YeEun (HA:TFELT)’s Vocal Analysis

2.5 Average to Above Average Vocalists, Companies: JYP Entertainment, Soloists, Sopranos, Vocal Analyses, Vocal Ranges: 2 Octave Ranges, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

YeEun

Vocal Range

C#3 ~ A5 (2 octaves and 4 notes)

Supported Range

F#3/G3 ~ B4/C5

F#3/G3 ~ D5/Eb5 (with head voice)

Voice Type

Light Lyric Soprano

Strengths & Achievements

  • Second strongest vocalist in Wonder Girls
  • Able to keep consistency in support up to B4’s and C5’s
  • Balanced and extensive use of mixed voice even as high as A5
  • Arguably one the better lower ranges amongst k-pop female vocalists
  • Able to keep support down to G3 with good projection and at times F#3
  • Able to eliminate nasality in her voice
  • At times able to switch into a head voice
  • Intonation has improved since debut
  • Stylistically able to choose in between falsetto and head voice
  • A healthy vibrato is present in her head voice and lower belts

Weaknesses

  • Her stability and intonation can at times fail and make her sound shaky
  • Nasality can still be present in her voice
  • Above D5, tends to use more falsetto than head voice
  • Even though she is able to mix very high, notes above C5 are generally done with a high larynx and tense tongue
  • She loses consistency in tone production below F#3 although some tone is still present down to F3 and E3
  • Her falsetto hasn’t been showcased to its highest peak, suggesting a lack of control/confidence in that register
  • Runs can often be sloppy and lazy
  • Voice can lose laryngeal openness thus becoming very small and slightly yelled

Registers

  • Lower register: Able to keep a stable larynx even as low as F3 and E3 with an excessive airiness in tone. Notes above F#3 are generally supported and well projected, with full cord connection and very consistent in tone production.
  • Mixed register: Resonance may at times be achieved on lower fourth octave notes, but generally are just small and not full/round enough. Able to mix even as high as A5 but with improper technique above C5, where her voice finds its peak of proper support.
  • Upper register: Shows the ability to use a connected head voice at times up to D5/Eb5 and is able to choose when to use head voice or falsetto even as high as G5, however the higher she goes, the more laryngeal space is lost and tension increases as she ascends in her falsetto.

Agility

Possessing quite a high and light voice, YeEun’s voice shows more ease with runs than heavier voices would. With that said, she still lacks the full control of her voice and for a good majority of the time her choice of vocal ornaments can end up quite uncontrolled, sloppy and messy. Her notes aren’t quite clean in separation and tend to be more so guessed than fully connected with a smooth legato line. At times she’s able to do very accurate and clean runs, such as the one in the beginning of “2 Different Tears“, but most of the time her runs are quite sloppy like in “Girls Girls“, “When You Believe” and the runs at the end of “2 Different Tears“. She shows more control in her agility in her falsetto than in her mix and chest voice.

Overall analysis

Recently debuting as a soloist, Wonder Girls’ lead vocalist YeEun is an artist who possesses a very unique sounding voice. A slightly bright and sharp tone, she has quite a piercing quality to her voice. She has always been a very daring vocalist who attempts many difficult ballads and high notes and has actually shown improvement during her career as a Wonder Girls member and as a soloist.

YeEun’s lower range is one that stands out amongst her peers in the idol industry of female vocalists who simply only care about high notes. Although YeEun has quite the fame for being a high belter, her voice really does shine quite considerably with the above average development of her lower range. Although an area that was not often highlighted in Wonder Girls’ songs, she made the right choice when composing her own songs for her solo debut and had 3 out of the 7 songs in the album highlight her lower range even as low as E3. She’s been able to then show just how developed of an area of her voice it really is. Even though she descends to E3’s in her solo songs for a good amount of time, she still doesn’t show full support and cord connection that low in her range. Her voice tends to lack support and full control on E3’s and F3’s, where stability isn’t present even though tone is still there. When she ascends to F#3 her tone starts to become quite clear and her support becomes more present but only 100% consistent from G3 and above, where her voice is well placed and well projected as she ascends higher. Her lowest note to date was a quick airy C#3 in the live performance of “When You Believe“, showing that below E3, the control is mostly lost and tone is almost not present.

As she ascends into her mix, YeEun shows a quite clear control of how heady or chesty she wishes to make her mix in terms of balance, and can oftentimes transition easily into her head voice. She tends to have a chestier quality on her mid belts up to B4 and C5 and eventually is able to brighten up and place her mix into her head allowing for it to extend even as high as A5. The control however is often lost above C5, where although the mix brightens up, the larynx goes up as well, making her swallowing muscles and tongue close the back of her throat, creating a tight almost strangled sound, not allowing the freedom she should have in her higher notes. Although her C#5’s and D5’s aren’t too strained, the higher she goes, the tighter and more tense her voice sounds, only adding to the yell-like quality she gets as she gets to F5’s, F#5’s and above. It’s worthy to note that her mix is indeed very high and developed, however the technique used to approach that part of her voice is still quite faulty and creates a lot of tension and damage to her voice.

