hey chris liepe here with the vocal evolution of scott wyland if you're like me you were pretty
astonished to get into the dead and bloated vibe of scott weiland and then here's something like
a song for sleeping and going is this even the same singer everything sounds so different so
that's what we're going to be doing in this video going through uh dead and bloated and parts of
song for sleeping and we're going to talk about scott's different approach different placement
energy levels the way he pronounces certain things and studying vocalists like this is huge for our
own singing because it's the same guy but he's two very different characters we are all capable
of doing this we're all capable of leaning into a particular style but more importantly particular
resonances and ways to produce sound that sound natural both ways it's all about the pursuit of
character rather than the pursuit of having simply a good voice if you pursue character and variety
with your voice you'll be able to have a good voice without trying to have a good voice
and this is something i work on a ton with all of my voice students if you're interested in becoming
one of my voice students the best place to start with me is by clicking the link below and joining
my free voice course i'll help you how to dial in some of the basic foundational ways you can create
great sound with your voice and then from there there's all sorts of ways we can work together
let's talk about his placement here i i i i highly compressed uh lifting something heavy i but
there's also this nasality i am smelling like a rose i'm exaggerating it of course but there's
this nasality there's compression and there's a bit of tongue cupping as was sort of the norm
for a lot of vocalists in this era at least how scott weiland was doing it right here i am
well we've got the back of the tongue raised at the same time we have the soft palate sort of
dropped that's not i am we're ooh we're long and we're putting the tongue up
i am smelling like a rose that gives us that sound between compression and having this sort
of r posture i am that's that's what we get and yes i am going overboard to demonstrate the way it
sounds i realize that but if we exaggerate both of the characteristics we pull out of scott's
voice in these two songs it's going to help us get to the bottom of why he sounds so different
you really get that sense for the compression there er and not and bloated and no
lifting something heavy creating that high false chord engagement and blow chad
i am now let's put this up against a song for sleeping and his initial approach there
son you're more than beautiful
and you're my son and you're my son
now if we were to sing that line like dead and bloated scott and air
in your mercer and you're my son let's go back to a song for sleeping and your the difference
is this well there are many and this sound is much more forwardly placed and and he's he's placing it
in his mask he's getting his teeth out of the way a little bit so his resonance can be very forward
and bright this is conscious he's a completely different character here and you're my son
and you're my sun that resonance is back it is more nasal and your my sun the nasal
cavity is open in this back placed uh tongue cup sort of posture and here and you're my sun
the nasal cavity is still open but the sound is placed more here and less here
i never thought it could be also notice how light he is if we're talking about airflow
he's not compressing near as much my guess is that he's about as loud singing like this as he was
this like this and he's able to be roughly the same volume because of the way he's managing
his air he's not holding back more air on a song for sleeping he's letting that air
come out in the form of forward resonance and in the dead and bloated scott wyland
the resonance is happening further back which is dampening the sound a little bit
and creating a darker tone but if we go back and forth on never thought it could be super light
that's how he almost goes up you can certainly hear in the harmonies how
he almost goes up into his head voice it's a it's a it's almost a thin mix never thought
not head voice but right on the edge there never thought it could be versus never never never i am
i am i am never thought it could be so much heavier never thought it could be me
try this stuff along with me it's not hard to do you just have to consciously place your notes
and intentionally place your resonance in different ways
you'll be amazed the different sounds you can get out of your voice just like scott
i'd also like to point out moment there are times in this style of
singing where he is intentionally taking his resonance out of nasal access moments
there's almost this bit of plugged nose but it's not it's not drastic or bad sounding
oh it's very pleasant but when you contrast that to what he's doing in dead and bloated
there's there's no bones about this this backward resonance and the accessibility to his nasality
what a beautiful representation of head voice in that harmony what's neat is even in the lead line
as he teeters on head voice and and uses that vibrato to sort of bridge the gap in his break
a lot of people want to know like how do i get rid of my vocal brake well pursuing the right pressure
the right airflow management right around that brake and using vibrato to feather in and out
of that that narrow area where you could be in chest voice or head voice is very useful
there's a very constant amount of
air going in and out of this area where i would otherwise be very vulnerable
he's using a lot of compression and so when he tries to blend his different resonances
you're going to get that but if you're singing lighter you're not using compression you've got
forward placement and you're in touch with the way your vibrato can work right around your break
you get this really smooth way of engaging and it's wonderful
try singing quietly in the car sometime and just musing over
your break this is what he's doing here and it's beautiful
that line's great for dialing in the placement and the compression not oh yeah yeah
or like like you might have sung it closer on the other song or even more like this
versus
i can't express this enough that it's more than just singing louder or softer
it's about intentionally placing that resonance in different places we have the ability to we make go
sorts of different tones by where we learn to adjust minut muscle and tissue differences
and and exploit those differences for different tones you could say the same thing
you can do so many things if you can explore those fringes in those extremes with your own voice over
the same sorts of contexts you can go crazy when it comes to entering into slightly different
character settings with your voice over different musical styles that's what scott's doing
hold back air
open up the nail the nose growl
slides off of that he's adding more intensity still holding back air
let's head back over to the other version of scott
so there when he's going up oh sleeve he did not increase his airflow and remain in his
chest voice don't sleep if we take don't sleep like he did with the other song don't sleep
don't sleep don't sleep all about about a very intentional differing approach
now there he's adding more compression well i'm watching you
but notice how bright it is that's because of the placement this is not well i'm watching you girl
it's almost like i feel the vibration i'm channeling the energy right here as opposed to
right here and i feel it in the in the front of my head even when i'm singing lower like that but it
has this bright sheen even in the midst of adding compression to this it's a cleaner compression
but backing off before the grit happens
and then you could go into this or this
and have it be clear access your head voice be both characters
i'll run through the world thinking about tomorrow
thinking about tomorrow
oh there's some really cool things going on with his voice right here world slide
very open low larynx position with that sort of cupped tongue world
ah world lot more volume here but also a lot of compression let's put this in the different
scott weiland character i run through the world thinking about tomorrow
i'll run through the world i'll run the world thinking
i've cherry picked certain parts of each of these songs to illustrate these vast contrasts but the
good news is you can do this kind of thing too drawing from scott's amazing inspiration leave
some comments let me know in what ways this video helps you unlock different ways your
voice can work and leave also suggestions about other singers you'd like me to do this same thing
with comparing contrasting different styles that they use on different albums or different eras
of their creativity again if you'd like more help with your voice more personalized instruction for
you the best place to start from with me is by joining my free voice course we'll see for more