Gong Minzy’s Vocal Analysis [Newly Updated]

0. M Vocalists: Mid-range vocalists, 0. ML Vocalists: Mid-low range vocalists, Companies: YG Entertainment, Soloists, Sopranos, Vocal Analyses, Vocal Ranges: 2 Octave Ranges, , , , , , ,

Vocal Range

C#3 ~ F5 (2 octaves and 2 notes)

Supported Range

G3 ~ Bb4/B4

Voice Type

Soprano

Strengths/Achievements

  • Strongest vocalist in 2NE1
  • Support on the mid-low area of her mixed register
  • Improvement from debut to now in breathing and placement
  • Nice placement in her supported range, opened notes within a comfortable range
  • Consistently produced healthy vibrato
  • Better than usual lower register, supported down to G3
  • Able to reduce nasality by lifting the soft palate at times

Points for Improvement

  • Nasality can be present at times
  • Falsetto is done most of the time with a slightly tight throat
  • Too much breathiness in the falsetto
  • Inconsistent with keeping her throat opened on B4s
  • Notes above B4 usually have a high larynx, a tight throat with a whiny quality
  • Notes below G3 tend to be quiet and breathy, losing support
  • Vocal runs tend to be sloppy with pitch at times, lacking flow at other times

Registers

  • Lower register: Minzy’s lower register is generally supported down to G3 with very good vocal cord connection and forward placement, very well projected and with a stable larynx. At times her pitch and support can get wobbly though, causing the notes to become slightly unstable in her lower range. Notes below G3 down to D3 lose considerably volume, projection and cord connection, become very quiet whispers.
  • Mixed register: Able to produce healthy vibrato and healthy, supported notes within her supported range quite often. Notes in between C4 and Bb4 are generally supported and at times B4’s can be supported. Notes above B4 are generally strained with a high larynx. Resonance has yet to be properly achieved, though her placement isn’t far from it.
  • Upper register: Falsetto is an underdeveloped register, generally unused and with decent pitch during simple lines. At times she will use it and it will show a clear lack of development due to the excessive airiness and raspy quality, keeping it from being projected anywhere in her falsetto range.

Agility

Minzy’s voice is that of a light lyric soprano, meaning that vocal agility should be theoretically easier for her. Due to her lack of control, however, at times her slow runs can be separated and pitch accurate, but lack the correct flow and connection between notes. On the other hand, the faster and wider in range the runs get, the sloppier the production and pitch accuracy becomes, examples being her runs in her cover of “Halo.”

Overall analysis

Minzy’s voice is a very mature voice for her age. It possesses a light quality of a soprano, yet retains a fuller tone as she’s learned to correctly place and support it overtime. It stays generally seated in a comfortable lower range for a female, where her repertoire doesn’t generally needs her to go much outside of her supported comfortable range. She is the lead vocalist of 2NE1, however contrary to common belief, she actually possesses better vocal technique than given credit for, with the widest supported range and best breath control amongst the members.

Her lower register used to be very breathy and lacked any control in terms of pitch and stability. She would generally lower her larynx around A3 and anything lower would have a swallowed, unprojected sound. Throughout time, however, Minzy has learned to correctly support and place her voice, without letting her larynx move and keeping her sound forward in her mask and chest to stabilize lower notes. When in the past she would struggle to hit A3’s, now she’s able to descend to G3 effortlessly with a clear and comfortable sound. An example would be her recent acapella performance of “Right Here Waiting” where she descends to a G3 without any loss in tone production nor volume. However so, her range below G3 still remains unstable and overly breathy. Notes below G3, such as her F3’s in “Halo”, her D3 and Eb3 in “If I Ain’t Got You” and her C#3 in “거위의 꿈“, lose clear tone and volume, becoming very breathy and quiet in sound.

