Vocal Range
B2 – E6 (3 octaves, 2 notes and 1 semitone)
Supported Range
N/A
Voice Type
Tenor
Strengths/Achievements
- Able to sing with a somewhat clean legato
- Registers are somewhat equal in development
- Able to “project” due to correct jaw position
- Transitions into falsetto can be within the same key
- Able to sing through songs with most of the pitch correct
Points for Improvement
- Support is absent from his voice entirely
- Placement tends to cause issues with pitch outside of his mix
- Never sings with a lifted soft palate
- Singing is generally very throat based
- The larynx is almost never neutral
- Unable to mix without pushing the voice out with volume instead
- Falsetto is generally airy and shows big contrast in volume compared to the rest of the voice
- Chest voice is very airy and lacks projection
- Every register is accompanied by shallowness and airiness in tone
- Bad diction is present causing his throat to sound closed
Registers
- Lower register: One of Leo’s least showcased registers. Even around F#3/G3 notes are usually unsupported, airy, and accompanied by a non-neutral larynx.
- Mixed register: Leo’s most showcased register. Notes in this register are often throat based and placed in his nose the whole way up with his larynx starting to rise around E4.
- Upper register: Debatably Leo’s least showcased register. A throat based, nasal, overly airy falsetto that is barely truly used.
Agility
Leo is no stranger to this aspect of his voice, often adding runs to songs. Despite this, Leo’s runs are never done with any precision or accuracy causing them to come out sloppy or done with no true thought for the melody. The result is thus vocal lines that become too soft and quiet in tone quality and volume, where the pitch is not defined and the runs sound more like slides. He is unable to sing runs with any sort of separation in pitch from note to note, instead opting to wander around the center of the pitch sliding from one note to the other without a direction, as heard in “Because Of You“, “그리워 그리워“, “I Miss You So Much” and “B.O.D.Y.”
Overall analysis
One of VIXX’s two main vocalists, Leo is often praised for his high notes and “strong, stable” voice. Gifted with a voice that’s got a lot of potential both in range and tone quality, he is able to handle singing very difficult vocal lines even prior to training. He’s always shown that his voice is naturally high and as a very light tenor, he’s able to continuously sing in a high range despite not having proper breath support. Regardless of that though, he’s been able to showcase a range of full 3 octaves which show how much potential his instrument naturally has.
Starting from his lower register, Leo has shown an extreme lack of development here with notes even as high for a male like him like F#3 and G3 lacking any actual support. Instead these notes are airy, placed in his nose, and a non-neutral larynx position all the way down to B2. Leo’s issues may be attributed to the fact that he seems to have a rather shy personality which comes off in both his speech and his singing. As such, he tends to whisper a lot when speaking instead of using his thyroarytenoid muscles in his vocal cords. This results in Leo lacking any presence of an actual chest voice, which causes his voice to be very soft and airy throughout the whole third octave from C3 to B3. This can be heard in the Eb3’s in “My Everything”, and “뒷모습“, C#3 in “차가운 밤에” and “I Don’t Want to be an Idol.” Adding onto this, he not only sings with a high larynx, but the airiness and soft tone he uses to speak also cause him to speak with a high larynx. This translates into his singing where he whispers a lot of his chest voice with a high larynx and then pushes it down in order to create tone due to the lack of development of his chest voice, as heard in the Eb3 and B2 in his musical performance of “Matahari.” The final product of this lack of development is a full of octave of his voice where there’s barely any true tone or color that can be heard.
Leo’s mix also shows a lack of true development: being throat based even before his first passagio with his larynx already shooting up even before E4. Throughout his mixed voice, due to lack of development of a chest voice, he tends to sing with a very bright tone and with a lot of lightness throughout. So in order to create more volume in his mixed voice, he compresses his throat around his larynx to force out more sound with unhealthy tension. As he ascends he begins to push and yell his notes, but due to singing with correct jaw positioning these notes are “projected” instead of being trapped in his throat and nose as seen in his A4’s in “Beautiful Liar“, “대준돼“, “To Heaven” and “I Don’t Want to be an Idol“, is Bb4’s in “Mirotic“, “Love Letter“, “Secret Night“, and “Outlaws Of Love“, his B4’s in “Please“, “Voodoo Doll (live radio)“, “청춘이 아파“, “마지막 승부“and “G.R.8.U.” (and the live picnic version), his C5’s in “Eternity“, “Light Me Up” and “Error“, his C#5’s in “Mirotic” and “Love Letter“, his D5 in “Chained Up“, and his Eb5 in “Spider.” Another issue that he faces in this range is the use of a larynx vibrato that causes a tense, almost painful sound in his belts.
