John Park’s Vocal Analysis


Vocal Range

F#2 ~ G#5 (3 octaves and 1 note)

Supported Range

G#2 ~ E4/F4

G#2 ~ C5/C#5 (With head voice)

Voice Type

Baritone

Strengths/Achievements

  • Resonance is a very consistent form of vocal placement
  • Support is very consistent throughout his range
  • Has shown good improvement in his vocal control in terms of pitch and agility
  • Has an agile voice, able to take on complex and elaborate runs to an extent
  • A very musically developed vocalist, uses his voice like an instrument and is able to improvise well
  • Sings with a connected head voice
  • Strain isn’t common and as a smart vocalist, he does not generally try to sing outside his comfort zone
  • Support in his lower range extends down to G#2, consistently
  • Resonance and support in the mixed range are consistent as high as E4/F4
  • Support in the head voice can present as high as C5/C#5
  • Very even healthy vibrato is used

Points for Improvement

  • Sometimes transitions between falsetto, head voice and mix can be sloppy
  • Although possessing an agile voice, sometimes precision of pitch can be an issue live
  • Lower range may carry tone but support isn’t present down to his lowest note
  • Head voice can become strained and tight above C#5
  • Nasality may happen at times
  • Underdeveloped mixed range due to lack of balance between chest and head voice
  • Mixed range isn’t extensive
  • Too much weight is carried up in his mix, causing occasional throatiness
  • Support and resonance can be lost as he sings above F4

Registers

  • Lower register: The lower part of his voice can often be accompanied by a thick and bassy quality or a more airy singing style. He is able to consistently support his voice even as low as G#2, however the overall tone of the voice is lost as he descends below G#2.
  • Mixed register: Mixed voice is mostly chest-dominant and possesses a very round and full tone with consistent resonance up to E4 and support present up to F4 with certain inconsistencies. Support isn’t kept higher than F4, where the voice becomes tighter and throatier.
  • Upper register: Head voice is used often and the general ability to transition into the upper part of the head voice is good. He has consistency in using a connected head voice but the overall control of his head voice can be lost due to transitioning issues in the lower part of his head range. Stability issues and sometimes pitch issues can be present due to sloppy transitions. Head voice registers becomes whinier and tighter as he ascends above C#5.

Agility

Breaking the stereotype that only those with light or high voices can have vocal agility, John Park was always known for his ability to add R&B/Soul-like runs and melismas to his music. Although it is true that the lighter the voice is, much like anything, the faster it could be potentially, it is not impossible or even unlikely that a vocalist whose roots lie in soul music to be able to emulate and create the muscle memory necessary to add runs with accuracy in their music. John Park’s voice is very agile in the sense that it does not sound sloppy when he does runs and his runs generally are accurate and well separate, with a very natural flow and rhythmic dictation. Having said that, however, his runs are not always as accurate live as they might be in studio, which is possibly due to improvising on the spot and not having prepared the musical idea clearly in his head before executing such runs. Comparing live performances of songs like “U” and “Sipping My Life“, it is possible to hear nearly flawless runs when they’re done as he had them planned, but when he is given a song where he is able to improvise more on, the general idea of the song can be lost with excessive runs and runs that feel slightly out of place, much like in “Heal The World” and “Imagine“, a detail that has improved overtime if comparing his American Idol version of “Gravity” against his “newer one” performed after debuting in Korea.

Overall analysis

One of Korea’s more successful contestants from SuperStar K, John Park is an example of a indie/mainstream baritone vocalist from Korea. Much like Jung Joon Young, Kang SeungYoon and Roy Kim, baritones are a type of voice that seems to be more popular when not done in a pop way and usually find their way into mainstream music through SuperStar K and other shows as such. His tone is manly and contains a very deep sound throughout his range, with a slightly darker quality than higher baritone like SHINee’s Key would. Nevertheless, his voice lies closest to that of a Lyric Baritone with a bassier sound that embellishes the soulful tone present in his voice.

The lower part of his range is thick and full in tone, but still retains a chest-placed quality that projects well through mask allowing for a contemporary, relaxed neutral larynx position. He had moments before where he’d lower his larynx when singing in his lower range, muffling the sound to an extent, such as the G#2 in “God Bless The Child“. However that has changed overtime and now he has shown that he can not only support his voice with proper breathing technique even as low as G#2, such as in “Good Day” and “이게 아닌데“, but also keep considerable vocal tone even as low as F#2 such as in “Lost Stars“. Even though tone is present below G#2, the support becomes more shallow and the overall quality of tone is lost due to a distortion caused by lack of connection between the vocal cords and a sound that does not project perfectly through the mask.

