Rate my improvement in singing?

Question:here is me singing "tomorrow" last year around this time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2rSNyWYg...

and heres me "singing somewhere over the rainbow" a couple days ago

http://media.putfile.com/me-singing-some...

I have been working at it. I still am without a voice coach but my parents are ordering me brett mannings singing success so that will change.am i improving fast enough? anything i need to work on to get even better

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: here is me singing "tomorrow" last year around this time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2rSNyWYg...

and heres me "singing somewhere over the rainbow" a couple days ago

http://media.putfile.com/me-singing-some...

I have been working at it. I still am without a voice coach but my parents are ordering me brett mannings singing success so that will change.am i improving fast enough? anything i need to work on to get even better

I'm going to try my best to answer - bear with me, because I am having trouble figuring out how to put into words what I think you should work on.

First, before I dive into any criticism, I do want to tell you that you have a very pretty voice and a lovely vibrato. Especially for someone your age. I am very happy and impressed that you are working hard to improve your singing - especially without a voice coach.

But since you are looking for ways to get even better... here are my thoughts, for what they're worth:

* When you sing, you need to commit to a style and sing the entire song in that style, otherwise it just doesn't work. It seemed like you were trying to sing the song straight, but threw in some hints of either jazz or pop, but just a little bit - so it wasn't enough to make it feel like it was a style. So, I think you need to decide whether you want your version to be straight, jazz, or pop and then sing the whole song in that way.

* I have a personal pet peeve about some singers - particularly young teen singers... and it is when they slide or bend into notes instead of hitting them straight on. You do this quite a lot in your rendition of "Over the Rainbow." If you listen to broadway singers and really good singers of any style - for the most part, they just hit the note right on when they sing and only bend or slide into it when they specifically make the choice to - to flavor the song here and there, but not for most of the notes. You tend to scoop a lot of your notes instead of just hitting the pitch.

I know some people consider this "style" - but to be a truly excellent singer, you should practice not scooping into notes. This will give you a much purer sound and allow you to be able to sing more styles, because bending into notes won't become a habit - you'll be able to use it as a true style choice, as you did with those couple of vocal riffs you did, instead of bending into every note. The times you just hit the notes straight on were lovely and I wanted to hear more of that.

*Be careful with your vowels. For the most part you were doing well with them. You want to keep them round and open. And with diphthongs such as the "I" sound... as in "Why oh why can't I" - you want to be particularly careful. Diphthongs are made up of two sounds... in the case of the "I" sound it is made up of both "ah" and "ee." When you sing the word "Why" or "I" especially on a long note, you want to sing the "ah" sound as long as you can and only change to "ee" at the end of the note. This will give it a fuller and richer sound, because "ah" is much easier and prettier to sing as it is an open sound, than singing "ee" because it is closed and tends to get a bit nasal.

* Still be aware of your diction - especially on end consonants. For the most part, your words were clear. You have improved a lot in this area from your first sample of singing. Just keep working on it and it will get better and better.

*Get a good deep breath right from the start. There were a couple of places where you sounded a bit shaky - even right at the top with your first couple of notes. Breath support and control will come with practice as long as you are aware it is something you need to concentrate on. Sometimes you sounded a bit breathy, but I couldn't tell if that was lack of breath support or an attempt at a style.

Those are the main things I could think of that could use some work. But really, you do have a very nice voice. I've sat in on teen singing auditions and you would be right up there with the top contenders for roles. For me, it's the scooping into notes that would prevent me from casting you in solo role. If you worked to correct this, I think you would have a very good shot at singing roles.

The critique I have offered so far has been purely technical - in terms of singing well and properly. The other area you'll want to work on is the artistry of the song - what will make it go from just being a very well sung version of a song - to a piece of magic.

Some of that will come when you work on tone and style, but a lot of it is how you say and express the words of the song. Which words are key? Which do you want to emphasize? You might want to take just the lyrics of the song and look at them like a monologue, don't think about the music or singing - just read them as you would if it were not from a song. It's tough once you know how the song goes, because you will naturally want to speak them to the rhythm of the song you know. Really work hard not to fall into that and just read them as you would any text. This way you will get a sense of the real meaning behind them and you'll find those key magic words - and when you put the words back to the music, you can hopefully bring out the meaning further.

"Over the Rainbow" really is a very beautiful, well-written song. Sometimes we forget to really listen to the words because we know the tune so well.

Your singing of it didn't have the magic or the feeling behind it yet - but I think that will come, once you feel technically comfortable and can be comfortable that yes, your voice will hit those notes and you have the breath to support them - then you can stop thinking about singing and start thinking about the meaning and emotion of the song.

Singing is hard - there are so many little things to think about. And you really are doing well and are on the right track. A vocal coach would help immensely, but even without one you are definitely improving. Keep recording yourself and listening to yourself. You will be able to tell whether you like how you sing or not and find those spots where you can make some fixes. You might even want to ask the choral/vocal teacher at school for some coaching. My teacher at school helped me so much. It's worth asking.

Good luck and well done!

You have a gorgeous voice.

You started out great and improved.

A bit of constructive criticism, slow down; down wipm out on the high notes.