Soul Train Awards time! Opening the star-studded show was a medley of songs brought to us courtesy of Divas Jennifer Hudson, Evelyn “Champagne” King and Chaka Khan.
Built around Hudson's own disco-inspired track, I can't Describe (The Way I Feel), the medley saw Elveyn and Chaka's songs (I’m in Love and Do What You Feel ) worked into the arrangement, giving the impression of it being one seamless composition. It did seem an odd choice to have Hudson's less known song being the linchpin of the performance- especially considering the iconic tracks the veterans on stage have in their catalouge- but I enjoyed it none the less!
Thoughts?
OK, Jenifer's falsetto break is close to Bb4 which places her firmly in the soprano passagio. Her secong passagio seems to be F#5 but I could be mistaken. As for metal, Jenifer has quite a bit. She lacks an extensive lower register and even the lows that she has supported fairly well, were faint by comparison to to other dramatic mezzos. If anything, she is a lower set darker colored soprano rather than a dramatic mezzo. Not to mention, she has a very high tessitura but a dark color.
ReplyDeleteAs for spintos, you generally see two types. One that has consistent volume across the board even on cake notes and some that just continue to gain volume as the ascend. They generally are placed like full lyrics but have considerably darker, heavier voices which result in them sounding quite lower than full lyrics.
But like all sopranos, they don't typically have to excel in mid belts and Jenifer, excels in the upper extremes of her range (G5 and up). Now there are some sopranos that have great mid belts, namely Janelle Monae, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey and the late Whitney Houston. But Jenifer, no....Her lack of a lower register, her medium sized mid belts, and her extensively high and surprisingly powerful upper belts place her as a soprano. Her darker color, crazy vocal weight, and slightly steely timbre make her either dramatic or spinto. I'll wait till someone comes along and is better able to explain it than I.
Anastacia's mid belts on "Dream On" can give many tenors a run for their money. I got to dive into Mina because I've seen her name flipped and tossed around this site so many times.
ReplyDeleteAs if Evelyn (in her 50s) just slut-dropped! Haha. As nice as it is to see J-Hud being versatile and branching out from R&B songs and big ballads, this kind of stuff from her always feels a little boring vocally and generic or safe. Nice performance overall from all three of them though.
ReplyDeleteJ-Hud's dancing was so cute. It looked as if she was reluctant to do it...LOL.
ReplyDeleteThe way she moves and her vocal styling is very reminiscent of Beyonce… And so is that (as you say, brassy) tone in places, though sounds huskier.
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't seem to use proper support
ReplyDeleteAs much as I loved her studio version of her songs, the live ones are always quite rough.
ReplyDeleteLove & War (the album) had those filler songs that bore me so badly that talking about it felt like an intrusion to private grief because I really hoped a lot from the album.
Winter's Loversland was a much better album, imo.
THANKYOU. Chaka should've been one of the first profiles. Honestly.
ReplyDeleteI blame her speaking voice. She always speaks with a lot of uneccessary pressure and tension. It doesnt help that she likes to yell and definitely talks A LOT. She has a nice singing voice but ive yet to have been blown away by her live vocals because they always sound tired to me.
ReplyDeletei thought the vocals were fine for the most part but the outfit is the epitome of a hot mess
ReplyDeleteThere's a woman chewing gum right around the 02:30 mark...Not a pretty sight.
ReplyDeleteO by the way, Tamar's vocal was nice, but the performance itself was a bore.
ugh im sick of people comparing them full stop. people just have to let ariana be ariana
ReplyDeleteyeah definitely. i mean there hasn't been a new profile for months, and a chaka profile would really suffice
ReplyDeletejennifer is a falcon soprano
ReplyDeleteThe only thing she has similar to a soprano falcon is the dark color. She doesn't have the placement of a soprano falcon or the strong mid-region that a soprano falcon should have. Also, she doesn't have a stringy timbre on the top end which is characteristic of falcons. Falcons are not only defined by having a very low tessitura and being able to extend of to the soprano tessitura. Many dramatic mezzos can do that much. Falcons have near infinite staying power in the soprano tessitura but deliver sound in quite a different way than dramatics. Though falcons are sizable, they rely heavily on slicing and squillo at the top end rather than sheer metal and volume. Its quite similar to spintos sopranos but IMHO, a soprano falcon has to have an extensive lower range since they are essentially a very low tessitura'd soprano.
