Felix Olschewski

Forever Terrorized

Felix — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:41:14 +0000

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

This song is about a theme I’ve had in mind for a long time. There is no obvious connection to the works of Michael Moorcock – but his stories about Elric, Corum and Erekose always reminded of this idea. Gaining knowledge or power always comes at a prize that has many faces. It might even take control of you. Since you can not reverse this (“what once has been learned can not be made unknown“), the only (hard) way out is to engage in a constant battle against your own mind in order to relieve the burden.

Lord of the Snow

Felix — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:59:36 +0000

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

This song was inspired by the character of Jon Snow in George R. R. Martin’s wonderful “A Song of Ice and Fire“ (A Game of Thrones).

With my previous song “The Eye and the Hand” I discovered that this way of singing is a lot of fun and so I decided to continue on this path for more than just a makeshift solution. So is this Death Metal? I do not care.

Once more I was surprised by how my musical influences sometimes find their ways into my songs.

CVT vs Pillars: Review of “The Four Pillars of Singing 2.0″

Felix — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:32:30 +0000

Previously here was a review/comparison between “Complete Vocal Technique” and “The Four Pillars of Singing 2.0″. That caused a couple of misunderstandings and eventually resulted in a huge and unnecessary argument. What is important, what is right and what is wrong depends on the views of each and every one of us and that can lead to unfortunate events like these. In some cases it leads to a gridlock and both parties involved in the argument are unhappy with the situation. Since I have nothing to lose by removing the post, I did just that. That is my win. The other party also won, I guess.

So, dear reader: If you want to know which system is better, “Complete Vocal Technique” or “The Four Pillars of Singing 2.0″, I will only tell you that I NO training system can actually make you sing great. Only you can do that by practicing a lot. There is no shortcut. You have to practice, practice, practice. There are various training systems out there and those might be able to help you. I have tried some and I know which one helped me the most. But even this help was nothing compared to the improvements I made by just practicing.

I am sorry that I can not offer you more advice. But I actually this is the best advice for whatever talent you want to achieve in life: Set your goals and then practice. No one can do that for you.

To all those involved in the previous argument: I have removed your comments. They are still in my system in case you want to copy them somewhere but they are not visible to regular users.

How to expand your vocal range

Felix — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:59:43 +0000

Practice.

Seriously. At least for those of us who are beginners the one magical thing you can do to improve your singing is to practice, practice, practice. It does not even cost one cent.

Using this fabulous method I increased the range of my chest voice by a fourth from E4 to A4 within just two or three weeks. Now even B4 is no problem most of the time.

On the other hand, there seems to be a dead-end at around E5. I can only (and barely) hit that note in whistle-voice and I can not imagine, how I could ever go any higher. So that might just be the physical top of my range. Well, I get down to E2 quite comfortably and three octaves is not bad, I guess.

But the core message is: Practice. There is NO way around it. No vocal training system, no matter how well-advertised it is, can eliminate the necessity of practicing regularly.

The eye and the hand

Felix — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:32:32 +0000

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

This song was inspired by Michael Moorcock’s Corum Saga – a couple of extremely fantastic books which I highly recommend.

Anyway, once again this was a lot of fun to make. It is my first serious attempt in the Death Metal genre (though it is absolutely possible that this is not Death Metal by some silly stereotype). I decided that as long as I have not advanced as far as I want with my singing studies and lessons, I rather grunt this song. And the lyrics, which I really like, call for it anyway.

Influenced by various of my musical heroes.

Hope you enjoy it!