Brown Eyed Soul’s Vocal Analysis: Naul [Newly Updated]

0. HB Vocalists: High range belters, 0. HV Vocalists: High head voice vocalists, 0. MA Vocalists: Melismatic/Agile Vocalists, 0. ML Vocalists: Mid-low range vocalists, 0. WR vocalists: Well rounded vocalists, Companies: Mystic89, Groups, Tenors, Vocal Analyses, Vocal Ranges: 3 Octave Ranges, , , , , , , , , , ,

Vocal Range

G2 – C6 (3 octaves, 2 notes and 1 semitone)

Supported Range

C#3/D3 – C5

C#3/D3 – G5 (With head voice)

Voice Type

Tenor

Strengths/Achievements

  • Impeccable agility through every register
  • Large improvement has been made over the years in regards to his lower and mixed registers
  • Able to produce very full resonance from as low as E4 up to C5
  • Able to control the balance of his mix
  • Supported head voice up to G5
  • Able to support lower register until C#3/D3
  • Can mix in the fifth octave for extensive periods without fatigue
  • Good control of dynamics

Points for Improvement

  • Lower register lacks projection as a whole and loses support around C#3/D3
  • Mix voice becomes strained above C5
  • Despite being supported, head voice is placed in the mask instead of the head
  • Constant singing outside of his supported range
  • Stylistic whininess can inhibit his resonance at times

Registers

  • Lower voice: Weakest register. Support is brought down to C#3/D3. Below this, there is a note able lack of support, quality, and tone.
  • Mixed voice/Middle: Possibly strongest register. A large, full resonance is produced as early as E4 all the way up to C5. Above this, Naul’s larynx begins to rise.
  • Upper register: A well supported, though mask placed, head voice up to G5. Above this, notes become tense and yelled without support.

Agility

Immensely agile voice. Able to do complex runs and scales in every part of his range without any loss of power, speed, or precision both in his supported range (as shown by his runs in You, He Is Real, 비켜줄깨 (Live), 똑같다면 (Live), and Rapture) and out (Love Ballad, Ring My Bell, Sad Cafe, and 한번만더.) He is also able to scale large gaps in range as seen from his run from G5 to C3 and back up to C4 in 호랑나비 and his scale down to G2 in the Intro To The Second Album.

Overall analysis

A legendary vocalist from the 90’s if you have listened to any male Korean vocalist, it is extremely likely you have heard someone inspired by Naul. A testament to the saying “finer with time” Naul has improved immensely from when he first stepped, or shall I say, “ran” on the scene. With a voice that’s light as a feather and a singing approach that allows for him to have ease not only in a higher singing range many Sopranos struggle with, but also a bright singing style that allows for him to sing all over his range with connection and speed hardly ever seen in K-pop. Some may refer to his ability to sing throughout his range with such control and agility to be characteristic of a classical voice type often referred to as a “Leggier Tenor.” But for the purposes of this analysis, such fachs shall be avoided in a contemporary music context.

When Naul was younger, he actually had an issue with lacking projection and supporting his lower register below F#3 as shown by his D3 in Sad Cafe and his E3s in 떠나지마 and For You. Over time, while the lack of projection remained, he was able to develop support down to C#3/D3 (This Song, Love Ballad, and He Is Real). This lack of development is possibly caused by the fact that he never vocalizes below E3 for long periods of time or outside of his runs. Naul’s focus has always been singing in a higher range and he to this day doesn’t really phrase songs that go below D3 often. Instead he writes music specifically for the best range in his voice where he knows he shines and is able to vocalize with full power, which would explain why below C#3 he tends to have a more muffled sound in his lower range and become airy, resorting to lowering his larynx to sing down to G2. This is the single least developed register Naul has, which still isn’t a badly developed register at all.

Even from debut, Naul has always had a rather large sound output and full resonance starting as low as E4. However, this register has also seen large improvement. About 15 years ago, Naul’s resonance ended directly on A4 while notes above would be tight and strained (the Bb4 in 그녀가 나를 보내 and the B4 in Pass Me By). Over time, Naul began to develop his resonance higher as shown by the Bb4 in Blue Day, the B4s in Anything (Through The Rain) and Rapture, and the C5s in Love Ballad(Live), MY Everything, and 똑같다면. However, as shown in My Story, once he goes above this though, his larynx begins to raise. Despite singing with a high larynx, Naul is able to vocalize in the fifth octave for extended periods of time without too much fatigue (Memory Of The Wind, Sad Cafe, 호랑나비, and 한번만더). Due to the light muscle coordination to vocalize with a brighter mix, with head dominance, he is able to show good stamina and often vocalizes above C5. Despite the strain, Naul is mostly in complete control of his placement and his pitch, being able to run and up from the top of his range down to the bottom without struggling with his control.

