hey chris liepe here i figured it was about time to do a video on josh kiska from greta van fleet
talk about an extremely developed and diverse mixed voice the guy's got a high voice
in general but the way he has developed it the way he implements it yes he nods to robert plant
but he's done some things that robert plant uh kind of planted the seeds for and josh has taken
it to a really interesting level and the way he's able to growl sort of up in his high mixed voice
and also how it connects with his chest voice
it's pretty compelling and interesting to study so i'm excited to get into this one with you
we're going to be going through a compilation of josh's best best live vocals i think that
this guy's really important to analyze live because you get to see his body language
and i think a lot of singers are really important to analyze live because you you don't get to hide
behind production you get to see them you get to hear what they did in that moment
on that take you don't uh there aren't doubles that are clouding or lots of effects or arranging
things which are really fun to unpack too and i've done that a lot on this channel when i go
through isolated vocals and all that but when we're particularly talking about mixed voice
we're talking about josh's approach to mixed voice and we want to put some of that in our
own voices i think observing live and seeing his humanity and putting that in our own positions
it's really helpful if you'd like more help with this kind of approach click the link below and
join my free voice course i can help you develop the fundamentals that are going to help you
discover how to implement a mixed voice like this i've done a lot of this on the channel and many of
you have chosen to join me with my free course so that you can unlock things you're already doing in
your speech level engagement normal speaking voice you can take that stuff put it into your singing
and experience amazing results let's get in to this crazy high developed mixed voice singing
okay the key here is in how he says mama let's start with that
mama very crowish this is something that robert plant would do this is
something that freddie mercury would do if you listen to that beginning the
mama hear how he changes the placement around
we'll get into the the mixed aspects of of what he does in a little bit
but keep this in mind this being able to move the resonance backward to resonate
around his soft palate and back of tongue gives him a nice ending to this line this is not just
mama which sounds okay
but that's not the vibe that's not the area that he's going for he wants that classic rock
he's nodding to the classic rock stars
he does a lot of these kinds of things where he he kind of chants and scats
let's go back and let's break down what he's doing from a mixed voice perspective
okay so let's get the pitch first we're gonna get in head voice
then we're going to push harder with our me with our head voice
we're going to compress we're going gonna feel the urge to lower the pitch
the more we push the lower the pitch wants to go but we're gonna decide
that we'd rather our voice crack than lower the pitch
and to trigger what i've talked about in other videos this dying cat sound we're going to
maintain pitch push up let our voice crack and then as we feel our voice cracking we're
going to lean into it even more this is going to create that sort of buzzy sound that he gets there
i know i'm making it a little bit more simple or maybe look a little bit more
simple than it actually is but this is how it starts start by getting a good solid head
voice tone maybe don't even necessarily go for the tone or the note that he's getting
think compression think holding back air push harder and harder
while you hold back more air with with the area above your larynx
let your voice crack and then lean into that while trying to maintain that head voice pitch
it's going to be so messy for you
but if you can find that area to lean in where you're breaking and holding
the pitch at the same time it's there in every voice but you have to hone it
that's how he gets that neat buzzy sound let's listen again
now he can clean things up really well too listen what he does
so he's got both things going on where he's able to grid it up and i'm telling you your
vocal break is everything here get your head voice find where that vocal break is and lean into it
like so many other aggressive and distorted weird forms of singing this is another implementation
of what i've talked about a lot on the channel the clean sounds if we can harness
the same sorts of things in our speech level like if we say something like i'm going to kill you
and we let our voice we let our speech be extra dynamic we're not saying i'm going to kill you
all in our chest voice all in one area we're saying i'm going to kill you
we're not going for any particular pitches we're feeling out
that other sort of imitative resonance that's happening with josh's vocals
that's not head voice oh it's not chest voice it's something in between ah wow we're unlocking
lots of nasality ah we're putting the resonance towards the back of our tongue and soft palate
while we keep focusing on the front of our face
there's a lot to think about but as we experiment with our normal
speaking voice and let ourselves be rangy and try to say all sorts of different things we're going
to unlock the sensation before we try to go to pitch that's what's going to help you get there
i love this because you can hear him climb up hey hey hey hey hey
play with the tonality just like he's doing
now that last note
he was using pure head voice there but because you heard him
