The Hero high notes...

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=pink>The Millionaire Waltz wrote: [/QUOTENAME]What about that high note in Under Pressure? [/QUOTE]
Oh my god, at the part where it is "Whyyyyy" it is sooooo hard to do on kareoke Revolution because they make you get higher and higher while holding it.

> Of course, in the studio, you can do a certain part over and over again.

Otoh, some people tend to work better when they see the audience. That's not Fred's case (imo). He might be a great showman, but as singer he wasn't half as good as he was in the studio.

> In my opinion, in Under Pressure, Freddie starts off with a non-falsetto, but slowly goes into a falsetto during the note.

Yes.

> Sebastian, you also have a musical background? Reading your posts, I do believe you have.

Yes I do. Actually I give some music lessons to complete the income (struggling writers don't earn enough).

I found this on Brian's site concerning AOBTD:

Richare Wong asked Brian if Freddie's vocals were speeded up on Another One Bites the dust, or whether he really as hitting those top notes - in real life....

"No speed changes were used ... Freddie just tore his throat to bits! He had such pride!! On a good night he did hit those top notes live too ... it depended on how much he was pacing himself that night.

He went even further in the studio later on .... for instance "The Show Must Go On" ... I demo'd the lines using falsetto .... he went for it ALL full voice. Amazing."

b

Wonderful, a discussion about Freddie's voice! :D

I recall that after Brian wrote that at his site, he might have conceded that it was slightly pitch shifted, if only slightly. It can't have been a big adjustment, because he still sounds normal to me.

I'd readily agree that Freddie was 'better' in studio, but there are live versions of songs that are pretty much faithful to the studio versions - usually the stuff like Tie Your Mother Down. People crap on the Earls Court show for being 'pitchy' (yeah whatever haha) but there's some moments in that which could've been studio outtakes, muahaha.

While we're on the subject of his voice, I don't think I'll ever settle on a favourite 'era'. I find something to like about each period of his career - even on tracks like You Don't Fool Me, where frankly to me he sounds ill, he's still got 'it', whatever that means.

NUNO BETTENCOURT: (to Brian May) You are an underrated singer.
BRIAN MAY: Me? No.
NUNO: Yes.

Haha, I've got that magazine if anyone ever wants to read the interview. Hahah.

Yeah, I think Brian did admit later that it AOBTD was pitch shifted. Still a great performance, though, and one that ANYBODY would have a lot of difficulty in duplicating live.

Brian said it wasn't speeded up but then he was proven wrong. I love when that happens :D

Come on, AOBTD was pitched up a little indeed, but it's not enough to say that it was really 'speeded up' a lot. It's only one bloody semitone.
My Off-The-Record sheetmusic says: "recording sounds one semitone higher". It is written in E, so it sounds in F...
Voila, that's all.

Still, I wonder why it was pitched one semitone in the first place. And were all tracks pitched up, or were only all instrumental tracks pitched up one semitone befóre Freddie put down his vocals? Could be a possibility too....

even though AOBTD is very slightly speeded up,apparantly for tempo reasons not pitch reasons,he is still hitting a high e(12th fret on the high e string of a guitar)in full voice not falsetto.this is an incredible feat, believe me!
however, this is not even the highest note that fred sang.he hit a high f(13th fret of the high e string)on barcelona and on all god's peopl in full voice not falsetto.in fact a music professor(see the voice of freddie mercury web site)considers that all god's people is fred's most accomplished performance.fred didn't need to speed his perfmances up as he was a truly great singer, not just an outrageous frontman.his finest studio performances were undoubtably on the miracle and particulaly innuendo.
on another note(no pun intended!)fred sang ever so slightly sharp.95% of singers sing ever so slightly flat.singing ever so slightly sharp is much more pleasant on the ear,hence fred always sounded good!!

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Sebastian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Bites The Dust is raised by a half-step only. I doubt Hero is speeded up. He really could sing that high, or even more.[/QUOTE]come one even freddie could'nt sing higher than the hero...

Plant did it my friends, Gillan did it, Hughes did it, so why our freddie couldn't?

> Come on, AOBTD was pitched up a little indeed, but it's not enough to say that it was really 'speeded up' a lot.

Nobody said it was speeded up a lot.

> he is still hitting a high e(12th fret on the high e string of a guitar)in full voice not falsetto.

Indeed. And I did write it above.

> come one even freddie could'nt sing higher than the hero...

The Hero is, if I remember correctly, C#. Freddie, Roger and Brian all got higher than that without falsetto: I'm In Love With My Car, Coming Soon, Gimme The Prize, Resurrection, Hang On In There, Was It All Worth It, Innuendo, The Show Must Go On and, of course, Another One Bites The Dust :)

i dont think AOBTD is speeded up
jeje i`m not freddie, i dont have his voice but i have a similar vocal range, and i can reach that notes
i sang in my defence, AOBTD, and a lot of queen songs, it`s very difficult, but if you go with all your voice and you know how to use it, you can do that
i did it, butafter a lot of singing lessons

Sebastian knows his stuff. He said it already, many times, the track actually plays one semitone faster. It was recorded in E and then sped up to F. Not because Freddie couln't hit the actual notes but for some other reason. You can hear his higher notes in songs like Hang on in There or Let's turn it on (backing vox) and others I can't recall at the moment. Even The Show Must Go On's climax, however passionate and poignant, doesn't feature Freddie's highest note recorded.

I don't know about The Hero. I kinda like the song but it sounds to me more like a demo quality performance. Freddie's vocals are very raw, like on Gimme the Prize, but they sound a bit less polished than on GTP. :S

Wiley

Im pretty sure The Hero has been pitch altered. I would imagine the backing track to be recorded in A and then slowed down to Ab or even B for Freddie to do his vocal and then speeded up to its natural A.
If you listen to the bits when he speaks, like "save the world" etc, it sounds a little chipmunkey to me, although I may be completely wrong.

Some of you have mentioned that he gets alot higher in other songs, the differnece with The Hero is that he is hitting the highest note at the end of a line he has sang in one breath, and its pretty impossible, even in the studio.

Try singing a verse from The Hero and then singing All Gods People or Coming Soon, you will probably find the latter two alot easier.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]NTL wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Im pretty sure The Hero has been pitch altered. I would imagine the backing track to be recorded in A and then slowed down to Ab or even B for Freddie to do his vocal and then speeded up to its natural A.
If you listen to the bits when he speaks, like "save the world" etc, it sounds a little chipmunkey to me, although I may be completely wrong.

Some of you have mentioned that he gets alot higher in other songs, the differnece with The Hero is that he is hitting the highest note at the end of a line he has sang in one breath, and its pretty impossible, even in the studio.

Try singing a verse from The Hero and then singing All Gods People or Coming Soon, you will probably find the latter two alot easier.[/QUOTE]

I disagree with you. But that's okay! (thumbs up)