Minzy’s mixed register also has shown improvement from debut, where she would usually get tense and tight, has now become more of a comfortable range for her. In the past notes around A4 and Bb4 would show challenging to her due to her larynx raising and incorrect intake of breath, however now her supported range has expanded higher and now she’s able to stay comfortable in that range, with better placement and a fuller, more projected sound. Difference shows in covers such as her cover of “Don’t You Remember” where most Bb4’s would sound quite tight, whereas now she’s able to project and support notes as high as B4. Nonetheless notes above B4 still prove challenging to her, with her larynx raising and a nasal whiny quality overtaking the upper range. Usually notes like the C5’s in the chorus of “그리워해요” her throat gets slightly tight and she loses fullness in tone, and as she ascends up to Eb5 in other songs, her highest mixed note, tone is lost and her sound is compromised.

Her falsetto register is Minzy’s most underdeveloped register. Whereas her lower register is nicely developed for her vocal level and her mixed register is decently supported, her falsetto generally becomes a very airy sound with many notes lacking projection and cord connection. Notes like her F5 from “Halo” and even D5’s and C5’s in “그리워해요” lack any sort of true resonance and clarity in tone production.

Minzy is a vocalist who’s considerably underrated in her own group and fandom. Although not being an exceptional vocalist, she’s much better than she’s credited for but generally outshined. Minzy has shown an ability to correctly support her voice through proper breathing technique and has been able to produce a healthy stable vibrato in her supported range. She’s also shown improvement from debut and has been able to consistently get better, even if slowly, year by year. Whereas she used to be very nasal, Minzy has now reduced her nasality and is able to produce a fuller, truer tone that showcases the best qualities of her voice. Although being able to support her voice better through the years, Minzy still shows a lack of control in keeping her voice completely in key and keeping her pitch stable. In most performances she’ll be singing simple melodies and be in key, and have occasional sharp notes come out or sloppy runs without proper connection nor accuracy between notes.

Musically Minzy shows potential in being able to correctly sing ballads, adding the needed amount of dynamics and embellishments in her musical delivery. Minzy seems like a vocalist who works in her craft, although musically she does not need to have great vocal ability for the music she sings, she still shows interest and improvement and will hopefully keep improvement further into the future.

Musicianship

Minzy’s vocal ability does not allow her to really showcase many melodic or rhythmic changes in her singing. When attempted, she has the tendency to lose pitch and not execute runs correctly. Due to her knowledge of herself, however, she does not tend to attempt doing things she’s not capable of doing and will generally sing songs as they’re given to her. At times however, she’s able to correctly execute melodic changes, such as changing runs that are too low for her in “If I Ain’t Got You.”

Label (Type of Vocalist)

M Vocalists: Mid-Range Vocalists

ML Vocalists: Mid-Low Range Vocalists

Vocal Range Video(s)

Video by: 2NE1Bang

Best Vocal Performance(s)

—

Re-Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)
(Originally analyzed by Chung)

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246 thoughts on “Gong Minzy’s Vocal Analysis [Newly Updated]”

      1. How it should be the ranking from the last to the first between Minzy, Seohyun and Jessica(snsd)?? Thank u so much

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      1. O vídeo é de 2014, eu não estou falando da parte do “tonight oooh”, e sim só do “tonight” kkkkk, massss, você pretende algum dia analisar as vocalistas do BP Rania? Há algumas vocais que aparentam ser boas…e muito superestimadas também, como Jooyi, Xia, T-ae, Hyeme….

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      2. Cê quiser só o Tonight? Então só o B4, sem o D5. Ah a gente analisaria a Jooyi se ela ainda estivesse no grupo.

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      3. Acho que você entendeu errado kkkk, no vídeo há dois “tonight”, a música é assim: “toniiiight, tonight ohhh”, eu queria saber o do primeiro “tonight”, antes do “tonight ohhh” kkkk.

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  3. Hi Ahmin! Are you watching Sister’s Slam Dunk? What are your thoughts in Minzy’s performance here? She starts in 13:18.

    And also in 15:34 is that normal? Cause she doesn’t sound natural to me in that part.

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    1. 15:34 what do you mean if that’s normal? Overall her Bb4’s and B4’s lacked openness and she sounded a bit tense but that seemed to be a condition thing more so than a technical issue.

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      3. At least she’ll have exposure to some good vocal training with the SM trainer. I don’t know if she self-developed or took outside lessons, but it seems clear the progress she’s made so far was not YG’s doing.