ReplyDeleteThe fact you think Christina Aguilera is a soprano and a spinto soprano at that...shows you have no damn idea about voices :)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Christina is a lyric mezzo, her voice does not have the edge or metal of a spinto or dramatic voice, neither has the tessitura of natural vocal weight.
Jessie J is a full lyric voice, similar in size to Celine Dion, not a spinto soprano. It has a "ping" to it just as Celine Dion does, but the essential quality of the voice becomes somewhat distorted and raspy as she belts, it doesn't bloom in power and beauty the way a true spinto voice does, and certainly not at all like a dramatic voice would.
Third, the passaggio of a dramatic soprano voice is similar to that of a mezzo soprano, it happens around Eb5/E5 as opposed to F#5 for a lyric soprano.
I'd say falcon or spinto, not dramatic. A true dramatic voice has much more steel and a sound that is like a wall of sound, take for example Monica Naranjo.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4hhMFe_v9k
slicing/squillo and metal are similar things, tbh. It's the "ping" of a voice.
ReplyDeleteFalcon sopranos are essentially mezzo-sopranos with extended upper register, meaning the voice is at its core the color of a lyric mezzo soprano with the possibility of greater power (such as a lyric-spinto), some agility (though not at the level of a true coloratura voice) and the ability to sing up to soprano though not being able to consistently stay up there. In pop music I would say Falcon voices are Aretha and Vanessa Amorosi.
There's other hybrids of mezzo and soprano, but they are rarer, such as a Dugazon (Lana del Rey, Mylene Farmer, Cecilia Bartoli) and a Soprano Sfogato/Assoluta (Mina, Maria Callas).
I forgot to stress that, according to the Fach system - it's a system in OPERA that classifies singers based on their tessitura/range, vocal color, weight etc - if Christina was an opera singer, her voice would fall under the Spinto fach. But you're right. Since she's a popular singer, she's not considered a Spinto Soprano but yes a mezzo, due to her timbre and she also sings in the mezzo tessitura. Sorry, I didn't specify my point of view, that's why you got me mistaken. :)
ReplyDeleteBased on the principle that she essentially lacks resonance below notes such as Bb3/A3, I would reconsider my opinion and say that she's definitely a dark-colored Dramatic Soprano.
ReplyDeleteNo, that's not correct either. First of all, to be a soprano one needs to be able to sing in soprano tessitura, that is between A4-A5 for a lyric-coloratura soprano in the Italian repertoire, between Ab4-Ab5 full lyric soprano and G4-G5 for dramatic soprano. Christina has trouble handling notes around Bb4 and everything from then on higher is very strained till she flips to falsetto around G5, not a fully supported head voice but a disconnected sound. Those are some very obvious signs of a mezzo-soprano voice: The inability to sustain a soprano tessitura with ease, especially around the passaggio, and a marked vocal break around Bb4 that if not smoothed out turns into a big ol' hole in the voice.
ReplyDeleteAnd she is most certainly not a spinto because a spinto voice is by essence a larger voice that blooms in color and beauty when used a full volume. Christina's voice, on the other hand, becomes distorted and thinner as it gets louder, that only happens to smaller/medium sized voice trying to sing beyond their volume capacity. In opera one could see that in Renata Scotto trying to sing Norma or in Cecilia Bartoli trying to sing any dramatic passage.