Possibly the only register that hasn’t changed over time is Naul’s upper register. Naul’s upper register is a fairly developed head voice. Despite this, he unfortunately places the sound on the mask instead of his head to achieve the twangy R&B sound. Even with the mask placement, Naul is able to support his head voice well up to G5. Notes above this though become pushed, shrill, and somewhat yelled. He doesn’t often sing notes above G5 but occasionally sustains big mask placed head voice notes in that range, such as the G#5 in “가지마 가지마”. It could be helpful for Naul to develop and explore more of a head placed head voice but for the purpose of style, his singing approach and placement in his head voice suit the kind of music he sings and enable him to properly blend his higher mixed voice range with his head voice, allowing for seamless transitions throughout his range, showing a very well connected instrument from bottom to top.

The few setbacks Naul has are due to stylistic approaches he uses. He often opts for a brighter mix and often chooses to sing with a more closed sound even within his supported range. Despite that, he is able to vocalize with control in his mix and choose when to stylistically sing with more rasp or control the ratio of head and chest voice in his mixed. Another issue is his placement. He often places his voice in his nose to have more ease when singing up above Bb4 and in order to sing with more agility in a high range. This can at times be overbearing stylistically and takes away resonance from notes well within a range he could potentially produce with a much more opened sound. Despite these minor setbacks, the fact that Naul is completely in control of when or where to add nasality or close his throat for stylistic purposes adds much more to his overall vocal ability to be the one in command of his own instrument.

One can easily hear the influence American R&B singers such as Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder had not only on Naul’s style, but his musical ideas and his overall sound. This influence carried over from Naul to influence multiple idols in the K-pop industry today, from 2PM’s Jun.K, to MBLAQ’s G.O. and SHINee’s Jonghyun, and will still carry over for many years to come with his huge fame and legacy. At some point improvement is a possibility but not a necessity. It is true that Naul could potentially work to further improve his mixed voice to avoid straining above C5 where he often phrases his songs, or to properly develop his lower range below C#3 but for the music that Naul sings, he’s at a place in his career and vocal development that these details in his voice doesn’t necessarily affect him too negatively and could only be worked on if he were to be more of a perfectionist in his singing technique.

Musicianship

In his very extensive career, Naul has shown a vast understanding of music. Whether playing with dynamics and his phrasing to evoke a magnitude of emotions or using runs and high belting to enforce the message of each song. He is a vocalist who knows exactly how to perform and control his voice to truly enhance the musical messages of songs in various genres but finds his niche in the R&B, Soul, Ballad, Funk and Gospel music where he excels in terms of musical ideas, compositions and harmonic knowledge.

Label (Type of Vocalist)

HV Vocalists: High Head Voice Vocalists

HB Vocalists: High Range Belters

ML Vocalists: Mid-Low Range Vocalists

MA Vocalists: Melismatic/Agile Vocalists

WR vocalists: Well Rounded Vocalists

Vocal Range Video(s)

Video by: Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

Video by: 흐스웰

—

Analyzed by Haruko & Ahmin
(Originally analyzed by Josias)

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101 thoughts on “Brown Eyed Soul’s Vocal Analysis: Naul [Newly Updated]”

  2. Wow! I am actually surprised he only supports until C5. I thought it would be at least D5 or higher since he mixes in the 5th octave a lot. Nonetheless, he’s amazing! Thank you for the analysis! 🙂

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    1. Casualfan, do you receive notifications when I message you on here? I really need to talk to you about something and I tried to e-mail you and I’d really appreciate it if you could get back to me ASAP.

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  3. This is my favourite Christmas gift! Was waiting for this! Thanks so much! I really look up to Naul as a vocalist. His voice is such a jewel.

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  4. Would he be far above the other members of Brown Eyed Soul? I’ve only heard a few of their songs and they do seem like a well rounded group.

    I’ve been looking into their music more through since Naul’s voice is just amazing.

