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Hi Everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode eight of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later.
But for now we've got this week's question from
V.H. in Yonkers, New York.
And V. writes, "Dear Justin, I'm a tenor. I have no problem hitting high notes."
"I'm inspired by the band Foreigner, Lou Gramm is my idol."
"However, when I sing a Foreigner song, I can't reach the notes no matter what key I change it to."
"Can you explain this?"
Now that, is a great mystery there, V.
And I've never heard you sing.
But hopefully I can help you find the answer to this.
Now I have to admit, I was not a Foreigner aficionado.
I had to go and do some research on Foreigner to answer this question for you.
But, the core of your question is what really matters.
Because I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this.
You wanna sing a song, and no matter what key you put it in,
the song is still difficult.
And in your technique you can hit a lot of notes, you've got a high range,
but a particular song is giving you trouble no matter what the key.
And then we've got a mystery.
What is causing that song to be difficult?
And in doing a little of that research for you, V., I think I might have the answer.
I've never heard you sing before, however it's gonna lead us to the title of today.
Hard Consonants.
Hard consonants can very often be that X-factor that's making a song difficult.
Even if you've got the technique.
Now, a lot of rock singers use percussive consonants.
They use hard consonants.
And a lot of times in what they're doing,
the consonants are not as hard as they actually sound to us.
And so when we imitate the style we use hard consonants.
I'm gonna show you what I mean in a second.
But this is probably the X-factor that's making the song difficult
no matter what key you're putting the song in.
So I'm gonna work with, "I Want to Know What Love is" by Foreigner, a little bit.
And I'm not gonna do the chorus, cause I don't think that's so hard.
I think the bridge leading up to it is your problem, V.
So if I have this phrase right here,
♪♪
♪ In my life ♪
♪ There's been heartache and pain ♪
♪ I don't know if I can face it again ♪
Okay, so there's that section.
Now, when I did that I did not do hard consonants.
But let me show you what I mean by hard consonants.
♪♪
♪ In my life there's been heartache and pain ♪
♪
♪ I don't know if I can face it again ♪
And instantly, it doesn't sound as good.
And it also doesn't feel too comfortable.
I'm blasting air across the consonants.
And this is a really common thing.
Again, not just in rock, but in all styles of music.
We're used to technique exercises that feel really good.
But we go over to a song, and then we tend to
chew the consonants, or hit them too hard,
or force breath pressure through them.
Now again, a rock sound, you're gonna tend towards that,
in order to imitate Lou Gramm or any other your favorite artists,
you might push too hard on the consonants.
So, I'm gonna give you three ways to fix hard consonants.
First one's kinda goofy.
You first try it by slurring the words a little bit.
So I've got, "In my life there's been heartache and pain."
"I don't know if I can face it again."
So I'm first gonna try,
"In my life there's been heartache and pain." [Slurred]
"I don't know if I can face it again." [Slurred]
♪ In my life there's been heartache and pain ♪ [Slurred]
♪ I don't know if I can face it again ♪ [Slurred]
Now, that sounds insane.
However, that was really easy to sing.
So if you're having a problem with those hard consonants
try slurring your words first.
A lot of rock singers, they make that their final product.
That's why you can't understand what the words are.
Second step though, if you do want to hear what the words are,
speak it with the breath pressure that you want.
Instead of, "In my life there's been heartache and pain," [Speaks forcefully]
and you're really hitting it, try it simply.
"In my life there's been heartache and pain." [Speaks normally]
♪ In my life there's been heartache and pain ♪
And it feels like the same pressure as speech.
If you're still having problems though, the third thing that you can do
is look at what consonant is actually getting too much of the hit.
In that first phrase, "In my life there's been heartache and pain,"
there are three that might be culprits.
You've got the L of "life," you've got the H of "heartache,"
and you've got the P of "pain."
If the "life" is giving me trouble,
♪ In my li- in my li- ♪
And I have that L that's too tough,
I could do, ♪ La La La La La ♪
Or, ♪ Lie Lie Lie Lie Lie,"
to get that L kind of fluttery.
And then I do...
♪ In my life there's been heartache and pain ♪
Or, if it's the H,
♪ Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ♪
♪ Heartache and pain ♪
And then it's a lot simpler after I practiced the consonant very easily.
So no matter what style you're singing, if you're having problems - in any key -
and you know that you've got those notes in your technique,
check out the consonants.
Make sure you're not hitting them hard.
Try slurring it.
Try it with the energy of speech.
Try it with that consonant that's giving you trouble and do it gently,
and then see if that song becomes easier.
My bet is, for V., or anybody else out there,
that if you try that,
you're going to not only be able to do the key that you we're trying,
but a lot higher than you were trying as well.
So I hope that's been helpful for you guys as singers.
If you have questions that you wanna see us answer on the show,
you can send an email to: Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♫]
We just encourage you guys not to lose the joy, [♫]
don't lose the passion. [♫]
Never let anybody tell you that you can't sing [♫]
because you know that's not true. [♫]
Get a great voice teacher in your area. [♫]
If you guys are in New York City, you can visit us at: [♫]
www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♫]
And if you like these videos you can check out: [♫]
www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♫]
I'm Justin Stoney. We'll see ya next time. [♫]
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