There is one instance of Christina vocalizing up to G#5 in a connected manner some 14 years ago, which sounds light-lyric soprano in color and weight, but many mezzo-sopranos can sound like a light-soprano when singing mezzo piano, for example Frederica von Stade and Cecilia Bartoli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz_M4__QoiM
So are they, essentially that missing link between lyric mezzos and dramatic mezzos in a sense? LOL.
ReplyDeleteNo, a Falcon is a hybrid voice between lyric mezzo and spinto soprano :) It has the lower tessitura of a lyric mezzo and its rich color (down to at least Ab3), the power of a spinto and the upper extension of lyric-spinto voice (up to C#6)
ReplyDeleteI should have known that much considering how much research I've done on falcons. LOL. Even when I compare Vanessa Amorosi to Monica Naranjo, it is quite evident that Vanessa mixes more on the upper chest simply because her voice sits lower by nature.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been taking your advice on strengthening my mid-belts and strange things have been happening to my timbre. My belts between G#3-E4 lack typical tenor brightness and are not as sizable as they are from F4 on up. And my timbre goes from smoky to stringy as I get closer to A4. Above that, I start to become more and more stringy. I've been trying to stay below A4 but sometimes the spirit of the music hits me and I end up shooting up into some 5th octave vocal run. LOL. Apart from the occasional need to belt like a gospel singer (Its in my blood LOL), I've been seeing some improvement on stuff I didn't think I need improving on. One day, I'll post a audio sample.
Start with this...a vocal range video I made of her, showing a range of solid 3.5 octaves with agility and power throughout. She's also the only female vocalist I've ever heard in popular music to sing wide ranging phrases spanning 2.5 octaves and more. Some like Mariah can sing a wide range within a song, but not really go up and down with full power and agility in one single phrase; Mina has shown the vocal ability to sing 3 full octaves (C3-C6) in one breathe.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtOoYNSOe08
I don't know what you mean by "stringy", you mean thinner like a string? Around the passaggio one shouldn't go full out and open, that only wrecks the voice. Around the passaggio one needs to narrow and round up the sound, as if putting a lid on the sound and direct it to the front instead of up. Think of it as an hourglass, the chest voice is the bottom part, the head voice is the top part, the passaggio is the very narrow and delicate middle. Any pressure on it will crack it, it needs to be handled delicately, from Eb4-Ab4
ReplyDeleteIDK if it has anything to do with my rasp or not, but by stringy, I mean it has a kind of rifting sound, as though one is plucking a string on a guitar or playing a violin if that makes sense. Lol, its hard to explain. Around my paasagio, sometimes my voice tried to combine both the stringiness with my typical rasp seen in my lower belting register. I'll blame that on a partially developed mix. Generally, my voice feels connected between C3 to D#5 and I can switch between registers with ease in that portion of my range. But as for the passagio, do I go for a nasal approach and mix more?
ReplyDeleteWell, talking about rasp...it's usually a sign of some vocal hygiene problem. It can be done intentionally, but if it's constant, there's some problem there. I, personally, don't use it very much, it's not a sound I like.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the passaggio, don't think nasal...nasal is a thin sound like your nose plugged. Think "mask" resonance instead, and rounding the vowels, going from "ah" to "aw" for example. To achieve mask resonance it is simple...just lift your soft palate as you take a breathe. The best way to do that is thinking of a "happy surprise", the first half of it, like, the first half of a yawn. This puts your solar plexus ready to support the sound, lowers your larynx and lifts your soft palate opening up the channel for the mask resonance.
how you explain her (jessie j ) extremely metallic tone ?
ReplyDeleteI've always had a rasp as far back as I remember. Lol. I generally am.able to lighten it until it becomes just a tad smoky but that is a lot of effort and I'm terribly lazy on that front. But my rasp never hinders my singing and if I had to rate it. I'd place it at medium. It isn't scratchy like John Legend. Lol.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'll practice the mask approach to singing. I don't like how I sound when I sing in the mask though. Lol, it is very piercing, biting, and mechanical sounding.
