Tag: tuition

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Adam Pascal – Pity The Child

Another great youtube video. This guy’s name is Adam Pascal, and you may recognise him from the movie ‘School of Rock’. He was the bassist of the band that fired Jack Black’s character. He is an excellent all-round vocalist and singer.

The top notes if I recall correctly are around C#5/D5, and the run up into them is tough, but very melodic.

Key Learning Point

I’ll be honest, as impressive as this sounds, it gets a bit shouty. It’s not the widest I’ve ever heard someone sing and by jove he’s doing something incredibly difficult… but does it sound good? If we stuck it down a minor third, I reckon he’d FEEL a lot better whilst singing, and it’d SOUND a lot better.

It doesn’t lack quality, but there is an easy way to MASSIVELY bump up the already existent quality in his voice. If he can make it sound that good in THAT key, how much better would it sound when he’s not working for EVERY note?

I know we harp on about that, but quality matters. It’s what makes the difference between great singers and “merely good” singers. It’s ALSO what makes the difference between singers who last 5 years and the ones who last 50 years.

Remember, put quality first and the rest will follow.

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Five Vocal Misconceptions – Think you can’t increase vocal range?

Things like ‘I can’t increase vocal range’ are just not true…

To increase vocal range, you just need the right tools, it’s not something you’re stuck with. While we’re on this topic, let me tell you about some other misconceptions…

Here’s another short and sweet post on some interesting points. This one is focusing on five misconceptions about the voice, but I’ve left the more controversial misconceptions for longer posts.

 

1. I’m stuck with the range I’ve got = WRONG

 Range is NOT static – Many insist that the range you have is the range you are stuck with, and that you cannot increase your range – end of. This is simply not true. Singing is a matter of improving the co-ordination of your voice as an instrument, from your vocal cords through to your vocal tract and everything else… but that’s ALL stuff you have already. It’s not a question of strength as much as it a question of ‘balance’ and muscle co-ordination. Since starting to study effective vocal technique my useable vocal range has increased by over an octave and a half, all with quality, and adding to that daily. The same result can be achieved with any singer over time.

 

2. I struggle with the high notes, I must be an alto/bass = WRONG

Range does not determine voice type – You may know that the bass guitar is an octave lower than the guitar, but they share LOTS of notes in common with one another. Common notes do not make a bass into a guitar, nor vice versa, they sound different. Likewise, many male singers with large ranges can hit soprano notes. This does not make them sopranoes. Similarly, sopranoes share notes with tenors. This doesn’t make them tenors.  Similarly, just because you struggle with high notes doesn’t mean you are (necessarily) a lower type of voice. Voice type is not determined by range but the specific mechanics of a person’s voice, as these are distinctly different in the separate voice types. You can absolutely increase vocal range from where you currently are, you just need the right tools to experience it.

 

3. That guy/girl can sing so loud! They must be amazing singers = WRONG

Loudness does not reflect skill – We are all impressed by loud singers. And confidence in (good) singing is a big part of that. However, as we looked at in the explanation in the beginner course on the engine of the voice, loudness can come about not because of skill, but because of a lack of skill. Many singers cannot help but be excessively loud at the top of their range because they lack the balance to control that co-ordination. Now, skilled singers can and should be able achieve a high volume and a true forte in their voice, but volume alone does not reflect skill.

 

4. I can rely on the microphone and sound engineer to fix my voice = WRONG

Microphones cannot replace correct singing technique – In the same way that a guitar amp reproduces what is going on at the guitar and can complement what is going on at the guitar, a microphone reproduces and complements what the voice is doing… but it cannot compensate for weaknesses in the voice. Don’t think that autotune can fix something where you need to increase vocal range or improve your technique. There is simply no substitute for having good vocal technique and a balanced vocal ability.

 

5. Wow! That artist sounds amazing on the album, they must sound that way all the time = WRONG

The tape recorder doesn’t lie, but albums do – What we hear inside our own head when we sing is not what the audience hears. When we sing we need to record ourselves and listen back to hear the truth. However, when we listen to produced vocals on an album, we are NOT hearing the truth. We are hearing vast amounts of compression, multiple takes spliced together, and professional mastering on a singer’s voice, that masks and hides many of the problems we might hear in our own voices when we record one-take at home. The message is, we need to record ourselves to hear what we really sound like, but we cannot trust this same principle when listening to recorded albums. Don’t think that your favourite artist sounds that good with perfect pitching and nuance all the time – albums lie. Here’s a video to prove it to you.

Learn More: Related Articles

If you want to learn more about voice and recording, you can find out more by visiting these related articles:
Recorded vs Live Performance: Which is harder?
Recording Studio on a Budget
How to Sing When Recording
Vocal Comping to Get the Best Vocal Take
Live vs Recorded Vocals: Our own double standards

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500 words or less: Five Good Habits for Vocal Health

Singing voice hurts?

