some attempts at singing

Nice job!

Thanks! I've got a ways to go, but its a lot of fun.
I'm thinking about maybe trying to find a cheap vocal coach for a few lessons... though I don't want too much time taken away from playing guitar.

I think you did pretty good too, but more important, I think singing lessons count as guitar practice (I intend to find a singing coach at some point in the future too).

I only listened to a few seconds of the Cat Stevens tune and you definitely have a good voice.

Thanks!
Just tonight I found out about a private voice teacher that works around here... I think I may give it a go...

I've just spent the past two hours singing to myself in the closet while my daughter is asleep and my wife is at a concert. So I thought I'd look at the singing fourum on GN.

This sounds really good. Not paying too much attention to timing with the music etc., but your voice is very good in my opinion.If this is early on for your singing, then you have a fantastic base to work with. I'm really very impressed.

Keep it up!! Maybe I'll post something at some point.

Haha, so I'm not the only one doing all my singing when everyone else is gone somewhere.
Thanks for the comments.

I ended up checking out the voice-teacher thing around here, and unfortunately her entire lesson schedule was booked. I'm going to try to get some lessons this summer though hopefully.

Your voice is naturally pleasing, you sound exactly like Sufjan Stevens. You should check him out his stuff "Illinois" is a good album. Literally you have the EXACT same register as him, I bet you could learn a lot about pushing your voice from hearing him sing.

Your lucky most people would have to work for a year before not sounding like total crap, honestly as it is now I think that you shouldn't be afraid to sing in front of people, it is very honest and pleasant.

As for improving, you might try singing scales, it will teach you how to "bridge the gap" between your chest voice and your head voice. Try singing an entire song in your deepest register, then sing the song entirely in your falsetto. When you go to sing it normally you'll almost certainly notice improvement.

I really enjoyed the sound of your voice and I think other people would too. Id tell ya if you sucked, don't stop singing.

EDIT one more thing. Instead of lessons for a few hundred dollars less you can buy a book with a CD. "Vocal Technique: a guide to finding your real voice, by Dena Murray is great, only 15$ and classes start today!

Thanks for the advice and comments. This may be (is) a dumb question, but for doing the singing scales exercise... how exactly is that set up? Like do you choose a random lower-pitch note and sing a major scale off of it, and then move the base note up a step and repeat? (like are minor scales used, or do you usually focus on common song keys, etc?)
I suppose that book/cd would probably explain a lot of exercises and ideas too. I'm definitely going to check that out.
Thanks for the help and encouragement (and book tip)!

Today I also had a bit more time to do some singing (doing the stealth thing still :) ), so here a couple short clips are.

http://www.box.net/shared/l55de53mbc A short clip of "Angeles" by Elliott Smith.

http://www.box.net/shared/oufebo385a Some of "Landlocked Blues" by Bright Eyes. I messed up the lyrics... several times unfortunately, so it doesn't really do justice to the beautiful lyrics in the actual song. I impersonated the vocal inflections (or whatever they are called) a ton on this song too, though it felt pretty natural.... I think it might have turned out okay but it is rather different.

Hi tree,

mate you have great voice, you just need learn how to get the most out of it. From what I heard it has a beautiful tone and carity to it. The best thing you could right now is to have a couple of lessons. You will learn how to breathe and give your voice more power. Trust me its really worth investing in a few lessons, you wont regret it

cheers

Paul

yes your right that the scales normally start out on a pitch and move the start pitch progressively higher. But scales are like "working out" and songs are like "playing the big game" So a lot of times scales will sound absolutely terrible (may not be a acending/decending major scale) but will force you to constantly swtich between your head and chest voice. Different excercises target different things. Personally I used the CD in my car, so as not to subject others too it haha.

If you have the $$$ to spare a good vocal teacher is ideal because they will immidiatly know what your doing wrong and correct bad habits, but that book explains all that too and if you have enough discipline to watch yourself it'll have the same effect for a fraction of the cost. That book brought me from essentially softly talking, to a nearly three octave range with proper breath control. The cd is key, it has this one scale that basically sounds like yodeling but its like going to the gym, after a week or two on that scale my voice was 1000 times stronger.

I checked out the bright eyes cover, great song. It definetly sounds like your trying to sing like Connor though. One thing that book goes into is singing with "your" voice even if it someone elses song. For instance I like singing Rilo Kiley songs but I sing the same melodies, but far deeper in my register then she does. So basically sing the song the way your voice will sing it the best, even if that means not sounding exactly like the artist you are covering. They have a different voice then you and would struggle just as badly to sing a song exacly like you sang it! Also I find covers much more enjoyable when the person has their own take on the song, rather then trying to play it exactly like the CD.

Chris Thile my favorite musician and a great singer is a shining example of this. He does a lot of covers, and generally they sound nothing like the originals. He covered Pavement "Spit on a Stranger" on the 2nd nickel creek album and it makes listening to the Pavement version hard haha.

Hey, thanks both for the help/comments.
I'm moving around a bit this summer, but I'm hoping to fit in a few lessons with a voice teacher sometime. In the meanwhile I bought that vocal technique book a few days ago. Thanks for the tip! It seems to be a really good book/cd set so far.

Thanks also for the tip on cover songs. Speaking of which, I just found this really good cover of Outkast's 'Hey Ya'... I think it highlights the 'own take' thing you talked about pretty well

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8-8nkkOA_AM

Anyways, thanks again,
--tree

Your voice sounds good, I would suggest just singing more and playing around with it

Well I've found myself in a situation where I can get a lot more practice time. So I hope to work on guitar/singing quite a bit for the next couple months.
I recorded a few songs this morning including "Trouble" again, to compare it to my earlier version. I think the new version is a bit better, but the big difference is that I didn't strain nearly as much this time around.
There's a bit of construction work going on in the background of the songs... and unfortunately after finishing the recordings, I did something to my left hand ring finger so I might be taking a break from guitar for a bit. I'm not sure whether a blood vessel popped or whether there is a sliver somewhere in my finger (I'm playing with some *really* old strings :) )...

Anyways here a couple of the recordings are:

"Trouble" by Cat Stevens (take 2) http://www.box.net/shared/y0a2se90lr

"Waterloo Sunset" A cover of Elliott Smith's cover of The Kinks http://www.box.net/shared/vrmj850gx3