Singer Songwriter

I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be put as only a guitar player, or either only as a songwriter, or only as a tap dancer. I like to move around.

Jimmi Hendrix

Vocal technique must adjust to the style. In contrast to my classical, I aim for a speech like quality whilst still being true to my natural sound; I also like to stay true to my New Zealand accent when recording my own songs.

Here is a link to the song ‘Snowslide’ from my latest EP called ‘Recycle’ on Spotify. I released this EP in 2023. The sound engineering for the first song called ‘Sage in a Tree’ isn’t quite right, I should have compressed the overall sound more and brought the vocals down lower in the beginning. I was happier with ‘Snowslide’. Anyway, I am learning – eventually I will be able to sound engineer the way I would like; it is better to learn how to do the engineering oneself than to continually pay for others to do it!

It’s as necessary for teachers of nonclassical singing to immerse themselves in the music, the literature, the culture of that genre as it is for teachers of classical singing to commit to a full understanding of classical music.

Edwin, Robert. Apples and Oranges Revisited. NATS Journal of Singing. Volume 57. Nbr. 2.
Here you will hear the use of a hard attack where I build up pressure and then onset the note. You can also hear an aspirated attack. I use these onsets for the style. The sound is thinner than in my classical singing. It is treble dominant.
Here you can hear I use a belt-mix on the top note very softly. I do this before I want the sound to sound more coarse than if I chose head voice. I use aspirated attacks and hard attacks. The sound is treble dominant. The intonation is not secure in a couple of places because it needs a touch more treble in the vowel.
Spoken Word: River is Awa
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