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      4. I know it’s not live but she is going to perform this tomorrow live, there is not much autotune or editing on her voice i think.
        How she did? Any improvments?

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  4. Acabou de sair uma prévia sobre a nova OST da Minzy, o que você tem a dizer? Qual o desempenho dela? Ela parece ter regredido 😦

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  6. Hi Admins, I recently watched sister slam dunk and Minzy was being taught by an SM vocal trainer (VT) video link from 0.00-2.39 –>

    Not sure about how aware he is about vocal pedagogy, but he seems to be closer to teaching that compared to JYP’s half-air half-sound technique or whatever YG is doing. I am highly surprised that Minzy is not aware of the concept of mixing head voice when singing higher. The VT pointed out to her not to sing and push with her throat, to not go tense, to not strain her voice and to mix in head voice as she went higher.

    If I may ask, what was the note that she was hitting at 1.41, 1.43? (it sounded better than what she did before the private training, though it may not be supported still?) And how about 1.51, 1.53, 2.00, 2,02 (The VT said it was not good, but I am just curious about what note she hit)

    Thank you beforehand ^^

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    1. He’s actually a former member of Black Beat, his name is Jang Jinyoung. The notes were B4 and D5. The rest were C5, Eb5, Eb5 and a note in between F5 and F#5. She used too much air to push, she kept singing Huh which adds too much air pressure to the note. The B4 was supported.

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      1. Thanks, ahmin! I am not aware of who he is, unfortunately. Was anything that he said there inaccurate/misleading (in relation to vocal pedagogy of course)? Just curious.

        Hopefully Minzy can stretch her supported range about a semitone/a tone higher as she practices more. 🙂

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    1. 0:22 unsupported Eb3. 0:24 and such, quite a few nicely phrased G#3’s. She’s a bit too nasal here and there, 0:38 ~ 0:41 she is focusing a bit too much on the N’s at the end of the words. 0:55 0:58 1:02 1:06 a lot of phrased C5’s and Db5’s, they all sound fairly tight and whiny. She is not opening her sound enough, her throat is closed. 2:28 2:34 more tight and squeezed C5’s. The rest throughout is the same.

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    1. Oh hey she’s singing Ann’s song! 0:39 C5’s, still a bit too much tightness but these sound really nice throughout. 1:19 lowered larynx F3. 1:45 shouty, but not badly placed. 2:03 closed. 2:22 the run wasn’t bad, too airy though.

      A lot of pushed C5’s, but the placement wasn’t bad. Lots of resonant Bb4’s throughout.

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      1. Under the section on her mixed voice, it says “Resonance has yet to be properly achieved”, so I’m guessing either she’s improved since it was written or resonance was pushed? Also, what does it mean properly achieved, other than her placement or pushing?

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      5. how does this compare to how she usually does? I don’t know if it’s because the song isn’t that high, but she sounds less nasal to me?

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      8. Yes a very bad thing. Shouting isn’t singing, shouting is just shouting. Using the throat to shout is damaging to the vocal cords.

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    1. Oh hey she’s singing Ann’s song! 0:39 C5’s, still a bit too much tightness but these sound really nice throughout. 1:19 lowered larynx F3. 1:45 shouty, but not badly placed. 2:03 closed. 2:22 the run wasn’t bad, too airy though.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeV7hky0RMU …
      A lot of pushed C5’s, but the placement wasn’t bad. Lots of resonant Bb4’s throughout.

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      1. She has resonance now? Wow. You should update what’s written in her analysis (that resonance is yet achieved but her placement is not far from in)

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  10. Minzy recentemente foi ao King of Masked Singer, queria saber qual o desempenho dela nessas duas performances, e se ela melhorou, obrigado.

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    1. Eu já respondi na verdade, você não foi o primeiro a perguntar. Até Bb4, resonance, os C5’s e acima foram executados com uma laringe alta.

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    1. I would rather hear live performances but from her singing with Unnies thus far, I have not noticed improvement in her singing.

