MYNAME’s Vocal Analysis: Gunwoo

0. MA Vocalists: Melismatic/Agile Vocalists, 0. MB Vocalists: Mid-range belters, 0. MH Vocalists: Mid-range head voice vocalists, Companies: H2Media, Groups, Tenors, Vocal Analyses, Vocal Ranges: 3 Octave Ranges, , , , , , , , ,

Vocal Range

G#2 ~ A5 (3 Octaves & 1 Semitone)

Supported Range

C#3/D3 ~ A4

Voice Type

Tenor

Strengths/Achievements

  • Strongest vocalist in MYNAME
  • Consistent column of sound present up to A4
  • Resonance is very consistent up to A4, rarely happens up to Bb4
  • Support is well developed and consistent
  • Able to sing through vocal runs with good technique
  • Lower range shows support down to C#3 with consistency in tone and volume
  • Able to keep tone below A2 even if support is lost
  • Voice is never truly nasal
  • Able to produce a connected head voice occasionally
  • Musicianship is well developed and explored

Points for Improvement

  • Lower range below C#3 becomes quiet and lacks support
  • Vocal runs can often be over exaggerated and pitchy when too fast
  • Mixed voice above A4 generally becomes throaty and strained
  • Falsetto is mostly produced, often pushed and strained
  • Shows issues with keeping an opened throat on vowels Aye (애/에), Ee (이) and Oo (우) in his mixed voice

Registers

  • Lower register: Although an under explored register in the repertoire given to MYNAME, he has developed his lower range well enough to be able to almost handle the bottom of the lower tenor range with good support. Issues with volume may happen below Eb3 though.
  • Mixed register: Very consistent support and resonance produced in this registers. Shows very little issues with consistency in keeping his throat opened in his mixed voice, mostly due to vowel shapes. Above A4, he often becomes throaty.
  • Upper register: Rarely able to produce a head voice. Mostly uses a relaxed falsetto even up to Eb5/E5 at times. Other times produces a strained screeched pushed falsetto when attempting ascending runs.

Agility

As a lyric voice, Gunwoo presents the natural lightness and ease to have enough flexibility in his voice to perform accurate vocal runs. He uses the natural ease he has added with how influenced he was by his mentor and shows one of the best runs amongst idols in the K-pop industry. He shows very good note separation and an ability to create good flow and rhythm in his runs. Most of the time this ability is shown in slower tempo runs, such as in the one in “너무 very 막“, or in more mid to faster tempo runs such as in “Hello & Goodbye“, “남자답게“, “체념” and “지울 수 없는 (Memory)“. However, when he is not given the luxury of singing runs with pauses in between and tries to sing with more notes and with more complexity, he tends to lose his musical ideas and becomes very pitchy, such as in “Instagram video #1“, “Instagram Video #2“, “As Long As You Love Me” and “Message (Acoustic Version)“.

Overall analysis

Debuting in 2011 under the mentorship of former SM Entertainment artist and Fly To The Sky’s Main Vocalist, Hwanhee. Under such mentorship, it would come as no surprise for their main vocalist to be of a high vocal level, with a developed tone and technique. Although it may seem that Gunwoo’s sound is quite similar to that of Hwanhee, his voice is placed much higher than Hwanhee’s in tessitura with a much lighter and lighter weight sound, placing his voice where a Tenor’s voice would, most likely a light lyric tenor if to be classically trained.

The lower part of his range is one that he explores the least in the repertoire given to him as a member of MYNAME. Most of the time Gunwoo is highlighted by taking the higher notes and exhibiting his expertise with his mixed voice. That is not to say that Gunwoo isn’t capable of showing support and a consistent connection of his vocal cords with a neutral larynx, often done as low as C#3, such as the Eb3 in “안되나요“, the D3 in “You’re Waiting For Me“, and the C#3 in “지울 수 없는 (Memory)“. Below C#3, he is able to keep tone, such as the A2 in “취중진담“, however most of the time projection and tone below C#3 is lost due to the lack of proper vocal cord connection and lost support, such as the G#2 in “남자답게” and the B2 in “잠을 너무 못 잤나봐“.

