Vocal Range
C#3 ~ G#5 (2 octaves, 3 notes and 1 semitone)
Supported Range
B3 ~ G#4
Voice Type
Soprano
Strengths/Achievements
- Strongest vocalist in KARA
- Some breath support is present in the voice
- Able to keep a fuller sound in her voice
- Nasality is not too apparent
- Lower range can keep support down to B3/Bb3
- Mixed voice has some support up to G#4/A4
- Pitch can be quite nice
Points for Improvement
- Lowers larynx for her lower notes to overcompensate for tone
- Becomes easily shouty in her mixed voice to overcompensate for power
- Vocal runs are generally sloppy and uncontrolled
- Notes below Bb3 are weak and lack in support
- Notes above A4 become weak with a high larynx
- Voice becomes whinier as she goes higher in range
- Presents a lot of jaw tension in her singing
- Breath support is generally weak
- Tone lacks roundness, sounds generally flat and lacks in color
- Falsetto is very airy and disconnected
- No register in her voice is truly developed
Registers
- Lower register: Very weak in terms of tone and clarity, but can at times project considerably well even if with a lowered pushed larynx. Generally support is not present below B3.
- Mixed register: A somewhat balanced mixed voice, although still lingering more towards the head-dominant side. She often pushes her voice out more when trying to create power and lacks support above A4.
- Upper register: The falsetto is generally weak, airy and unsupported. The voice often becomes weak when transitioning and loses projection and at times becomes pitchy.
Agility
Compared to the other members of KARA, Seungyeon takes the most risks vocally. She is one of the few members to actually attempt solo songs where she’s challenged to sing vocal runs in her vocal performances. As such, she’s also more exposed in terms of weaknesses and presents herself as a less careful vocalist. When approaching her vocal runs, Seungyeon often becomes weak in tone, her runs becoming quite sloppy, where notes are not hit precisely and the general sense of pitch is lost almost completely. Not only that, but her runs often cause her voice to be lighter and airier where she uses even less breath support to guide her voice and instead lets her voice become shallow and uncontrolled, such as the runs in “하얀 겨울“, “Love The Way You Lie” and “Strong Enough“.
Overall analysis
Debuting as KARA’s main vocalist alongside the group’s strongest vocalist to date, Sunghee, in 2007, Seungyeon has kept her place as the group’s main vocal for years always being the member to take on the most challenging lines in their songs. Much like the rest of KARA, she has a light, bright and girly voice with a high pitched sound and a range that generally sits quite high, classifying her as most likely a Light Lyric Soprano.
The lowest part of her range has been explored and showcased a lot more than any other vocalist in KARA, extending as low as C#3. When singing below her supported range, Seungyeon tends to let her voice become soft and airy and lose support, or at times she’ll try to lower her larynx to create tone and project in her lower range overcompensating for the lack of proper breath support and vocal cord connection. This creates a more unclear tone with an artificial darkness that her voice does not generally possess, such as in “거위의 꿈” from A3 down to C#3 and the G#3 in “Love The Way You Lie“. Apart from that, it’s possible to hear that when not trying to lower her larynx, her voice generally becomes airy and unclear below B3, where she mostly loses tone and can’t project, such as the F#3 in “Guilty“, G3 in “혼자 사랑할까요” G#3 in “Rock U“, A3’s in “STEP” and Bb3’s in “Love The Way You Lie.”
Her mixed voice is another part of her voice that’s quite underdeveloped when it comes to proper vocal technique but also shows a considerable extension up to G5. She has many times shown that compared to the other vocalists in the group, Seungyeon is able eliminate the most nasality and use the most amount of support in her mixed voice, even if said support still is mostly quite shallow and weak, she still shows the fullest tone with the best balance of chest and head voice out of all the 4 members of KARA. One example of where her voice still shows support as she ascends in range would be the F#4’s in “Guilty“, the G4’s in “Love The Way You Lie” and the G#4’s from “둘 중에 하나 (Runaway)“, where compared to the weaker tone production of Youngji, or the more shrill and whiny tone production of Gyuri, Seungyeon keeps more openness and balance in her voice overall. As she ascends in range, she generally makes an effort to produce more power in her mixed voice as well as keeping more tone, but usually that power is met with both throat and jaw tension, as she’s singing often pushing her jaw forward when trying to sing higher notes. The tension in her voice is clearly heard in the fifth octave, where she produces more powerful notes than the rest of the members of KARA, but still does so by shouting them out with a high larynx and no breath support, such as the C5’s in “Mister” and “혼자 사랑할까요“, the D5 in “Pandora“, the E5 in “Guilty” and the G5 in “Mamma Mia“. This tension is still heard at the top of the 4th octave, even though to a lesser degree for it being less challenging in range. Examples would include the Bb4’s from “” and “Strong Enough“, and the B4’s from “숙녀가 못돼“.
