Our Latest Articles

Posted on

Picking the right key

So, how many of you play guitar? Whether you play guitar or have ever seen a guitarist play, you will likely have come across something called a ‘capo’.

What this nifty gadget does is make it possible to shift songs from one key to another, without having to change what the fingers would be doing.

Why do we need something like this? Well, the guitar is built and tuned in such a way that some keys – like the keys of A, C, D, E and G – are really easy to play in. However, this means that all the OTHER keys in between those 5 – Ab, Bb, B, Db, Eb, F and Gb – are comparatively less easy. Not impossible, but they are undoubtedly more difficult, just because of the way the instrument is built. These notes and their related notes that fall in their scales/chords all fall either just above or just below where the pitch of the next string up starts. Put simply, this means that certain notes end up lying in difficult to reach places, or you can’t use a particular string you’d otherwise want to, or it just doesn’t seem to sound as good (to do with the resonance of certain notes and their placement on the guitar).

What’s this got to do with singing?

The exact same problems that plague guitarists also plague vocalists – but MOST singers don’t even know it’s an issue.

Really? How come?

The answer lies in the ‘bridges’ of the voice. I’ve talked before about ‘bridges’ in the voice. Bridges are just passages from one area of the voice to another.

At certain points in a singers range, the voice moves through a bridge or passageway (referred to as ‘passaggi’ or ‘passaggio’ in the old Italian) from one area to the next. You may well have encountered these in your voice and perceived these as ‘breaks’ or ‘disconnects’ in your voice (they’re not actually breaks, they are just difficult to cross without training).

It is ALWAYS easier to sing in between the bridges than it is to sing right on top of, or just either side of the bridges.

So what do I do to pick the right key for me?

OK, the short genuine answer is “it depends!”, but here is a general rule of thumb to follow.

1) Using a piano or guitar (or some other instrument), work out where the highest note of the song is.

2) Start by moving the key of the song so that the highest note you just identified is towards the top of your chest voice (women, your chest voice ends at A4; men, your chest voice ends at E4 – I’m omitting true basses and true altos because 99% of all men and women are tenors and sopranoes respectively). The top notes should feel comfortable. Move the key around there til it feels comfortable. Don’t skip this step.

NOTE: You may find the lowest notes in the songs with larger range requirements feel too low. Beyond further development of your chest voice (which is essential anyway!), you should note that without a functional mix to extend your range, this indicates that the song is too large in it’s range for your current vocal ability.

3) Work on making this sound full and like your speaking voice. Any disparity between your singing and speaking tonality will compromise the full extent of your tone that can be unlocked with training.

THIS is what makes a great singer. A great phrase is “half the range, double the quality”. The more you focus on quality, the less range truly matters. Great singers almost sound like their high notes are NOT that high. Why? Because they follow the above steps, and then, through training they follow the 4th step…

4) Take the key up ONE key, then repeat step 3. This step can be looped for many years to come. But the emphasis MUST be on the quality at each key change. If the quality ever diminishes at a key change, there is work to be done to develop and build quality into the voice.

Your number one objective as a singer is to SOUND GOOD!

So many think it’s to impress or riff or deliver an astounding performance. While these are not irrelevant objectives, if you make your number one priority to sound good, the extra stuff almost happens as a matter of course.

What this means is that if you have a song in a key that lands the melody you want to sing right on top of a bridge, or slightly either side of it, you will find it harder to sing than if it was somewhere between your bridges.

The crucial thing is to pick a key so that the melody fits as best it can around your bridges. Sure, it can be good practice to put a key right in the way of your bridges, but that is for practice – for performance you need to know where to put songs to get the best out of your voice.

Posted on

Review: Rode M1 Microphone

As a full-time voice coach, I take singing pretty seriously. I really like having a reliable workhorse microphone to hand whenever I need one – enter the Rode M1. If you’re looking to pick one up, here’s a direct link to Amazon for the M1.

Summary: Want/need a workhorse mic but find the standard SM58 too muddy/indistinct? The Rode M1 is the answer. A very modern sound, solid lows, a beautifully thick yet sweet midrange, and crisp top end.

Full Story

A while ago I was on a shopping binge to kit out my studio with some new gear, and decided to treat myself to a new general purpose dynamic mic. I already have a great mic – the Electrovoice N/D 967 – but it’s a little aggressive in the upper mids. This works great for cutting through a live mix with electric guitars, bass, loud drums, etc, but it’s a little aggressive and ‘in-your-face’ for some more acoustic styles of music or low key settings. I wanted something smoother in the top end, but still with an extended silky top end. Based on various clips, reviews and recommendations I opted for the Rode M1.

What did I think?

I had a solid testing experience with it the week I got in. I performed with it live in the morning, out again performing in the evening (it’s the afternoon right now), and I did some recording for an hour or two that afternoon to test it out running direct. Here are my initial but reasonably detailed findings.

My opinion: Someone on the Rode website gave a review that it’s like the illegitimate love-child of an SM58 and a Shure Beta 87A – to my ears, this describes it pretty darn well. It features the smoothness and musical compression you might associate with an SM58, but without the muddiness or muted top end you might associate with an SM58. It also features the clarity, crispness and tonal even-ness of the Beta 87A, but without getting harsh or fatiguing. It’s also beautifully meaty, no wooliness like the SM58 can often be accused of.

Live: This was leading at church, varied songs, but nothing heavy. To give you an idea of material, it was leaning very much towards acoustic emotive pieces. The mix on stage wasn’t great, but my feeling on the whole thing was that M1 sounded (and physically felt) very solid in the low mids, with a smooth and controlled top end (never got harsh) but still carried over clarity and nuance in the upper mids and treble frequencies (something I feel the SM58 doesn’t do to my tastes). In short, I felt it performed well… I certainly felt good using it… but I can’t be particularly analytical on the live set because of the nature of it.

