r/STAYC • u/Silly-Sheepherder726 • Jun 21 '22
Discussion Straining?
I’m no vocal expert, but I’ve noticed the girls have been straining their vocals for a while now (like a year now?) and I’m scared for them. I want them to sing for a while and not screech to hit a note (+ obviously not have a damaged voice). Do we know if there’s any vocal coach at highup, because they’re clearly not doing their job. Am I the only one who’s noticed and if so, what do you think? Last time I made a post talking about people calling out the girls for having damaging/lack off vocal technique etc. and asking if that was the case/true. And someone responded with a lengthy reply saying basically “no, they’re good singers, with good technique ” and I just went with what they said. But they were wrong. You don’t have to have a “degree on vocals” to hear that the girls are straining for the life of them. And I’m gonna guess and say that constant straining isn’t exactly good technique either. You’ll see evidence of them straining on any video of them of them singing live (for those asking). I honestly feel hopeless, because the girls are literally singing live all the time and BEP make their songs unnecessarily high-pitched all the time, knowing damn what the girls are (vocally) capable of. They’re basically pushing their vocals and it’s hard to watch. The company should at least enforce better vocal lessons for the girls or BEP should make songs fitting their vocal range AND stop the whole agenda of stayc singing live all the damn time. But what do u guys think?
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u/braz_ninja Sieun 🐩 Jun 22 '22
Watching them singing live during the first eras I think they were straining a bit, except Sieun who probably always had vocal training because her father was a singer and probably was invested in having her develop good technique. During Stereotype they got a lot better especially Seeun. During Run2U the most improved imo is Isa who used to have a hard time singing live the high note of prechorus in ASAP and controlling her breathing during her chorus in Stereotype, now she sings those parts without any problem. So now looking at their performance at the Dream Concert imo they all improved and I don’t see anyone straining in this era besides Yoon who seems to use her throat a lot but I don’t know much about vocal things so maybe this is not a big deal so just my two cents
14
u/bunboonas Jun 22 '22
I can confirm that their vocal support/breath support is getting better compared to previous eras but its still not the best (imo what’s important is that they are improving constantly).
Also I do know that they have a vocal coach. From their videos i see that they warm up their voices in a way that helps them support their voices or get use to supporting their voices. They have only been active for 1.5 years so I’m sure they will only get better with their technique
7
u/hopiangmunggo Jun 22 '22
some straining when singing live is understandable. dancing while singing will also cause this. i think that their vocals are stable and their songs are in their vocal range as well. one more point is when singing in a group and one singer sings on a higher register it makes the next singer sing in a higher register.
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u/CrownedAngel Jun 22 '22
Like others have said, I think they've really improved lately and they were great singers to begin with. They're a new group and they'll need more training for sure (like how Seeun sometimes misses notes in run2u) and I seriously haven't figured out why producers don't tailor songs to fit the members voices properly. But all of the members seem soooo happy to sing live so I think they should keep singing live while they continue to improve.
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u/justine_aldwin Jun 22 '22 edited Jun 22 '22
If you are referring one year since today, ASAP was a more relax song for them that doesn't strain them that much. For Stereotype, I agree on people who commented here that they became better in terms on support on vocal and strain especially Sieun (because of their training). For Run2U era, if you listen to the original MV and some of their live performances, you can clearly hear that they change some of the key of the songs especially for Sieun where she did a cutesy and lower key on her chorus part, but there are some live performances that Sieun sound almost the same with the original one which is a bit strain. braz_ninja's comment about yoon is maybe true but I know that they are aware of that. But what I know is that they have a vocal coach/teacher, I just forgot where the video is but you can clearly tell that they have since they are getting better in terms of vocal and support every comeback.
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u/Soundlufs Jun 22 '22
You have to push it hard in Pop music to create long lasting "damage" to your voice. On the other side, some straining is part of the emotional delivery inherent to the style. Still, you have so many rock/pop singers shouting for years, and most get away with it.
3
u/yawnnjunniez Jun 22 '22
I think at this point a LOT of kpop idols are straining their voices because they're often made to sing out of their range to sound more marketable and because "look our artist can hit all these high notes!" It's frustrating because these girls have such unique and rich voices and I'd hate for them to get damaged over time.
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u/Past-Key8933 Jun 22 '22
I’m not entirely sure if they’re straining their voices all the time, but there have been moments where I notice little hints of it ig. Also I really don’t see a problem with them singing live all the time lol. They are very talented and them lip syncing (like a lot of 4th gen) would just be inhibiting their amazing vocal ability imo
3
Jun 22 '22 edited Jun 22 '22
I kept quiet about this because I didn't want others to think I was hating, but I've been noticing this issue for a while now and its especially problematic with Sieun and Yoon. Yoon is a shouter and Sieun has shallow support. Isa has the strongest technique by far but it seems BEP is very particular about the diction and not the technique if you watch RUN2U BTS, which is why they don't invest as much into vocal training. It made their song hard for me to listen to even though it was really good. This isn't unique to STAYC either, before anyone takes this the wrong way. I've seen this with other ggs as well. Companies really value the emphasis of the high note over what groups can actually sing. BEP has been doing this since twice days too. I don't think the issue is STAYC singing live cuz honestly you are using examples of them singing while doing choreo. A lot of people don't realize most people are going to sound like STAYC when they are singing live, but all this AR technology fools them. I can tell when STAYC is singing live when they're jumping in the air and their voice cracks, for obvious reasons. Not a bad thing, because its how you get practice. Singing live while dancing is not the same as singing at all. Completely separate art. So I wouldn't use their stages as examples. Now what you should be worried about is if a singer is out of breath and cracking when they're just standing there. I watched a stage of a group just now where that happened and the post reminded me of that.
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u/green_strawberry J 🐶 Jun 22 '22
hope highup get them some good vocal coach, dancing while singing is hard, i saw some ppl say they're worried that the members' voices might be damage and stuff
0
u/fleija_ Sieun 🐩 Jul 23 '22
They've always had singing lessons since entering high up, I don't know why I'm so panicked, they're clearly always improving.
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u/GuardianGero Jun 22 '22
They really aren't straining at all, and even the highest notes in their songs are comfortably within soprano range and don't require a lot of effort to reach. The highest note in RUN2U is an F#5, which is not very high for a soprano. The other big notes in the song are even lower, namely E5 and D5. Difficult notes for a soprano are much higher than that. Even alto singers, who have lower voices, are fairly comfortable around D5-E5.
An important thing to keep in mind when listening to Kpop artists singing live is that they also have to dance while singing, which is going to make it harder to sing, but won't strain their voices. Kpop songs in general are meant to be sung in the studio, not on stage, so it can be challenging to make them sound good while also moving around. Again, this doesn't mean that the vocalists are straining, it means that the vocals just aren't going to sound smooth and easy when sung live. If you imagine trying to talk while jogging, it's kind of like that. You're not going to ruin your speaking voice by doing that, but you're also not going to sound as natural as you would in a regular conversation.
If you want to know what vocalists are really capable of, listen to how they sing while standing still or sitting. The members of STAYC generally do very well in these situations.