Her upper register, in comparison to Gyuri’s, is less stable and less connected and is more like a falsetto than a true head voice. Her voice often becomes less projected and weaker as she ascends in pitch up to her falsetto, and oftentimes her overall pitch becomes less stable. Times where she tries to sing in her falsetto but her tone becomes weaker and more airy with less connection in her vocal cords include “Strong Enough” and “그땐 그냥“. Even then, there are times where her transitions are smoother and done very quickly, as passing notes, such as in “혼자 사랑할까요“, and other times where they’re too quick for her voice to become unstable or shaky, such as in “Mamma Mia“. Thus, it’s possible to conclude that Seungyeon has neglected developing a close connection between her vocal cords in order to produce a more stable and true head voice and is therefore unable to feel head placement and produce resonance in her upper register.
Generally, Seungyeon shows a better understanding of dynamics than the other members, attempting to add more power to her voice by using more and less chest in her mix and controlling her nasality to add or use less of it in her singing, but never truly grasping the idea of an opened, relaxed throat, a neutral larynx or a lifted soft palate, thus still producing a whiny weak tone overall in her voice. Her vocal registers are all fairly underdeveloped but she has shown the potential to be able to extend her range quite far down and up in her chest and mixed voices, but due to the underdeveloped breath support she possesses, she’s yet to fully understand how to support her voice.
As a whole Seungyeon is the one vocalist in KARA, alongside Youngji, who produce the best tone overall, with the least nasality and the best balance of chest voice and head voice. Having said that, both still lack in terms of breath support and placement, being generally a 4 membered group where every single member is nasal, lacks in terms of development of registers and tone production. Seungyeon has shown the most risk taking out of all members and seems to truly want to develop herself as a vocalist and if she wishes to branch out into other genres of music, such as pop rock or ballads, she should find a vocal instructor who can teach her how to develop the true potential of her voice from scratch. For now, her sound matches the music KARA releases and overall is an appealing style that helps sell well as a cute high pitched female unit in Japan and Korea, more closely matching the vocal stylings of many J-pop girl groups.
Musicianship
Musically, again Seungyeon is the riskiest member of KARA. She’s the only member who really tries to implement more musical changes to her singing, as well as trying harder to keep a more interesting and original vocal approach to her covers. Even then her lack of control in her voice often causes her to become pitchy and not truly apply her melodic ideas as well as she would originally hope to, such as in “Strong Enough“.
Label (Type of Vocalist)
C Vocalists: Commercial Vocalists
Vocal Range Video(s)
Video by: Viettien81212
—
Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)
K-pop Vocalists' Vocal Analyses 
all KARA’s ember are weak?
LikeLike
If Goo Hara is lucky, she could be weak.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So her rank would 0.5 Not Even A Vocalist haha
LikeLike
Basically she’d be a terrible vocalist or a terrible to weak vocalist lol Maybe weak.
LikeLike
do you think there is another group which all the members are weak vocalist? because i think there is some… like BTS, Miss A
sorry for my english..
LikeLike
Dalshabet. Nine Muses is very close to that too, Miss A except for Min.
LikeLike
I haven’t heard you talk about many vocalists who were actually below weak. Are there any other members from idol groups who you would consider below weak? Because I knew Hara was bad, but I didn’t know she was that bad.
LikeLike
I don’t pay attention to them enough.