As he ascends in range, Gunwoo keeps a good ratio of chest and head resonance in his mixed voice, mostly opting for a slightly darker and a bit chestier sound with more depth in tone. In the repertoire he sings, Gunwoo makes very good use of the power and good breath control he possesses, always keeping a stable larynx and consistent column of sound throughout his mixed voice with an open throat and proper mask placement, creating clean resonance. This can be heard very easily in the G4’s in “Replay“, “My Love“, G#4’s in “Stop The Time“,  “지울 수 없는 (Memory)“, “” and the A4’s in “Shalala“, “Day By Day“, “What’s Up” and “My Love“. This consistency in resonance is usually kept well enough when singing with more opened vowels, such as Ah (아) and Oh (오), but he has shown inconsistencies with keeping an open throated shape in his vocal tract in order to produce resonance, creating more closed throated tight notes when singing the Aye (애/에), Ee (이) and Oo (우) vowels, such as in “Day By Day“. Resonance or support above A4 are rarely ever produced, one time was a live performance of “Hello & Goodbye” where Gunwoo was able to sing a resonant Bb4. However for the most part, his voice generally becomes tight and strained above A4, with a high larynx and a closed throat, such as the Bb4’s in “Message“, “Message“, “Tears“, “Message (Acoustic)“, the B4 in “Baby I’m Sorry“, the C5 in “Light (선물)“, the C#5’s in “체념” and the F5 in “Missing You“.

When going for his upper register, Gunwoo tends to favor using either a more falsetto-like tone, with softness and airiness or a mask placed pushed falsetto with a lot of vocal strain. Most of the time Gunwoo opts for his falsetto register, which is often relaxed and not sloppy in terms of transitions, such as in “Message“. At times however, he opts for a strained falsetto, such as in “Instagram Video #3“, which shows a more throaty sound with more vocal strain. There have been times where Gunwoo has been able to show a connected head voice, such as in “Light (선물)“, but he does not often sing with this register showing inconsistency in keeping a connected approach in his vocal cords and limiting the full potential of the development of a true head voice, thus hindering his ability to have a fully connected voice from the bottom to the top of his range.

Musically, Gunwoo has a good sense of sensibility in tone. He often sacrifices technique for a more emotional approach to his singing, being able to convey and express his feelings better in songs by adding vocal effects such as airiness in lower range, as well as adding softness and controlling his dynamics well throughout his range. Gunwoo doesn’t often get a chance to showcase his vocal abilities and therefore is limited in terms of solo vocal performances. He often shows a lack of understanding of musicality when it comes to vocal runs, opting for showing off runs and his ability to sing as many notes as fast as he can, without truly connecting the musical ideas with the songs he’s singing, thus taking away the true musical intention behind his vocal runs and being left with only a show off.

Although having debuted in 2011, Gunwoo’s vocal ability has yet to be truly recognized which can be attributed to a few reasons. MYNAME has received moderate success as an idol group, but their songs are never truly used to highlight Gunwoo’s vocals and this causes him to lack opportunities to sing songs that fit his voice the best. Not only that, Gunwoo seems to lack a sense of originality as an overall vocalist, almost sounding as though he could be labelled as a mini-Hwanhee. For future improvements as a vocalist, finding his true color would be the key way to go in order to achieve better success and stand out, as well as developing the lower part of his range and working to further improve his vocal agility.

Musicianship

Much of what Gunwoo does includes a lot of improvised vocal runs and musical ideas executed and applied into his vocal performances. These are usually very accurate in pitch, with the exception of badly executed vocal runs, and are done with a comfortable and secure sense of pitch and rhythm. At times he shows good musical ideas, but his runs seem to lack a sense of originality and his musical changes often sound like they’re highly influenced by Hwanhee. Examples of his musicianship include “My Love“, “체념” and “Replay“.

Label (Type of Vocalist)

MH Vocalists: Mid-Range Head Voice Vocalists

MB Vocalists: Mid-Range Belters

MA Vocalists: Melismatic/Agile Vocalists

Vocal Range Video(s)

Video by: Edgar Cárdenas

—

Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

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102 thoughts on “MYNAME’s Vocal Analysis: Gunwoo”

  1. Wow! I always knew Gunwoo was one of the top tier vocalists in K-pop, this analysis really pleases me! He’s sooo underrated and it sucks that he doesn’t get to shine more often since MYNAME is still pretty nugu unfortunately. I hope he gets more airtime int he future, maybe a feature in Immortal Song or at least Sketchbook. He’s also really good at composing and writing also. I’m hoping they release something that can let him shine in his group’s repertoire more. Same hope I have for future f(x) songs and Luna.