This is a common complaint amongst singers. And a number of you have asked about how to keep your voice healthy and working right, before and after some problems. There are lots of great ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s, but here are my top 5 for today…

1. Carry a bottle of water with you all the time – OK, we all know how important it is to drink water, but the focus here is on developing good habits. I carry a bottle of water with me everywhere. Whether I glug, sip, gargle or don’t even use it, the bottle is always with me. Keeping a bottle of water with you is the best way I’ve found to combat dehydration and to keep your vocal cords lubricated to fight it if your singing voice hurts.

2. Don’t try to be heard over loud environments – When you’re out at gigs, clubs, performing, or even as a teacher, don’t try to speak so as to be heard over loud environments. This is a surefire way to cause your vocal cords to suffer ‘adema’, i.e. to swell, and – hey presto! – voice is gone. Best habit I have developed is just to not talk at all when in such environments. Wearing earplugs also helps you to hear how loud you are really talking. This is an easy way to end up hurting your voice and find your singing voice hurts.

3. Stay away from smoking and smokers – You CANNOT sustain a career as a singer and smoke regularly. End of. At the minimum it dries out your vocal cords and long term regular use damage the tissue of the cords. Passive smoking carries the same risks. Even if you don’t care about your lungs, show your vocal cords some love and stay out of those environments. Ultimately, it’s your vocal health at risk here, you shouldn’t feel bad about making your excuses and going elsewhere or asking people not to smoke. Stay away from smoking and smokey environments to avoid hurting your singing voice.

4. Lost your voice? Rest your voice totally for much longer than it takes just to get it back – Usually the vocal cords are swollen when we lose our voice. Complete vocal rest is the best way to get back up to speed, but we need to rest our voice much longer than it takes just to get it back – i.e. rest it another few days to week longer. If we start to use it again before it’s fully recovered, then you can go right back to square one or constantly be battling swollen vocal cords. So rest for longer than you think you need. Otherwise that complaint of ‘my singing voice hurts!’ ain’t gonna go away!

5. Pay attention to what your body is telling you – Some singers have voices that can sustain hours of singing without feeling their voice tire. Some of them need to rest every 20-30 minutes, or even every 5 minutes! Above all, pay attention to your body and how it feels, and craft your practice and performance regime around that. Strength and stamina comes in time and your own abilities from over time will vary, so get in the habit now of learning what you can/can’t take.

That’s my top tips for what to do if your singing voice hurts and how to keep it in tip top shape. That’s all for now!

Learn More: Related Articles

If you want to learn more about vocal health and voice issues, you may enjoy the following articles:
Shouting masquerading as singing: Why so many singers are just yelling
Why vocal problems so regularly derail careers, permanently
Famous Singers with Voice Problems
Vocal Health Issues
Vocal Longevity: The Icarus Effect
Why do I keep losing my voice: Overuse, Misuse and Abuse
The Seriousness of Vocal Fold Nodules

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Steve Balsamo

This is Steve Balsamo’s performance of ‘Gethsemane’ from Jesus Christ Superstar, and he does the mentalness of Ted Neeley’s original performance from the Jesus Christ Superstar film decades ago. I’d recommend watching the whole thing, but if you want to skip straight to the mentalness, shoot to 2m44s and you’ll get about 20 seconds run up into his prowess in full swing.

No, that is not falsetto, it’s head voice. You can hear he hits ‘that note’, then riffs (i.e. does some other notes in a musically cool and funky way) down back into chest voice in a fully connected way – if all the notes sound tonally even and connected together with no real tonal shift then it’s not falsetto.

But if you listen a little bit longer, as he’s ascending back up again, you can hear a noticeable shift into head voice. It’s still very impressive, but note that the illusion of one voice is damaged.

Learning points:

#1 – Half the range, twice the quality – While this is incredibly impressive, when you sit back and think objectively about the overall tone of his voice throughout, you can hear he is having to be incredibly light throughout in order to make sure he’s able to “get up there”. This means that although the high notes sound impressive, he’s compromised the whole of his vocal tone the rest of the song to get up there.

A phrase that is important to remember is that when it comes to longlasting voices, longlasting careers, and an audience that never gets tired of your voice, is to half the range to give twice the quality. So what if you hit crazy high notes, if your quality is compromised to do that, what was the point?

#2 – Technique does not equal listenability or success – This guy has done some incredible stuff here. But how many of you know his name? What about Michael Buble? Or Ed Sheeran? Almost all of you have heard their names. Their voices are lovely, but nowhere near as technical. What they are doing is almost pedestrian in comparison. Yet they fill stadiums and have millions of fans as well as critical commercial success. What gives? Music is not a competition. How much you can do with your voice is not as important as what choose to do with it. Being listenable is far more important than showing off a billion notes a second.

Now while this seems very similar to half the range, twice the quality, this is to point out that the real test you should always be sitting is “are you sounding good?”. Not “are you sounding impressive”. Impressive technique does exactly that for the first few seconds – it impresses. But what happens after that? Very few know about Steve Balsamo, yet Buble is a household name.

Make your first priority being listenable, and the rest will follow. Trust me on this.