Hello,
I am currently in a band that plays rock/punk-pop etc. The main singer has left now and i am going to be the lead singer. The problem I have is that on these songs ( such as American-Idiot by Greenday and Swing-Swing by the All American Rejects) they sing really high. I cannot reach these notes except some verses which are lower. I am a 16 yr old male.
I'm wondering how they sing this high because it is all across the pop-punk genre. Im sure im not singing it an octave too high. They also seem to use so little effort whereas I use all my effort to sing and cannot last a 30 min set.
All help is appreciated as I'm considering getting a new singer.
I could just be that you are a bass or a baritone, and these songs are beyond your comfortable singing range. If I am correct, American Idiot is in the key Ab more or less, making the highest note sung an F, which really isn't that high at all for a tenor voice.
If I were you, I would find out what your comfortable singing range is. If you have access to a keyboard instrument (or you could just use a guitar or whatever you have at your disposal), and find out what notes you are comfortable singing, up from the lowest note to the highest. If a certain song your band is covering exceeds that range, you may want to transpose the songs to fit your range. Just lower all of the chords in the song an equal distance, rinse and repeat until you feel the melody of the song is comfortable for you. I remember reading somewhere else on these boards that bands should do what their singer's ability/range dictates, not the other way around.
Hope this helps.
I am where my mind put me.
So if i found what notes i could sing on a guitar, could you tell me what range i'm in?
Likely, depending on what you come up with.
The problem with the pop punk genre is that a lot of the vocals are really high tenor stuff, classic rock is like that too. If you find you are a bass or baritone, this may not be the genre for your voice - or at least not the genre to do a lot of covers from. Unless you don't mind transposing like I said before.
I am where my mind put me.
But is there any way i could train myself to hit those notes over time? If so how much can the range be improved?
Generally speaking, usually the range you have is the range you've got.
That means that if you're a baritone, you can't train yourself to become a tenor.
Your range is already there, its the ability to hit all the notes in your range that may not be. With training and practice you can expand this, but my advice is don't expect this to give you an extra half an octave ontop of what you can already sing; you can maybe get a semitone, or more if you are lucky. So lets say you thought your range was from A - high A, you might boost your range to A - B, or A-Bb.
On training and practice, try to focus on singing a semitone higher than the highest note you can sing comfortably (this means not screaming). At first sing this note softly, it doesnt matter if your voice cracks and you sound like mickey mouse every few seconds, just try to reach the note, and know that its there. Over time (weeks), steadily increase the volume at which you sing this note, until you can hit it confidently.
good luck!
Wolf
You'll need a good teacher if you want to expand your range.
Do it gently and slowly. Start singing up the scale with proper support and relaxed throat and face and try to go to the top note that sounds good without straining. Now try one higher. Try to round out the tone until it sounds good. Lower the volume and slowly raise it.
Switch into your head register and even falsetto. Now go down the scale and try to even out the breaks between ranges. Do this 10 times a day until you get smooth transititions.
I can go from chest to head to falsetto fairly smoothly although I'm pretty out of practice now. If it helps you are going to use less and less air as you get higher and higher.
If the songs you are trying are only slightly out of your range it could be that your not warming up properly.A good warm up is essential to get the maximum out of voice.If strain your voice even a small amount at the start of rehearsals then its going to struggle for the rest of night.
TIP:
If you feel embarrassed about warming up (la la la la la la larrrr! etc) spend 5 minutes humming different notes to yourself.It really helps.]
cheers
bob
My Band: http://www.myspace.com/thelanterns2010
playing whilst drunk is only permitted if all band members are in a similar state!
i found what helped me a lot was to (while i was in the car and out of earshot :P ) sing the songs and get the notes no matter how high they were and how bad i sounded. going falsetto to reach them most of the time and my voice cracked and faded out etc. but it stretched my vocal chords no end, i went from a high c (5th octave) at absolute highest in head voice to a high a (5th octave) in my head voice, thats a huge jump in only a few weeks.
that being said i still cant get near the guys like panic!, green day, fall out boy etc. they are just too high for me and i have to accept that :( i know my vocal range now, i just have to work with what iv got