The issue of compression in his mixed voice isn’t present only in his higher notes, but can happen even in the lower part of his range. In order to compensate for the lack of volume, he’ll use a lot of throat tension to push his voice out and that causes him to not sound relaxed or in control of his voice. Instead he sounds shouty and his overall tone lacks roundness. His voice for the most part just sounds very constricted and tense, showing that there’s no real point in his mixed voice range where he’s able to sing without tension or by being relaxed. This can be heard in the Eb4 in “Please“, E4 in “Matahari“, F4 in “Words to Say“, F#4 in “G.R.8.U.“, and the G4’s in “이별공식.” Not only that, but even when singing in a lower range he tends to sing the most closed version of vowels, being unable to place his voice anywhere but his nose. He tends not to open his mouth much and use very closed throat shaping when singing softer which cause his voice to sound very muffled.
Leo’s falsetto is barely explored, when used it is usually nasal and throat based. Due to Leo’s unhealthy placement, he tends to often drift off the center of pitch and go flat even on basic phrasing as heard in “Snowflower.” On one hand, he is able to transition into his falsetto quite easily and most of the time his transitions stay within the original key center of songs, but due to the excessive airiness in his voice he’s unable to find the center of pitch when singing in his falsetto. This can be heard in “청춘이 아파“, “Secret Night“, “Love Letter” and “눈물이 뚝뚝 .” Since he does not connect his vocal cords properly, he’s been unable to develop the correct muscle coordination and strength to produce more volume and dynamics in his upper register. Thus he’s only able to sing with a falsetto and has never shown the ability to sing with a head voice. As he reaches his higher range further into the fifth octave and up to the sixth octave, his falsetto becomes a lot more strangled and squeezed, being very thin in tone as heard in the High Note Battle between VIXX, BtoB and MYNAME.
Throughout his whole range, musically speaking, Leo fails to deliver songs with any sort of true connection simply due to the fact that he is unable to sing with a good sense of dynamics. When he sings, most of the time even in the fourth octave, he tends to opt for an airy and raspy tone, which is very quiet and can cause his vocal cords to become irritated overtime. The one other volume he goes for is a very loud push of air that he’ll go for in his mixed voice, so in between these two volumes there’s nothing. He’s unable to sing with any other type of dynamics that aren’t fortissimo or piano. He has shown improvement in his pitch overtime which may be due to confidence or simply using more of his vocal cords when singing, where he’s now able to sing songs with a more centered pitch throughout than earlier in his career. However before he debuted, in 2008, it is possible to hear that Leo used to sing with a more neutral larynx than he does now.
Despite his weaknesses, Leo is a vocalist who’s full of potential. Not a lot of untrained tenors can sing as high as he can and that is impressive in itself. He’s always had a very wide range where he’s able to sing, however without fine tuning there’s a good chance he could end up damaging his voice and not being able to sing the way he’s been used to anymore. In order to protect his voice and keep his career as a vocalist, going back to the basics and learning to first breathe properly for singing and then addressing issues with the development of his vocal cords and his speech would help him develop his singing much further if he’s able to find the right instructor who can help him better his overall vocal technique.
Musicianship
Leo tends to not approach music with a sense of creativity, tending to sing without any changes in dynamics and usually only adds high belts to his covers of songs. Leo’s main vocal aspect is adding high notes to his vocal performances. He doesn’t rely much on runs, changes in tone quality, changes in melodic parts of songs or rhythmic changes, relying mostly on singing as loudly and as high he can to show off that side of his voice.
Label (Type of Vocalist)
C Vocalists: Commercial Vocalists
Vocal Range Video(s)
Video by: Mariel Ang
Best Vocal Performance(s)
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Analyzed by Haruko & Ahmin
K-pop Vocalists' Vocal Analyses 
Hi ^^ I want to ask if, in this video, Hongbin is not supporting and I feel he doesn’t have a good diction or he is kinda nasal, right?… I’m trying to understand those concepts and baritones are difficult to analyze for me (I thought BTS Taehyung and Hwanhee were nasal):
And another question, how do you solve the throaty problem? ’cause I think my voice is a lot in my throat, sometimes is uncomfortable and others it dries my throat a lot.
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I mean it’s not a live video but he doesn’t really drop his jaw much when he sings. There’s no support, just improper throaty singing, nasality and no support. So you’re right but you thought V was nasal? He is, yes. Hwanhee is not usually nasal.
