I think for every well established guitarist who spends way too much time polishing his licks instead of his voice, is looking for the perfect voice to matcxh his/her sound. We arent always fortunate enough to have the perfect lungs, and our nasty ciggarette habit doesnt really help. Have you guys found the perfect singer to fit your sound, or perhaps you had her/him and just let em slip through your fingers?

I met this girl after hours when i was in highschool, she had such a nice voice and a great love for music. She was the type of girl who could sing just about any pitch by ear, she was one of those girls who you only find in your dreams, (not on the radio, especially in this day and age.) Anyhow, I lucky enough to convince her to come and reherse with my band, and for a wonderful three and a half months she fit very nicely into our line up. She made everyone else who was involved in our project more comfortanble with themselves, I wasn't the only one who appreciated her talent. But still with all of this noticable talent, she wasn't very motivated, and she had other aspirations besides singing, so she left. And I havent found anyone quite as good, (quite as perfect.)

The guitar is my life, I love the feeling of just sitting back relying on whats going on inside my head, (that is when I dont have to worry about payiung the bills, my current living situation, and those dirty dishes in the sink, heh.) I guess for the most part, I'm still looking for the right voice to fit my unique style which Ive developed over the past so many years. The good things in life, that sometimes we just can't wait for. So have you found her?

-Joseph

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I know what you mean, seems good vocalists are hard to come by. Interesting you finished off by saying "have you found *her*". Not that I don't love the sound of a female's voice, but I always pictured my ideal singer as a guy, with a Axl Rose/Davd Lee Roth/Steve Tyler-esque vocal style.

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"When you're a young, long haired guitarist, people don't take you seriously." - John Petrucci

I thought I'd found her once. She had a really sweet, light voice that fit perfectly with what I was doing at the time. Two Months after we started working together she went back to smoking again. I couldn't believe the difference in her voice.
She'd gone from this great voice to sounding like somebody's grandmother. Unfortunately she couldn't beat the habit so I had to stop using her. I couldn't stand hearing my songs with that rough phlemmy sound over top of them.

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I knew this guy highschool, he used to sing in the choir, and he had great range to his voice. I practiced with him a few times here and there when I was first starting out on the guitar, the great thing about him was that he could sing just about any style. But then there was this gap between us as the years progressed, I got in touch with him a few years ago, but he has taken up smoking like never before, he voice has changed as he has gotten older, and he no longer considers singing as a career. I wish he stuck with music, and continued singing, because I really feel that he had a great talent, but then again he never took the whole experience too seriously...

I guess we just tend to lose track of what we want as the years progress, with new responsibilities that we are forced to face, we kind of stop focusing on our fantasies and start focusing on reality. But with music, its a gift, and especially when you have a good comfortable singing voice, its not something you should take for granted. My voice has never been all that great, and even with voice lessons, I'm still not very comfortable. Although I never took up smoking, I'm beginning to think it wouldn't have hurt...

I think the thing is that a lot of people try too hard to be the best when it comes to singing, and its really impossible to sound as good as your favorites with little to no practice (most of your life.) What most people should concentrate on is finding their sweet spot, and the way to get to this point is by focusing on simplistic melodies, and experimenting with different voice changes. Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, hes not exactly the greatest singer, but his voice fits into the context of what hes playing. In highschool, luckily before a big show with my band we found the perfect female vocalist to fit our arrangments, you know it almost came to the point where I was gong to sing lead, thank goodness my friend shelly was around when i needed her. With a large crowd like that, I don't think I would have had enoiugh time to pull the frog out of my throat.

-Joseph

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www.ragmagazine.com
"Swoop and soar like the blues angels."