Nicky, allow me to show you something. Here is a demo I did at 18:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12RswSfRDzA
Now here's something I did when I was 23:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRDhNYhlik
That's 5 YEARS of trying to become a better singer. In that time, I quit smoking and (for the most part) drinking.
I changed my diet and increased my sleep. I did vocal warm-ups and practiced everyday. And I'd say I got maybe twice as good. Just a heads up that it's gonna take a LONG time for you to see any real noticeable improvement. Just remain realistic.
Oh, here comes the mother lode, the thing that absolutely
everbody dances around in these kinds of discussions, for the fear of touching a subject that could hurt too deeply ....
Talent.
I listened to both of your Youtube videos. What changed? The amount of practice. What didn't change? The amount of talent.
Your first video, the supposed "before" video, is great. No other way of putting it. Sure, everything is raw, the timing of the instruments is off (probably due to cheap recording software), but your pitch is
on, your timing is
on, and at the age of 18 you had a very good sense of what sounds good vs. bad.
So, everybody always posts stuff like "oh, I put in shitloads of practice to become as good as I am now, and so can you if you put in the effort", but reality is, a lot of people put in the effort. The ones that end up being good are the ones that have talent.
I am
not saying Nicky has no talent. I
am saying that you have/had a lot
more talent than Nicky. What does that mean for Nicky? He need to put in a lot more effort than you did to achieve the same level as you. Or maybe he never will, that is the curse of talent. I consider myself a pretty talented guitarist, and I have both met people who I knew I could show something to 1,000 times and they still wouldn't be able to do it, and also people who I knew had mastered in a week what I had struggled with for years. I play in a DT tribute band and am thus pretty sure that I am able to play things that a lot of people can not, and at the same time I know that I wouldn't earn a dime as a session musician because of the slew of people out there who can run circles around me. And probably finger their gf while they're doing it.
rumborak