The upper part of his range is where his voice shows a lot of baritone qualities. His first passaggio falls somewhere in between Bb3 and B3, showing a very baritone-like quality but still retaining considerable amounts of chest resonance as well as muscle coordination. The tone produced in his mixed range is rich and possesses a lot of bass to it, with consistent support and resonance, such as the D4’s in “You and I” and the numerous E4’s in “Rolling In The Deep“. His resonance is a very good mix of chest placement as well as mask placement and it is very consistent throughout his lower to mid-mixed range. The downside of his mixed range is the consistency above E4, where he may at times show support up to F4 with some resonance, such as in “God Bless The Child” and “Man In The Mirror“, but at other times the voice becomes less resonant and more throaty with less projection, such as in “My Funny Valentine“. When it comes to notes above F4, however, there is no consistency of support and generally he becomes more tight and strained in sound, such as the F#4’s in “오늘같은 밤” and “So Sick“. Perhaps due to the fact that he might be aware of his vocal limits, John Park has yet to show a mixed voice above F#4, which shows a lack of development of the potential range he could have as a baritone, as well as the overall lack of coordination of the muscles responsible for the mixed voice, more importantly the cricothyroid muscles that would normally aid in adding head voice to the mix and extending it further in range. As a smart vocalist, he does not attempt to sing songs that show his weaknesses or go out of his comfort zone, hence he may be able to mix above F#4 but would not try that live for the sake of his performances and vocal health.

Notably, a male is less likely to possess a connected head voice but John Park is an exception to such a rule. The male “head voice” would most likely be called a falsetto in classical music, however in contemporary terms it is possible for a male to use a voice that’s as close as they could get to a “pure head voice”. A pure head voice is usually more of a female trait because of the distance between their passaggi, that allows for more time to disconnect from the chest voice and enter a head voice only area, whereas males will carry more chest up into their head voice, much like what John Park does. John Park’s head voice may at times turn into more a falsetto, with less connection of the vocal cords and more of an airy sound but generally is safe from the range of F4 ~ C#5, and only has issues of transitioning when trying to sing closer to his second passaggio around Eb4/E4, where the tone is weaker and the pitch may be lost, as shown in “Too Late“. Above C#5, he has the tendency to push his head voice higher with more tension and a slight whiny quality, such as the E5’s in “Stand By Me” and “Falling“, where due to vowel shapes, the tone can sound tight and less resonant. He’s still able to take his head voice up to F#5 with a connected sound, such as in “Man In The Mirror” and even G#5, such as in “난 여자가 있는데“, although the control of his muscles is then lost and the sound may become less connected and more airy.

Musically speaking, not only is John Park a very musically sensitive person, able to use his voice in many different ways and registers to convey his emotional messages through vocal onsets and dynamics, but he’s also a very versatile artist who is able to perform in a variety of musical genres, such as Jazz, Bossa nova, blues, R&B, Pop, Ballad and Acoustic Indie. As a vocalist, he is in control of his voice most of the time he performs and uses his voice very well as an instrument. He respects his own limits but also limits himself by staying too tight in a bubble of comfort. For the future, the best way for John Park to improve would be to further explore his range and the limits where he could take it, since he is not in an idol group, high or low note battles aren’t done but it is safe to assume that he could potentially mix higher or sing lower in his chest voice, which could always be showcased and improved through practice and technique development. The way he sings now, however, is good and well suited for the music he performs and he rarely tries to sing outside of a healthy range, allowing for a very safe zone in terms of vocal health and longevity.

Musicianship

One of his strongest aspects and skills is his ability to improvise music. Much like most Korean-American vocalists, a pattern that can be heard to create your own version of songs amongst them, however not all are as successful as others. John Park, on the other hand, has this skill more mastered than most where he is not only able to add his own musical ideas to songs of his own when singing them live, such as the F4 breakdown in “Too Late” as well as the numerous performances of “Stand By Me“, where not only is he able to change the song, adlib through it with new runs and belts, but also he uses the ability to harmonize with himself very well through a machine that allows segments recorded in a song to be repeated in order to perform for solo acapella songs.

