, on multiple levels. But this is a vocal materclass thread, so I think, we should have this here, and be able to comment, if wanted. The video is fairly well researched for the Adam samples, less so for the others. On Freddie, he got imo a few Roger Taylor soundbites mixed in with Freddie's (i.e. UP) and for Brendon Urie he includes a few questionable notes at the end. He seems to be a Brendon Urie fan, and so let's him win, but seems to be fair and complementary to all the artists. Multiple people have pointed out that a) it does not matter, b) that Adam sounds better and c) that Brendon's highest notes should not be counted. It does not make a difference, it is just one person's opinion. But having these three singers compared in this way, hearing where one artist starts to strain, or another switches to head voice, is interesting to compare. www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1MivyMbKwE |
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