You call that metal? No honey, this is metal:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4hhMFe_v9k
Very amazing range that she has. It shows what having a coach throughout your career can really do for you!Adam Mhttp://singingmethods.net
ReplyDeleteTELL ME ONE SINGER WHO HAS BETTER VOICE THAN X-TINA ?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh4xzYSL6-I
ReplyDeletefor people who don't know what resonance is..the straining starts from the girl named bohyung
No matter who the singer is, someone is always going to hate on them and say bad things about them. You can't be off it, it's just way it is! I personally think Ariana Grande has a beautiful soprano voice. And she can really sing, and those high notes of hers are simply amazing. If you don't like her, then why are you commenting for?
ReplyDeleteThere will always be faults with any voice. Nobody's perfect! I don't see why people have to be so negative on here.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with Ariana is that shes completely faking her voice to sound like Mariah Carey. Listen to her covers of 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' 'Vienna' and the snippet of her 'Pink' cover by Aerosmith, she sounded NOTHING like Mariah. She actually sounded more Christina influenced, yet it wasn't a direct copy and I could tell it was HER singing, it didn't make me second guess if it was Mariah or Christina. I know most people are going to be like 'Well she grew up, voices change, she went through puberty' Not true, she was 18 at the time, I'm sure her voice was already fully delevoped. Although ranges may change, I don't think its possible for the entire sound of your voice to change unless you're forcing it. I loved her back in 2010-2011 she was incredibly unique and in my opinion her voice was better and stronger.
ReplyDeleteWell try to understand that she just noT to long ago gave birth, and she is having weight issues from that causing hear to be less fit than when she was thinner, Having a baby also does not excuse you to stop being a mother with many sleepless nights and lots of work schedule on top of it all. I think many people are a little to hard on women and don't see past the reality of women's health. Give her time and I think singers tend to lose voice on rehabilitation and rest issues more so than voice techniques itself.
ReplyDeleteEven then Whitney was a mezzo to me, she was a coloratura Dramatic in her early years that can go to high sopranos and as she aged she became dramatic and range declined. Whitney's soprano notes in her early years did sound pushed unnaturally (to me) some mezzos just can go to soprano ranges naturally, but judging from their natural voice Whitney sounded always Mezzo to me. Her voice was "BIG".
ReplyDeleteHitting high notes does not classify you to be the voice classification you are, some contraltos can do that, But The fact Christina's best placement has been on falsettos, head and whistle compared to her midrange belts, and lower notes she to me sounds like a natural soprano. But with that said she does have capabilities of pushing her voice (unnaturally) And many spintos who are trained could utilize this into proper techniques, which leads me to believe if christina was trained i am pretty sure she could be a spinto. Spintos technically have lyric tessituras who uses a slicing technique trough orchestras. It's not a dramatic voice that would sing over orchestras, they still retain lyric qualities that can extend beyond that voice classification sound. Like Kelly Clarkson if trained would be a good spinto because her voice slices trough music it's a piercing quality as oppose to ''BIG''. Whitney never possessed a piercing quality her voice was always full and rounded and her dark timbre always resembles that of mezzo, and no way did she have the range to be a dramatic soprano. She was most likely a dramatic coloratura in her early years that became just dramatic in her later career.
i don't think thats what they meant i think they just articulated themselves badly if you notice they did infer whitney had brilliant technique but they're are right in the essence of what they are trying to say (that's assuming we ignore the stereotyping). christina is largely inspired by a lot of classically technically poor vocalist who used the flaws in their voices to go outside of traditional singing to offer different effects. much harsher and aggressive sounds that personally i feel lead to a whole array of new technique style that albeit can be very risky are actually quite intoxicating and mesmerising, specially when combined with true soul (i felt like i had to say 'true' soul because many confuse soul as a technique and it isn't)
ReplyDeleteshe still has that voice she just went through a rough time where she was drinking a lot (she was actually detained by the police at one point cus her and her boyfriend were drunk and if you looka t a few of her performances she was a bit stumbly and did seem a little drunk at times) or at the least overeating which definitely effected her voice but she is coming back to fighting form now and trust me you are not going to want to miss her next album.
