Faith by George Michael - First vocal sing along

This song I find is very challenging in most vocal areas, the song gets quite high so I need to make sure I am supporting from my diaphragm properly so I don't strain. Also, what I noticed that there are variations in dynamics and tones throughout: he starts it quite quietly and almost like whispering but with a bit more audibility - in other words it is a very soft tone, which I found quite hard because of the nature of my voice and I find it vey hard to sing this way whilst still supporting properly because when I use my diaphragm to push the air out I naturally produce a stronger tone which is loud. Furthermore, I noticed that there are a lot of transitions between the soft tones and stronger tones going back and forth many a time throughout the song, and I find this hard switching from stronger tones to the softer tones. In terms of breath control and stamina, this song isn't that bad compared to Jesus of suburbia, but it still is quite demanding in stamina. To make sure I overcome this I need to make sure I fill my lungs with as much air as possible and then when I push it out, I am being efficient wit the air and not pushing to much out but at the same time make sure I push out the correct amount needed.

Jesus of suburbia - run through up to the end of Dearly Beloved

I wanted to do this run through to see which parts I was and which parts I wasn't confident in, and it turns out the only part I wasn't overly confident in was dearly beloved; this is because I am still having troubles with the strumming patterns and singing at the same time because the rhythm of the strumming pattern is very syncopated and the first and last beat/note really meet. So after the rehearsal, I practiced dearly beloved very slowly, and I counted the double strums on the G#5 individually and there is 4 all together before it moves to the three single on beat strums on the F#5 to C#5 to G#5, so that I can count them when singing so I know when to change (see video log entitled Dearly Beloved).  I had a few issues with the solo part, because it uses octaves which play the previous vocal melody, but it is written as octaves on the D and B string but that gives a very thin sound, whereas the original recording sounds much thicker as if it the octaves were played on the A and the G, like normal octaves are played, so I learnt it both ways and I will decide which one to use later on.

During the run through, I noticed that I lose my breath a lot because how fast some bits are with the vocals and guitar part, and also because it is such a long song I am obviously playing and singing constantly with few breaks throughout, so it is quite demanding in musical stamina. To overcome this, it is just a case of practicing it very frequently and using the correct singing techniques at all times. So from this, I can draw that I need to work on my breath control - to work on this I will do diaphragm exercises which test my vocal stamina.