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  3. What does this mean:
    ‘Resonance is very consistent up to A4, rarely happens up to Bb4’
    is he very consistent on A4s but Bb4s are rare?

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    1. It means what it says in the analysis lol he’s consistently resonant up to A4, but resonance has been achieved up to Bb4 on rare occasions.

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  5. g-gosh i feel terrible lol i never really checked out their music before (tbh i only discovered their existence a few weeks ago >.<) ;; but after reading this analysis, i listened to a few of their songs and i think i might like them now lmao
    as expected, great analysis, i always enjoy reading them! thank you so much, ahmin +____+

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  6. wow he is good!! have ever heard of the group’s name but since they’re really not popular I didn’t expect there would be someone who is this good in the group (sometimes group’s members who have good vocals get recognition despite the group is not popular). I hope Gunwoo will get the recognition for his vocal skill ….

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      1. Ahh interesting. Thanks, I love this site, since I’ve been paying attention to it, I’ve been learning more about what constitutes as “good technique” vs a singer pushing their vocals to hit notes so I can better understand the sound that’s supposed to come out when I sing.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Gunwoo is last? Why? I thought he has the best mix. His lower range are much better than Junsu’s too

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      3. His mix isn’t the best, he has inconsistencies with vowels, Hongki doesn’t have that problem at all, Junsu kind of has that problem. Junsu has a much better more consistent head voice as well. They’re very close together, it’s not a big difference.

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  9. Hope he goes on something so we can get some better quality vids.

    Can I ask how the other bb4 at 1:12 is in the resonant bb4 video? is it good as well?

    Great analysis! Thanks in advance.

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    1. Yeah that one sounds good too! Actually there’s a risk of that performance being dubbed or lip synched to an extent haha No problem.

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      2. Actually listening to them, I hear pushing with good placement, so the 3 last ones are more or less strained with good placement but these serve no purpose for consistency since they’re all from 2012 and 2015 Gunwoo hasn’t done this.

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  11. I see a prfile about MYNAME and they said they have 2 main vocals: gunwoo and insoo. Do you wanna make Insoo too? Or would you just tell what rate insoo is?

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    1. Make sure to check the future analyses page when asking questions like this. Yes Insoo will be analyzed, or so we hope. Not sure about his rating yet.

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    1. It’s pretty nice except for 3:20, I don’t really hear anything that sounds different or new or that doesn’t go with what’s written on the analysis, do you have any specific question?

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    1. 2:08 he used a truly connected head voice there, that was really nice. It’s not something he does often. This performance is overall really nice, he is singing within his supported range which doesn’t present issues for him overall. 3:10 that head voice crescendo was very nice! You don’t hear that often with male vocalists. His placement in the chorus is overall really nice, it’s quite pleasant to hear good technique. 4:33 I hear some strain there and he had issues with the run. Strain also at 4:41 but that’s outside his supported range. At points he seemed tired when singing within his supported range actually, so I think if there are any moments within his supported range where he sounds like he is straining to an extent, it’s due to fatigue. 5:33 that run was sloppy too. Overall it was pretty nice though. Pretty song.

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      1. Thanks for your comments! I really love how he sung this song and I was overwhelmed by it. He’s too underrated =((

        It’s a pity some fans removed the video from Youtube as some Japanese fans complained that videos weren’t supposed to be taken during the concert (Urgh).

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Oh and there’s another video of the same song and he attempted differently.

        (Yes, some Japanese fans are absolutely silly.)