Label (Type of Vocalist)

HV Vocalists: High Head Voice Vocalists

MB Vocalists: Mid-Range Belters

ML Vocalists: Mid-Low Range Vocalists

WR vocalists: Well Rounded Vocalists

Vocal Range Video(s)

Video by: Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

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96 thoughts on “John Park’s Vocal Analysis

  1. Ooh a baritone~ finally~ great work! but…
    “One of Korea’s more successful contests from SuperStar K” do u mean contestants? XD

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  2. once again a good read . I had such a busy day and after checking my emails and seeing that there is a new post I was like ” now this is good …time to enjoy and relax a little”
    also the video showcasing his vocal range was well done .
    Good job 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I think John Park has a wonderful chemistry with Ham Chun-ho at the guitar, I think Chun Ho-nim melodies can really bring about John Park’s best vocal abilities. Like his performance in Stand by Me with Ham Chun-ho at https://youtu.be/szfpH_FxAMk , I think his ad-lib comes more natural and smoother than when he sings solo (https://youtu.be/kyRaWc2_b1Q).
    Also, when he sings the newer version of Gravity (https://youtu.be/wy0i-xO-jzY) he was also with Ham Chun-ho, wasn’t he? I think for me he manages to sing the song almost in a country style which is very fresh (though 1:39 isn’t so nice kekeke). Me like.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I was just wondering if Spica’s ‘cast’ might be food for thought for a future analysis? Especially because all (or most) of Spica’s songstresses are really quite good, rather than just one ‘main’ vocalist, etc.

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    1. “Cast”? LOL Mhmmh from what I’ve heard of SPICA, most members besides Boa and Bohyung would unfortunately fall under average and so analyzing all of them would be trivial. I am going to analyze both Bohyung and Boa, but I’m afraid not the rest of the members. They’re a 5 membered female group with 1 rapper, so 2/4 vocalists analyzed seems to be a fair ratio right? ^ ^ The only ones who are exceptions to this rule are Brown Eyed Girls and Mamamoo.

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  5. Is Hong Ki or John Park a better vocalist? And I know this is unrelated but it Lee Jonghyun a better vocalist than Yonghwa from cnblue? Just curious. Great Job btw! Love your analysis

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    1. Lee Jonghyun FROM CN Blue you mean? I am not familiar with him at all as a vocalist, so I can’t comment. Thank you for your love! haha I’d say John Park takes the upper hand for a better more consistent lower range and more consistency overall plus some agility.

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      1. Ok, thanks if you want to look at Jonghyun from C.NBlue, here are a few live links, Id love to see what you think of him compared to Yonghwa/ his ranking

        I feel like hes better than Yonghwa, but maybe im a bit biased

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      2. Why do you feel he’s better than Yonghwa, if you don’t mind me asking? He seems like an average vocalist to me, honestly. Nothing from what I’m hearing sticks out, he can kind of control his falsetto, he has enough support, his tone isn’t completely closed, he has enough range but no register is developed considerably well, he has no resonance or no roundness of tone, he can’t really sing higher than average well, his high notes sound tight.

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    2. But you said that yonghwa is average to weak(: And I just like his style better i guess lol…

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  6. This is kind of random but I’ve been dying to know what you think of Shannon’s vocals on this song that was put out recently?? What are the notes that she is hitting?

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    1. The highest notes are like Eb5 ~ F5 ~ F#5, where she starts straining. The Eb5 are a bit pushed but the strain only happens on F5 and above.

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    1. I’d rather not comment on non-Kpop singers. However someone showed me this video before

      and I said:
      “She is okay, I like her resonance in her mix around C#5/D5 and even Eb5, above that it becomes a bit more limited…her lower range was pretty unimpressive even her G#3 wasn’t nice…there were like no good moments of her lower range, A3 is her bottom and her head voice seems less confident than I thought it would.. I think she has beautiful resonance and control of dynamics and overall runs and whatnot… that’s what I hear~ she has a nice style and yeha I do hear an interesting control..”

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      1. How would you rate her? Also, you said that Ailee is currently the best female vocalist in K-POP. How about male? Is there any better singer than Kyuhyun / Naeul?

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      2. Best amongst idols, that is. There are more than a couple of Korean female vocalists more vocally skilled than Ailee. Kyuhyun is the best male idol. I have no rating for her, but it’s not “good”.

