Do i have potential to be better?

[Simpan27]

Hello

 

Do I have any potential to be better or should i just quit singing?

Because right now i sing for a metal band here in sweden who does a lot of iron maiden,dio,judas priest covers.

Does it sound horrible?

 

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0n4RBrfYzTl <---aces high

 

http://vocaroo.com/i/s15zQjJj7aye<---- opera

[Pahchisme Plaid]

Simpan27, I haven't yet listened, but you do realize that a very unsafe question to ask--at least going about it this way.  A few things:  Do you feel confident with your voice?  If you do, don't let someone else shake that up--cause they surely will.  Everyone has different tastes, everyone has an opinion.  You are setting yourself up.  Simply post your songs for feedback.  If you're lousy, you're sure to hear about it.  If you have a decent voice, but feel you'd

like to improve, here is a good place to learn.  Anyone who would ask and also those who don't most certainly has some room to improve--if not just in confidence.  If you're looking to be a performer, you'll get the feedback you're asking about as a result of performing.   I understand the need for affirmation, but you're a moving target in HOW you go about finding it. My suggestion:  delete this post and simply post your performance in the section appropriate and you'll get some measure of feedback.  

[Just1L]

If it was possible …

If Bob Dylan himself posed the same question there would be people saying he would be better off getting another singer for his songs. They would say that right before they started cutting up his lyrics. 

 

If you're worried about your vocals, take some vocal lessons at the very least.

[john]

Everyone can improve... but then it is a question of how much... and is related to how hard and how smart you work.

 

Sometimes you can find you can develop a reasonable singing voice, but it is not best suited to the style you listen to, but works brilliantly for another style. Sometimes you can find your voice can only go so far, but you can use your love of music to fuel playing other instruments.... playing a second instrument is always recommended... and in those you might find you are exceptional.

 

Whatever opinion we offer would just be an opinion. I understand you may be lacking confidence... but that may simply down to experience. Do you practice singing at home, alone? Dedicated singing practice? Do you try to learn technique, or are you thinking "it's my voice, isn't that enough?", also known as lazy lol 

 

Point is, practice. Learn. Use technique. Learn your instrument. Then look at how good it is.

 

if you just expect to be able to sing, you aren't being fair to yourself, or respecting the work it takes to make a voice into an instrument, or the many singers who work hard to build their skills. After all, why should you expect you can do it with minimal effort, when the greats have to work at it?

 

Confidence is built on knowledge and experience. Talent can be natural, but it can also be learned through hard work.

[Rudi]

Everyone can improve. I dont need to listen to your links.

 

Looking forward to your 2nd post.

[MikeRobinson]

I agree.  Now, let's get to some critique of the tracks you shared.

 

Ace High started with an immediately-interesting lick ... then, inexplicably to my ears, started repeating it, over and over again, until I began to wonder if the recording was defective.  Then, it broke into a new musical idea ... and did it again!  Then, finally, vocals started, and although "I can't understand a word you're saying," it actually is a driving rock-vocal performance.  (Very "Rush.")  Furthermore, the initial vocal idea breaks very-cleanly(!) into another one, after a four-bar guitar gap, the song proceeds rather agreeably with only a little-too-much repetition.  Then, a key-change ... an engaging power-guitar riff (you're shreddin' it, pal!) The song proceeds ever-more-frenetically to a very nice conclusion.

 

... so, start by cutting-out about the entire first minute, because my Gong Show instincts were more-than ready to go off after the obligatory "first fifteen seconds."  Present that first "interesting lick" no more than twice.  That "new musical idea" no more than twice thereafter.  Then, shred!!"

 

(As they say:  "in music, foreplay is over-rated.") 

 

Opera, unfortunately, didn't make it.  The recording is simply too quiet to be understood, and what I can hear of it appears uninteresting.  It rather-quickly got "Gong'd."

 

[MonoStone]

On 19 July 2017 at 8:02 PM, Simpan27 said:

Do I have any potential to be better or should i just quit singing?

 

Well... you sang Aces High much, MUCH better than most of us could! It sounded like a bit of a struggle at times but... wow that's a hard song to sing! Really, really, really ...really...hard! And you did a great job I think.