LikeLike
Ignorance is bliss I suppose, especially when talking about bad singers, haha. thanks anyway, and keep up the good work. I love this blog so much.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much!
LikeLike
😦
LikeLike
Jungkook isn’t average? 😦
LikeLike
Wow, was not expecting this. I thought she was at least Average.
LikeLiked by 1 person
whoa, both KARA vocalist fall under weak rate? you no kidding ya haha
no developed register, narrow range support, and lacking many things. do they both the weakest vocalist in here? out of all your vocal analysis so far
also, what do you mean by “by shouting them out with a high larynx and no breath support, such as the C5’s in “Mister””? how could you shout with no breath support? do we all shouting with breath support?
LikeLike
Jungah is still worse than them. Well what I mean by shouting with no breath support, it means she’s not even trying to support the note, she’s just yelling it out. It’s emphasizing how improper it is.
LikeLike
My friend l love how honest your reviews are they are not mean at all and based on technique , I love reading them so much and dont pay any mind to those YouTube bullys who say mean stuff keep it up.
Ahmin Id love you to please check out my videos and tell me if l can sing or not e.t.c… l feel like you would be honest with me, my upper register is pretty weak l recently learnt how to access it without forcing it , l think that may be why.
I think lm a lyric Baritone but my voice has changed so much compared to what it used to be , Im pretty confused.
My first video is pretty bad but l keep it up as a reminder not to regress lol.
I can take the criticism, Im ready.
The Link is
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-z4BkIbHjcNwMw0D1ocGEQ/videos
The last videos are my last videos singing in a while but l will be doing vocal exercises to strengthen my voice.
Ahmin’s a lovely name.
LikeLike
Hello there Anesu!
Some people sing with improper vocal technique and some sing with vocal habits that cause their voice to come out differently than what their true fach would end up sounding like. SO for you, I’m not sure exactly why you believe you’re a baritone but from Listen and …actually jk from everything I’m hearing of you, you sing like a tenor. You have no real weight in your voice, your voice gets pretty quiet around D3, C#3 and C3, it sounds like when an untrained tenor approaches their lower range. You do what most R&B/Soul singers do when they get to their lowest notes…you lower your larynx slightly, Mariah does it below E3, Toni does it a lot, many male singers do it too.
Okay onto your actual technical stuff. You have a nice voice, it’s got potential..the issue is you seem to really constrict your singing.. like your voice is very soft, very airy, very quiet. Your range from what I heard was like C3 ~ G#4 ~ Bb4 or so? I’m not sure, but you mix very lightly, very softly, you use a lot of head voice muscle coordination in your mix, you don’t seem to have much power and you need to develop the full extent of your chest voice. Your voice could be much bigger, more connected, the vocal cords could come closer together…you need to work on relaxing your shoulders, keep your body more still when singing, a more straight back posture. Have you ever learned to breathe into your diaphragm? Do you feel any chest vibrations in your chest when you sing? Try to sing out more, more with your chest, as if you were yelling out for someone to hear you, yknow? I want you to practice chest voice, breathing, opening up and yawning out so you feel more openness in the back of your throat. Many times you’re quite light, nasal and your voice lacks a centered pitch. You’re mostly not that pitchy, your runs are sometimes pitchy and due to how underdeveloped your range is, sometimes you change key when the chorus of a song comes, like in Listen. All of these are easy fixes, you just need a piano and some exercises to work with your own voice. You have potential, just try not to move your neck, shoulders and whatnot so much, try to concentrate on breathing and really connecting your vocal cords. Have you seen any of my vocal tip videos? Those could definitely help. Without a personal coach, you won’t be a Beyonce, but you will probably feel a difference.
LikeLike
Sorry if you get multiply messages l thought the first message didnt send so l sent another one and came to check on the second and found the first one actually did get sent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow that was fast thank you so much Ahmin
, l’ll keep working on it and l wont give up. Ive been looking at my voice all wrong , I tend to avoid singing in my chest voice a lot l’ll try to use it more , I’ve been wondering if this has been the reason for my nasality .
I have been doing breathing exercises recently and l’ve gotten slightly better , breathing was always my biggest issue l would either use too little air or a lot , this made it harder transition , felt like l was using a lot of energy.
