Mark is the Midlands' leading Certified Voice Coach, providing professional singing lessons in Nottingham. Mark is known for getting BIG results in voices, fast. – 0115 871 7660 || [email protected]
One of the most common questions I get asked regarding voice training is “how long does it take?”
Now generally what people THINK they mean is “how long does it take to train a voice/learn to sing“, but often what is really going on, is that a given singer has the beginnings of their sound thanks to some development of facility/function, but the full extent of their sound is not yet there. This is understandably frustrating, but what’s the whole story? Continue reading “How long does it take to train a voice a.k.a. How the voice “fills in””
Once again, we visit five songs (and a bonus track!) that featured in some way in the studio and my week just gone. Have a listen and you can be a virtual ‘fly on the wall’ in others lessons!
1. You can go your own way – Fleetwood Mac
Absolute classic, been revisiting Fleetwood Mac since I heard ‘The Chain’ whilst out and about a few weeks ago.
2. Jealous Guy – Donny Hathaway (written by John Lennon)
I’ve been working my way through Donny’s back-catalog and this has been my favourite so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxUSQC-KAHM
3. Great is thy faithfulness – Hymn
This is not the best version out there but it’s a good attempt of a classic hymn on the American ‘The Voice’ series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm-KsLytcW0
4. Run – Leona Lewis (written by Snow Patrol)
A song we all know but you might not recognise til you get to the chorus!
5. Guitar Boogie – Tommy Emmanuel
NOT vocals, but a few clients had never heard of this ludicrously talented guitarist – Tommy Emmanuel – so here is one of his most insanely impressive and musical pieces.
BONUS:
If you’re into Marvel films, this awesome Led Zeppelin track was featured in the latest trailer for the upcoming Thor film (the song is ‘The Immigrant Song’)
This should only take you 2-3 minutes to read, and only about 10-30 seconds to apply each time you use it.
What’s the problem?
When you’re singing a song and you get to that difficult passage/line, you ever noticed how it’s sometimes harder than doing that difficult passage just by itself? Or perhaps you are trying to practice that difficult passage by itself repeatedly, and the first 2-3 times are decent, but then it feels like it’s getting worse no matter what we try? We’ve all experienced this and it’s frustrating as all heck – we’re on a roll then we lose the flow, and it feels like it keeps slipping away despite repeated attempts to regain it. What gives?
Why does this happen?
No matter how skilled you are as a singer, the longer you are singing without rest (rest as short as even 10-30 seconds), the more the larynx will continue to rise, whether obviously or gradually/imperceptibly. This happens as a result of continued vocal use without a break. This compromises ease of singing, no matter what your level of technique.
The simple solution…
Give yourself 10-30 seconds rest at that point. Try to JUST rest – don’t fill that rest with speaking, singing, coughing, or even drinking excessively (a few sips will suffice).
All things being equal you should find this returns you to a better state for attempting that challenging passage. By letting the larynx (and voice as a whole) rest for even just 10-30 seconds between sets of attempts to practice a line can make the world of difference. Rest will naturally allow and encourage your larynx to drop naturally. A quick yawn can help encourage a descent of the larynx as well. Don’t just keep hammering the line, let your voice rest and as soon as you feel yourself departing from the easier state, rest it up again. If you find 30 seconds isn’t enough, give it longer – experiment!
Give it a shot next time you’re tackling a tricky passage!
Yet another instalment of the very popular ‘Five songs from this week’…
1. Rolling Down to Old Maui – The Longest Johns
One of my longer term students sings in an old folk group that sings a lot of sea shantys. This is one of their current songs and he’s working on this – reeeeally nice melody and lyrical content, have a listen.
2. Only You – Alison Moyet
Ahhh, who doesn’t love a bit of Moyet? With this particular singer, we take it a bit slower and treat it as a bit of a ballad, and it really sits beautifully in their voice.
3. Fallin – Alicia Keys
This student has worked really hard to get their vocals up to a level where they can attempt this kind of song. While we are leaving some of the riffs for now, the melody is still quite demanding even when stripped back.
4. Resurrecting – Elevation
I had a couple of church worship leaders in last week, and this was one of the songs that came up. It’s a great song lyrically for contemporary churches, but the key is a nightmare. That aside, have a listen!
5. This is the moment – Jekyll and Hyde
This was a recommendation of mine to another student who loves songs with content and meaning, and he’s taken to it rather well!
I ended up having a fairly long Facebook chat with a few students today on a variety of songs, and five songs came up that I recommended they have a listen to… and they just hadn’t heard them before! So I figured I’d share the five right here for your listening pleasure!
#1 – Bonnie Raitt – I Can’t Make You Love Me
Some of you will have seen me blog about it before, but it’s excellent and WELL worth checking out.
I’m a big fan of John Mayer, not necessarily the most technical (or even safe singer, given his ongoing vocal health issues), but MAN he can sell a song like very few others.
