Attempting Guns N' Roses again. Vocal ANALYSIS of "November Rain"

welcome back to the charismatic voice it's November and I still don't know if I like Axel Rose's voice so I think it's time that I listened to your most requested song November Rain now just so you know that we really do pay attention to what you write in those YouTube comments we're going to be doing the studio version with the music video behind it I know many of you said you don't want any more live versions of guns and& roses I hear you studio version this time let's get to it [Music] [Applause] [Music] ooh [Music] that's a very nice piano actually should say pianos we've seen so far I do love some good piano in a hard core rock song but I have to say right from the very beginning this has got a totally different vibe than what I've heard from Guns and Roses so far admittedly my uh my knowledge of them is very very limited to just a one song but anyhow this feels like it wants to be epic and soft at the same time right it feels like a song by Meatloaf maybe something that's sort of romantic in nature I'm really curious what Axel's voice is going to do with this very very very curious I also just got to say love the orchestra that I'm seeing here I love the combination of orchestral and rock or metal music together I think it's so very delightful and the sound effects at the beginning are so delightfully crispy back to the beginning right the sound of even the cigarette being put out and that crunchy [Music] [Applause] [Music] oo there's a really cool background shift there feel like we're about to get much much bigger all of a sudden I'm not totally sure if that was live strings or synthesized strings because to me the sound I would have just said was synthesized but it might be the way that they're articulating that was mimicking that um meaning that it's very short it feels a little bit um angular in the way the strings are being played yeah that could be just a a sample like a digital sample of a string instrument but we are seeing strings being played so I think they're implying that they're actually live uh I'm really really truly not sure so I'm going to go back just a little bit [Music] yeah it it doesn't feel live to [Music] me the piano though does sound very very live looks like a combination of this live performance and music video I'm not sure what they pulled from that's such a cool background change [Music] when I look into your eyes I can see a love restrain [Music] [Applause] I you don't you know I feel the [Music] same huh it's really fascinating to me to hear Axel Rose's voice from a studio album versus a live performance right after we premiered our last video Sweet Child of Mine I went and listened to the studio version because so many of you screamed during our Live premiere that I had to go listen to that and there were so many marked differences was it was still definitely the same singer but a lot of his nuances were very different the they really they played in a very different way than I expected and the production on his voice sounded made it sound a little more mellow I think maybe just the way he's singing in the studio is also more mellow it seems like he's a very energetic fellow running around the stage and and that definitely plays into the sound that the voice is going to have in a live performance versus studio and I would imagine that there'd be a little more pushing especially with the way he runs on stage so much so here there's a certain uh relaxed approach that combines with that really really heavy gravel I hear again it feels like just so different when I look into your eyes can see in the way that there's like a relax VI brotto in there it's also a little on the wide side it just this sounds so much more laidback than what I heard the first [Music] time huh okay also he just sounds a lot older to me the voice has like a different kind of depth to it also sounds like it's had a little bit of wear going on I was just looking up when these albums were done it looks like 1987 is Sweet Child of Mine and I think this one is from 1992 I want to say maybe 1991 used and it's the first of two albums that were simultaneously released that's not a huge split in years but in a rock singer who's touring endlessly that can make a really big difference in how the voice has [Music] [Applause] developed darl when I you don't you know I feel [Music] the nothing last forever and we both no Heart [Music] Change H why do they have a wedding in the music video with the words nothing lasts forever that's that's not the best Outlook to have shoot shoot guys let's let's be optimistic here even though was it one in three marriages and a divorce come on we can be optimistic both no Hearts can [Music] change oh that the the whole like barely with a cigarette and smoke flaring out of his nose SL image was I don't know I felt it almost felt like the antithesis of the uh sort of edgy performance that I saw last time this is all so very [Music] different been through this such a long long time just trying to kill the pain oh yeah always coming love's always going no [Music] one so I'm listening specifically to Axel Rose's voice and trying to understand like how he's making these sounds it does sound like his voice has aged pretty considerably in a rather short amount of time and that's concerning to me okay just straight up that is that's concerning uh but the studio just sounds like it's a much healthier approach to singing for him when people are in the studio and recording an album they are much closer to a microphone um the you don't have all of that energy from the audience that can sometimes make a sing or push or really kind of go over the line it is hard when you first start performing live to not just give it all out to the audience like that's that's what singers want to do that's what performers want to do they're there to perform they want to give their message and and really help the audience feel their music right but then if you give it all a lot of times singers at that point haven't established how to ground themselves so that giving doesn't translate