 

I think you have a very good voice. Yeah keep working on it but you should definitely have more confidence. You do sound like Bruce on it... and you have the style and I'm sure you sound great live when it's blasting out. Stop being down on yourself, you're good... whether you can be better still I don't know but I enjoyed listening to you.

 

 

[symphonious7]

WOW....  I didn't see that coming!  I feel I haven't been on this forum long enough to comment on where this thread went so I'll just address the OP.  The first response you got was one I think you should really listen to.  I hear someone with great chops, who's not confident.  That would explain why you'd phrase the post in this way, and I think it's the ONLY thing keeping you from singing better.  There's a difference between not having the chops, and not BELIEVING in your chops.  I think you just need to accept that your voice itself is fine and you KNOW how to sing, it's time to get out there and do it enough that you realize this.  Nothing will get your confidence up more than just throwing yourself into the fire and seeing yourself survive.  So go for it my man!

[MonoStone]

Apologies. 

 

 

 

[Just1L]

31 minutes ago, MonoStone said:

...it's interesting to hear how taste or individual opinion, and over-inflated self opinion, can make feedback a dangerous thing. I mean... imagine if Simpan HAD written Aces High, and posted it here for review... Imagine a guy without much confidence got that review and scrapped the song.... And then look at the reality that the guy who actually wrote that song is a multi millionaire because of it and other songs which are written in a very similar way.

 

LOL Yes, before Mike even posted, that was what I was trying to get at with my post below.

 

On July 19, 2017 at 3:08 PM, Just1L said:

If it was possible …

If Bob Dylan himself posed the same question there would be people saying he would be better off getting another singer for his songs. They would say that right before they started cutting up his lyrics. 

 

If you're worried about your vocals, take some vocal lessons at the very least.

 

Based on Robs post though, it came across as callous so I will re-word it.

 

@Simpan27 You can sing okay and if you really want to get better take some vocal lessons. Because everyone has an opinion and in the end they don't really matter at all. What matters is you and believing in yourself enough to become more confident. Confidence in yourself will take you far.

 

Now what I really want to say. What's up Simpan? Nice drive-by post you got here. If people listening to your song is all you really wanted, I hope you're enjoying it. Next time, leave out the questions at least so you don't waste other people's time.

[symphonious7]

@Rob Ash I appreciate your concern, actually did make me feel included hahaha but that wasn't why I felt I couldn't comment, I haven't been here long enough to see if there really is a pattern here or if you're jumping the gun.  In other words, I just don't know Mike's posts well enough to agree/disagree.  In a few months I'll either defend him or throw tomatoes    

[MonoStone]

17 minutes ago, HoboSage said:

I must confess, if someone from Iron Maiden posted Aces High here, I would tell them I thought the first part of the intro was two bars too long, because I've always felt that way about it!  LOL   I think it should get to the kicked-in second half of the intro two bars sooner - like Trooper does.

 

Hobosage Vs Harris on Songstuff.... ah if only... what a thread that would be! A massive e-punch-up over 2 bars...

 

I think it works either way. Two bars is seriously picky!!

 

Off topic slightly but... the first ever gig of any size I went to was Iron Maiden, I was 14, what an introduction to live music! I didn't notice any surplus bars though... I think I left with slightly damaged hearing and the certainty that I WOULD become a rock star.... but never, ever in spandex! 

[MonoStone]

10 minutes ago, HoboSage said:

P.S.  With his cut-the-intro mentality, Mike has annoyed me too - and recently.  But, it's more in how he says/types it, rather than that he expresses his opinion that an intro's too long.  I do believe he's trying to be constructive and is a good guy.  He wants songs to get to the singing.  Well, so do lots of people, many of them in "the industry."  I think he's presenting that perspective for consideration.  That he wasn't familiar with the Maiden song . . . I'm sure most of the world isn't.  I think the scorn and ridicule was uncalled for, and unfair.  Mike's been a member for quite awhile.  I choose to cut him some slack - until he annoys me again!  LOL   But again, I'll get over it, and chalk it up to Mike being Mike.    I hope when I annoy others - and I KNOW that I do - they might cut me some slack too.

 

Maybe so... if it bothers Mike I'll apologize, but I doubt he will care... anyone who writes to others in the tone of superiority he uses, and with 'stock' feedback, isn't likely to be fussed about a post by me ....