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    1. The verse only goes down to G3, where she mostly remains supported. The chorus has well placed A4’s and B4’s, although she is kind of pushing. 1:14 kind of constricted and pushed C5, and the B4 afterwards was also pushed. She could relax more into those notes. The rest is a repetition of the first verse and chorus, the range remains G3 ~ C5 throughout I believe. It’s a really nice song though.

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  13. I know they cannot be analyzed for a while because they’re so new, but in terms of potential I guess and the current route they seem to be going – do you think any of the BlackPink members would be at Minzy’s level? I want to believe they could but at the same time I feel like they might follow a similar path of the rest of 2NE1s vocalists and it makes me sad :/ I also see a lot of people praising Jennie for her “super powerful” vocals and that she’s better than Rosé, but I dunno about that.. while neither of them may or may not be good and Jennie is a rapper before a vocalist (which in some respects make me wonder why they push her more as a vocalist than the rest :o) and I’m not a professional, she sounds very.. shouty? I think? And i’m not sure if it’s intonation/flatness I hear either in her singing at times. But then I hear Rosé is very nasally which could also be exacerbated by YG, so I really don’t know T_T What do you think given what little information we have, I guess? Also, I really appreciate all the work you have on this site and your Youtube. I’ve learned soo much, though I still have a LONG way to go xD

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    1. That’s up to them, not to them. I can’t see the future, their current level of skill is far below that of Minzy’s, but they could suddenly want to change their vocal technique and suddenly improve themselves, but that’s up to the stars, I can’t foresee it. Jennie barely connects her phrases, she is just louder but she has very poor legato and support. She is shouty yeah, because she half-speaks when she sings. Nasality is not the best way to sing, but it’s at least not damaging nor unhealthy. Awwww thank you for motivating us to keep going forward!

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      1. Right; that’s what I was looking for in terms of Jennie, I couldn’t find the word for it xD. It’s at least good to know that so far Rose doesn’t seem to be damaging anything thus far, because it would be really such a shame if she ended up on the same path as Bom :/ On the other hand, I almost feel bad for Jisoo because I dunno if she’s necessarily weaker than Jennie though she may be because I admittedly don’t know a LOT in this field >> but to me it almost feels like their songs are too.. high for her? maybe? Which in itself is also a bit of a shame whatever the case turns out to be, because while she’s not my favorite I appreciate the break her voice offers against Jennie and Rose’s voices .-.

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      3. so who is the better vocalist overall, jennie or jisoo? i know they’re quite the same, but what are their differences in technique?

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      4. Jennie is a lot less closed and tense. Jisoo has tension even on G4/G#4 and has a very shallow approach with lots of throatiness.

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  14. I’m wondering your opinion on how Jisoo sounded here. I don’t think Rose sounded very good, but Jisoo actually surprised me here. It sounded like she had a lot more control on the song than Rose. Jisoo’s first line is at 0:46 and she does a lot of harmonising throughout the song as well

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    1. Since literally 5 people have asked about this cover of LOSER so far, I’m just going to watch it, break it down and copy-paste it for each person. There’s some pattern I’m noticing where people are calling Jisoo a better vocalist than Rosé based on this performance and I’d like to know who’s spreading this lie because one person mentioned someone else said that and I wanna know who and where and why.

      0:06 G4 down to whispered A3’s, the melody then goes up to Ab4 at 0:10 then descends down to G3’s. The range of the chorus is basically this G3 ~ Ab4 range, where Rosé has no support in the third octave and is whispering all her low notes without allowing her vocal cords to connect. 0:10 and 0:21 0:24 those Ab4’s are the highest notes in the chorus of the song and there’s no true strain for Rosé, it’s not a note that’s too high for her. She sounds mostly relaxed, her placement is mostly in her nose and her sense of support isn’t strong but this isn’t a challenging range for her and she is using adequate technique to get through the chorus. Her pitch is fine, her placement is nasal and her support is shallow but somewhat present.