The upper extension of her voice is one that shows potential development and at times control. She is able to use a connected head voice up to D5 with no obstructions nor tension and even then is able to keep going higher with head voice even as high as G5/G#5. However due to the same problem she has in her mix, her head voice starts becoming slightly closed and shows obstructions in the overall openness and production. She often chooses to use a falsetto above Eb5 and it becomes slightly tense and a bit breathy but due to her ability to show both head voice and falsetto, it can be assumed it’s all stylistically done. Her overall agility becomes cleaner and more flexible in her head voice and falsetto, showing more control and ease when she lightens up her voice rather than when she tries to use her chest or mix.

Yeeun’s main faults are the tension she adds into her notes above C5 and her lack of ability to fully place her voice in her mask correctly when trying to sing full lines or doing vocal runs. Oftentimes her voice will be obstructed and not project properly when she tries to do vocal runs and her higher belts become thin and placed inside her throat more so than out. Her overall dynamic control is present and her support is there for notes such as B4 and C5 where she’s able to mix lightly or more heavily adding more edginess to her voice. Her overall control in her breathing can be faulty causing her to sound choppy and unstable live, even acoustically, where she will sound pitchy and not focused in sound, such as in the live version of “Stay Together“.

YeEun is a vocalist who has shown a lot of interest for songwriting and further developing her artistry, being able to compose and play piano, she is very dedicated to her craft in music and shows a lot of potential as a singer-songwriter. She seems to understand most of her voice and knows where and what she can sing and can’t sing for a determined range but is yet to fully develop the potential of her voice and range she possesses by learning to correctly support her voice and using the proper technique to achieve a a fuller sound in her overall voice. She is a dedicated musician and has the potential to grow much more as an entertainer and respected songwriter in the music industry.

Musicianship

YeEun is a more daring vocalist who tries and adds different interpretations to her covers of songs, however so due to the lack of technique, her added runs can many times be pitchy and out of place, often sloppy and many improvised high notes can come out strained and flat/sharp. She has however improved in this area and shown a better understanding of her instrument through her own music writing and composition, allowing more control of her voice and musical choices within her own songs and covers.

Rating

Average to Above Average Vocalist

Vocal Range Video(s)

Video by: kitsunemale

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Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

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About ahmin3

kitsunemale from YouTube, AhMin33 from Twitter and Ahmin from OneHallyu! https://www.youtube.com/user/KitsuneMale

69 thoughts on “YeEun (HA:TFELT)’s Vocal Analysis”

  4. Can you please do Raina, After School and Orange Caramel’s main vocalist? Or maybe Jung-Ah, After School’s other main vocalist? I’m worried Jung-Ah may graduate soon. Thank you!^^

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  5. Now that she’s debuted as a solo artist, I hope she’ able to improve her technique and musicality. I love her voice the most in Wondergirls. By the way, can you do SPICA? I’m really curious with their vocal analysis since their group is probably one with the most number of competent vocalists in KPop next to CSJH

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      1. So happy to hear that. I’m really excited to find out about their vocal analysis. Specially Bohyung and Boa since I often read in comments in Youtube that Bohyung has better vocal technique even though Boa is the main vocal and was a vocal instructor.

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    1. I don’t know about that, I’d say it’s about the same if not Jessica is a bit better because she has actual resonance whereas YeEun isn’t exactly resonant

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  8. I really love her album this year, I’m a little upset it didn’t get positive results in Korean charts :(, I’m afraid it would take much longer time for JYPE to release her solo again T.T.
    Do you think she has improved a lot compared to Tell Me days?

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    1. I think so, she has improved her confidence, lower range and she composed songs she knew she could sing. I was surprised she didnt have many G5’s or like high notes in her solo album because she used to be the one who thought she could hit them all, so I feel like she’s gotten more aware of her own abilities but hasn’t improved immensely. Sadly.

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      1. During Tell Me days, Yeeun was actually aware of her situation with her pitch and all. She said she even developed stage fright because of that.. I think this also one of the reasons why she’s being a lot more careful now. I’m so glad she improved 🙂

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    1. I heard very little from Seulgi but jiyul says shes average and as for Wendy, shes pretty similar to Taeyeons level of skill but idk whos better yet

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  12. I love Ye Eun’s voice but apart from that could you maybe analyse RaNia’s JooYi and T-ara’s Soyeon ? As for JooYi she already left the group but she really is an extraordinary vocalist. She is the main vocalist of her group and made some solo OSTs under the name U주
    And I think Soyeon is a really underrated vocalist too. She is really special because some people say her voice got worse instead of improving as a main vocalist. I woule really like to know if you could confirm that.
    Please I would be so happy if you could analyse theur voices !! 🙂

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    1. Hello there~ You might want to check our future projects page for our future analyses, but yes we will have Soyeon and Jooyi analyzed, however Jooyi is probably not going to be analyzed anytime soon until she starts doing some more live work, since she lacks live material recently. As for Soyeon, she might surprise you with the result.

