#Baritone singer - Want to sing like Lewis Capaldi; how to imitate his voice strength?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

jovial terrace
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I’ve been mostly shy about singing for most of my life, relegated to the idea that my vocal range is limited and since I can’t sing most of the songs played today, I shouldn’t much consider singing as a hobby or an outlet. This changed in recent months/past year and I’ve been in love with going out to karaoke and singing my heart out, especially in ballads/sad/love song kinda vibe where I can pour my emotions out and get a depth in my singing that I otherwise can’t.

However, I realize my voice is in the Baritone range, and it’s tough obviously. Without the high range of a tenor nor the strong power of a bass, I feel like I’m outclassed. I however have found solace in two contemporary artists whose music styles and voices I absolutely adore and love and happen to be baritones; Lewis Capaldi and Joji. I think with Joji I can try to imitate his inflection and style with enough practice and range adjustments/practice, but I found it incredibly hard to sing Lewis Capaldi songs (despite his songs being my favorite to sing).

A great example can be found in one of his imho underrated songs I found recently, “grace”.

https://youtu.be/m8rM7Tox1HE?t=35&si=jBrnUE1IjR2ykvji
(Should start at 00:36)

You can hear his soft deep voice going low, almost soft with a hint of breathiness. He then begins the chorus by belting out “Im not ready to be just another of your mistakes”, whose notes I can hit (with difficulty, its reaching the far end of my vocal range), but my head voice seems to be flat and breathy while his is strong, grounded, textured in a good way. I imagine he pushes some of his chest voice with his head voice, which I have no idea how to. He’s obviously a talented singer that works hard, and I cant compare to his talent, but I want to learn how to sing my high notes with strength like his.

To the Baritones in this discord server, would you give a new singer some advice? Thank you!

light thicket
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Since you mentioned the high notes are at the far end of your range, the first question is if you're comfortable shifting keys

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You will always gain more strength in a range you are familiar with, partly due to confidence and partly from a mechanical perspective as well

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In this case that would involve shifting the key down

jovial terrace
gloomy jetty
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in theory you can extend your high note wayyyy up high at any range

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you just need to keep training your voice

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and doing exercises

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also helps

light thicket
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I've heard that baritones tend to underutilize head voice, so that could be something to work on

tight night
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What @light thicket said is definitely correct, baritones/amab people tend to have very large vocal cords which makes it so that those voices can actually have very high ranges. In opera Baritones often transition to counter tenors (those very high male voices, think the super duper high male pop singers of like the 90's). What you need to do is strengthen your head voice, so that you can then mix it with your chest voice to get those powerful higher notes.

You can do this by vocal exercises like scales, up and down. if you really wanna get into it I have books that can be found online for free that have great exercises in them specifically for training the high voice. But the key thing when practicing your high notes is not to strain, you'll know if you're straining when it hurts/feels tight. If you do feel tension you can try some SOVT exercises, those are especially great for high notes because they often are almost impossible to strain through. Think things like singing through a straw or lip trills. If you need any more info feel free to shoot me a dm. I'm a master's student in Opera Performance and could always use the teaching practice c:

Happy practicing!!!

jovial terrace
# gloomy jetty in theory you can extend your high note wayyyy up high at any range

Ive been practicing this! It works especially well when Im warmed up, but I find myself not having the vocal chords or maybe the strength(?) to make the transition between chest voice and throat/head voice smooth, missing a few notes there, so when I shift from my lower (and tbh better sounding) chest voice to higher head voice, I may end up cracking or losing tone

jovial terrace
gloomy jetty
jovial terrace
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Or is that something I can bridge with training and practice?

jovial terrace
gloomy jetty
jovial terrace
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As much as Id love to DM you, could you perhaps send it here so other baritone singers who visit this thread may use them too?

gloomy jetty
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cuss if so then yes its 100% possible to get rid of it

jovial terrace