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Originally Posted by mizuki-7

No problem actually what you say is really interesting thank you
Even if read some things I don’t have any knowledge about technique etc... but is she that bad ? I mean I remember the vocal coach she had in LA in 2015/2016 saying she was talented and learn quicky and from an another side Timmy is graduate from musical school I believe so she must have some tips ? I don’t know what do you think but despite her pitch precision certainly due to her hearing I’ve the feeling when I listen to her voice compared to her prime or even after that she sound less nasal, her vibrato come more naturally and she is able to project her voice with great power and support like for exemple forgiveness during Power of music 2018

What do you think about it I’m curious because a lot of people make statements without knowing but you seems to know your subject

You're welcome. Sometimes I'm hesitant to share this sort of stuff because I'm definitely not a super expert. However, I've had a bunch of different vocal teachers and ear drs over the last 10 years or so, so I've had a lot of different perspectives and experience on my personal vocal problems. I can really only speak for myself on my own experience, so don't take this as totally conclusive, and perhaps this isn't the proper place to be posting such a long post that maybe is a bit more about a personal experience and I apologize if that's the case, but you asked, so here goes.

"Is her technique really that bad?" It depends on which performance we're looking at, I think some are better than others. AT2015 she seemed to be more in control and moderating with less screaming. It really worked well for her and you can tell. The quality of her vocals were much better. I noticed the same thing when I saw her in person for JtB3 and PoM2018. Same thing recently with CDL2019-20. If we look at CDL 2015-2016, AT2016 and JtB1...that wasn't so good. I think she was sick and you could tell she was physically exhausted. From my own experience, physical exhaustion also has an effect on mental exhaustion, and both affect the quality of the vocal. Her pitch issues are partly technique and partly hearing loss, I can really only speak about the technique part.

I think a big part of this is her screaming. Forcefully pushing air through the vocal chords can cause inflammation and damage, which can lead to long term hoarseness and raspiness. I had this pretty bad I think last year or 2 years ago when I was covering a Chris Cornell song for a live show. I was screaming to hit the super high notes. I was hitting the notes and they sounded powerful and resonant and all that, but I could only do one maybe two run throughs of the song each rehearsal, after that my voice was very hoarse, my throat felt very swollen and no amount of water felt like it helped. I didn't even rehearse every day, but my voice was hoarse and raspy for days, even my regular speaking voice. It took at least a week after the show or maybe even more, I really don't remember so well, until I got my full voice back. Thankfully, I don't think I did permanent damage (as far as I know), but some people, for example, Adele ended up having to get surgery to fix her damaged vocal chords.

After that, I had to find a better technique, and what I've been working with lately has been much, much better. Backing off from pushing the air actually gives you a more powerful note than forcing it and screaming does. It's kind of counter intuitive, but you can see it happen with Ayu too. When she approaches the notes a little more delicately, her pitch is often way better, and she can still get power. Of course you still need the breath support and the control, but "riding" the air, gives a much more stable and stronger note than pushing and forcing. "I’ve the feeling when I listen to her voice compared to her prime or even after that she sound less nasal, her vibrato come more naturally and she is able to project her voice with great power and support like for exemple forgiveness during Power of music 2018 " That is good example of this.

I've only recently started doing it this way, and I've noticed that when you're performing, you kind of just go with the technique that has been ingrained. I still slide back into the old way of screaming and pushing air, like Ayu tends to do, because of nerves, worrying about notes/pitches and quality of performing and delivery etc. Some of this is mental/stress related, and Ayu may be doing this as as well, but I find that when I'm stressed about pitch and technique, I do a lot worse than when I'm not judging the notes as I'm singing. When I'm not thinking about it, whatever pitch problems were occurring usually go away completely. Obviously that's not going to happen with Ayu because of her hearing loss, but it may improve. I don't have permanent hearing damage as far as I know, but I do have problems with my ears that are a result of scuba diving when I was sick. My ears constantly feel blocked and often I get dizzy, and it feels like can't hear as clearly as when my ears feel clear (which happens sometimes, but not lately )

Anyway, after this whole long post, to get to your other points more succinctly:
Does Ayu have ability/talent? Yes, I think so. I think she would be even better than she was in mid 2000's if she had been singing with proper technique. Unfortunately, Avex didn't really do a good job of prepping their artists like that, so her vocals suffered both short terms and long term. I don't know that much about Timmy, but I saw in one of the making of documentaries, maybe for AT2015, where he was coaching her on some breath support technique, so I think he probably has given her some tips, but again, you kind of slide back into what you're used to doing under the stress of performance.

Anyway, hope that was helpful. Sorry again for the super long post, but I tend to be kind of rambling in thinking and it comes out in my writing. Hopefully it's interesting or shows what may be happening with Ayu's voice, purely from a technical perspective, and of course, just based on my own experience. I'm not a dr, I'm not a vocal coach, it's just based on my own experiences of what happened to me and the way I've been working now, which has been an improvement. Also, just as an interesting side note, a lot of the bad technique that I've had to unlearn actually came from me copying the singing styles of Ayu and Namie.