Throatiness is a bad habit causes from using the throat muscles to help the vocal cords artificially by forcing them to come together and stretch with tension instead of naturally moving and stretching on their own without tension when they’re relaxed. So the way to fix that is to teach yourself to sing softly, with tone, no airiness, no pushing of air, no tension. To sing lightly, with connected tone and with no muscles being overworked. To know you’re doing it right or wrong, you need to hear someone doing it right and emulate them, as well as having them help you fix yourself by addressing minimal details.
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Thank you so much ^_^. I think I was pushing too much air so now I’m going to practice with your advices (I’ve already tried with them and it feels better, I was really tense in my throat and I unconsciously tried to use chest voice, bad habits are difficult to correct :D) and try to improve my head voice.
As for the analysis on the video and the nasality, I need to practice more to identify those topics properly. Anyways, thank you very much for your answer, it REALLY helps me a lot. Have a good day 🙂 .
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Hey, I heard two of his performance and I hear some sign of support (maybe from G5 to C5, I’m not sure), but I do you guys write N/A for his supported range?
P/s: I know 1 singer have no supported range in this blog is Henry and I strongly agree with that, but Leo is better (a little bit)
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G5 to C5, he has support there? If he can’t support Eb3 ~ Eb4, there’s absolutely no way he could somehow find support that high. He has no support, he is slightly better than Henry sure but that doesn’t mean he’s able to support.
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Opp! I’m sorry, I mean G3 and C4 ^^
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Well that would be quite a gap lol I have not heard it though.
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Hello! Thanks for the detailed analysis, really love this website. Excited for the upcoming analysis for Day6’s Sungjin. I’ve read the rules and I know you guys won’t be analysing rappers, but I wanted to know if you’d be doing analysis for any of the other members in the group? For instance, Young K and Jae rap but are also vocalists at the same time, and day6 has plenty of live, acoustic performances which could be used as really good material for analysis in my opinion. Interested to know how’d you rank and analyse their vocals because they all have very different styles/techniques in my opinion. Thank you!
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Hi there! ^ ^ Thank you for your compliment! Well you see, the rules aren’t restricted to rappers alone, we also make rules so that we don’t wast time analyzing vocalists who have a fairly similar amount of skill within the same group, so that would be another reason we may not analyze any other members of Day6. Actually as of now, the member of Day6 to be analyzed could very well change, everything could change. We are just waiting on more material, more information to appear as well. ^ ^ They do have somewhat different styles, but technique wise the average skill level is fairly similar from what I’ve noticed. But anything could change when we do get to 2015 debuts. ^ ^
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Hello. I have a question. Leo is currently rehearsing for a musical. Would a musical be able to help lLeo improve on his breathing?
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Not exactly. It’s possible, but being part of a musical could help him vocally ONLY if he receives actual vocal lessons. There’s a myth that if you do musicals, you’ll improve but if you’re not being taught to fix bad vocal habits, there’s absolutely no way to improve automatically like that. He would need an instructor.
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Idk if he’s improved any, but hopefully appearing on singing shows will encourage him to improve/get lessons or something –> tends to happen to other idols.
How does he do here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeghkvDxohw
this is his first time on duet song festival, i think I see the same problems with Leo but he’s less breathier than normal at least?
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There’s no real change in the way he is singing, he may be using less airiness stylistically but he is still not supporting his voice at all.
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Since Leo is apparently the worst vocalist(?) mentioned yet, I just have to ask. On Duet Song Festival —
–is his partner better than him?
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I wouldn’t want to say he’s the worst. That’s just not very nice. I would say she is more relaxed and supports better than him.
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Ah well I mean on this site, considering he and Henry have the least technique haha. I find his voice pleasant enough as a singer tho. 😛
And thank you for the answer!
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Hi. This Hongbin’s cover of Save Room by John Legend. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rul80YYX454 Do you hear any sense of support, shallow? How was his mixing here? It sounds bright and quite balance for me. What are his issues in this cover?
Another question: How would you rank them techinically in their technique? Given that Ken is the strongest.
Ken>>Leo>N>Hyuk>Hongbin?
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I hear no real support, it’s just off of his throat. He’s singing without support, it’s shallow. He barely mixed, I don’t know where you’re hearing that he’s balanced but he was only singing as high as Bb3, which for a baritone isn’t mixed yet. He mixed at the end with the Eb4 and C#4 I think, which was very chesty actually. I wouldn’t rank them amongst weak vocalist since I don’t know them well enough to separate them. Where did you think he mixed?