 

I just get irritated when the opinion is a stock one like that, which I can't help but put down to some 'rule' of radio kinda thing he once heard (I may be wrong but that is how I felt/feel), that kind of thing just gets my goat (that and stuff I'm not allowed to harp on about anymore since the Pit went down) and yes the way the opinion was expressed with such a tone of superiority really bugged me, and honestly did make me think about feedback on forums...I mean the way Mike worded his feedback, a noob to the site would assume he's some kind of expert (and that also, as I've thought many times before, made me think again about the way I give feedback... like...what the hell am I talking about? What do I know anyway!?... and that thought usually makes me stop for a while or at least makes me think twice about what I say in feedback next...for a while...until I get too comfortable posting my crap opinions and...the cycle goes on).

 

It's a rare thing but sometimes I do post in some kind of emotional response. I didn't honestly care about Mike suggesting I cut my entire intro from a song, honestly it made no sense to me and I thought nothing of it, but then the pattern emerged...and... that bugged me.

 

That said... If I'd thought more before I posted, I probably wouldn't have put it the way I did. Yeah I think I was wrong in that way... but.... that said... ah I just couldn't help it at the time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeRobinson]

My goodness!  Don't I seem to have acquired quite the fan club here!  

 

And I'd like to suggest what ought to be a basic ground-rule here:  that we are all here to talk, as candidly as we will, about music.  Not about one another.  You're free and encouraged, I think, to offer "a vigorously dissenting opinion."  But, leave the individuals who express those opinions – whatever those opinions might be – out of the realm of discussion.

 

- - - - -

"You asked me what I thought." "I told you." And, I told you in a stream-of-consciousness way as I was listening to your track as any listener might do.  This is not to imply that my thoughts match what any other listener's thoughts about the same music might or might not be.  But, they are mine.  And, as best I could manage, they were strictly aimed to be constructive.

 

I am delighted – imminently surprised, but of course delighted for the songwriters' royalty checks – to hear that one of the songs that I "dissed" is "a huge hit."  Doesn't matter to me, because I've never heard it before.  So, you just heard the while-it-was-playing off-the-cuff reactions of someone who had never heard any of these songs before.  (And, I would still "cut" Aces exactly as I described.)

 

The beauty of music is that everyone is perfectly entitled to their own opinions and to their own music-buying preferences.  And, that everyone else is perfectly entitled to ignore someone else's opinions!

[symphonious7]

I guess I will say just a little something.  I DON'T understand this situation, I DON'T know what pattern people are talking about with Mike I've only gotten a few critiques from him.  But I used to have this producer who really got in my head, he made me think that I understood the "craft" of songwriting and that it could be boiled down to a few principles.  I went on a forum called soundclick and opened up a review thread, it gained alot of popularity, but my critiques tended to stick to the same formula.  I just... I thought I had music figured out, my producer's influence gave me that idea.  Sometimes people really appreciated what I said, but sometimes they'd come back and point out how painfully obvious it was my answer was cookie cutter and I wasn't truly listening.  I'm sure I looked pretty snobby back then.  

I don't know if that relates or anything but just... don't be too hard on Mike if he has a tick like that, sometimes you just don't know what factors cause a person to think the way they do, and sometimes they just can't be aware of it.  

[Just1L]

43 minutes ago, symphonious7 said:

I guess I will say just a little something.  I DON'T understand this situation, I DON'T know what pattern people are talking about with Mike I've only gotten a few critiques from him.  But I used to have this producer who really got in my head, he made me think that I understood the "craft" of songwriting and that it could be boiled down to a few principles.  I went on a forum called soundclick and opened up a review thread, it gained alot of popularity, but my critiques tended to stick to the same formula.  I just... I thought I had music figured out, my producer's influence gave me that idea.  Sometimes people really appreciated what I said, but sometimes they'd come back and point out how painfully obvious it was my answer was cookie cutter and I wasn't truly listening.  I'm sure I looked pretty snobby back then.  

I don't know if that relates or anything but just... don't be too hard on Mike if he has a tick like that, sometimes you just don't know what factors cause a person to think the way they do, and sometimes they just can't be aware of it.  

 

To me the only thing wrong about Mike's views are just that they are narrow minded and don't really allow for much creativity. He has a box and it only accepts one type of song. Anything that deviates from the exact song he likes isn't worthy of going in the box. I accept and am fine with his views, Hi Mike! But I also realize that there is more to songwriting than just doing it one way. I will say, if Mike said "Hi, I'm from Atlantic Records and I'm just checking out some songs on here", I guarantee people that may not agree with him now, would be more likely to agree with him. At least if they were interested in going the pro music route.