to just letting the air pressure go smack into their larynx it it's dangerous ultimately you have to sort of learn how to get your performance chops under you usually slowly over time and sometimes just hitting the road with really heavy rock music that makes you want to scream your guts out that is often not very beneficial for the voice so I'm guessing that some part of that has played into why I think Axel Rose sounds better on a studio version than in a live version uh I'm going to go back a little bit and point out some of this the areas that I'm hearing what I think are are differences and and better differences in the studio version [Music] C so I hear a lot of varying degrees of how much Distortion or how much gravel is in his voice in that phrase there are moments when he goes completely clean moments when he adds more back [Music] in and it's hard to hold C [Music] in this also I think is a little lower in his range than when I had heard him before and it sounds like it's a fairly easy range it sounds like there's not a ton of pressure behind it he's close to a microphone he's able to relate a story and doesn't need to blast a story let's keep [Music] going pain and this had a really nice sweet line to it it didn't feel like it was overdriven it felt like it was at that really sweet spot of I'm going to have a nice steady support the whole time that isn't overcompressed [Music] [Applause] yeah another thing that I hear in his voice this might be partly due to the production chain but I hear more overtones in it so there's like a little ringness on it it almost sounds like it's just more resonant overall that can happen when somebody is just uh honestly not again pushing out to an audience but they're sort of letting the sound marinate a little bit more in here you can't often tell on stage if you're letting the sound marinate the right way you have to rely on the sensations that you've established and practiced over and over and over just on your own with the band and then try to keep those going going when you're up on stage it's really really tough to maintain the best vocal technique on stage and in this case it's possible that those overtones were highlighted by adjusting things like EQ um or you know maybe there's a Reverb that they put in there that just really helps highlight that nicely but whatever is being done it does sound like he's allowing the sound at least a little bit if not a lot he's allowing it to Mar need a little bit more before sending it [Music] [Applause] out walk away take time on the line I rest [Music] KN and I think you can really hear how that has a an effect of making the sound a little bit more mellow overall with his voice one of the reasons I I think I initially was just not sure if I could dig this sound is because it's so forward and brassy and edgy it felt like it was too far tilted on the scale where I didn't have any balance with this particular recording I've got that balance coming back in there's a little bit of melanous a little bit more longing rather than aggression in the sound it feels like a more complete human really who's singing the [Music] [Applause] sound so if you want to love me then darling don't [Music] refrain roers end up walking in the gold no [Music] rain oh that's a wicked ring oh my gosh his his miky ring is insane whoa whoa is that like used to pop cans or something like make a perforation so you can drink straight out of I don't know it looks cool that's a really cool ring and that's not even the wedding ring right I have no idea what the wedding ring is I just think it's really interesting to see this back and forth between a live performance situation and a wedding I can't make sense of why this is set with a wedding maybe there's I'm guessing that the couple's going to break up in the end because it seems like the lyrics have themes about uh change and things maybe not going the way one expected so I'm I'm hoping that that's that I'm getting the right message from the music video but uh it's my first time seeing it so it's really hard to know how it's all fitting together just [Music] yet own do you all alone wow yeah [Music] kiss yeah it's so it's so interesting I feel like he's using resonance and vocal placement in here to find uh the edginess it isn't from the source so a lot of times you can divide a sound that you're hearing in a v in a voice between a source and a filter the source is where the phonation is in the case of clean vocals that's going to be your two vocal folds in the case of harsh vocals that's going to be some other fleshy bit that's the source of the sound it vibrates together it creates a sound but then that sound travels through the vocal tract in some way it might go through your nose it makes it nasal it might uh come up and and really hit right behind the teeth give it a little brassy Edge it's possible that it'll go up really far and have like almost a dome like feeling and really just spin around in here and then come out and that'll make it feel maybe a little more classical so however the top part is arranged that's called a filter sometimes it Shades In Colors the original source of sound that was created now he Axel often wants to have it sounds like an edge or brassiness that's in his sound but to achieve this in the live version I heard heard before it sounded like he was trying to drive his Source try to drive a little more grit into the sound and sometimes that can make people start to try and create that grit with their true vocal folds instead of one of the other fleshy bits you can constrain too much right there particularly um and here sometimes it sounds like he's getting that drive or that edge rather by tapping into his filter and using it a little bit more so he's sort of funneling the sound so that it gets uh really a set of overtones with give they give us this idea of a brassiness that is a much healthier way to get to that sound than trying to drive from the throat I'm going to go back and just listen to how he keeps this brassy focus in his voice and maybe how that isn't related to drive here but rather to Resonance