Vocal Range

D3 ~ G5 (2 Octaves, 2 notes & 1 semitone)

Supported Range

Bb3 ~ B4

Voice Type

Soprano

Strengths/Achievements

• Support is present and employed in her singing
• Mixed voice is bright and not generally pushed
• Supports with consistency up to B4
• Support up to C5 is somewhat present even if somewhat shallow
• Head voice can be connected but lacks support
• Generally sings within a narrow range, doesn’t try to oversing
• Intonation is mostly consistent throughout vocal performances
• Lower range is supported with connection down to Bb3/B3

Points for Improvement

• Shows inconsistencies in her upper range, mostly sings with an airy falsetto
• Mixed voice is shallow in support
• High larynx is present above B4 most of the time
• Nasality is present throughout her range
• Unable to open the back of her throat, lacks roundness in tone
• Voice is light and lacks power
• Chest voice lacks development and depth in tone, generally too light
• Vocal runs are often somewhat sloppy and lack good rhythmic flow
• Resonance is never truly produced

Registers

• Lower register: Most of G.NA’s lower range is produced with some tone, but without a good sense of connection in the vocal cords. Notes below Bb3 often come out soft and airy, without good projection.

• Mixed register: Her mixed voice is bright and head-dominant. Mostly projects through her nose, notes above B4 often are whiny and tight in tone but support is present below.

• Upper register: Sings with a falsetto for a majority of the time but is also able to use a connected head voice inconsistently. Her head voice although connected lacks in terms of support.

Agility

Like most Foreign-born Koreans, G.NA takes more influence from Western R&B artists and vocalists which shows in her vocal style. Her tone is often bright and light, with an approach that allows her to sing through vocal runs with more flexibility. Even so, G.NA lacks the true support and muscle memory to sing through vocal runs with good rhythmic flow, often sounding somewhat sloppy and laggy in her vocal runs. She doesn’t often attempt complex vocal runs, but when any vocal runs are included in her vocal performances, they often come out slow but she does have good pitch even if every note isn’t hit on the center of the pitch, her overall intonation isn’t completely off, as heard in “Officially Missing You” and “꺼져줄게 잘 살아“. She often also has quick trills as part of her signature style that come out more or less as precise as she can, such as in “꺼져줄게 잘살아” and “애인 생기면 하고 싶은 일“.

Overall analysis

Debuting in 2010 as the new soloist idol in Cube, G.NA stands today as one of the few idol female soloists in the industry, alongside veterans like BoA and popular singers like IU, Ailee and Lee Hi. As such, she has to compete with a fierce wave of new debuting idols every year as well as veterans in the industry. Her image often distracts her from her vocals, but G.NA stands on her own as a soloist with a sweet and girly voice, that allows her to maintain enough relevancy in the sea of female idols in the industry.

The lower part of G.NA’s range is one that’s adequately connected and produces tone throughout, even down to her lowest note D3 tone is still present, as heard in “Officially Missing You“. The issue with her lower range lies on the fact that her chest voice and the muscles in her larynx responsible for that aspect of her voice are mostly underdeveloped, causing her tone to be soft and airy with a lack of connection between her vocal cords in that range. The lack of strength in her vocal cords in her lower range causes her to lack projection, accompanied by her inability to explore the resonance chambers in her chest which cause her to lose volume and power as she descends below B3/Bb3, as heard in the F3’s in “밉다 싫다” and “벌써 보고 싶어“, G3’s in “나 돌아가“,  and A3’s in “Without You“.

Her mixed voice shares a similarity with her chest voice and lower range, it lacks power. Most of G.NA’s voice is rather bright and lacks depth in tone, caused by an overly developed head dominant mixed voice where balance in the cricothyroid and thyroarytenoid muscles is inexistent. The lack of chest voice in her mixed voice causes her to have some difficulty in creating a significant enough change in dynamics throughout her vocal performances. Nonetheless, G.NA is not unable to create more volume in her voice, even if that may cause her to strain her voice in the process, she just lacks the proper support and muscle coordination to play with the ratio of chest and head in her mixed voice. Support in G.NA’s voice is somewhat shallow but is strong enough to create a relaxed and stable clean sound in the fourth octave, allowing for a consistent supported sound in her voice, such as the B4’s in “Without You” and “어제처럼“.

Although support is present, her vocal tract shape usually causes her to sound small in size and have a voice that could easily be overpowered. This inability she has to lift her soft palate properly creates a whiny and nasal sound in her voice throughout her range, which becomes much more pinched as she sings notes outside her supported range. This can be heard in the C5’s in “Top Girl” and “벌써 보고 싶어“, C#5’s in “First Kiss” and “올해의 주문“, D5 in “예쁜 속옷“, Eb5’s in “Supa Solo“, “Be Alright” and “꺼져줄게 잘 살아“, and E5’s in “Officially Missing You“, “내 사람이라서” and “Black & White“.

Airiness is not a big aspect of G.NA’s voice, for the most part she sings with a nice clean tone throughout her modal voice, mostly from C4 ~ F#5. When it comes to her upper register, G.NA often becomes airy and uses a disconnected falsetto instead of employing the correct connection between her vocal cords in order to create a true head voice. At times she’s been shown the ability to sing with a head voice, such as in “First Kiss“, but it usually comes out with an unsupported sound even though connection is present. Most of the time her falsetto is used, where transitions are mostly done without issues in pitch or sloppiness, just a lack of connection, such as in “2HOT“, “애인이 생기면 하고 싶은 일” and “Half“. The issues present with her transitions are the lack of stability in her falsetto or some transitions can be sloppy, such as in “내 사람이라서“.

Having a voice that’s pretty helps G.NA set a style and a mark for herself in the K-pop industry. She may not be a very highly skilled vocalist, but she never tries to sell herself as a powerhouse vocalist or as a very technically vocalist. Instead she relies on pretty singing with songs that are more mellow and suit her singing. In order to set herself apart from the rest of the competition and to stand out as a vocalist, it’d be advised for G.NA to explore the full extent of her potential in her chest voice and develop the depth in tone needed that most people generally favor when they think of a powerhouse vocalist, as well as learning to develop better placement and produce true resonance.

Musicianship

Not one of the most risky vocalists out there, G.NA excels in simplicity in her vocal performances. Lacking in terms of advanced vocal technique, she doesn’t often try to show off with her vocal performances with complex melodic lines or adding her own re-edition of covers. Instead she likes to stick to the melody of a song and perform by focusing on the overall dynamic approach necessary to convey the emotional message of a song, as opposed to showing off.

Label (Type of Vocalist)

M Vocalists: Mid-Range Vocalists

Best Vocal Performance(s)

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Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)