The vocal aesthetics of Ayumi Hamasaki

[chu-lips]

i'm googling about ayu's voice type and range...
because no one here answer my question about ayu's voice and i found this article...

The vocal aesthetics of Ayumi Hamasaki

If there’s any J-Pop idol that I respect in terms of professionalism, it’s Ayumi Hamasaki. She is a brand in and of herself, and has sustained a career for longer than any other “idol.” Needless to say, Ayumi Hamasaki is among the greatest figures in J-Pop today. My introduction to Ayumi Hamasaki came at the age of 10. Ayu-chan’s 1997 single, “Depend on You,” was one of the first J-Pop songs I heard, since it was included in the Atlus game, “Thousand Arms”. As a boy, I fell in love with her style, presence and uniqueness. In particular, there’s just something really appealing about her voice, which, like fellow songstress Utada Hikaru, is completely original. It’s instantly recognizable; you listen to her songs and think, “oh, that’s Ayu-chan, for sure!” But, what elements distinguish Ayu-chan from other J-Pop singers?
Where Utada Hikaru’s voice is quavering and emotive (a beautiful aesthetic also), Hamasaki’s is powerful and resonant. Her vibrato is extremely wide and slow, and she’s selective about which notes, and when, she vibrates. It’s not uncommon to listen to an entire passage and only hear her vibrate on one or two notes. In my opinion, Hamasaki started the stereotypical idol trend of infrequent, wide vibrato, but she really is the master of this technique.
Hamasaki sings mostly from the throat. I understand that this is a completely un-American approach to singing, and also can be damaging to the vocal chords. Because she tenses her throat, she is able to create a type of vocal portato between notes (disconnected, yet articulated repeated notes). Her articulation is also very clear, because of the amount of pressure it requires to overcome the tensing of the throat. This strain is a part of her vocal aesthetic, and the bukkari (girlish) style in general. Of course, her diction is also fabulous. Every syllable is distinct and perfectly intelligible, even to a gaijin like me.
Part of the distinguishing elements of Ayu-chan’s voice is also its flaws. She sings, at times, painfully flat. I’m aware that this may be due to her partial deafness. But sometimes the flatness of her voice is off-puttingly low, almost a half-step flat for entire passages. I imagine this is due to her vocal straining, artificially pushing her notes flat. And, compared to the virtuosic range of American singers like Mariah Carey, Ayu-chan’s range is fairly limited. Because of the tense quality of her voice, her highs make me wince a little bit. Think: Alvin and the Chipmunks… But, this is just a part of the “Ayu package.” Her power is impressive, but, without employing the classical style, it comes at some costs.
Despite its flaws, Ayumi Hamasaki’s voice is a crucial element to her success. Without it, she wouldn’t be “Ayumi Hamasaki: The Product”. Reading and listening to her interviews, I think she’s aware of her stance in the larger scheme of the Japanese music industry, and takes it very seriously. She really hasn’t stepped outside of her idiosyncratic style. If anything, her latest chart-topping singles seem to resurrect her 1998/1999 sound, and to great avail. I expect that Ayumi will always be the Ayumi that everyone (well, almost everyone) knows and loves.

how bout your opinion guys....

what's ayu voice type...
and how wide is her range..
since many people say that she has that high-pitched voice..

thx 4 reading

[mellody]

Include the source please?

[owlflight]

Article or not, I find Ayu to be an emotional singer not really a technical singer. However I do not know much about music and voice so I could be wrong in her singing skills. I prefer her singing style because I want to feel the emotions of a song, not how good someone can sing it.

[Misa-chan]

Interesting read, thanks for sharing!

As hagan_massey said, ayu's attraction lies in her live performances. Not that her studio versions are worse or anything, but the power of her live voice is what makes me love her singing. In my playlist, the mp3 rips of her concerts always get more play than the studio version, and when I feel like listening to a particular song, the first version I look for is the live version.

I agree with the article about the portato, ayu's really good at that, and I'll always love how she does it in Fly high.

Singing with only her throat voice is indeed damaging, though, I wish she'd use her head voice more. The only song I can recall ever hearing her use her head voice is the last part of ad-lib in GREEN. But that's what I respect about her. It's hard not to use head voice when singing at all, and ayu seems to be able to do it quite well. ^^

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

Originally Posted by hagan_massey

Article or not, I find Ayu to be an emotional singer not really a technical singer.

I have to second this..Admitting i'm not the one who's the skills to judge music or singing technique, I always preferred her because of the capacity to reach me, the skill to transmit her message with her voice..so as long as she's tuned, I will loveher voice.

Thanks for sharing this article though, is nice to learn more and read a more technical comment

[millie47]

I think Ayu's voice uses nasal tones..not in the throat...

[Lady_Eowyn]

^ nope,her voice sounds more nasal because she is a woman, and we girls tend to have more hight pitched voices. The level of high pitching varies from person to person, but that is not neccesarily related to the nose.

Ayumi struggles so much with her voice because she uses her throat to perform and the throad has very limited capacity of vibration (in other words, how much people can hear you when you sing); when you open too much you start to damage your vocal chords, and using only the throat to perfom is alike to scream all the time, after a while you can't talk at all. I heard she doesn't speak at all before she gets on stage, and that's because of this limitation.

