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.
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
This is the Moment
Another quick post on some Youtube gold. This one is a rendition of a piece from the musical Jekyll and Hyde – ‘This is the Moment – performed beautifully by Joseph Mahowald. Check it out. The ending makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Beautiful.
Rhyming + Songwriting
Stumbled upon this great clip today covering some helpful songwriting tips, so I 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 – Runaway Baby
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.