[symphonious7]

1 minute ago, Just1L said:

 

To me the only thing wrong about Mike's views are just that they are narrow minded and don't really allow for much creativity. He has a box and it only accepts one type of song. Anything that deviates from the exact song he likes isn't worthy of going in the box. I accept and am fine with his views, Hi Mike! But I also realize that there is more to songwriting than just doing it one way. I will say, if Mike said "Hi, I'm from Atlantic Records and I'm just checking out some songs on here", I guarantee people that may not agree with him now, would be more likely to agree with him. At least if they were interested in going the pro music route.

I can't knock a guy for being that way, that was me for years.  On my review thread every single rap song got the same review "It's materialistic, it's ego drivin, it's repetitive, it's crap" and people would get soooo mad, trying to explain what I don't understand about hiphop, and I just wouldn't have it.  That's just one of many examples, or like how for years I thought all country was terrible music, regardless the time period or artist, just thought it was all "redneck music".  I've had some pretty narrow views in my day, sometimes you just get stuck in a loop haha.  And yeah, Hi Mike, not trying to talk about you behind your back, in front of your face lol

[symphonious7]

I did think about that.... but I mean... stuff happens, sometimes you gotta say what you've been holding in for too long, and I respect someone who can do it with their head on straight.  

[Pahchisme Plaid]

Be still, people.  It'll be okay.

[john]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with Mike's assertion regarding the length of an intro, either specifically or in general. Having the opinion neither makes him right or wrong. Indeed, within the pop song market especially, it is a commonly held practice to get to the singing as quickly as possible. By all means disagree with the opinion, but it is a valid opinion.

 

As to Iron Maiden, big rock hit or not... who is to say it might not have been a bigger hit had the intro been shorter?  Equally that suggestion could well have ruined the song and made it not a hit, as I suspect Rob and other rockers might assert, rock does love a longer intro than pop. Apples and oranges. By all means debate. We put forth our best rationale and we try to work out our differences, or make our case.... but it is the OP that decides what to apply to their song or performance, and what they consider right for it or not.

 

Of course we all form an opinion, and have a degree of conviction as to what we would have done... but it is not our song, or our performance. In this we are all advisors offering opinions.

 

Should you find you disagree with Mike's perspective you can of course disagree with that opinion at any point. Even have a general discussion about the pros and cons of intro lengths.

 

As for how that opinion is expressed, that is a different matter, though it is still subjective... I do really appreciate that we all try to police ourselves and to effect change. Sometimes saying "You were a bit harsh" or "that came over as really dismissive" etc can go a long way. If you really think someone is way over the line, ask for a mod to review the offending post. That's what we are there for.

 

We are all adults and I do want all members to feel they can express their opinions (with the exception of personal attacks and other rule breaking stuff) but staying on topic in review threads is important too. Arguments happen, but mutual respect is also needed. Balance in all things.

 

I am not sitting in judgement of anyone here. No one has asked for a moderator but I can see the thread is a bit heated at points and all I would suggest is that you shake hands and remember we are here for our love of music, take a deep breath, have a hug, whatever and put the thread behind you.

 

In addition, if you want to discuss suggestions and points further, let's start a new topic away from the OP post where we can discuss the way we express our opinions constructively.  That would certainly be a constructive, healthy way to effect change with a minimum of pissedoffness (another word invention). If it means a rules or guidelines update, so be it. At least we then all have more clarity on something that is a bit woolly.

 

I would point out that text communication can be misconstrued, especially humor. Text lacks many social cues that face to face conversation already has built in. Brevity can come across as short, like a put down, flippant. Humor can come across as insulting, or even cruel. That doesn't mean you cannot be brief or use humor, simply that awareness is your friend and a little more care than usual is a good idea.

 

Members reading this thread, and this reply, will have varying degrees of experience. To that end I have to cover as many bases as my sleep deprived brain can muster. So please forgive me if I have misunderstood, missed a point, a detail or have proceeded to make a mountain out of a molehill.

 

This thread has definitely wandered off topic.

 

Peace, hugs and stuff