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      3. if we compare with korea, she is like bada. long career female singer with great vocal…im not her fan but im agree with her vocal…i have questions:
        1) is her vocal stable?
        2) what kind of voice and rating?
        3) is she improved? cause i think yes. check out her latest song 2015

        start at 0.43 straight away. thanks
        btw, she is number 1 in country

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      4. Again I’m sorry but this is a video question that’s about a vocalist that’s not Kpop, therefore we won’t analyze her so because of that we don’t answer these type of video questions.

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  7. How did he do at his American Idol audition? He starts singing at 0:27. Was 0:55 resonant? The judges’ comments at the end tho… ^ ^

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      1. Oh okay. After John Park, you will analysis who? I’m sorry i’m not good at English keke

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      2. Oh it’s okay haha my next ones are changmin, GO, Uji, Jokwon, Jung yonghwa, Gayoon, Eunkwang, Bohyung, Minah, Soyeon and a few others lol

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  8. hwanhee soon pls lol, i;m curious to death.. i saw your comment in other page saying hwanhee was >>>> than john park, how far? is hwanhee really that good? i hope so! i like him a lot!!! lol! forgive me i am jus an amateur wants to know.><

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    1. That’s okay but I’m afraid I’m waiting on someone to finish his vocal range video before I can analyze him for sure since I don’t know his full range.

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  9. Can someone telle Me What is he doing in the beginning Of the Song Is that a vibratoo I never heard something Like That O.O

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    1. To an extent he is controlling his voice in order to copy the sound of a guitar or just an instrument so…he did like a very fast controlled vibrato and used lazy diction to get an instrument-like sound out. (That’s how I’d explain it)

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  10. SHINee’s key was mentioned here, i honestly didn’t know he was a baritone. I wanted to ask if he is consider a vocalist, because i think he would be the 4th best singer, but honestly he is the only one who always sing live loud and almost pefect in every performance, also if he is indeed a vocalist would he get a analysis? i know that there are already three SHINee mebers here but i think that if he is good enough he deserves it

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    1. I don’t know why people have this idea that Key sings perfectly in every performance, I’ve heard from a couple of other Shawols that they feel Key is a much better vocalist than Taemin because apparently “Taemin strains and he goes off pitch” but I fail to understand that when I have yet to hear Key actually supporting his voice on anything above a D4, he might be able to hit the notes with a lot of nasality and strain everytime, but “perfectly”? I’m not so sure I’d call it that myself. His pitch but not be bad but I’ve heard him mess up there too.. If he WERE good enough so anything from Above Average up, he’d probably get an analysis. Since he is not, I have no intentions of analyzing him because if I do, then I have no right to refuse to analyze any other vocalists from other groups, simply because they have enough lines. I guess all 3 SHINee members got that out of the way because of how high they’d rank anyway, same for Mamamoo, all 3 vocalists will be analyzed. Anyway I hope I didn’t offend you, it just confuses me how people overestimate Key and underestimate Taemin. Key has become lazy, he had a lot of potential in the beginning of SHINee’s career but he never did anything with it. He’s a baritone who can mix C5, that is a LOT of potential right there but what good is that if everything above D4 is strain? His falsetto is tight and small, his voice is always shallow, nasal, throaty. The quality of his singing is just not very high.

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      1. Well thank you for clearing things up, I have to say that i agree not understanding how people think key is better than taemin, that’s just wrong, but i guess i wasn’t being objective at all, i think i just really like his voice, since i’m nowhere a specialist in singing i didn’t know almost any of what you just wrote so thank you, and is sad that not every singer get an analysis but of course that would be immposible, thank you so much i love you and your work 😉

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Its funny to see an analysis about John Park and get to know that he really is a good singer.
    I always see him in variety shows and his image as nothing to say that he can really sing, and I never looked for it, but I`m impressed actually.
    Watched all the videos in the post and I think Im a fan of him as a singer too now lol
    Thak u for this analysis too!!! It was awesome to rediscover J. Park *-*

    Liked by 1 person

      1. YES! His personality is so weird and funny lol
        Saw him on Running Man, Cool Kiz and Laws of the City.
        And then, saw him singing. two people on body lol

        Actually his video on American Idol, he is really diferent there too lol

        Yeah! I hope you can post more about other singers that are not idols too ^^

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Could you please give me a brief summary of his weaknesses? Btw Your effort on the blog and the comment section is deeply appreciated. ^^

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      2. Thank you very much! Eric Nam has issues with pitch, his mixed voice above G4 I believe.. I haven’t heard too much of him but generally it’s his airiness, his pitchy runs and his issues with keeping stable control of his voice.. I haven’t heard too much

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    1. Oh yes of course, she has a beautiful head voice. My favorite vocalist in the world and in history? I have none, I like too many people lol

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    1. Carnival? Kim Dong ryul and Lee Juk are a baritone and a tenor, they both have good support and placement to an extent but they usually have these shaky vibratos, that could use some work. Their harmonies are pretty good, they sound pretty good. They definitely have resonance and they sang it in a lower key than the studio version of this song… so it was less risk for strain.

