Hey everybody welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing.
I'm continuing my series on taking these amazing isolated vocal tracks and I'm doing a vocal
analysis, a vocal tutorial, I'm talking about the recording process, a little back story about the
band etc. Next up is Brian Johnson, the band is AC-DC, the song is "You Shook Me All Night Long. Now if you
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gobs of singers like 20 some odd thousand singers over there all negotiating talking about how to
get good at singing as well, talking about the course, how to do the course and so on. So without
much further ado I want to get started. Now I, I, I like to talk about a few things of the way I
remember songs and the way they actually are. We've talked a lot about that but I remember Brian in a
lot of his stuff singing a lot heavier in my mind than what we're gonna find out in my opinion okay.
Now I know that Bon Scott sang even lighter than Brian and Brian is a much girthier, throatier you
know kind of bringing up a lot of muscle mass into the throat. We're going to talk about that
as we go through this but I, I didn't realize exactly how much until I isolated the vocal track
and then at some point we'll isolate you know a Bon Scott, we'll kind of a b them together and we'll
kind of take a listen to him but let's just get started. Here it is.
Okay I'm going to stop before the chorus. Now if you listen (sings)
you know everything's (sounds). He uses a very compressed, raised laryngeal position and
if you notice you know whenever you see like Rock in Rio or, and was it Rock and, yeah Rock and Rio
and then what's the, River Plate I think is one of their biggest concerts. You see something I
think it was River Plate I'm actually thinking of, you see some of these different performances and
after about four or five songs you know he's got to let his larynx settle so if you like that sound
he's actually kind of splitting in between a little head voice and some mixed voice and then,
and then again pulling a lot of muscle mass or a lot of girth up into the throat so (sings)
rather than (sings). Rather than opening up the sound, he's got it really compressed
in the throat and he's really not singing as heavy as you, as I remembered or as you probably
thought too. Now I want to put the band in just for a second because what it does it's a little
deceiving and that's that when you hear the vocal with the band, the band is creating so much
energy you know. We've talked a lot about this like one minute the vocal may be creating most
the energy, the next minute the band's creating the most energy, sometimes they both create a lot
of energy but listen to it with the track and I'll see, you can see what I mean. Check it out.
Okay so if you notice that there's and, and, and it's not that there's so much energy in the band
maybe it's more that that's the pocket and the phrasing of the way he sings into the rhythm
that gives us that, you know that excitement and of course it's just a great lick and you know there's
a lot of other, where, we remember where we were when we first heard the song or how we grew up
listening to these kinds of songs and so there's a there's an element there that really gives us
more energy I think than is really there so we'll check out the rest of this.
We're going to listen to the rest of this chorus in a second. If I
came to you and I want you guys to be really honest with yourselves and let's
pretend which is really hard to do but let's pretend we never heard this song before ever
and he went (sings) right
and I came to you and I said hey I got a new song for you and this is the vocal.
Would you say wow that's pretty melodic or wow you know that's a hit right. Probably not because
the vocal in it of itself what's, what really makes the song is the rhythm and the groove of the the
rhythm guitar and when the drums come in and the vocal the way it phrases against that is what
actually makes the dynamic and the essence of the song be wow so. By the way I also remember the, the
background choruses to these choruses being much bigger than they really are so I actually
have a version of this I've done myself, I'll put it in the description you guys can hear my version
so you can kind of see but I kind of sang it a little heavier. I sang it more like if I don't know
if David Coverdale were to sing an AC-DC song or something but, but I remember the chorus
as being bigger so I, in my version I made it a little bigger right and, and there's a tendency
to want to make it a little more wet with a little more reverb and stuff like this so I had to be really
careful not to do that because that kind of really destroys the essence of the song. Now we've done
quite a few AC-DC tunes, in fact we have one with Sara Loera right now that's just killing it on
Facebook I think we've got, man I think she had a million, a million views in like less than 30
days or something and then we reposted it she got like another 800,000 in like less than a month and
so we have a couple of those and more coming your way but anyways let's check out the rest.