go up build with his chest and gradually thin out he was able to sort of get away with that
good stuff
okay oh mama hear how he's doing that sort of yarled sound hey mama uh what you call me crazy
and then he as he goes up he's got that thinner ha crazy he's very very conscious
of how his resonance is moving around he didn't try to go hey mama why don't you call me crazy
right a lot of us would sort of sink into one sound like which voice should i use for this song
um what kind of tone do i want for this song he's all over the place and that's
what makes what he does so compelling he just went from early 90s hey yeah
he's doing all three of those things in this one line
multiple times in that section he's he's in that gritty mix that we talked
about earlier and then he goes up into his head voice hey you still walked out on me
really fun to experiment with releasing into your head voice hey
notice how clean he is there after his fuzzy sound
that one sounded extra quacky yeah
now that's very nasal yeah there's also the difference between this yeah
and yeah he's getting his epiglottis a bit more involved there there's this sense of
ah that's a little bit different placement in this case because his vocal cords he's thinned
his vocal cords out he's using his high head voice resonance there's there's this opportunity to run
your placement a little bit different a little bit lower almost like as if you're imitating ah
okay kind of a cookie monster kind of sound but you're doing it high and you're
not blowing enough air through that it's gonna uh start feeling weird or chokey yeah
as opposed to
hear the difference he uses both but in this case
nasal this is really a kind of a tortured crow sound the placement is different we've got
that's more your typical rock sounding compression and then we've got
which doesn't actually sound that great lower but you start pushing it up higher into your
head voice area and it's both easier on your voice and creates that nice buzz
and you can even transition between the two like he does a lot
cool sounds
i'd just like to point out again how he's not
all gritty all the time he's got that mo those moments of buzzing he's got
moments of rasp he's got yarling he's got ah he's got uh very clean high mixed notes
so much diversity in his lines
perfect case in point there he's got that delay that comes in
live to shroud his clean vocals and then he's coming down
and intentionally darkening things and bringing his resonance back even more because this
particular one he's not going it's yeah very forward and open not nasal here and very clean
and then as he gets lower he brings his resonance back darkens it swallows it a bit the opposite of
what we kind of want to do when we try to sing high sometimes we we will naturally
try to push higher and swallow as we go higher this is proof that that doesn't work very well
and he's doing the opposite which is what allows him to soar and calculatedly go down
notice that sound is
so incredibly nasal
whereas when i plug my nose it's it's almost all there yeah his mouth is shaping the tone a
little bit and there's a little bit going through there don't be afraid of nasality it's a huge tool
you are my sunshine
i just like to point out how vastly different this sound is than the last sound where he's not nasal
both are great it's not like should i or shouldn't i it's yes experiment with all those things
you know how relaxed he looks doing this he's practiced a lot he's so comfortable
in his own skin and all moving around with all those different techniques
but not afraid to really be open with his face either
stick your tongue out open up get things out of the way let that resonance come forward
when was the last time you thought it was appropriate to sing like this
if you can make a fool out of yourself and really become a cartoon character
when you're speaking and expressing yourself in non-musical ways
if you can do this and then bring some of it into your singing
it's going to be way easier if you're really reserved like this when you're speaking and
you're afraid to get out of your shell there's no way you're going to be able to be this expressive
thanks so much for digging in with me to some greta van fleet
it's about time lots of you have been asking for this remember the key to his vocals and lots of
vocalists like him isn't necessarily that he's just got a high range it's how he's figured out
how to listen to his body how to take advantage of things that all of us can really do
being comfortable enough to experiment in a speech level way and be kind of crazy
and then work that stuff into your musical voice i know that i'm going to get some comments that are
going to say no no no he's just got nobody can sing like that you either have it or you don't
i don't i don't subscribe to that it might be true but i don't subscribe to it because i found with
my voice that if i'm willing to go out on limbs and experiment based on sounds that i hear
and i'm able to be stupid with it and not do what they're doing but
try to sort of do it and see what happens with my own voice i free all sorts of things and
unlock all sorts of things in my own voice that i never would have otherwise so i encourage you
take this perspective even if you do things wrong and you're doing things in little increments and
really listening to your body and how things feel you're still going to come out on top
because you're willing to experiment and you're not sitting behind the self-conscious facade
that's the main thing that makes vocalists like this tick that's the main thing that's
going to help you learn and grow as a vocalist we'll see you for more