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  17. On Twitter I saw you say that only gunwoo could compete with Jonghyun for head voice and you were considering moving his rating because of his head voice. I’m confused because the analysis says his head voice isn’t good at all. (I don’t stalk you I promise)

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    1. Oh yeah no it was because some people posted more recent stuff where his head voice was better, but then I remember how inconsistent his head voice is and I was like “right.” lol

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    1. I think singing and rapping in a language that you might not speak very fluently can be quite a problem for you. When you rap though, you have more presence and attitude in your voice, when you sing you lose that. You voice becomes quieter, it doesn’t project, you aren’t following the melody of the song and your pitch is monotonous. The instrumental you’re singing with has the melody of the song, but you’re not following it. You’re singing like the same notes over and over, not the actual notes in the melody. 2:02 lots of issues with diction, your throat closes way too early. You can physically see your muscles closing your throat. You’re kind of singing an octave below the original melody but then you’re singing just off key right after. I would suggest singing a song without so much rapping if you want to work on singing and a song that’s comfortable for you in terms of range. There is just a lot that needs to be done, diction, placement, projection, pitch, addressing tension and throat shape. I can’t put it into one written response, it won’t make enough sense to you unless you hear it and see it.

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      1. oh sorry, i keep forgetting that if the other singers are skilled enough you will do an exception to the rule of only analyzing the strongest half. Mm i wonder why Hwanhee only focused on training one singer thoroughly. Btw since i’ve brought up Hwanhee already, i was wondering, would it be possible for him to support even higher than he already does? is there a limit to what can be achieved in terms of support for a baritone like him?

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      2. Oh no need to apologize! I’m sorry I couldn’t come up with a better way to answer without being like blunt. I don’t believe there’s a limit, the way he supports works but since he tends to be weighty and pushy, it can be limiting. He could potentially support higher, I am not sure I believe in such a thing as limits.

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      3. lol ok i just felt like u were a bit frustrated but im glad you didnt meant it haha, mm i see, do you know of any other baritones in any music industry, that support higher than hwanhee ? also this is hard to put into words but the other day i was comparing hyunmin’s and gunwoos’ G4s and i realized the difference in power wasn’t that noticeable, or maybe one video had better audio than the other, but would you say that as a baritone goes higher, his power decreases, to the point where its hard to distinguish him from tenors? I used to think that because a baritone needed more effort to support higher he would therefore have more power in those high notes than a tenor, but what ive noticed is that, from around the range of E4 to F#4 its easy to see the difference in power between a baritone and a tenor, but as they go higher, it becomes harder, like if the baritones mix starts becoming lighter as a tenors

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      4. Actually as baritones sing higher, they generally have to sing lighter to be able to keep going in pop music. It really depends on how you sing.

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      5. mm i see, i thought that might be the case, in a lower range you can be more chesty, but once u go up, being chesty can be limiting as in the case of Hwanhee right? by the way, you didn’t say if you know of any baritones that support higher than hwanhee

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  24. Seems like MYNAME won’t get alot of screentime at The Unit after all. Their audition boot stage got totally edited out. Unless they are so kind to air it this weekend. Nonetheless, here are some clips that Gunwoo sang at his friend’s wedding, 4men’s Baby Baby

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  25. Hi! Since I noticed you said before that Gunwoo was one of the more underrated good male vocalists, can you talk a bit about his performance on The Unit?
    Here’s the link to the video: http://www.vlive.tv/video/47571
    or, alternatively,

    He didn’t do that well because he was nervous (which I’m really sad about bc MyGirls and MyBoys know how good he is). If you can’t talk about the whole video, then just 1:38 onwards is fine. 🙂 I just wanted to know whether or not his technique is still as good as before, if you can tell by this performance.

    Thank you!

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    1. MyGirls and MyBoys, that’s the fanclub name? I had no idea. Seyong or smth, he’s really going all out for the dancing. He sounds like is out of shape 0:45, like completely out of breath and barely being able to project and carry out his parts. This dance is too intense. 1:14 A4’s 1:15 He is pushing them out a bit, because he sounds like he is not really being able to catch his breath throughout. 1:39 That’s well placed/projected in terms of the brightness, but it’s so pushy and in his throat, he is so gritty. Again I think he’s overcompensating cause he can’t catch his breath nor really engage his diaphragm enough. A4 shouldn’t be this hard for him.

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      1. Thank you! I agree that this performance didn’t really show his vocals well 😔 and that’s why he only got 3 out of the 6 judges to vote for him. Still! I hope he shows how great he is soon!

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      2. LOL, I didn’t post this perf cos I felt that it’s not up to his standard. And ironically the title of this song is Breath.