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    1. From what I’ve heard while making his vocal range video, the other members really don’t take many challenging parts. The baritone isn’t bad, the other tenor is too stylistic and Jung yup doesn’t really mix… So it’s hard to tell.

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      1. can such agility be trained? is to being agile related to another technique of singing? let say maybe because Sohyang whom often stays strong and powerful on upper range will find it hard to do runs/melisma??

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  7. Sorry but when you say talk about Naul placing “the sound on the mask instead of his head” do you mean like around the cheekbones?

    Naul’s voice is such a gift, I really love Brown Eyed Soul. Even though Naul’s probably far ahead of the rest in terms of vocal technique and ability, I think their voices blend together so well.

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    1. Yes around the cheekbones would be correct. Instead of using a head placed head voice, he goes for a more whiny masky head voice.

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  10. Woah there, I remember his previous analysis listed his lower register support down to Bb2! Now it’s not even a C3. As for his mask-placement in his upper register, is Ryeowook’s approach better then when it comes to using their head voices? Or since nasality isn’t really damaging to health (or so I’ve been told, just hinders resonance) either is fine?

    (And I just read all of the blog so Im kinda shocked some vocalists dont even have a supported range *cough*atleasttheyrecute*cough*).

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    1. Yeah the first analysis had some inaccuracies, sorry about that. Ryeowook has a better approach because he uses head placement.

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  13. Oh god thank you!!! I was waiting for this, I adore him so much! His voice is a gift to humanity and Korean music lol. I’m always so thirsty for him because he is never on TV and all I get is a few bad quality fancams if I want to see him live.

    I thought he would be Excellent too but your analysis makes sense 🙂

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  14. Naul is actually the best singer for male groups, because his group is still active. How about the other members in his group, what would their ranking/.

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      1. I pretty sure Brown Eyed Soul is an Idol Group. Every site I search says they are an Idol Group. They might not dress like a k-pop Idol, but they are K-pop idols.

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      2. Big Mama, 4Men, Brown Eyed Soul, Urban Zakapa…these are groups, they are vocal unit groups. They’re not idol groups. There’s such a thing as a group of vocalists in the Korean music industry that is not considered to be from the idol realm. Brown Eyed Soul is not an idol group, they’re just an R&B/Soul group.

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      4. What level do you think Lee Yeong Hyeon,Lee Ji Young,Shin Yeon Ah,Park Yong-in,Jo Hyun Ah ,Kwon Sun Il are on. And, the rest of the Brown Eyed Soul members?

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      5. You worry too much about ratings. Are these vocalists you don’t know well at all either, like before? Cause if we haven’t analyzed them, we probably don’t know their ratings at all. I don’t know the rest of Brown Eyed Soul well enough but none are even close to Naul. Big Mama, I don’t know them well either nor Urban Zakapa.

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      6. LOL, the singers I just named I don’t know them like that as a fan, I was just naming the members of the group.

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    1. I’ve never seen the music video for this song lol I believe it’s natural, it never caught our ears as being an unhealthy vibrato.

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  16. These covers of Naul, what are you thinking of the technique? Seems like they are very similar in terms of technique…

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    1. They can both sing high but they’re both unable to support anything above G#4. I’ve seen both of these covers, they’re similar in terms of technique..to each other.

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  17. Oh my, I thought his long notes on Memory of the Wind are healthy… so there is no male vicalists in KPop that can support C5 and higher?

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    1. The only two tenors I’ve ever heard supporting above C5 with some kind of consistency are David Phelps and this one Gospel guy on some video. I don’t know anybody else, at all.

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      1. Ah I meant high notes, but whatever, u know I meant. Thx a lot Ahmin! 😀 We’ve yet to find male version of SoHyang…

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      2. what about jeffey lewis from the craig lewis band who can support all the way up to G#5. and lee hyuk who have resonant one G5 and did many good D5/E5

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      3. I am not familiar with Jeffrey Lewis. Lee Hyun has ONE resonant G5 but he does not have many good D5’s and E5’s. I’ve heard him support above G#4 once, which was the G5.

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      6. can you told me the highest note this guy sing in this vid, and it’s headvoice, falsetto or whister ? and did it supported well ?

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      7. No, it’s not supported. It’s just very pushed with a very shrill vibrato. It’s a head voice and then it sounds like it becomes a whistle. It was Eb6, then a crack into F#6 down to E6, then Bb6, then C7, then C#7 down to B6.