And l totally need to relax and not move as much and keep the correct posture.
I’ll keep you updated
with my vocal development , thank you again my friend for helping me l’ll work on improving my potential and please keep making your vocal analysis articles their really insightful to read.
I’ll check out your videos its Kitsunemale right.
LikeLike
As much as I love Seungyeon’s voice I expected this lol. But she didn’t actually debut as part of the vocal line in OG KARA – she was the visual. OG KARA was Sunghee (main vocal), Gyuri (leader/lead vocal), Seungyeon (visual), Nicole (main rapper/maknae).
She did also show true head voice in her solo at the latest KARASIA tour but it was only in the lower fifth octave and just one performance so it wouldn’t change her ranking at all.
LikeLike
Oops sorry for double posting ><* I didn't like the way I first said it lol
LikeLike
Oh my bad about the main vocalist part.
LikeLike
Ahmin, my friend also follows this blog and your twitter, and she told me that V might be the strongest vocalist, and that Jimin was scrapped. I was always wondered if you picked vocalists to analyze based on strength or popularity or both. If it were on popularity, vocally speaking it goes Jungkook/Jimin on certain songs and Jungkook/V in others and Jungkook/Jimin/V in most. V tends to be the least popular vocally. fans tend to rave over his deep voice. Well, that’s just me thinking outloud.
So Jimin would be terrible or weak? I don’t think he supports F4, a lower range for him doesn’t exist or is not shown enough. Jungkook has more support. The part that mentally destroys me is that Jimin learned and is inspired by Taeyang, his vocal idol. He has said it on more than one occasion. It’s a curse Ahmin!!!!!! Taeyang’s passing his VOCAL COODIES!!!! or his VOCAL STDS!!!!!!!!!!!! Jungkook is inspired by Zion T. and Bigbang as well. Oh lord, why must the curse continue? I don’t know where Jin learned his style from. As for V, he’s different. Ballad singers are his idols and a Bigbang as well. But Bigbang didn’t infect him the same way it did the other two.
I want you to know this curse is real. I once imitated Taeyang to the letter. When I started listening to Kpop, I could already support perfectly to A4. Because of that fool, I was straining F4s G4s and A4s without knowing it. I find this blog 3 months later, and my supported notes go back to normal.
So back to the main question, is Jimin scrapped because of how weak he is or V got more popular or both?
LikeLike
On popularity and on “roles” I was going to go with Jimin and Jungkook cause they seem like the most prominent vocalists in BTS, but after Haruko was listening to them, she was going to analyze Jimin but gave up. I may still consider him but if V is better, then Jimin won’t be analyzed. I’m pretty sure V is stronger as a vocalist and if he is, he deserves to be analyzed. If we analyze popular vocalists, we’d analyze Suzy over Min and that’d be a crime lol Jimin is weak, most surely. According to Haruko he was straining Eb4’s and that’s very sad. Literally if Taeyang is your vocal goal, you should be able to get there within weeks of vocal training. So yeah the answer is we consider both lead/main vocalist roles and who the strongest vocalists are, if one vocalist is stronger than another, we might analyze them instead.
LikeLike
I just had a funny thought, Ahmin. If you married your fave idols, what are the odds that vocally you’ll make them work? Like this ”Honey, you’re a weak vocal now, but 2 weeks nonstop work and less sleep under my tutelage and you’ll be AA to Competent or higher, my promise to you, get to work” lol
If it were me, my heart was broken when Hyorin fell half a notch. During our wedding, when the pastor says ”for better or for worse”, I’ll say ”vocals, for better only”, in my vows ”Hyorin, darling, I’m never gonna’ let you regress. I’ll never let you walk that lonely path again. You will not be for worse with me. I’ll make you put in that work so you can get closer to Great vocalist, I promise to translate all of that blog’s articles, you will ignore your band’s vocal advice. all you have to do is listen to me. I got you. We’ll make it through this” A little too much but it would be an interesting vow, lol.