#4 – John Mayer & Keith Urban – Til Summer Comes Around
I did this song a LOT with a client a year or two ago, and it really suited their voice. A really moody anthemic song, great melodic hooks throughout.
Those of you who are in for lessons regularly know about my love for a songwriting guru called Ralph Murphy, but I’m also a big fan of Brett Domino and his hilarious satire on hit songwriting.
While this is not quite the same sort of intellectual level of that sort of songwriting advice, this video by Brett on ‘How to Write a Hit Pop Song’ is VERY funny.. and remarkably catchy… maybe it says something about the pop industry?
I was working with one of my favourite students (Mike) on some guitar-y songs, and how to meld singing and guitar playing together, and we got talking about songwriters who do this really well.
John Mayer is a great one, Chris Cornell is pretty cool too, and there many others too numerous to mention, but today I wanted to highlight Ryan Adams.
Ryan Adams
Way back in the early 00s, I remember my Mum buying a copy of ‘Easy Tiger’, one of Ryan Adams’ earlier albums… and I didn’t ‘get it’ then. I Was more interested in heavy rock and intense guitar solos (rah!) at least at that time.
But now the songwriter scene is MASSIVE. EVERYONE and their Mum is a ‘singer-songwriter’… how many of your friends have ‘singer-songwriter’ on their Twitter account?
I’m not knocking it! It’s just what’s trendy right now.
A seminal singer-songwriter
Yet, despite it being a big thing now, Ryan Adams is (IMO) the earliest example of a true singer-songwriter. Someone who wrote lots of songs (good to great songs) and performed them… and he’s still going. To me, even though I didn’t appreciate him at the time, he is one of the earliest ‘seeds’ of the singer-songwriter ‘movement’ (if you can call it that). Someone who knew what he wanted to produce, didn’t say no, didn’t give up, and kept doing what he wanted. Now loads of others are doing that it’s not quite the pioneering genre it once was (every episode of Scrubs and House ended up having a singer-songwriter song playing it out… now every mobile and energy company advert has a singer-songwriter in the background), but cast your ear back 12-13 years, and you’ll find Ryan Adams doing it all from scratch even then.
As an artist, I think Ryan Adams is the real deal. Someone who knows what he wants, and spends time developing and crafting it.
See for yourself…
Just watch this fab video of his song ‘Lucky Now’. It’s not got the most incredible vocals in the world, it’s not ear-shredding guitar, but it hangs together as a complete piece… and he sells the piece. To me, this is the sign of a complete artist, and beginning singer-songwriters could do far worse than to learn from Ryan Adams and take a leaf out of his book.
Another 500 words or less blog post, this time on five great male vocalists. Now, this is not meant to be a definitive list, and I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow, but as of right this second, here are five great male vocalists I think you should have a listen to in more detail.
1. Freddie Mercury
Utterly amazing singer and performer. He seemed to be able to hold an audience in the palm of his hand. One minute he’d be strutting the stage, the next he would a quiet reserved man sitting having a pint and a cigarette in the corner of your local pub. Mercury’s sound was and is instantly recognisable, with a very clear and pristine tone to his voice, unlike many rock singers of his day. His songwriting was also prolific and he penned many hits for Queen.
2. Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is a long-time student and friend of Seth Riggs – if you want to know more about Seth and his contribution to the world of voice and how this has influenced my teaching, just click here to find out more. Listen to pieces like ‘Lately’ and ‘For your love’ to hear the pure quality in his voice at all points in his range. He makes it sound effortless everywhere. Stevie is a total monster on vocals. What is perhaps even more impressive is his ability to just serve the song, even if ‘technically’ he wasn’t doing it correctly… even though he could… he just ‘felt’ for the song and that showed through his voice.
3. Bruno Mars
Already covered briefly in an earlier blog post, Bruno is an excellent singer and one of the few vocalists out there right now who do the voice real justice. He knows how to write catchy tunes, and deliver them with a real artistic flair. I think you’d struggle to find a more rounded artist in today’s current contemporary line-up. He is currently working on his next album, and I can’t wait for it.
4. Bono
Now, with the vocalists above listed, some of you might be surprised that I list Bono here. But great singing is far more than simply possessing great tone or great technique, it requires a sense of melody and an internal ‘feel’ for music and the piece you are singing. Bono not only writes great songs, but delivers them is a truly engaging manner. Check out any of their live DVDs to get a taste for how exceptional a frontman he is. His range, whilst perhaps more limited than other singers listed here, is more than sufficient to deliver the songs in his repertoire beautifully.
5. Bruce Dickinson
‘The’ frontman for Iron Maiden. Having seen these guys live, I think it could be argued that Bruce is the most energetic front man on the planet. I’ve been told he rehearses in advance of tours on roller skates so as to get his fitness up to a sufficient level to maintain his onstage antics. His range and tone is also closer to that of a skilled classical opera singer than some of the shouty or shrill singers that we might otherwise picture. Truly an exceptional singer.
Check all these guys out, because they are amazing.
