hey chris liepe here with a vocal analysis for one of my favorite songs of all time
last goodbye by jeff buckley
jeff buckley next to chris cornell is probably my biggest influence vocally and i love
the freedom that jeff has to go in and out of different resonances the way he embodies
different characters while he sings the way he freely and from an improvisational perspective
moves throughout his range and his songwriting i mean grace is one of the greatest albums of
the 90s if you ask me so i'm excited to get into this with you on multiple levels
if you haven't listened to this song in its entirety for a while i'd encourage you after
watching this video go listen through all the way through without interruptions and
based on what i've said and demonstrated and studied you'll have an even greater appreciation
for this masterpiece and we're not going for imitating jeff buckley but we can learn a ton
about our own voices by putting some of what he does studying what he does and experimenting with
our own singing so that's what we're going to do in this video as we pay tribute to
an incredible vocal performance if you'd like more help with your own singing
more personalized attention and you'd like me to come alongside you and be your vocal coach the
best place to start is by clicking the link below and joining my free voice course there's lots
of things we can do from there but if you start there that's great all right let's get into this
okay i want to touch on two things here initially as he's singing quietly more than you'll ever know
no it's not dark it's not remotely swallowed jeff has a higher voice but
if we really hone in on his approach when he's singing low we have clues into how we too can
prepare our vocal posture to sing higher sort of like he does more than you'll ever know
more more more more than you're more than you'll ever know there's a little bit of robert plant
if you've watched the video i've done on mixed voice where i cover robert plant's approach to mix
you hear that in a very subtle way here he's bringing things very forward even though this
is a low note no no no no no no of course i'm really exaggerating but it's this sort of
wind twanged sound that if we take this up same posture like this if we do practice it low and
feel the resonance and then take it up take it up take it up take it up we can start getting
really really high with this vocal posture this is mixed voice it's one way to access it anyway so
but we we see these clues right at the very beginning and really even when jeff is singing
lower also as a side note i just love the writing on this whole album the unconventional chord
progressions and the way the melodies uh flow over these unconventional the melodies are amazing
even though the chords are kind of all over the place and you know parallels to chris cornell's
writing you know and i know they they had a bit of a pass too it's just so cool all right
i have to point that out right there there this is our last embrace no it's not heavy this is
our last day this is our last embrace hear the difference it's subtle this is our last embrace
no that's pushed that's as though we're about to top out right i can hit these notes either way
most of you probably can but this is this is this is our last embrace brace it's lighter i
have a heavier voice than jeff anyway but we can take this posture and really internalize
notice how he does that lowest note oh
with that h oh but he still stays very light he doesn't thicken up at all and
he might say well he's just a thin sounding no nobody's just anything this is a this is a
way that he has learned how to program his muscle memory to get the voice he has
let's approach it with that mindset
okay this line is one of the greatest jeff buckley lines to put into your own voice
there's so much going on we might be tempted kiss me please kiss me
no he's in head voice there for some of it kiss me but then notice what he does on
please kiss me kiss me please he's transitioning into mix he's not in head voice the whole time and
this posture of please he's fading into it please head voice please please please and let your voice
crack as you're dialing things in that's totally fine but that same posture i talked about before
kiss me out of desire that somewhat cartoonish sound if we can exaggerate that in our lower
resonance and then push it up as we blend with our head voice kiss me please kiss me
now listen what else he does here please kiss me please kiss me
back into head voice just kissing that that chest voice as he goes back in and
allows himself to transition back into his head voice incredible now this line is is even cooler
you'll kiss me out of desire notice how light not kiss me out of desire
no and also not kiss me out of desire and it's very much like this
kiss me please kiss me kiss me out of desire notice how much more light that is then pushed
then we've got that classic push for babe which is in that same voice and then he backs off babe
right babe i'm slowing it down but that's what he does
okay last part of the line
not consolation there's this sense of conversation after he really targets that high note then he
goes down it's just kind of not a consolation like that kind of thing not consolation
really conversational and i really think that he did a good job of targeting certain notes
and throwing other notes away that's what makes the conversational aspect come out so well and
there's more here i broke down this particular line so much because there's so much going on
but then we have the oh you know it makes me so angry that stuff here afterward that is just
there's so much of what i just did and demonstrated and explored in the
rest of the song so let's keep going and start listening for more of it
he's able to darken up the goodbye oh you know it makes me so angry it's really
tempting to be too heavy but playing with that intentional lightness based off of the twang
is really going to help you master really this kind of approach but you
have to be really patient with yourself i have trouble being too heavy as well
that's really the easiest way pick a note just like he just did there
experiment without having certain words going in and out of your head voice
what happens as you work through hurry and light heavy and loud
get those lighter higher mixed sounds based off of that original vocal posture i was talking about
so helpful
that's one of those notes starting in head voice
and then bringing in that subtle mix try it with lower notes try it right on the edge of
your break starting in a head voice let yourself crack a little bit as you're dialing it in and
practice the sensation not necessarily the sound the sensation first of going from head
into that thinner mixed sound i've done lots of videos on mixed voice on my channel
and i covered in depth in my course the getting these coordinations down
lots of great exercises to do so but this is where we start this is where i started
say
i love that line the articulation didn't know
so neat
i find it really helpful to slow his lines down and really feel the resonances because he's going
in and out of his head voice constantly what does that feel like at slower speeds
he does it so naturally and so seamlessly but if we try to do it at his speed take it slow first
is
there's another one of those
you can see his his uh jaw moving a little bit as
he invokes his vibrato that should give you some clues
how can you experiment put your own voice in with what he's doing
join it with other influences
not afraid to crack either
this song just gives me chills every time i revisit it never get tired of it practice
speaking this vocal posture if you're interested in putting some of what he does into your own
voice before you start singing it so oh it makes me so angry don't worry about
the notes and there's also this sense that he's there's this bit of a plugged up uh
you british sound you can it makes me so angry like this doing that
is gonna help you place this i know it sounds weird but it's gonna help you place that posture
in this vocal coordination easier if you're doing it without notes first and then doing this
sort of british accent that's going to help you as well and i've covered this on some other
i did this on the david bowie uh video too where if you want to get higher adopt this
character and see what happens anyway hope you've enjoyed this me breaking down and analyzing one
of my favorite vocalists and one of my favorite songs again if you'd like more help with your own
voice click that link below join my free course if you haven't already we'll see you for more