The evening meant we had some more time to fiddle with the EQ to fit it in with the band, and the only things that needed to be adjusted were due to quirks of that room and that system. Really silky top end. Again, it felt really solid to listen to even from onstage.

Recording: I wanted to record some dry vocals to get a feel for what sort of signal the M1 sends out, i.e. what is the sound desk getting and how much do they need to tweak to get a workable mix for a given style. So, to get a feel for how it would respond to different styles, I recorded single takes of some varied songs: Queen ‘Hammer to Fall’, Daniel Bedingfield ‘Nothing Hurts Like Love’, AC/DC ‘You shook me all night long’ and George Michael ‘Kissing a fool’.

In short, I’m really impressed by the versatility of the microphone. It responded more like an instrument than a tool, in that it responded to the nuances of each song to give a rounded take that would fit each style. The only one I thought could be improved with some added warmth would be ‘Kissing a fool’, but I think that is my fault as for something that croonerish I should’ve gone for added proximity effect. Again, the fault of the musician (me!) rather than the instrument.

I’m particularly pleased with the sweet but clear top end of this mic. Almost condenser like, but smoother than that, and useable in an onstage live environment more easily than a handheld condenser. Really captures top end harmonics, but makes them sound fat and juicy, rather than harsh and brittle. Adds real weight to your voice, but not unnaturally so. Certainly not boomy.  In fact, the top end is so good on this mic, I don’t think I’d have any problem using this in the studio for recording.

To conclude the longer recording section, I can hear this mic working for more or less any style of music. It’s a true singer’s mic, one where if the vocal performance/track doesn’t cut mustard, the issue will be the performer… not the mic. That said, I don’t think it’s an overly unforgiving mic, though the clear top end means it is far more honest than an SM58 or other dynamics, so certainly less forgiving than some dynamics.

Build: Feels industrial. Solid metal body. Robust grille. Heavier than an SM58, but I like that – feels like a real instrument. There’s also ‘something’ about the XLR connection point. It looks and ‘feels’ far more secure and solid than others. Not that I’ve ever thought others looked inferior, but something about the M1 (not sure what!) stands out to me as a cut above others I’ve seen and used.

Overall: As stated above, if you want a workhorse mic that is useable for most everything, but without the muddiness/indistinctness that some people dislike about the SM58, then the Rode M1 is the answer. Quite honestly it’s got (IMO) the perfect sort of balance I look for in mics.

Posted on

Charlie Hunter – Portland Jazz Festival Concert

Not a singer, but someone amazing and worth listening to. This guy has pioneered a unique style on his own design of guitar that involves playing bass lines with his thumb and guitar lines with his fingers, all at the same time. Has to be seen to be believed it’s that amazing. This is a full live concert from February 2012.

WARNING: Jazz contained within ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8xPaAnx5OM

He’s a massive inspiration to me to not be afraid of what people say is or isn’t possible, to not be afraid to try something new and not be put off by others.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

500 words or less: Stuck in a rut

Stuck in a musical 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.

Posted on

500 words or less: Five Favourite Lyrics

What are your favourite lyrics?

Now, despite loving singing and songs, and as well as having a near photographic memory, I do find it difficult to pick apart lyrics for an entire song in a first listen – finding favourite lyrics can be tough. So when a lyric really sticks in my mind on first listen I KNOW I’ve got something I want to listen to again and again.

“Yes I know the name, sounds a little bit familiar, like a melody to a dream,
Yes I know, he wore the same face the same clothes, but that was so long ago”
‘Ghosts’ – Chris Cornell

This one (today) is one of my favourite lyrics because I felt it ‘revealed’ the nature of the whole song in a single phrase (the bridge). I felt it summed up what I felt the whole vibe of the song was about… the idea that someone is looking for a person they knew, but that person has left their old life behind and ‘isn’t there anymore’. Beautiful concept and wonderfully captured in song.

“Gentleness, sobriety, so rare in this society, at night a candle’s brighter than the sun”
‘Englishman in New York’ – Sting

Ah another set of favourite lyrics. I like this one because for the longest time I didn’t understand the link between the first half of the line and the second half. Then it dawned on me that (at least in my interpretation) that it was meant to convey the idea that being something rare stands out like a sore thumb. Nice combination of literal and metaphorical in the same line as well… a real eye/ear-opener for me.

“You can’t trust freedom when it’s not in your hand, when everybody’s fighting for the promised land”
‘Civil War’ – Guns N’ Roses

I don’t know what it is about this line that I love, I think it’s the raw visceral energy of the line… coupled with the strong rhyme between ‘hand’ and ‘land’. It just resolves perfectly, both musically and lyrically… yea… it’s a great song!

“You never thought you’d be alone, this far down the line, I know what’s been on your mind… you’re afraid it’s all been wasted time”
‘Wasted Time’ – The Eagles

This is another one that just transcended words for me, I felt it captured a moment into the life of a person (or both people) coming out of a broken relationship. The idea that the time spent on that relationship is lost, dead, wasted time. But the song wraps around on itself by the end and says ‘y’kno what, maybe it hasn’t all been wasted time’. And I like that ‘turnaround’ aspect… a lot!

“But is the best you can be, the best thing to be”
‘Crossroads’ – The Offspring

Great songwriters. I just love the play on words. Is the best you can be, really the best thing to be? I stopped paying attention to the song at that point because I was just totally lost in the world of that one lyric. Wonderful stuff.

There we have it, my favourite five lyrics. Why not share yours below?