like right there kept [Music] it and it's rather low in the register too it's a lot better yeah allone I know it's hard to keep an open [Applause] heart when even friends seem out to Har you but if you can he the Broken Heart wait wa wait I just realized was that was that slash without a top [Applause] hat that's what his face looks like I think that's slash without a top hat I'm like 90% sure because I don't think I've ever seen his face before no it's not it's the other guy I must be wrong I don't think he appears without a top hat I'm confused guys no it's other guy I [Music] [Music] think [Music] [Music] m [Music] I need on my own that has to be slash right I think that's slash without a topad okay because I don't think oh my gosh I'm so worried at this moment that I saying the wrong things you guys have no idea how much pressure there is to get the person that is playing a particular Solo in a song correct and it's so hard to do when you've never seen the video it's not like I could go query somebody who was that person that just played the soul I'm pretty sure it's slash okay but like when you've never seen a picture of the guy without a top hat on like doesn't I feel like I thought there was another guy in the band that had really magnificent hair as well but maybe I'm mistaken also there have been people that have switched in and out of Guns and Roses my gosh you guys it's really really tough to get things correct when you're listening to something for the first time just so you know I can read all of the background info I could spend hours and hours and hours memorizing all kinds of facts but when you get down to it nothing beats just watching the video and asking you was that indeed slash without a top pad please tell me in the live comments please okay we're going to go back one more time I really liked the mellowness of this solo there the tone of the guitar is like very very appealing [Music] oh and his stance gets progressively wider as it [Music] [Music] goes yeah it's I love the tone of the guitar I really really love it it is for me there have been so many different guitar sounds that I've been hearing and I've been growing in my knowledge of guitar in rock and metal this has got to be one of the most naturally appealing tones that I've ever heard in a [Music] guitar I like the way he repeats some of this melody to help us hook into [Music] it Wier [Music] there's something so [Music] [Music] sweet I just I like the way that guitar solo makes me feel there's longing there's a sweetness to it I it wasn't overly complicated it just had a great Melody right this makes me think more and more of course this is slash because that the way the melody was soaring was just incredible it's the kind of thing that you want to sing along with oh yeah that's a good guitar solo [Music] I need some on my own I need some [Music] all everybody needs some on the own don't you know you need some time I know now once again let's hone in on Axel's voice here he definitely has a lot of nality that he puts into the sound when you hear him on the word alone it's naturally closing to an in at the end which is a nasal consonant and so N means that you can actually continue to sing a sound but that sound is all exiting through your nose most consonants will end up stopping the sound in some way but some of them you can sing through like in a nasal consonant IM are the same way and you hear as he goes through the dip thong of alone that those o the those two vowels going into the in are already pouring through his [Music] nose same thing with [Music] [Applause] own it's it's very very nasal and this is why I've said before that he actually has quite a bit of twing in his [Music] [Applause] sound even the [Applause] [Music] hisel [Music] [Applause] [Music] oo that right there the way he connected that line all up didn't add a ton of distortion that sounded like really really healthy um sort of contained singing very very nice I didn't hear anything like that in the live performance let's go back to the solo [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] though it's so interesting how the actress here doesn't look super thrilled she's beautiful but she's kind of like looking off in the distance and I think that's going with that idea of needing time on your own and by the way as somebody who's in a fantastic and healthy relationship it's really important to have aone time still you got to you know you got to recharge and just view with yourself sometimes I I like to read a book sometimes and and my husband sometimes likes to play a video game sometimes we play video games together sometimes we read books beside each other but sometimes we just do our own thing for a little bit and that's good that's healthy so for those of you who feel like you're in a relationship you always have to be together all the time I don't think that's such a good [Music] [Applause] idea maybe she's just tired weddings are [Music] tiring gosh [Music] it's it's really in the way that he it honestly to me his playing just feels sophisticated which is sort of ironic because I I think of guns and roses and the the aggressive sound I've heard it feels a little wild and Reckless whereas his playing feels sophisticated it feels like so strange and contrasting but the way he's really softly going in and out of notes at times the dynamic control it feels like it's allowing a very fine amount of detail into the pling and drawing our attention to it it's like uh it feels like a finely cooked Chef's meal right where it has just the right amount of the perfect sauce on top it's just it's refined oh I love the way he uses that repetition melody in this solo again and then he'll change it just a little bit so we can hook into it and then follow him along as the journey continues to move [Music] [Applause] forward that repetition is really cool there was this sort of waterfalling pattern that was both strings and maybe piano to in the background I'm going to go back to it I just love the way that that's peppered and there it's a totally different texture from his playing you have these