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  12. Do you know why there are so little baritones out there in the Kpop industry? Because Tenor and Baritones can mix extremely well together…

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    1. You feel they mix well together? I mean it’s a lot to do with the repertoire they sing, which is generally very high in range. Tenors in K-pop often sing just as high as Sopranos even in their mixed voices, so to expect that from a Baritone is insane. Usually they’ll favor a tenor just because they have the range, some baritones make it though but with the high rangey pop songs by male groups, baritones have no place to shine.

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      1. What about Kang Seung Yoon ? How is he as a singer ? as mentioned by you , he’s a baritone . will you do a vocal analysis on him ? 😮

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      2. Check the future analyses list for requests, since his name is already there. ^ ^ Yes, he will be analyzed.~

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      3. omg thank you !! I’m so excited for Kang Seung Yoon and Jung Joon Young’s analysis ! saw that it’ll be done by you !! thank you for working hard !!!!^.^

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  13. Who would you say has the biggest resonance of all the male vocalists in the Competent tier? And if you have time, could you rate their resonance from best to worst (sorry if this is too much.. I know you guys are busy ><) (Actually, this might've been answered before.. I just haven't seen the comment yet..)

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    1. I don’t do the resonance thing, I don’t think much about it so idk sorry. His resonance is big but he has a thicker voice too.

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  14. with those goodness of him, should he placed at higher rank than he is now? what makes him stay in competent and not go higher? due to his limited supported range?

    also im wondering if resonant voice, do they always followed by vibration? many singer holding resonant notes for a long time and end it with vibrato. it makes me think that resonant voice is producing vibratos. is it correct?

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    1. What part of his singing makes it seem like he should be higher? Nope. Resonance can happen with straight tone as well, vibrato just helps resonance be bigger.

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      1. the highlight would be his lower range, head voice, agility, musicianship. i think i read somewhere above that not many baritone can use head voice. should it be a plus point?
        but for second thought, his mix voice might not help him go higher haha

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      2. Head voice for baritones isn’t necessarily unusual, it’s not that much of a difference. His musicianship only adds to his artistry, his agility is not THAT impressive, his lower range is far from being that impressive too. I believe Competent is fair for him.

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  15. Is it safe to say he has the best lower range amongst baritones? I haven’t seen any of them support as low as him. Unless it’s only the support he has over them.

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    1. Nothing to say that already isn’t addressed in the analysis but hey, very nice head voice moments, nice adlibs. Nice harmonies. It works for him having a tenor duet partner to take the load off of the high belting. Some nice runs too.

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  16. I don’t know why but I just want to share this video of him. His new song is really good and his voice is just so nice to listen to. Thank you for this btw. I’ve just found this site and it’s nice to see him, and not only that but see him placed highly(?). You can tell you put a lot of work into it so thank you!!

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    1. Your questions are a bit vague. There’s not much to say, good head voice moments up to B4 in both videos, good resonant E4’s, good runs, nicely supported lower notes. Nothing new really, the same John Park as before. Even some well placed Eb5’s in head voice in the Too Late video.

      Like

  17. I noticed there were no videos of his best performances. Is there a specific reason for that? I would love to know your opinion of what his best performances are.

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    1. Sometimes we just don’t do it, for no particular reason. Back when this analysis was written, we didn’t actively try to find one for every analysis.

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  18. You mention that he lacks resonance/support above F#4 without using head voice. I was under the impression it was nearly impossible for a baritone to go beyond that without relying on their head voice. Do you know of some baritones in contemporary music who are capable of doing that?

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      1. what about hyunmin? he supports up to G4 right? is kpop not contemporary? i thought conteporary just meant current music lol but maybe im wrong

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      2. Right totally didn’t cross my mind lol tho there’s a possibility that he’s a low type of tenor too

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  19. Do you have any tips to improve the quality of the headvoice’s lower part? I have no problem when singing the higher part but when I sing lower than G#4 my headvoice usually becomes less connected and weaker in tone.

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