Hey Singers, Voice Teachers, and Music Lovers!
Here we are in Nashville, Tennessee with the great David Phelps.
My all time favorite singer is going to share his vocal wisdom
and tips with us.
♬
♪ But he will fly once again ♪
♪
♪ He will soar with his wings unfolded ♪
♪ Hear the angels applaud ♪
♪ As he rides on the wind to the arms of God ♪
♪ And he ♪
♪ Will fly ♪
♪ He will fly again ♪
The first question I always ask singers
when they come to a lesson with me, is
tell me about your vocal journey?
How'd you get started?
Well, for me I was born into a singing family.
A very musical family.
And so music was always around us.
And, it was just something that we did.
My oldest sister used to sing with me before she passed away.
And then I have another sister who is a professional trumpet player
in Chicago.
And my mom has a great kind of classical soprano voice.
And dad sang with us because he had to, so....
But you know, we would just always make music.
And so, for me that was always just a natural thing.
It wasn't something that began at some point.
About early teen years,
it became kind of "not cool" to be a singer, you know,
with all the guys at school.
And I was playing football,
and so I kinda stopped singing just a little bit.
Or just slowed down.
And then, the best thing that happened to me
was the whole football team joined the choir.
[laughter]
And so I was one of them.
And after a year they all quit but I stuck around
and kinda dove into that again.
Because I quickly found that I had a talent
that not a lot of people had.
And, I won't forget in ninth grade
when everybody had joined the choir,
there was a talent show that year and I entered it.
And it was a little town in Texas.
So when the school put on something
everybody came to it.
You know. It wasn't like an itty bitty production.
So um, that was just for the school.
But it was a town wide thing.
I sang.
And they gave me a standing ovation that night.
And I got in the car with my dad afterward,
my CPA dad.
And I said okay, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
I could feel him tremble, you know.
Oh my gosh.
But uh, he was like, you can get a degree in accounting
and then you can sing on the side.
But then he and my mom were the people
who drove me everywhere to sing.
Wherever the opportunities started coming along.
And from that point my interest peaked.
I was like, wow I can get a response from people like this.
And so I started singing in church a whole lot more again.
And my pathway was littered with people
who became so important on my journey.
I went and sang at a church in Houston.
And the pastor afterwards came up and said,
"Sing everywhere you can."
Justin: Wow.
That still is- When people ask me what's the best advice, that's it.
So simple.
Sing everywhere you can.
It accomplishes so much.
Vocally, communication-wise,
having to talk to people about what you want to do.
You know, I would say hey, if you liked it,
do you have any other people that you might talk to,
colleagues at different places that would let me come sing.
And so it really, for me, it was an asserted effort
to try to have more opportunities
Justin: Yeah.
to get in front of people and sing.
And that was a great piece of advice.
It was wonderful.
At the same time, my high school choir director,
was an amazing classical tenor.
Just phenomenal.
And he saw that I had talent.
And really started trying to foster that in me.
And then the music minister at my church
had come from the commercial side of music.
Touring and contemporary Christian music.
And so he really spoke into me on that side of things.
And I began taking voice lessons from college instructors
that I was so fortunate to be able to begin to learn with.
So I had these people that were really speaking in to
my process.
My minster of music at my church,
he introduced me to a contest,
before American Idol was American Idol.
It was in Colorado during the summer.
And was like, you've got to go do this.
So at the beginning of the summer until the time I left
I would go up to the church and he was say, sing what song.
And I would sing it for him.
And sometimes he would stop me in the middle of a song
and say, you don't need to do that, you know.
And he would just coach me through this stuff.
And then maybe one day he would be like,
so you've got to say something before you sing.
Write it down.
And so I'd sit and write it down.
He'd come and crumple it up, throw it away,
and say that was awful, start again.
So I had this person who was no holds barred.
Just like, speaking into me and saying you can't have an ego about this.
If you want to get better, you've got to accept instruction.
So it's amazing looking back at the people that
that really, really spoke into my journey early on.
My parents are educators.
My dad was a CPA and then became an instructor at the University of Houston.
And my mom has a PhD in English.
And so they were like, well if this is what you're going to do,
then you're going to go to school and do it.
So I want to Baylor University, and had an amazing teacher there.
She just believed in me so much.
We fought a lot actually, you know.
She just... She really wanted me to go into classical music.
Believed in my talent so much.
She didn't unappreciate what I was doing,
but really wanted to see me do that.
And then at one point in my junior year
she sat down with me and said,
do you really feel called to sing gospel music?
And I was like, I think I really do.
And she was like, alright, I can't battle that.
And so she said, let's make you the best that there is.
And I was like alright let's go, you know.
It was uh...
She...boy, she...
was just amazing.
An amazing gift.
Really just taught me so much about my vocal instrument.
And at the same time loved that I was a student of it.
You know, I would be like, what's happening when I do that? Tell me!
Not just, you know, what do I need to think about.
I would be like, what's happening to my vocal cords
when this is happening?
When I got to college,
what had started as a high school student,
I began singing on the weekends.
When I wasn't in school I would go wherever someone
would hear me sing.
My friends joined fraternities and sororities and all that kind of stuff.
And I went out and I sang on the weekends, and did concerts,
and just kept building my network.
And I just tried to sing,
and learn from that as much as possible.
By the time I graduated from college,
I just had this really big network.
I could call on people and say hey I'm up on this weekend.
And so that's how it really started for me.
To be able to do what I'm doing.
And, it's different than it is now.
Because, umm...
I mean, I was in a world where people
didn't think about music necessarily as a career.
There were of course, huge music stars back then.
But to be- you know, my parents didn't have the wherewithal
of how to make that happen.
Other than oh, well what's the next thing we do?
We'll take him to sing wherever he can do it.
So it was definitely an unpaved path.
So all we knew to do was just do the next thing, you know.
Justin: Do more.
And do more, right.
So yeah, that's kinda of how everything began.
That's amazing.
And it's an amazing encouragement actually for me and other voice teachers.
To know, how many people you had speaking into your journey,
as educators.
You know, and I know for myself I couldn't be a
successful teacher if I hadn't had great teachers.
And so it's really cool to hear how many people
were apart of paving your path.
Yeah, I mean, I just wouldn't be doing what I'm doing still today.
So, so I'm 51.
And I think about times that uh,
I have been on the "vocal edge", you know.
And had I not had the training, and people speaking into my life,
I would not be doing what I'm doing today.
I would have lost it by now.
Undoubtably.
I mean, I am without a doubt that would be the case.
So I am extremely grateful
to the people in my life who just fed into this dream that I had.
♬