Need honest opinion and advice on voice (acapella)

Adelaid

Adelaid

New member
Stumbled on this forum in search of a critique of my voice. Love what I'm seeing so far and looking forward to visiting a lot more often. For now, I wanted an honest (and detailed if possible) critique on my singing. I can pinpoint a few flaws in my singing that I am attempting to fix, but I wanted some outside opinions and direction. Please give advice or feedback in your response. I'm just going to link my soundcloud in here (all tracks are raw acapella). Feel free to listen and let me know :-)

https://soundcloud.com/brittany-anderson-65
 
Sounds good - I don't have any specific critiques and would just like to hear you with music backup to verify pitch, however, at the moment it sounds pretty good.
 
I'm not much of a singer, so I won't pretend to offer technical advice. Here are my reactions. I listened to the first and last of the performances you posted. You can sing. You seem to have good control over your voice. Pitch sounds pretty good for acapella. It would be worthwhile to get some lessons to help develop your talent. On the parts where you belt it out, your voice takes on a harsh edge. This could be partly due to the recording, but I think there is an issue that you could fix through training and practice. I noticed on the first song, particularly, that it was difficult to follow the lyrics. This should not be happening, especially on acapella. Work on diction and putting the lyric across, which in popular genres is just as important as the melody.

This is my personal preference, but I could do with a lot less of the vocal embellishments--the breathiness, the trills, etc. These vocal mannerisms have gotten completely out of control in the R&B genre especially. Go back and listen to Otis Redding's original version of Dock of the Bay. There are a few "ohs" and "yeahs," but for the most part he's just putting the song across in a way that is honest and soulful. He doesn't have to embellish much, because the song is good and so is he. This vocal honesty is timeless. I predict we will be listening to Otis Redding long after we have stopped listening to Whitney Houston or any of the current crop of R&B singers with their autotuned vocal gymnastics.
 
I was going to say pretty much the same thing as Robus. You have the skills for sure, but if I were you, I would try to give some thought to finding your own voice. You sound very much like most other pop singers out there right now. I know it's hard to do, because you probably learned to sing by listening to all those singers, and so that's now what feels natural to you. But maybe try listening to some different styles to hear what they do.

Take this all with a grain of salt. You're a good singer right now, and that's more than a lot of people. I would just like to hear a bit more originality in your voice. Good luck!
 
Thank you for your input.

Ido:
I definitely plan on uploading songs with instrumentals soon. I posted these specifically for critiquing, but its a good idea to have some backing tracks for pitch references.

Robus:
I also agree on the harshness, however, in Seven Nation Army it is on purpose. I wanted to give my upper range some edge rather than my typical r&b/pop sound. It does sound a bit too harsh though, and that is something I'm working on. I've always had a very loud upper range and it's been hard trying to draw it back in (progress has been slow but steady lol). I don't want to compromise the power in my upper range so its been my hardest battle vocally yet.

As far as Otis goes....I could only hope to ever come close to measuring up to him, so I would never even attempt it lol. Hes a legend and in his own category. I do love the simplicity in his vocals, but I've been singing a certain way for a while and to me the trills are fun. Necessary? No. But again its a hard habit to break. I do agree with you none the less.

Famous:
Ah you got me with the originality! lol You hit it on the head with the learning to sing by listening to other singers part. I'm an untrained singer and that is exactly how I taught myself to sing (aside from reading books and watching videos). It is hard to find your voice and again, that is another big goal of mine. I like to sing a variety of music from rock and alternative to r&b and pop so its hard to find a balance and achieve versatility between all of those. Its been a challenge. However my voice has always fallen more on the pop/r&b side, and that is probably where I feel most comfortable.

Again I really appreciate the input and have definitely noted all the suggestions.
 
I remember quite a few 'horrible times' when singers learned bad things as standard. They misunderstood why certain artistes used the microphone as a tool and did hand gymnastics, like sudden pull always and slow returns on the sudden belted notes. Sound mans joy, a person being their own compressor and needed hardly and fader control, but the new singers misunderstood it, assuming it was a visual thing. It then became a sound mans nightmare because they did it totally at the wrong times, making their voice thin and nasty. We also had the Whitney wailing, and the Carey wobbles. The real problem is when they are learned wrong. It's so easy to get into bad habits and they spoil your own style. Once you start to mimic other people it will be really hard to change. One quite popular singer here in the UK has a strange facial grimace on certain words in songs, and a weird hand flick. She cannot stop it. Learned it ten years ago and it's there for ever. Do your own thing.
 
i listened to some of your tracks you have an amazing powerful voice with a nice tone. i would suggest doing more power house singer covers. i would also suggest using backing tracks, but i also like your acapella. Keep up the hard work :)
 
I like your voice a lot but I agree with the others above regarding the vocal tricks, breathiness, etc. Do you have any originals? If so, I'd love to hear what your muse gravitates towards, as you are covering such a huge range of styles on your SC page.
 
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