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  18. She sounds extremely nasal to me, is it normal? But it’s pleasing to hear, did you hear her latest song feat Younha and Cheetah, she is really nasal in this, also I think Wonder Girls had a new song recently but not a comeback

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  19. So what if they’re drunk?

    What is up with Sunmi at the beginning? Is it bad throat shaping or poor support, because she sounds very unstable. And right after her, is Yubin showing at least shallow support, or none? Totally objective but I love the sound of her voice.

    Hyerim is literally 100% air right? Since 100% is better than 50/50, Hyerim just wants to make JYP proud and be an over-acheiver. (Lol it’s a joke, and probably a bad one… sorry)

    YeEun sounds nasally throughout or maybe whiny… or is that just her tone? (Not a joke, I’m being serious I really don’t know)

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    1. When you drink alcohol your vocal cords get dried up, so it makes it slightly harder to sing. So you also lose control of your brain coordination, so it could cause you to end up being very pitchy as a resulst. Hyerim was very airy yes. lol Yubin was just in pitch, Sunmi was pitchy. YeEun may be nasal, but it’s likely part of the style of the song.

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    1. No Sunni doesn’t have a strong enough sense of support. Her support tends to be shallow and she uses an airy approach far too often. YeEun definitely still has the best technique in Wonder Girls. Yoobin has a nice mezzo voice, I believe, but also has very shallow support.

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  22. How do Blackpink’s Jennie and Jisoo do in terms of vocals, I know you don’t have much to go off, but is Jennie a mezzo soprano?

    In terms of Yeeun, do you think she sounds kind of off in the beginning of Ain’t Nobody? She sounds great in the chorus, but I feel like her voice in the first verse isn’t very supported

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    1. The verse is really low so she is not singing in a comfortable range at all. I don’t think Jennie is a mezzo. I’ve heard Stay and here are my thoughts:

      “Okay so finally I can hear them singing for real. So Rosé sounds really airy, a bit too nasal, a bit shaky, she is flat throughout. I’m not hearing a strong sense of connection in her airflow and her vocal cords. She does have a nice voice, but has a very clear style that is easy to like. Jennie then has a thicker push in her vocal cords, she uses more tone but also lacks in support, I hear just almost pure nasality as you said and throatiness. 0:50 Jisoo starts singing is all mostly pretty much in her throat, it’s flat throughout with pitch and tone quality. 1:11 she’s very closed and flat here, those are Bb4’s which indicate a very clear quality of a weak female vocalist. The amount of throatiness, the amount of shallowness and lack of support, it follows the pattern of our weak rating perfectly. 1:13 Rosé’s singing is very stylistic, it’s not as much lack of technique as it is going for a specific style that limits her singing a lot. Same thing for Jennie, even though she’s a bit more forceful. 2:18 She is really not making much effort to keep her vocal cords together, she’s almost creaking her way through the song, she is pushing her vocal cords together and keeping them tight and keeping her throat closed. 2:39 The Bb4’s are better than Jisoo’s, but they’re not supported. 2:45 Lisa is also shallow and airy, I don’t hear support there. Jennie makes more of an effort to keep her cords connected, but it’s all so shallow. 3:34 She kind of uses the nasal placement as a default stylistic choice, more so than a lack of technique. I wonder how she’d sound trying to sing a different genre where she wouldn’t be so free to be limited in style and range. I kept listening to the other song but I don’t hear anything particularly different.”

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      1. So would you consider them all weak vocalists then or would Jennie and Rose come under Weak to Average. Im guessing the ranking would be Rose > Jennie > Jisoo > Lisa

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      2. I don’t know what the ranking is but with none of them supporting anything properly, there’s no way any of them is anything but weak as of now.

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  24. Have you seen Wonder Girls’ Why So Lonely performance on showcase? It sounds so strange. I don’t know, is it because of problems with sound or what, but it seems like Yeeun is just screaming during performance. What do you think of this?

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  26. Do you think she stands a chance of improving her technique now that she isn’t limited by JYP’s constraints? I know Amoeba isn’t known for their vocalists, but I feel like she’s always been inclined to work on her musicianship and music quality (vocals included) and now that she doesn’t have someone telling her “so and so way of singing is bad” she stands a chance of progressing. Is it too late though?

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  27. Would Sunmi be an average vocalist? I think she has shown potential but isn’t confident and can be off pitch/flat. Who would you compare her to in, say, SNSD?

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    1. I wouldn’t compare her to anybody nor rate her without an analysis but I think back in the day I’d she was closer to average but she’s fallen back to some habits of breathiness, nasality and pushing her voice from a low placement, so she can often be really closed on notes that aren’t that high.

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      1. Yes, I agree unfortunately 😦 I’ve also noticed that she hit notes better when she was younger. Hope you can do an analysis on her singing one day!

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