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I’m really confused because of his tone. Sorry. 😦
What’s the first passagi of baritones? B3 – C4?
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For lyric baritones it’s B3, so he only mixed at the end almost as the video was ending.
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Did the word shallow mean there’s a very little amount of support? btw. Thank you for answering my questions. 🙂
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It does, yes. That it’s mostly throat-based.
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Hi Ahmin! It’s me again. Hahaha. Simple question: if you would be generous enough. What would be Leo’s supported rAnge?? I guess its G#3 – Eb4?
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He doesn’t have one.
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Hi! So to be completely honest I have no idea what I’m talking about or listening for regarding vocal technique (although I’m slowly learning through these analyses among other things), and I was wondering what you thought of Leo’s high note at 3:28 in this Beautiful Liar performance: https://youtu.be/UTB7HMYw2sU. It sounded much more open and clear than I can remember him ever singing live and certainly better than the rest of the song. Then again it could just be nothing, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
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It’s very shouty. It sounds like the usual way where he approaches notes by singing with a high larynx and a lot of volume and overly opening his mouth so the sound comes out as loud as he can push it out.
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does he have good placement when belting or just the correct jaw position to project his high notes??? i had read the past comments (before the analysis) that he yells with good placement
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He is just able to drop his jaw enough so that he can project his voice, but his placement is rather shouty and from his throat.
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Hello! I enjoyed reading this, and while I absolutely agree with everything you mentioned (I often find myself praying he doesn’t sing out of pitch, or scream, or become too breathy / throaty whenever he performs live), as someone who absolutely loves Leo I can’t help but stay optimistic and hope that he would improve.
He has done three musicals and is currently preparing for his fourth. Given all the practice he got doing those, during their Shangri-La live performance for Dingo Music would you say there was any significant change in his voice and/or technique?
I’d love to know what you think. Thank you for all the hard work you put into making your analyses!
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No, unfortunately he seems to be singing with the same bad habits he’s gotten over the years. For him to change his vocal technique would require a conscious effort, knowing that the current way he sings is not healthy for his voice.
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Thank you for responding so quickly!
I see what you mean, and I hope Leo would be aware of this in order to improve. You’ve mentioned in your analysis that Leo has great potential and I wish he’d be able to maximize that.
Btw, I went and checked his vocal range video and in the description it says he has a supported range from D3/E3 to G4. Would you say it was an error on the part of the vocal range video or is it a matter of inconsistency with the technique Leo uses?
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions!
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As you know that vocal range video wasn’t made by me. Anything said by other people on Youtube like that just because they made a range video isn’t necessarily reliable. It’s not anything to do with inconsistencies, it’s just misinformation.
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Dear Ahmin,
could I, please, have your analysis of Leo, Ken, Daehyun and Youngjae translated to Korean and include it as a part of fan letter to VIXX and to B.A.P? Of course, I am going to emphasize that the analysis wasn’t done by me and I would like to (besides giving all the credit to you) include a link to this website. Me and dozens of people from my country are really big fans of the mentioned groups and we really want the singers to improve their vocal technique. If we just write that it’s bad/not good, it would be in vain because none of us is a vocal coach (thus can’t provide with a proper vocal analysis). 😦 Your analyses would really help us in terms of having some impact and making the singers to reflect on them and maybe, finally stop destroying their vocal chords (especially in Leo’s and Daehyn’s case). Please.
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Hi dear! I would be honored if that was done! One of my happiest moments is when I can help them and if they can read the analyses, I’ll be really happy to help them. Now do you have someone who could translate the analyses accurately?
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Hi, thank you so much for your approval! I am so happy. xD I have a friend who can speak Korean fluently and even teaches it + her boyfriend is Korean so if there was some phrase or word she couldn’t translate, I am sure that he would help. 🙂 Once again, I’d like to sincerely thank you! Let’s hope that Leo, Ken, Daehyun and Youngjae will get better really soon. 🙂
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If there are specific terms she needs to know how to say in Korean, like musical terms, I can translate those. I could write the analyses in Korean myself but it wouldn’t be professional enough which is why I don’t do it. So if she has any questions of words she is not sure how to translate, like note names, I can translate. For an example C5 is 3옥타브 도 in Korean, which she may not know if she isn’t familiar with that terminology in both languages.