ReplyDeletethat was nice a proper critique with no nastiness just the real technicalities of her voice. i agree with pretty much everything you said and i do think her voice carries tension when she reaches her chest voice but in all honesty i really like it although i also think she should master a mix as well just to be safe with heard snippets of it but i don't think she know what it is. although i think in her mid and low registers her voice is actually naturally thick and quite rich she clearly does need to let her voice go lighter every now and then which i think she is learning how to do now. i mean the tension in her voice she creates sound amazing and the rasp she gets in those screamier vocals is breath taking (i've never heard someone be able to control their pitch in such a way whilst singing like that aside from her) if you do it too much you'll shave notes of the top of your voice and run the risk of vocal nodules. although i still also stand by the idea that a lot of her poorer examples of technique are down to lack of breath from running and dancing round the stage.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with the Christina Aguilera hate? Yes, her singing technique is horrible, but why do you guys have to be so negative? I personally still like her and her voice, Try to be more positive, jeezus....
ReplyDeleteHer latest new single live performance,still amazing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo3Q-kaFAHM#t=34
ReplyDeletejennifer hudson is a spinto soprano . the end .
ReplyDeleteguys am loving it.Brian thanks 4 that positive knowledge in studying vocal profiles
ReplyDeleteOoh yweah i agree with you........... Jenny is a head voice most tyms.... listen 2 where u at towardz the bridge
ReplyDeleteJennifer Hudson is not a Mezzo Soprano. She's an under developed Dramatic Soprano.
ReplyDeleteNope, she's a Soprano. Her timbre is what truly confuses people, but her voice much like her skin is dark lol
ReplyDeleteHer singing on Queen Latifah show recently was really quite lovely.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PltOA7T3FSs
She actually hit an A6 live, singing singing a gospel song called "For Every Mountain"
ReplyDeleteThat woman chewing gum was her sister, lmao! And Tamar busted a blood vessel on both sides of her vocal cords, so yeah thats why her performance was a little rough .. but shes better now check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkbQbyhSMY0
ReplyDeleteSo wrong
ReplyDeleteLOL! It's true, she possesses a dark timbre. Her skin just so happens to be dark as well lol
ReplyDeleteAs of lately, her voice has begun to adapt some colder, metallic qualities in addition to her already dark timbre and big voice. I think it's safe to say her voice is evolving into a Dramatic type. Long live the Spinto JHud.
ReplyDeleteNobody can an A5 in chest voice, I think you mean mixed voice. C6 in head voice should be most female singers, especially sopranos but a C6 in mixed voice in extremely rare.
ReplyDeleteIf she classes it as chest and doesn't sound like her normal head voice and has no mix, sounds like she's doing something freakishly wrong… Lol
ReplyDeleteNo-one can. That's mixed voice. Need to re-educate yourself, sorry.
ReplyDeleteAretha and Anastacia are dramatic mezzos yet belt just as high as J-Hud
ReplyDeleteMary is the woman that has a voice that is just like wow...I never thought her voice was dark I always kinda compared her with people like Whitney, but now us say it she sounds like a contralto sometimes..maybe she is a Lower Mezzo-Soprano with amazing abilities.....I also compare her with a versatile, technical and emotional singer. So yeah....lol
ReplyDeleteWhen was this 12 seconds??? I wanna hear
ReplyDeleteNo she has a vibrato (Just not as showing, her voice is too dark) But her belting in head voice does sound like screams. Sounds like homegirl callin for help. I think she should practice more but until then leave that to Aretha.
ReplyDelete