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  18. How about this one? Of all Naul covers, I think these are “less strained”. Kindly enlighten me hahaha. 🙂

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    1. This guy has a very nice voice and he’s emulating Naul’s voice quite well. 2:02 A4, he is pushing quite a lot. He sounds pretty tight for those Bb4’s in the chorus. He has a very nice voice and he’s good at emulating his voice, but with a very different level of skill. He sounds perhaps nervous in the second video, his vibrato is a lot more wobbly throughout. He has a very nice voice but I honestly feel like covering a Naul song is just not a good idea..for most if not all people I’ve heard, but he is not so bad. He did say he sings as a hobby.

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      1. I noticed that, too. He tend to be a bit pushy hitting that A4. But was he able to have control overall? I admire his singing style, though. Heartfelt. Unlike the guy who tried to compete with him in this episode of I Can See Your Voice (2nd video).

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      2. I mean for someone untrained he was able to emulate his singing with a certain degree of being believable, but there’s an obvious gap and difference in sound if you compare him to Naul.

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  19. Not comparing him to Naul, though. Naul’s already a master of his craft. This one has a long way to go. But yeah, I remember him saying that singing is just his hobby. 🙂

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  20. Are you going to analyze anyone in Noel? Noel is a South Korean boy band consisted of 4 people if you don’t know.

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    1. We do know Noel but we just haven’t really received any concrete requests on a specific member so we really haven’t put much thought into their analyses yet but someday in the future we’ll know for sure.

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    1. 1:47 I like the openness of the vowel there, 1:51 thin, small, tight and he used a throatier approach so he ended up using too much head in his mix, losing power and becoming closed. 2:12 he loses placement in the upper mixed notes, he stays with the placement too high in his head and in the back of his throat. He sounds small and tight throughout tbh, he pushes more air and doesn’t support properly at all. His support is shallow in that upper range, he barely attempts proper vocal stretch, he sounds mostly tight and throaty. All he can do is mix high, but he has almost no power and he is not relaxed, he’s not opened.

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  22. Do you think Hyoshin is a bit better than Naul? They’re evening each other. Hahaha.

    Lower range: Hyoshin>Naul
    Mix: Hyoshin>/Naul
    Head voice: Hyoshin>Naul
    Agility:Naul>Hyoshin

    Again, among vocalist under Great Catergory, who do you think the strongest? Could you rank them? Pls. 😦

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    1. About the same in mix? That’s a bit of a stretch. He obviously has far better agility, and a better head voice. His muscles in his mix are better developed so despite Kyuhyun’s mix being close in support, the muscle coordination from the Bb4 to C5 range in Naul’s range is a lot stronger. His tone production, his stability, the stamina, the resonance, everything is better.

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  24. Of all the male vocalists analyzed on this site thus far, who would you say are the few best in terms of agility? And do you think you could rank them?

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  28. Ahmin, you didn’t answer my comment on Youtube 😦 and all I want is a song title from Naul’s vocal range video that starts around 6.41? With that nice guitar in the background! 🙂

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  30. What do you think about this performance?

    2 Years ago, he covered naul’s song on i hear your voice and then i heard he was going to vocal school. So i think he improved…

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    1. All I hear is a high larynx, squeezing the throat and high bright mixing by pushing air. From the beginning, he sounds very shallow. He just has a naturally extensive mixed voice range but I don’t hear proper technique. Even around D4, he sounds like he’s squeezing his throat. He is very similar to Lee Soo.

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  31. Would you say there is a noticeable gap between his and Tori Kelly’s agility? I’m curious if such things can be determined even when both have excellent agility. Are either better than the other, or are they comparable/marginal difference? Thank you.

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      1. Then may I ask why head placed headvoice is better than mask placed, if they both can carry resonance. I personally like the head placed better, due to clearer sound, while the mask placed voice sound a bit muffled to me.

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  33. I’m sorry, when I read the statement about the head voice, ” …unfortunately places the sound on the mask instead of his head…” I assume head placed head voice was better. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

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  34. Ahmin pardon me to comment here.
    Just want to ask, why I can’t find Sohyang vocal analysis on ‘High range belters’ category, If I’m not mistaken it was there?
    Maybe there’s a change, because it has been couple months since I visited this site

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