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Dear Ahmin,
I am really sorry about not replying to you earlier. There were a few missed deadlines and some of our translators didn’t want to cooperate. In the end, we sent letters to VIXX only, including your vocal analysis for Leo and Ken. After kinda spamming Leo on twitter, Leo wrote on fancafe (official korean fansite) a message with last sentence being: I have read your letters well. A few days later, he had vlive broadcast, where he (as usual) promised improving himself and working hard; however, he also (for the 1st time) promised to study. He didn’t specify what but…we would like to dare to hope that vocal technique. xD
Thank you once again for your approval! 🙂 ♥
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Wow I would be really touched if he did study technique and if he were to improve his technique, I wouldn’t think twice to analyze him again and talk about all his hard work and improvement! ^ ^ Thank you again, I still am deeply grateful. ^ ^
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Hi guys I don’t know if you are familiar with other vixx line N and hyuk
http://aminoapps.com/page/vixx/5791164/vocal-analyses-n
1In this website first paragraph about N voice they mentioned that hyuk is baritone is this true ??
2 I know this stupid but I think n and hyuk sound better than Leo is there any chance to analyse one of them since you analysis half vocalist in group N is lead vocalist(leader+vocalist=lead vocalist hh)
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We won’t analyze any other members of VIXX cause even if they’re slightly less tense than Leo, they don’t support so you know what the end result will be unfortunately. I’m not sure if Hyuk is a baritone.
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What can you say about this?
/Thank you. I hope it’s not too much trouble./
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It’s not that it’s any trouble, I just don’t know what “what can you say about this” means. It could mean anything, what are you asking exactly? ._.
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/Sorry, I did not get enough sleep ._./
About singing/vocals. He is bad? What are the mistakes?
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Well 1:43 ~ 1:50 ish he was REALLY flat, like completely off the notes he was supposed to hit. Hongbin is not a lead vocalist, he is a rapper. It’s not fair to judge his singing. He has a nice voice, he is a baritone, but he has no basis of technique.
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+1 version, but I don’t know if there is a big difference)) /sorry, my english isn’t good/
1:54~
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I mean he’s not going to suddenly start supporting in another video, he’s still a rapper.
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It’s always so interesting to read your posts and comments, thanks!
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Awww I’m sorry I couldn’t help much and your English is fine.
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But he is a rapper who can sing? Or not. Or everything is possible. =D
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Perhaps I haven’t made myself clear. He can sing, everyone can sing. But if you look at Leo, their main vocalist, and you look at his rating based on his technique, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that a lead rapper wouldn’t have better technique than the main vocalist? As I said, he has a nice voice, he is a baritone, but he has NO basis of technique. He does not support his voice AT ALL. He sings almost entirely from his throat, he is never truly relaxed and he has very major pitch issues. He has potential of course, but it has to be honed and it has not been honed yet. It’s useless to really wonder or expect a lot out of rappers and sub-vocalists because they’re not trained to have the basics of singing. 99% of sub-vocalists in any group in K-pop have no support, even many main vocalists don’t have support so expecting so much out of a lead rapper is just not realistic. So perhaps I haven’t made the concept of support clear. Support is the first thing you need in singing, to be relaxed, sing with the right amount of air pressure and the vocal cords alone, no outside tension from the larynx, throat, jaw, tongue, etc. Leo doesn’t have support when he sings and neither do the other sub-vocalists and rappers of VIXX and 99% of K-pop groups.
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Hello ahmin3! I am so thankful for your analysis on Leo! Glad you are helping everybody in this community out! I have a question for you: For Leo’s best performance (the king of masked singer one; “To Heaven”), why was that his best performance? Was his vocal technique performed better than usual or was their a drastic change in his vocal technique? Thank you for being such a great moderator and replying to everybody as fast as you can!
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I think the biggest reason was that he was singing in a relatively lower and more comfortable range for a good amount of the song compared to others, so he had less chances to strain. Thank you btw! ❤
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I don’t think this is assessment is at all unfair, but I confess my heart is still a little broken. Ah well, I still love him. ❤
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Your analysis helped me to understand why moments of Leo’s singing which should be spectacular are only tantalising. IIUC what he needs is more vocal training and practice. I don’t know how much control idols have over their training and development, but I dislike the idea of Jelpi saying “Well, you’re good-looking and nine hundred feet tall, that’s all you need for this group”, or Leo himself settling for that – especially given the potential damage to his voice which again IIUC can result from poor technique. The companies never seem to protect their investments well.
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Hi I really liked your analysis. I have a question, so if you have time, please answer it. If Leo has no support in his voice, does it affect the stability if his voice? Because I’ve heard him sing and I think his voice isn’t that stable and firm compared to Ken. So am I wrong here?
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Stability is related to support yes, not while dancing necessarily, but just in general even while standing.