LikeLike
I honestly don’t know because many people think they slay so it’s hard to give them any sort of critique that will help them… I feel like I’d go crazy if I dated a singer lol Haha cute thoughts
LikeLike
Not that far…thought she was eak to average. Well am I the only one who thinks KARA has the worst lower registers on the planet? Like I can’t even listen to anything in the 3rd octave by them uhh it’s just so gross
LikeLike
I don’t exactly remember but slightly remember watching some kara’s stages and my impression was like they don’t sound like singers. thanks for this analysis 🙂
LikeLike
I know you have a lot on your plate but could I maybe recommend you have a look at BtoB’s vocalists? Their vocalists seem particularly strong. Especially Seo Eunkwang. Their sub vocal Sungjae made it to the third round on masked singer. Lee Changsub, Eunkwang are good from what I’ve seen. They have a live performance from mnet’s singer game floating around on the webs.
LikeLike
Make sure to check the future analyses page when making request, since BtoB’s vocalists are already included in said list. ^ ^
LikeLike
OK I knew they were bad but I didn’t know they were all bad, is it ever painful for you to analyze weak vocals because of your knowledge and ears
LikeLike
I mean I start to dig deeper trying to find good things to say about them… but it gets harder..
LikeLike
Lol
LikeLike
Oh I thought she would be weak-average at least since she’s the stronger vocalist in Kara but comparing her supported range with Gyuri’s, I guess they’re pretty much the same XD
LikeLike
Great analysis as usual! I’m not a big fan of Kara, but I listen to them on occasion and while I like their songs/dance, the nasality really makes it hard for me sometimes to enjoy their music. Normally, it’s the non-vocalists in a group that have the super nasal voices (whether it’s to be cute or sexy), so I’m glad at least one of Kara’s vocalists isn’t overly nasal. I was kind of surprised reading that Gu Hara’s terrible/very weak, but then I went back to one of her live performances and was like… oh. Good job, Ahmin on the analysis! I really enjoyed reading it haha and was surprised that all of Kara is weak or worse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She’s not 1.5? Thought she was 1.5… She is better than Bom?
LikeLike
She does not match the criteria for a weak to average vocalist nope. I believe Bom has a slight edge over her.
LikeLike
Does this mean Bom is the strongest “Weak” vocalist cause I’ve seen say she is slightly better than Jiyoon, Seungyeon, Jungah and i assume Gyuri.
LikeLike
Basically lol
LikeLike
Go Bom!!! May not seem like much but knowing she’s not the absolute worst makes me happy. After he scandal, a long hiatus, disbandment rumors, lack of news on Bom and 2NE1 as whole, I’ll take any small victory. Hopefully she took time on her long hiatus to take some vocal lessons.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If seungyeon had a an actual vocal trainer (cos DSPoor), how much better would she be? Is average as best as she can get?
LikeLike
Perhaps, that is guess work I can’t be sure.
LikeLike
Howdy! I’ve been stalking your blog for a month now, slicing through analysis one after another. Kudos for the team for many well-written and on-the-point analyses. Really, guys, your works are pitch-perfect!!!
Right, I do have a question, well, not so much a question but like a small request? Lately I have been listen to some of Kara’s older vocal performances (the ’07 line-up that is). I wonder if you guys could give me some brief thoughts on their vocal back then, especially on their main vocalist at that time, Sung Hee? Where would she be on your ranking? I think that she has lots of potentials, but that’s just my opinions.
And is it just me, or does Kara sound better back then than now?
Here are the link to some performance:
My All (covered by SungHee) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_wa_rXkE8
Don’t be shy/Break it/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdaOd_O-xk4
My heart will go on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOuODhndbZA
Come on over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUE-SOKkJfM
Thanks you in advance.
LikeLike
Why hello there, thank you for reading our analyses! Well the thing is back then they all tried to sound less like little cute girls and actually attempted to sing. The problem is their technique wasn’t necessarily better, they just tried to sound more mature. Seunghee was far better than them but I think at most she’s an average vocalist. She has a better mix but she just has more volume and more evenness than them with more support, she’s still nasal and around B4/C5 she still has a high larynx.
LikeLike
it’s so unbelieveable to think She is weaker than Bom.
LikeLike