I recently became a soprano (still a student and not a pro, but i'm a soprano now) and my opera teacher forbid me to use the throat to sing, and taught me that the real strenght of a singer does not come from the throad, it comes from the stomach. when you have full support from there, you can sing several hours and you don't have to hurt yourself when you're singing at all.Also, this allows you to have a better control of your breathing and not having to interrupt yourself each two seconds to breath and sing again.(this is sort of a guild secret among musicians: if it hurts you, you're not performing correctly. also applies for people playing instruments)

There are several ways to sing, and our head has many holes inside the skin,which means that they can be used as a channel to release the sound and vibration towards a public. Pop singers have to learn techniques to use their body, and mariachi singers usually open the chest (chest voice) to be able to perform.Opera singers need to project their voices to the public without the aid of microphone,which means they just have their voices to make themselves be heard in an audience, and this is why they need to use all their bodies to perform. So i hope this can make you understand how stressing can be for a throat to be forced to the carry all the the voice.

Returning to the high pitch, we use a system to classify the voices. if Ayumi sang opera, she would probably be a light soprano, which is the soprano who has the highest pitching in all the human vocal range. even among sopranos (who usually lead the melody because sopranos have the higher tones) there are levels of pitching.

Honestly, i ignore why she uses only her throat to sing when there are several techniques to control this, but it's indeed very damaging what she does to her voice,and that's nothing to admire with all due respect. It's a shame that she spends so much time thinking about her visual show, but she does not do the for her vocal technique. she could indeed do more with her voice, but the only explanations i find are that she doesn't like her natural voice tone or her hate for classrooms doesn't allow her to do explore more.

And last but not least, the technique has nothing to do with emotion. The main quality of ayu is indeed her capacity to transmit emotions,but it's not supposed to be one or the other. I do understand this is a page for fans and you'll support her no matter what, but i think it's fair to point you can have both... please don't kill me

As a singer, this article annoyed the **** out of me.

Going to be blunt. She does not do vibrato properly to any extent of the word. Vibrato is a vibration of your vocal chords, not moving your jaw or lips. Second, you don't PRAISE someone for singing with their throat. As stated in the article, it is wrong and can damage your vocal chords, which as a singer, you should strive to NEVER do. She doesn't have firm control over her voice or a large range, making singing well already difficult. It annoys me, because I think she could sound so much better if she would use better technique.

This wasn't flaming in anyway, she's a great performer. Which is incredibly important to be successful, obviously, or she wouldn't have gotten this far.

[koumori]

^ Yeah, I always wonder why Ayu has never learnt the techniques of not singing using the throat. I learnt how to do that from my Grandma at eight years old..is it pride, or just through habit? She's had singing lessons for over thirteen years now, and it must of had some damage on her singing by now.

I agree however, with the people that have said here that even though she hasn't got the best voice in the industry by far, the emotion with which she sings with is what captivates me personally, both in studio and live versions.

[rusuke]

Interesting article!

Ayu's voice is really unique in her own right which is one of the reason why I love her. She uses her nasal voice when singing and captivates the listeners. Her voice can be so painful in the ears (I always experience it especially with earphones), but this is just so perfectly imperfect that makes her standout.

I haven't use the throat-singing until I heard of Ayu. For me, it's really hard because as you said, it can damage your vocal chords but for me when I use this technique, I can hit the higher notes (in Ayu's songs case). But I just do this when it's in need.

[isthisLOL?]

About the soprano stuff: Ayumi would never ever be a light soprano, her natural range is too low, Ayumi would probably be Mezzo, for some pieces she may be used as a type of either Soprano or Alto when the ranges permit it but she's generally a Mezzo.

@ xLitax
Have you watched PoM(or better: listened to the mp3 rip, since the horrid quality of the video rip makes her voice seem bad)? She started using much more correct vocal technique, her breathing has greatly improved and she seems to not use her throat as much. Her vibrato has also gotten closer to true vibrato over the last years from what I can tell. 2008 and 2009 had her mouth moving like crazy but by now it seems to come at least partly from her vocal chords.

While some of the points raised by people on this thread are correct. Singing from your throat DOES hurt your voice for example, it is also fact that singing from your throat is considered a vocal ideal in some genres and parts of the world. Not the same idealsyou got in classical music, not the same you got in Jazz, not the same you got in usual pop and not a healthy one at all, but it's an ideal some people strive for and, as long as the person knows the effect it has on their voice(and I'm sure Ayumi knows that much), should be respected as such. I am glad she is changing her vocal style because of the hurting aspect, of course, but I also respect her singing from her throat because I honestly doubt she did that because she didn't know any better. It's what you learn in your very first vocal lesson usually and Ayumi had at least 4 periods of vocal training to my knowledge.
Growling is much worse in harming vocal chords and it's a big vocal ideal in Metal and something that cannot be created any other way for example. Yet I praise great growlers because it's their decision to use that vocal style and creates a sound that otherwise cannot be created.

[maikaru]

Yeah, there are some singers who are praised for their throatyness.

However, I don't think she has been singing from the throat anymore, and in 2003-2004, it seemed like her vocal technique was really great, and not utilizing her throat. I mean she's been taking vocal lessons a lot recently, so I don't think she's gonna have many more problems... I'm hoping that her singing voice will transform into something really great for her next album. I'm waiting patiently!

Furthermore, it's extremely difficult to use your stomach when singing in Japanese. It's completely different way of speaking than english, and the singing techniques are hard to apply for the pronunciation required for japanese songs. That's why Japanese people have a really hard time singing english songs, and vice versa.