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Oh thank you so much.
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Okay am confused right now.
first question: what does Henry has over Leo
Second, I want to know how you pick the vocalist who are placed in the weak category?
Third, are Xiumin, Siwon, Kangin and suho weaker than Henry and Leo? or they can be at the same level ..
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See when I was going to make the chart I was going to initially put Leo over Henry, but after we thought about it we noticed Henry is slightly more relaxed and a lot less shouty than Leo when he sings in a relatively comfortable range for both, not to mention his pitch is better.
As for your second question…Are you familiar with our criteria? Because the explanation to it is there, but basically shallow to no support indicates a vocalist is going to be placed in the weak rating because they have yet to develop the most fundamental thing for singing, breath support. I don’t know, we haven’t analyzed any of those vocalists so I can’t tell with 100% precision where they’d be placed.
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Aha.. I see now.. I guess Henry is kinda smarter, like he knows his abilities so he just stick to it.
I read it yeah, I just didn’t fully understand what made a weak vocal better than another hhhhhhhh .. But yeah I got your point now .. I read all the weak analysis and i guess i can understand a bit
Aha, okayyy thank u!!
Thank you for your hard work and replaying everybody here and on YT ❤
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I’m really glad you did this because I know Leo has some amazing potential but his high notes always felt off and I could never pin down why, especially since his members and everyone else praise him to the moon and back, but now I know and it makes so much sense.
So, question: Leo went to a university and god a degree in music, and while he’s sort of, kind of improved, all of his weaknesses are still there. Is it possible that even despite getting a degree in this, that he still isn’t aware of his faults and how he’s damaging his voice?
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According to what I could find his degree was in musical composition which requires absolutely no training in singing per se. So with a degree irrelevant to singing, although still in music, if nobody was able to express to him what he may be doing that could be better, he simply wouldn’t be aware of it. So yes, I do believe it’s very likely he’s unaware.
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so LEO breaks his mixed vocal range and hits a mixed E5 in this video in 2:35
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Hi, Ahmin. So, it’s me again, and I think that now I may have found my problem and if you answer I’ll be very glad. It’s gonna be a big wall, let’s go…
So, I read the whole analysis, and I got really interested in this part: “Leo’s issues may be attributed to the fact that he seems to have a rather shy personality which comes off in both his speech and his singing. As such, he tends to whisper a lot when speaking instead of using his thyroarytenoid muscles in his vocal cords.”
Do you have any tips for someone that may seem to have the same problem as Leo? I’ve been a shy person practically my whole life, and things only changed last year. Till there, I think I’ve been whispering my whole life, ’cause people ALWAYS complain about how quiet my voice is and I am pretty much aware of this. I used to whisper all the time. I think that I probably didn’t even had anything in that “thyroarytenoid muscles”. I may have never used it before in my life (or at least till last year).
So, last year was when I started singing. Even there, I still used to whisper while singing: I used to put my larynx out of my mouth to sing some high notes, basically all my high notes were hit with no volume and a very very high larynx that after ten minutes used to hurt my throat already. I was used to put much brightness in my voice, even ’cause my voice was lower than I wanted (it has kind of a dramatic color and texture), and I used to want to sing some high voices like The Weeknd and american R&B.
Passin’ the year by, I got aware of this problem some months ago and all, I mean, ALL I wanted to do was to get rid of this problem with the high larynx. Even when I was speaking, I knew that I was using a high larynx and I had no idea about how to fix it. It’s basically the same problem as Leo has. And, due to the fact that with that high larynx my voice still sounded dramatic and metallic (I don’t know how, honestly), I used to think that I was some kind of dramatic low baritone faking a high timbre. So, I started working again like crazy, and just a few things were changing.
The best improve to my voice happened just these days, actually. I discovered your blog by interest, and then I got myself reading it all from top to down. I saw your video of the 3 basic things (breathing, pitch & rhythm and placement (yeah I’ll never forget that)) and I already started to practice and put it in my habits, so it really helped me to have the basic. I put this effort together with the attempt to make volume (without raising up the larynx, even if I had to fake a soulful and deep voice) and it’s been resulting in something. The thing is that, well, I think that now I may be a full-lyric tenor. I’ve been making Eb5 with my head voice (some issues with volume still, but much better than before), and I can sing down to A2/A#2 with my chest voice in the limit before lowering the larynx (which, by the way, if I low it down I can get to E2, but I’m sure it just doesn’t count). And I think that my first passaggio is at C#4 or D4, while my second may be F#4 or G4 (I’m not sure yet, ’cause before I used to think I was a dramatic tenor at C# and F#, but I’m singing higher now, and still dramatic).