      0:49 Jisoo starts singing but she has a lot more breathiness and air escaping her vocal cords, so she overcompensates by compressing her throat muscles a lot more than Rosé. She is singing in a relatively similar range as Rosé, staying within Bb3 ~ Ab4, but she is a lot more closed than Rosé. There is absolutely no breath support being employed when she sings, it’s just throat tension and nasality. She also went flat quite a few times, 0:51 0:58 1:02 where she went up to G4 and Ab4. I wouldn’t say Jisoo can handle singing as high as Rosé, which isn’t high at all for a female, with an approach that’s as relaxed. She’s a lot more closed and I wouldn’t call her G4’s nor Ab4’s relaxed. There isn’t even shallow support, there is no support whatsoever.

      1:55 Rosé also went flat here and at 2:02, and although she is pushing with air more so than she needs to, it’s kind of part of her style. It’s not ideal, but she’s at least more relaxed. 2:14 Lisa sings, there is no support but she is sacrificing a lot less of her health for the sake of style. 2:44 still quite flat for Jisoo, no support whatsoever, her throat is pretty closed. 2:55 Rosé was also flat, not as much but still flat. This song isn’t challenging for any of them, singing like this for Rosé isn’t ideal but it’s not going to hurt her because the range of this song was G3 ~ Bb4, which is slightly over an octave. It’s not a challenging range at all. 3:10 pitchy runs and adlibs for Jisoo, too much air coming through her vocal cords. 3:29 Jennie is a lot more opened than Jisoo and Rosé cause she doesn’t place her sound straight through her nose, but she pushes a lot without supporting and kind of half sing-raps, so honestly there’s no huge gap between her or Rosé, but the difference between them and Jisoo is quite clear.

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      1. I think a lot of people just didn’t like the way Rose sounded in this performance, but Jisoo got the chance to sing some actual singing parts in a song that a lot of people were surprised how she sounded in it.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Hello, I believe that Jisoo might be better Singing in the Alto range, her voice seemed a lot more comfortable while singing So Hot. Also one question I have is do you feel that Jisoo could sing Hyerin’s(EXID) parts with general ease, and do you think her voice just needs better technique?

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      4. I do believe she needs better technique. I’m not sure what the reason is to compare her to Hyerin but Hyerin sings generally high and Jisoo can’t handle proper placement that high and so she limits her sound to a low placement.

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  15. Oops just got caught up on the thread here. Would the underdeveloped muscles you mentioned about Jisoo be a similar case with TWICE’s Mina? Sorry if I’m totally wrong; to my untrained ear it sounds like they have some similar qualities of their voices so I was wondering if that might be because of similar technique/lackthereof =) I really appreciate all the insight and information you guys give on here, it must be a lot of work yet you stay on top of it so well!

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  16. Hi, probably a lot of people have already asked you this question (andi I’m sorry for repeating it), but where would you rank CL?

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  19. Hello, you mentioned that Bom happened to be the weakest vocalist. Does that mean Dara has better technique than Bom?

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  20. Hi! In the first link, she’s singing a few self composed songs and she dips down to an E3, I’m not an expert so I’m having trouble indentifying wether it’s low larynx or support, but I’ve heard you can do both. What is it?
    The second one is “As If It’s Your Last”, and both Jennie and Jisoo go down to a F3, Jennie’s seems pretty airy but Jisoo’s seems rather solid, is Jisoo’s supported or not. Because if so, that would land her supported range at E3/F3~G4/G#4, which would be about a Mezzo Soprano Range right. Also excuse me if I got the notes wrong, my tuner isn’t exactly perfect.

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    1. This is a real old comment but I’m gonna answer in case someone else comes with a similar question regarding Jisoo.

      1) Regarding your first question, generally speaking a low larynx means there’s no support. There’s a type of low larynx that opera singers use to achieve a “dark resonance”, in which case it is supported, but when it comes to pop and more underdeveloped singers, a low larynx is just a way to overcompensate for lack of support.

      2) I love Jisoo to bits, but no, those low notes weren’t supported. She shows no support at all. Her voice just naturally sits low, so those low notes sound better than not, but they’re not supported. I also don’t get why you think she can support G4 or G#4; she can’t support at all. Only Rosé is capable (so far) of supporting.
      In case you were also wondering, she’s not a mezzo.

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