hey chris liepe here on how to sing without being boring that's a huge
complaint i get from students initially when i start to work with them is that their voice
is boring they feel like they're hitting the notes or at least trying to hit the notes
but expressiveness just isn't there and they don't really know what to do to get there
in this video we're going to take cues from two fantastically non-boring singers amy winehouse
and whitney houston and we're gonna study what they do with their voices specifically that makes
them not boring but really really interesting and exciting hint it's not fantastic range
it's not huge vocal chops although both of these singers have those things but that's not
necessarily what's what makes their voice really interesting and engaging it's part of it but
it's a much smaller part than you might think so stick with me here as we go through some examples
and we're going to help you figure out how your voice can be vastly more interesting
not at all boring now a lot of the things that we're going to be going through
in this video require a basic understanding of how to use support airflow how to
harness the right resonances feel the right things with your voice if you'd like more help with that
the best place to start with me is by joining my free vocal course linked in the video description
below there's lots of ways we can work from there but i'll help you get those basics down
those fundamentals and then when you're applying the kinds of things that we're discussing in this
video you're going to be able to put them in your voice right away and make wonderful use of them
all right let's listen to this passage from rehab amy winehouse
notice the rhythm we're gonna break it down more here in a minute
and then in that second passage notice the dynamic ways that she changes her tone around i'm going
to play both examples again first example hone in on the rhythmic aspect and then the second
aspect hone in on the tone the way her tone changes throughout just that very brief phrase
yes she's got a fantastic voice and you might be saying well my voice just doesn't sound that way
it's not that interesting here's where this type of listening and this type of observation
is going to free a lot of things in your voice that you didn't know were even there to free
we're going to approach this not from a singing perspective but from a conversational perspective
her voice is so interesting because there's all sorts of conversation going on in her singing
we miss this all the time when it comes to singing because we're focused on notes we're
focused on singing we're not focused on being conversational if we just read those lyrics
yes i've been black but when i come back you'll know no no i ain't got the time
and if my daddy thinks i'm fine when you just read them they sound like you're just speaking
now what if i speak them like she expresses when she sings in other words i'm not pressured to sing
her notes i'm just taking the ways that she uses rhythm exaggerates the rhythm and the way that she
exaggerates her tonal changes and when you do this just like when i'm about to do it it's gonna feel
and sound really really weird but if you're afraid of sounding weird you're never going to have an
interesting singing voice you have to push past this so follow me here so we're going to
not sing but we're going to speak with the same level of expressiveness that she sings i realize
you could argue that this is this approach is full of holes in so many different ways
but it works because we're not pressuring ourselves to hit pitches we're focusing on
purely being expressive yes i've been black yes i've been black
like she does yes i've been black yes i've been black but when i come back you'll know
no no no she like lengthens no no no yes i've been black but when i come back you will no no no
you want to become this sort of cartoon version of yourself when you're doing this
it's exaggerated even more yes i've been black but when i come back you know no no
i ain't and then when she does she throws certain notes for that second phrase back in her nose i
ain't got the time my daddy thinks i'm fine ah lane i got the time my daddy thinks i'm fine
i know this is ridiculous but if we focus on this sort of expressive level first we become
a complete goof then we introduce the notes back in even though it's not exactly what she's doing
we have put expressiveness first and then we bring the notes in and this is a perfect example
uh really because it's not challenging to sing or say so we can focus purely on being
tonally diverse in that second line and very rhythmically interesting in that first line so
a couple more times then we'll look at an example from whitney houston yes i've been black but when
i come back you'll no no no yes i been black but when i come back you know no no i ain't got
the time and my daddy my daddy thinks i'm fine i ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks i'm fine
i'm being real exaggerated with my nasality okay now i'm gonna take that character
and instead of singing the the song like i would sing it as if i'm just trying to get out the notes
i'm gonna do what she does she's just done it long enough and she's made it a part of
her singing character so that it seems natural and awesome to her but she could just as easily
plow through it and hit the notes that's never what she does
yes i've been back but when i come back you know no no notice those exaggeratory things are there
i ain't got the time and my get the words right i ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks i'm fine
i i notice what i did there even on fine fine fine these are the things that make your voice
interesting being exaggeratedly rhythmic being exaggeratedly diverse exaggeratedly even a word
when you are moving your tone around i ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks i'm fine
okay keep this stuff in mind let's go to whitney one of her most amazing live performances
even though her voice from a health perspective is struggling a little bit
every step of
the way
what if we were to forget about for a moment that her voice is just gorgeous and focus on
the expressiveness of just that last word we're gonna do more
with whitney but let's just listen to that last word one more time
okay let's not sing it but let's notice she starts in her
chest resonance and then goes to her head resonance and she swells the way the way
the way
notice my hand gestures are a little bit like what she's doing
my speech dynamics while goofy and are very similar to what she did
if you go through this kind of drill before you try to sing a word or a phrase in your songs or
in a song you're covering you will infuse the importance of diversity and expression well
over oh yeah i can sing that note those phrases because you're not thinking the correct way you
must be thinking about these kind of speech level nuances first and then add the music to it the way
without pressuring yourself to hit pitches the way
the way where's the emotion where's the connectivity where's the
the speech level diversity the expressiveness the conversationalism
then once you've got this down and you've got your hands going you've got you you understand
how to push into a particular word and then abandon out of it then add the pitch in the way
the same key as her the way
the way
now what i did was not near as complicated as what she did it wasn't nearly as good but it's a
lot more expressive than oh yeah let me learn this song with this karaoke track and let me go the way
that's not gonna cut it that's why lots of karaoke or lots of cover songs or even lots
of songs that we sing they're all at one level they're all at their their monotone
singing as opposed to monotone speaking now let's listen to the beginning part again with this
being conversational speaking addressing the audience because that's what she's doing she's
having a conversation sort of with the audience that's why her rhythm isn't perfect that's why
she's so floaty over the track because it's about expression and engagement i'll think of you
i'll think of you every step of the way i'll think of you every step
up even just getting in that mindset i'll think of you every step of the way
i'll think of you every step of the way
i guarantee you because i just went through the process that the expressive levels in my voice
did not come from trying to hit her notes they came from being
inspired by her phrasing and her conversational presentational giving nature that she creates
with her voice i realize that this is simple and slightly ridiculous in concept
it's a different way of thinking it's a different way of approaching how you both
listen to singers and how you look at your own voice in light of its own interest its
own expressiveness we have to if we're going to be interesting engaging singers think this way first
engaging conversational speech level dynamic engagement first then notes you are guaranteed
not to be boring if you take this approach i hope you enjoyed this lesson we'll see for more