I’m telling you all of this because, as I said, I think I have the same problem as Leo, and I know that I still have this problem with the volume even reaching like Ab4 or higher, which may means that all of this may be wrong and I’m still faking brightness, even though I’ve been trying my hard not to do. What do you think? Can you give me any tips about my larynx, creating volume and this kind of stuff? Do you think I may be a dramatic baritone/tenor that is hurting himself by raising up his larynx into the full-lyric tenor area? I know that I can make a pretty much strong C4 in pure chest voice, but still… well, you never know.
PS: Also, I read in basically every website that tenors are used to create volume at around the E4/F4 area. The problem is that I don’t necessarily need to do that. And the other problem is that, sometimes, when I wanna do that, I just can’t.
Sorry for being too long. I don’t know if I have to PM you, or even if I can. But I’m letting it here because I know how it is to have the same problem as Leo and you try to sing. It’s so much harder and, when I saw your analysis, you could visualize that problem in him. Please, Ahmin, enlighten me!
A lot of love to you. I’m starting to become your fan and admirer. 🙂
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Oh, and just putting some more informations: I put the full-lyric tenor’s passaggi at D4 and G4, but some fach systems put it at D#4 and G#4, while the D/G is for spinto tenor actually. So, if you wanna consider me as between dramatic/spinto depending on the system you wanna base of, it’s okay. The may problem really is this crazy larynx that is never down.
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Oi Renato.
Primeiro de tudo muito obrigado não só pelo interesse, mas também por depositar confiança no que a gente faz e meio que se expor e dividir tanta informação assim comigo. O problema é que mesmo lendo tudo isso que você escreveu, sem te ouvir cantar não tem muito que eu possa fazer. Apesar de você explicar tudo, não tem como eu ter certeza se o que você está dizendo bate com o som que sai da sua boca se eu não ouvir para comprovar. Tem chance de você estar falando da sua laringe estar sempre levantada e que quando você diz poder cantar abaixo de A2 com a laringe baixa, pode ser que você esteja cantando com a laringe neutra sem saber a diferença de sensaçāo ainda. Como por um exemplo, você descrever um som metálico e pesado, eu teria que ouvir para poder te falar se tem chance de você ser um tipo mais grave de tenor. Tem chance de você ser barítono também.
Tem muita coisa que eu poderia te mostrar, que simplesmente digitando não seria o suficiente. Por um exemplo como desenvolver os músculos da voz do peito. Meio que usando um som mais pesado, quando você tem que chamar um amigo que estaria do outro lado da rua. Mas assim, o que é alto para você talvez não seja alto o suficiente. Bocejando ajuda também a criar mais awareness of the movement of your larynx, because then you can feel if your larynx is moving up or down. The problem with yawning is that it also makes you push your tongue back, which creates other bad habits. So you have to be really careful.
If you’d like, you can send audios, I can take a listen and then kind of tell you what I hear.
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Ok. I’ll try to provide some links till next week. But, as I feel, my larynx goes slightly up don’t matter what register am I singing, and it keeps going up and down. I don’t try to fake any brightness anymore (thank god), and, besites that, my larynx keeps raising up as I keep hitting higher notes. Sometimes it doesn’t, but most of the time it still does it.
Today I realized I could hit an F2 without the lowered larynx, but it just doesn’t have volume. I can only create volume C#3 or above, sometimes even B2. And the low part of my voice doesn’t really have emotion (need to practice more that). But, yes, when I’m hitting that E2, it’s really a lowered forced larynx with absolutely no volume and pure air. I don’t know what should be a neutralized larynx, even though ’cause when I speak, it has the same problem as when I sing (slightly up, going up and down)
Appreciate your answer and if you could help me with more information. ❤ (Besides that, why is your post in half portuguese half english like lol, I can speak portuguese but that's weird haha)
I've been looking through some videos of Leo, and gosh, he is really shy, but it's very funny. He's way more shy than I was. But I know how it feels like when you wanna put your voice out, but you just can't and then you try to force it.
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Whenever we go from resting to speaking or singing mode, our larynxes move and raise to an “on” position, but the movement shouldn’t be drastic nor should it keep happening if you sing higher. Emotion, right. Uhm but the lower part of your range lacking volume may not be a voice type thing but instead a vocal development issue. I wrote in Portuguese mostly because I’d rather speak to you in your native tongue but then writing in Portuguese annoys me on my computer cause the accents aren’t automatic like on my phone so I got lazy at the end.