really long soaring Melodies and then you have it feels like trickles of water falling down and it's much more rapid and uh uh [Music] separated [Applause] it's a beautiful combination really [Music] lovely and shadows still remain oh yeah I know that you can love me when there's no one left Blame A oh I love this idea that you I know that you can love me when there's no one left to blame when your fears subside and shadows still remain a a okay this feels a little more hopeful like yes some things change sometimes first marriages end and then you find the right person and you have Rock Solid second marriage hey you know and I don't know it just feels inspiring and happy now and that makes me happy I'm definitely definitely a sucker for optimistic music it's a beautiful setting I [Music] know's there was a great example of how he uses a dipped thong again lame using the a of the the dip thong is a and e combined and so he goes aay and plays around with those two different vowels in different notes [Applause] [Music] BL and again we have the faster moving instruments in the background I think we got strings back there and his voice creating much longer Melody it's a really good combination it's it's so nice to hear Guns and Roses do something that is a little just not as aggressive it's a very different sound and I think there's a place for both so I like I like getting a totally different view of the same band so never mind the darkness we still can find the [Music] way nothing lasts forever even nov rain gosh oh it's raining at the wedding I guess they got married in November um I just that was POS to comment that these guys have really amazing hair like all of them it's it's a thing and I know that hair metal is its own separate thing but it makes me wonder if hair metal can even hope to compete with the hair of the members of Guns and [Music] Roses there's thato wheel [Music] I uh I just I feel that it's important that weddings shouldn't necessarily be perfect they should be memorable and this is a very memorable wedding oh that horrible disaster we have it's like it it could be in in Kanto right there wedding was terrible I guess oh he does the same thing there with no which is another dip thong it's interesting Axel often is using dip thongs to uh specifically separate them and use each vowel portion for a different [Music] pitch no November Rain one more time [Music] huh Got A really lovely soundscape [Music] happening [Music] [Music] nice I know I'm not supposed to stop during guitar solos but I'm sorry did did the bride die that's what it look like it look I didn't catch the moment of death there I mean people were I guess they I'm going to go back because now that I see her in a cough and I'm like wait a second I thought okay memorable weddings yes but please no dead Brides like the thing fell they're hiding under where did she die [Music] I love the stepping on top of the piano okay I didn't see the bride die is this just signaling like the end of a [Music] relationship it's got a March like sound in the [Music] drums [Music] [Music] here [Music] [Music] this is so radically different from the rest of the song and and honestly there was some sort of synth sound in there that just made my hair stand up on edge and like not in the good way I it like it gave me the St I it I don't know what that was uh we're going to go back though and look for it soone like fun I love the way that up until now the SS have had this those long soaring melodic lines it feels like he was preparing us for this moment where it really takes off and does something uh almost jaw-dropping was really good preparation I love the way the orchestra is adding to the height here as [Music] well [Music] and that tone [Music] again that o [Music] yikes that sound reminds me of like a jet passing overhead that has also much much higher noise in the sound as well just a whoosh it oh shivering [Music] wow the layers of vocals here are [Music] awesome [Music] huh so the way that these vocals are layered and we brought in Axel's voice there too it it definitely like his brassy tone it was able to cut through that but it didn't have again that extra gritty drive as heavily in the sound but it's got the same effect that's really really cool I love the laying of voices here it feels um it feels Grand and a little spooky and like it's issuing a warning at the same time but also a pleading it's got a lot of mixed emotions in it I dig that I'm surprised that they don't have the female singer singing a lot [Music] higher that might have been to leave Axel's voice [Music] room a oh that is heartbreaking that's okay the really happy optimistic story is definitely not happy optimistic that's super sad one of the saddest things I think is when when people who have chosen to spend their lives together and want to be together end up being parted by death it's super super super sad uh but November Rain again I'm guess and that explains the need for a sleeping pill I'm guessing wow so dramatic [Music] too H whoa whoa fascinating it's like die running off of the Roses what a good shot an idea for a shot too I like Axel Rose's voice much more in a studio setting I have to say I think he sings better there I think that uh the sound of live is really exciting and I'm sure the energy of it is just phenomenal but longevity wise I'm guessing that that studio setting really helps and it just adds that sort of balance to the tone and it also reassures me I feel like he's using a lot better vocal technique there so you guys are right not surprising right you're right studio version much better than the live version thank you so much for your recommendations if you want to see that first reaction to Guns and Roses you can check that out over here I'll put some other songs in there too just for you and may you fall more in love with music every [Music] day

Channel: The Charismatic Voice

Views: 800,603

Keywords: guns n roses reaction, guns n roses november rain, the charismatic voice, axl rose, slash

Id: S8R_YgA4AOY

Length: 44min 16sec (2656 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2023