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      1. There’s actually another version of this song “Don’t go today” which he sang last year. He posted it on fancafe. That version is on a higher key.

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      2. It’s a comfortable range and his head voice transitions and the overall production of it are really nice, A4’s in head voice and whatnot. It was nice. It doesn’t quite match the recent performance cause it doesn’t present the same issues.

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  26. It’s for both versions? So the problem lies for the audition performance is mainly because he was catching his breath most of the time?

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      1. He’s using a lot of head voice, it’s very consistent and more connected than Gunwoo’s and his song is more exciting as an audition song if that’s what this is. His vowels aren’t opened, aye specifically. Lee Gun sounds like he supports, I don’t know him very well because Madtown lacks exposure overall. He didn’t sing like above E4 or so, he was singing in a low comfortable range. There wasn’t much of a challenge there.

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  27. Those are not really audition songs, some snippets of their vocal/dance for each of the idols. That’s quite sad to know lol.. but I do agree Rockhyun is more consistant. Gunwoo is… unfortunately not. Thanks alot 🙂

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      1. Jeup has been featured quite a bit on The Unit, Gunwoo has so far no screentime for singing lol… Thanks for that short and quick analysis. I’m quite relieved to hear lol

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  30. Perhaps Gunwoo’s only worthy performance from The Unit so far. He only got one line for his previous mission. He wasn’t even assigned to a full vocal group but a rap/vocal group. Don’t think there’s anything new in the performance. And most likely he will be eliminated after this mission because he’s ranking pretty low now due to lack of screentime.

    https://streamable.com/d5rzr

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  31. Since there’s no Chaejin post here’s his performance with his group. Ah Min, could you comment on the overall vocal performance here?

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    1. You’re not going to provide a time stamp for who Chaejin is? I can read the names, but if you’re asking about one specific person, it’d be nice to give a time stamp for when they actually sing. I don’t know who Chaejin is, as in from what group or his relevance in terms of singing. I looked him up, he’s a sub-vocalist of MYNAME? I mean we haven’t even analyzed Insoo because his support is fairly shallow, it’s unlikely Chaejin would show anything different. There wasn’t much singing for him nor was it really challenging, he sang in between F3 ~ Eb4 for like 15 seconds, so I really can’t tell you much other than he sings somewhat in pitch, he is a bit too breathy, doesn’t place his sound very forward and I’m not sure of his voice type.

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      1. Oops, I’m sorry. He’s at 0:40. I’m actually more interested your comments about Jeup’s notes haha… He’s really straining too much IMO.

        And any specific comments about Gunwoo’s perf on BTS’s Butterfly on the above link?

        https://streamable.com/d5rzr

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  32. if you want to check out gunwoo’s butterfly performance here’s the link (unofficial)
    do you think he did well? because I think he did well and I hope he finally receives attention for his vocals but I don’t know if what he did would impress people that know about technique

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  33. I found a few singing clips of Gunwoo.

    나얼 – 귀로 (Naul – Home)

    Brown Eyed Soul – Nothing Better

    바이브 – 그남자 그여자 (Vibe – That Man, That Woman)

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  36. why does he have mid-range head voice when he doesn’t support his headvoice nor produced them well? is it supposed to be mid-low range???

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    1. I think I had heard enough new examples of a consistent head voice up to like C#5 or so for him when I added that, but since I didn’t add it into the analysis nor examples, I might have to look into this later again.

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      1. i was gonna ask that too ,it stated in his profile that he’s only able to produce a connected head voice occasionally but he’s still in the same category of consistent mid range head voice users like Rokhyun , UJi and ock joohyun , is he really on the same level ?

        Liked by 1 person

  38. hi admins hope you’re all doing great .
    just curious if gunwoo san is still active cause it been a while since i saw him , i searched and i found this from 2018 https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZnbcpH8-C/ how’s he’s doing here with his high notes ? i think he’s struggling/straining also is that head voice or falsetto and how was his runs ? thank you

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    1. can you analyze his singing at 4:42 did he improve his technique?

      1:50 his voice sounds a bit different here i was surprised

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  39. just an observation regarding the “C#3 in “지울 수 없는 (Memory)“ in his profile it actually a D3

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