(sings) right he's like (sounds)
he's really locking down that larynx is just. If you go like this, you go (sounds)
it's, that's that sound (sings)
right. You've got this really raised laryngeal position and it's really hard to
get out of that position if you want to go up top and sing some notes higher than that you can't go (sings)
you can't do the (sings)
you're kind of caught at the top of your range because of the way the larynx seats in the throat.
So it's really important to understand how to change those laryngeal positions, I talk to you,
all you guys I point out exactly in my singing course how to change and how to, how to manipulate
the larynx. We start first with the lower laryngeal position then we relax it to a neutral position
and we could use that for effect. You know Glenn Hughes you know (sings)
you know he's got that kind of cool you know tone. A lot of people use it, Paul Rodgers,
Paul Carrick you know whatnot but in this case singing this high you notice those singers
drop their larynx and they go to more of an open throat (sings) instead of (sings)
right. They'll drop it to get more range than, than Brian is doing now but this is his sound and
it's, you know it works big time for him so anyway let's continue here we go.
When it comes to this.
Didn't you guys kind of remember thinking that this was sung a lot heavier and a lot harder.
So this is a lesson for you guys out there that want to sing some AC-DC or stuff like that.
Try it in head voice first (sings)
you know and then you can start to add a little chest into that sound but don't get to the point
where you feel like you're going hoarse or you feel like you're really straining the throat
because if you really can, can start out first in a head voice position (sings)
right. You can kind of start there first and that's not the
way he's doing it actually he is bringing some chest into the sound but not all the time, like
sometimes he vacillates between chest and head and you can hear him kind of switching back and forth.
That's a really important component to this so let's continue here.
(sings) right. You can kind of hear that switch as you go.
(sings) right. You can and by the way
there's a lot of, I just come off of doing you know like Tom Kiefer for example Cinderella and I
just did one on Cinderella and you can hear Kiefer shifting into this kind of same exact kind of
compression you know with the head voice because he used a lot of that head voice compression,
distorted head voice compression and it's a whole lot easier, you know "Painkiller" is another example of
that with Rob Halford. It's a whole lot easier to sing in a head voice position and bring some chest
into it rather than trying to muscle chest all the way up and I actually muscle chest all the way up
in my video so I encourage you to check it out. Hey grade me, tell me how I did. Say I suck, say
it's good, say it's somewhere between, no it's not like Brian yeah I mean I did it like me you
know but and that's cool. I ho, I hope but anyways so let's let's move on.
(sings) he's got that.
(sings) You hear that going into head voice like that. Alright.
By the way do that with me first I want you to go (sings) kind of in falsetto (sings). I'm gonna make it brighter (sings), gonna
make it a little brighter (sings). Now we're gonna make it really bright (sings). Now we're gonna add some distortion (sings)
right and, and that's kind of really what he's doing I mean it's, it's,
it's a lot, it's really deceiving thinking that his range or his chest range is really
that high, it's high, there's no doubt and it's hard and there's no doubt to do this stuff
but it's not it, it's a little smoke and mirrory you know what I mean like it's, it's not as
as crazy as it comes off and it is very doable and I cover this all my singing course.
(sings)
Alright. By the way if you listen to the very end of the word long and you hear it kind of crack and chirp
as he goes down, it's a total dead giveaway that he was using head voice at the end. Check it out,
listen real close at the very end when he comes saying, you hear the chirp of going back down into
chest from the register break or you know falsetto break, as he's coming out. Listen real close.
(sings) right he went (sings) he has a chirp.
Now I have a technique that I use in open throat technique (sings)
where I can come down into my chest and you don't hear it. It's by training the throat to stay open (sings)
as I'm going in and out of the passaggio which is that register break that you hear, I've developed
a crazy specific technique to get us up and out of these different vocal types which makes
you think well gosh was Steve Perry you know was he in head voice. Yeah he used a lot of head voice.
Mickey Thomases you had, yeah he used a lot of head voice you know all these different guys. Yeah
they're masters at it and that's the goal it's the, to train the chest voice and the head voice, then
fuse them together through the passaggio to have a mixed voice and have one long powerful note so
you're not straining pulling chest, unless that's a desired effect and that's what you're looking for
in order to be able to get to these really cool places. Anyway gang hope you enjoyed it and I have a
lot more coming your way and please definitely stick around and check out my next video.