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hey, ahmin. even though this analysis is there for quite a while, if you analysed leo, according to the rules, it means N is weaker than him, thus can’t support?
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No that’s not necessarily true. We favor lead and main vocalists for analyses, and even though Leo may not have support it doesn’t mean N doesn’t have at least some shallow support. It just means his rating wouldn’t be any higher.
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oh, i got it. but then he would be lower even if he had a shallow support that leo does not? you mean, leo could compensate the lack of support at other aspects of singing, right?
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Having shallow support is better than having no support but not enough to be rated as anything but weak.
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newbie here, could you explain why Leo sounds so different between these two in the high notes?
The live one kind of makes me cringe(?). It sounds like he’s just yelling BAAAAAHHHHHHH but in mv it doesn’t sound like that to me at all. Maybe it’s just me…
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Hi there! As you see in studio, you can use filters to make the quality of sound come out less harsh and echo through so it’s more pleasant to the ear.
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Hi Ahmin! Firstly, thank you so much for all your hard work, I genuinely appreciate all your effort, I wish I could express my gratitude better. Secondly, I was hoping you may be able to answer a few questions for me?
1) Has Leo shown any obvious signs of vocal damage over his career?
2) Has Leo regressed since debuting, and if so, would you have an idea as to the reason why?
3) Ken has better vocal technique, however I have read that vocal technique is not an inherent ability. Given that Ken and Leo are from the same company, does that mean Leo was perhaps not as active in seeking vocal training as Ken, or is it more along the lines of a bad/unversatile vocal trainer, or Leo not having the ability/time to learn proper technique?
4) If Leo were to seek vocal training and actively make a change to his singing, would he have the potential to exceed Ken?
5) (This is just asking for your opinion, you don’t have to answer :)) What do you think would be the best way to remind Leo to try and improve his vocals? I read a previous comment that stated that he promised to study, but given Vixx’s schedule I fear he may have forgotten to follow up on his promise.
Thank you so much again!❤
-CS
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Hi dear! Thank you for your appreciation and support! I’ll do my best to answer these questions to the best of my ability.
1. Not at this point, I have not noticed permanent damage yet but it is too soon to tell.
2. I don’t think he’s regressed, he’s stayed more or less the same.
3. Vocal technique isn’t inherited but it is possible for someone to have a natural ability to learn just by emulating with more ease than others. So their current level of skill may not reflect the actual vocal training they’ve received as much as it might just reflect their natural ability to learn by emulating.
4. Of course.
5. Well he would have to seek training from somebody who focuses on technique instead of singing high. Many instructors in Korea aren’t taught, they simply sing naturally and know some tricks that are often counterproductive in singing, especially for vocalists who haven’t learned proper support.
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Hi, Ahmin! 🙂
Recently, VIXX LR performed in Japan and Leo sang there From Way Up There. There is still breathiness, strain and the singing in lower octave’s just no-no but I think that he somehow sings this song better than he usually does and that he overall sings slightly better. Is my hearing playing some tricks on me xD ? Or do I corectly sense some slight improvement? Thank you for any reply in advance. 🙂
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I respect your critique, even if part of me is outraged. I hope his habits will improve, though frankly, listening to him makes me happy, and that’s what counts in the end.
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So he has no support,does it means he doesn’t even use his diaphragm while singing?
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It means he doesn’t quite use it correctly with his vocal cords.
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Hi, I just came across your vocal analysis, when a friend and I looked for Junsu’s
and got into Vixx pretty recently, so naturally read Ken and Leos analysises. I’ve seen that they’re both about 3 years old and I wanted to ask if you’ve seen any improvement in them, especiallyLeo?
Inspite of him having that many flaws/problems when it comes to singing something about his voice sucked me in pretty fast and I’m really worried about the possible damage could suffer in the future from the mistakes he made/still makes if he doesn’t get better. There’s too much potential to go to waste.
I made the mistake of damaging mine, probably beyond repair in some points, when I was young and it’s not fun to lose talent like that
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hi, ahmin! i dont know if you’d still be able to see this comment, but if you do, may i ask for your opinion about hyuk’s technique, points for improvement, and/or just the overall performances?
this is his latest music-related release:
here’s the title track of his first solo album:
boy with a star live:
camellia live:
way to you:
memory live:
sorry for the bunch of links! thought it would be helpful to provide some materials ^^ did he improve or anything? idk if this is a significant info but he has been taking vocal lessons for some time now. just happy to know that he wants to further improve his singing ^^
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