Keiko Sings "Change The World's Colour" and "Look at the Cherry Blossoms" 

I think this one was live without post show editing because it was a TV broadcast. Agreed with your comment, definitely one of the strongest Keiko solo performance, but tbh Keiko is always the one with the least problem staying on key even back in her Kalafina days. What really impressed me is her performance of Change the World's Color, it was truly one of the best showcase of her growth as a vocalist. In Sakura wo Goran she's quite shaky at some parts and this has always been Keiko's problem when singing live: when she tried to sing in a "brighter" tone, her control would always waver and her notes weren't as precise as when she sang with her deeper/more chesty voice.

@@hanataba3117I think Keiko’s challenge (as with the others in Kalafina, though differently) has been being let down by some technique gaps or misapplications when going outside of their comfort zone. Keiko’s natural voice is actually not as heavy as we imagine. I believe she drops her larynx to achieve that fuller sound we’re all appreciate, but since it’s not her natural voice when she goes up her voice lightens substantially because you can’t carry the modified dark tone up in pitch, as the larynx has to go up as well. Your actual vocal “weight” (lightness to darkness ratios) will be easily revealed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, If Keiko adds to her skill the ability to use her mask then she can hit her low notes rather than taking them back (swallowing to a point) in her oral cavity and dropping the larynx, then that same technique will follow her up her range. Also her breath control was weaker in the second song so her vocal folds were not making proper contact even though it’s within her vocal range. She didn’t want to belt (which was appropriate) but with the right technique you won’t need to belt to achieve a soft but controlled tone. I think of Chiaki Ishikawa when I think of this though she has a heavier and more forward voice, and she’s a mezzo I think, her low notes are. Same with Akiko Wada whose tone is still forward even though she’s a much darker contralto than Keiko naturally. In Fiction Junction, Yuriko’s tone is full in much of her range because of her breath management most of the time. (Edited to correct spelling errors and missing words)

@@TheSeeking2know Yup, her deeper voice is the result of her lowering her larynx, sometimes in addition to her using a more chesty voice. She's actually able to hit those lower notes simply by fully using her chest voice but as you've said, her natural voice isn't as deep as what we used to hear in Kajiura's works. It's still low/deep enough (by Japanese standard) and is actually quite lovely by itself. But she's been using that technique for years and it has become the singing style that she's most comfortable with. She has been challenging and improving herself more by using her chest voice a lot more than simply lowering her larynx now, but something that's already a habit is hard to forget. Sometimes she would sing in what I would say a contradictory way (mostly on her solo works) where she's pushing her larynx up to reach higher notes but still trying to produce her voice more from her chest, resulting in her voice breaking and/or not really hitting the notes. From her Kalafina club snippets we can actually hear that she's able to sing high on her natural voice (in some Kalafina club mini covers she was the one who sang the higher harmony instead of Wakana who mostly always sang the melody) but maybe since she's already known for her deeper voice she tries to keep her voice deep instead of singing it naturally. I would go as far as say that Keiko is the one who's most technically developed in Kalafina in the sense that she actually knows how to place her voice and knows how to manipulate her tone but she hasn't really mastered them. She was also the only one who can make her volume goes higher without lifting the notes up (something that Wakana still couldn't do) and she has the best projection in Kalafina. In her recent works Keiko seems to be using her natural tone a lot more so she sounds more supported, tho sometimes she would push her larynx up and didn't mask her voice properly so she sounded somewhat cutesy and annoying.

@@hanataba3117Finally getting around to responding. Sorry about the delay! Great points all around and I agree with you you on virtually everything. Keiko was the most technically advanced of Kalafina and she stuck to her pitches, while Wakana was flat a bit more than expected.l, and Hikaru sent a lot of her air through her nose. Another reason was that Keiko always breathed properly, while Wakana has the worst breathing in Fiction Junction - high chest breathing - and so always had her neck veins popping even in gentle songs and she also ran out of air a lot. It annoyed me because, for a while, I thought she was the most accomplished because she was always leading with her bright tone. Keiko trying to go high with a full tone is putting the cart before the house. What she instinctively wants is to use so-called “chiaroscuro”, but she hasn’t physically trained to know what it is and how to achieve that blend. So it’s trial and error. She knows her bright voice tends to be weaker and less able to emote, and that her low notes are her sweet spot, but she needs higher notes as a solo artist, not s solely inging harmony. Might be controversial, but I think that famous bright forward tone from Wakana was a bit manipulated (like Keiko’s dark, covered “often called bass” tone . I think maintaining it in higher pitch sections took a lot from Wakana’s voice and introduced a lot of strain she didn’t have before. Her natural singing voice as I hear it is warmer and melancholy. She brightens it but not with the right technique (like Yuriko’s solid mask placement) instead she uses tension in her neck, so the sound is pressed to cut through but not sustainable. Hikaru rarely used continuous airflow consistently and often tried to sing higher than her voice was trained to do well, so she resorted to strain, instead of letting the air do the work, and she would just place it correctly. But Hikaru has that killer forward tone and unique timbre naturally. I don’t think anyone in Japan I’ve heard has a similar timbre! It’s the technique that has limited her and the strain in her younger years. Yuko Kajiura really demanded a lot from them physically and musically. I wonder is she always felt she has the best voices for her music. Maybe the right voices is a more appropriate term. Personally for me. If the ladies had high-level teachers earlier those bad habits could have been nipped in the bud early! Thankfully, now Keiko is discovering and experimenting with her tones and placement (hope she has a professional to guide her).. Hikaru has strengthened her chest voice (see YKL 17 “Sprinter “ ❤❤❤) and her H-el-ical// covers) and I think Wakana has improved and is singing more with her chest/mix range. Few thing I’ve learned: develop your head voice especially as a female, then build your mix as well. Strengthen your comfortable chest so you can do it even easier with minimal breath (more breath management) and more dynamics / varied tones. Smoothen out the transitions! Matter your breathing

@@hanataba3117 also think Wakana always got to be in front leading a lot so she got used to being the point woman vocally (with her pointed tone). I think the others relied on her for that, but the technique wasn't fully there. Keiko on the other hand was used to singing softly and so didn't have a good sense of her dynamics at times (she'd sing too softly to not be heard in some raw lives, or do her glissando too often and be out of sync dynamically with the others). Hikaru was a bit of a vocal chameleon on stage a lá Lara Fabian (she has a theatric performance mindset) but lacked the training and experience to offer it vocally. Hikaru's my favorite by the way. ❤❤❤ (Edited to correct spelling errors).

To work on her mix she needs to work on bringing her head voice as low as possible and smoothing out the transitions between her registers, making them less obvious.

She’s alone since it’s a solo performance on a stage that’s not hers. Backing track playing too.