Stevie Wonder – For Your Love
The last few weeks I’ve been listening to lots of Stevie Wonder – he is an absolute monster songwriter and vocalist. This one is particularly excellent. In particular, check out the epic key changes and effortless pure high notes towards the end. The man is unbelievable.
I should also point out that he is a long-time student and friend of Seth Riggs – if you want to know more about Seth and his contribution to the progression of vocal technique (trust me, it’s important!) then just click here.
Love it.
500 words or less: Stuck in a rut
Are you stuck in a rut? Just rehashing the same stuff over and over? Maybe it’s singing, guitar, piano, bass, whatever, you just feel like you are going over the same ground again and again…
Well, here’s my top tip for getting out of a rut:
Listen to something you’ve never listened to before
Why? Let me tell you why…
Something from nothing.
Music is a wonderful thing. It can take so many different forms, encompass so many different sounds, be expressed in so many different styles, be incredibly complex or ridiculously simple, pieces can be hours long or less than a minute. It can be created from nothing, and can feel like it becomes everything in a given moment. It really is a beautiful thing.
Those who are able to make their living from music are truly blessed. They get to make music and play around with it every day.
One thing that surprises me about a select number of musicians, professional and amateur alike, is their propensity to listen to just ONE style of music to the exclusion of all others. They might profess that they want to be the best at that one style, to shine out above everyone else operating in that genre… and I say that they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Products of our environment
We are all products of what we surround ourselves with. People, television, music, etc. This is reflected in our personalities and in our music. If all we do is listen to one particular style of music, then we will only regurgitate combinations of music that already exists. There is nothing wrong with listening to music we love, nothing wrong at all. But if all we do is indulge in the SAME stuff over and over, how can we ever expect to produce anything OTHER than the stuff we’re indulging in?
However, if we immerse ourselves in as many different styles of music as we can, we can take in new ideas, play around with undiscovered – or at least underutilised – combinations of sounds, and we can still further identify things we DON’T like and why… which means we can become more discerning with the music we make. All music is useful in some way. If you like it, learn how to play it, ask yourself why you like it. if you don’t like it, maybe learn how to play it, and ask yourself why you don’t like it. By doing this, you can expand your musical horizons and creativity. Why would you consciously limit yourself?
You want to get out of a rut? Ask someone to lend you the most quirky thing in their music collection, and listen to whole album. Ask yourself what did you like and why, and what didn’t you like and why. Try and incorporate ideas from this quirky stuff, and expand your horizons. If you’re a rocker, get some jazz. You a jazzer, get some country. You a bluegrass artist, get some opera in your ears…
Listen to something new today.
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.
Rhyming + Songwriting
Stumbled upon this great clip today, had to share.
I felt the need to share because someone intuitively commented on this very idea in a songwriting workshop I went to. The presenter in this video discusses how choosing your words to rhyme or not rhyme, or to imperfectly rhyme, can really change or ‘subvert’ the mood of a song. Rhymes create predictability, and this can be a good thing, e.g. to help a listener engage with the song and make it feel familiar and comfortable. Or you might want to take the listener away from a comfortable place… all this can be done just with how you rhyme, and this video explains really clearly how that might work.
Bruno Mars
Great artist, great tune, great performance.
Bruno (real name Peter Gene Hernandez) has only had one album to date, entitled ‘Doo Wops and Hooligans’ released in late 2010, but it’s pretty epic as a first offering. He’s currently getting a new album recorded and I plan on picking it up as soon as it’s out.
Reggae?
His debut album features a variety of tunes all with reasonably different styles, but all have a distinctive Hawaiian/reggae backdrop… you might think I’m making that up, but if you listen closely it’s a common theme running through almost every track and this is even admitted by Bruno himself in a few interviews, citing growing up in Hawaii as a major influence in his lifestyle and writing.
Here’s a thing or three…
Focusing on a few of the tracks:
– ‘Just the way you are’ – This has arguably been the most successful song from the album. It’s a feel-good anthem played at weddings across the world in the last few years. The melody on the chorus is really simple, memorable, and the last line is a good ‘hook’ that really sticks in your mind. I like it anyway!
– ‘The Other Side’ – The amazing Cee-Lo Green features in this track (Cee-Lo will be featured in a later blog post) and it is a stonkingly cool track. Artistically, I like the way the lyrics say very little, but you paint a whole world in your mind. Technically, the melody of the chorus is stupendous, as it 100% out of chest voice… not a single note in chest voice, and it goes a good octave about chest voice too. But you’d never know, Bruno just makes it sounds as effortless as he was telling you about it… amazing.
– ‘Runaway Baby’ – The song linked to above is the song that sold me on Bruno Mars and made me buy his album. I’d heard ‘The Lazy Song’ which I really don’t like (sorry!) and that turned me off, but then I heard this and saw this performance and it made me want to hear more of this guy. Great thing about this is how catchy the riff is, and how simple the melody is, but the rhythms are infectious. Love it.
And I’ll leave you with…
The best thing about Bruno (I feel) is how he marries technical ability with songwriting ability and has brought that out into the market relatively late in his life. He was in his mid-20s before he started to make waves across the world, which is late by some standards, but had been a successful songwriter in his own right for other artists. I think that is very encouraging for those who harbour desires of a musical career but think that because they are not 18 anymore then they can’t make it. Bruno stands apart and shows that this isn’t true. His technical ability is amazing, but he uses that to great effect to serve the songs he rights, which are immensely catchy in their own right.
In short, Bruno rocks, have a listen. The songs might seem impossible to some, but with the right guidance they are totally achievable. Also, let me know if there are any other artists you’d like me to look at.