hey chris liepe here with how to sing like richie cotson this has been a very frequent request
from you guys on this channel and he shares some similarities with chris cornell in the way he
uses his mixed voice and that really bluesy sound in this video we're going to focus primarily on
his solo stuff but we're also going to do some uh little samples from the winery dogs his
project with mike portnoy great music great vocalist and guitarist he's another one of
those guys like ian thornley who i recently had as a guest on the channel another one
of those guys who can just tear it up in singing songwriting and guitar playing it's it's amazing
so i'm glad to finally be digging in to his style here on the channel if you'd like more
help with your voice your mixed voice your range building your tone click the link below and join
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let's talk about his vocal posture and tone here because it's so very
different than what we hear when he catapults up into his mixed voice
cause i can't justify them justify justified not compressed
cause i can't justify very forward as if if he were to sing this like he sings his other
stuff it'd be zach can't justify more on that in a little bit but he does a really good job
of separating what is musical and and fun to listen to and soothing in his lower resonance
versus his mix resonance this is another thing that chris cornell
you know does really well also listening on to how he transitions
okay so same notes an octave higher pretty much cause i can't justify the weight justify
the weight wait forward there's a little bit of nasality there and then here you don't wanna know
what's on my mind i can't justify you don't wanna know what's on my no you don't you don't wanna
know what's on my mind he's got this crow thing down to the max let's break this down you don't
no that's a very forward head voice you don't let's throw head voice back into our nasal cavity
so when i do that i plug my ears and my nose
and then i'm going to use the lower my lower lip to further accentuate that crow
sound you can see cornell doing that sometimes
especially younger cornell he shapes his tone with the bottom of his lip
and good so that's head voice right now we're going to use our mixed voice by
harnessing the power of the dying cat
wow then we're going to add compression
i
now i'm exaggerating here quite a bit but we have to exaggerate we have to kind of get ridiculous
so that we can explore the fringes of what our voice will do and then bring it back
into something more pleasing go to the extremes first be ridiculous first now if you're having
trouble with the dying cat sound or like i've covered in other videos that's a big part of
what i work with students on is discovering how that resonance and that sensation is supposed to
feel but i've done lots of videos on how to access your mixed voice as well right here on youtube
what's really fun about richie's style is he's he's always got that sort of
flat five bluesy thing going on listen here again he did it in the in the previous line
so no i'm just a full is it fool that one's the ah that's the the true uh fifth right
but here it's a little bit underpitched is it a blues note is it a flat five not four not full and
not falling as opposed to not full and full and
that would be a little over pitch he's he's inching up to that pitch and and
this stuff is fun because of the way the rhythm on the vocals go i know
i know i'm just a fool but i'm not fooling hey
i know i'm just a fool but i'm not fooling i know i'm just a fool but i'm not fooling
hey highly nasal the rhythm is so important here and it's really difficult
to sing that fast and up there in that you know on the interval of a fifth
with this nasality believe it or not this this backward nasal placement is actually
more difficult than to sing it this way and now i'm just a fool but i'm not fooling
but part of what makes his voice so attractive is that it's simultaneously energetic and
brighter but darker and brooding even when he's singing higher like that
that's a really important distinction to make that's why this i know no i know
that has this it's a more musical sound in some ways it's not quite as brash i like
both and both can be appropriate for different things but this is the appeal of richie's voice
i love the rhythms that he brings out
here that he like bounces on money you got your money you've got
and then how he's going up to that minor third there high
intellect you've got your money high intellect you've got your money high intellect
how he he almost falls off of money more so than i just did
you've got your money high and then that high means a lot more
high intellect because he fell off of money phrasing is everything he understands this really
well because his guitar player a lot of what he does with his voice is informed by his phrasing
in his guitar playing and a lot of his guitar playing is informed by the phrasing in his vocals
that's why these triple threat guys are so awesome but i don't know which way is mine this grit is
different than other grit that he uses but i don't know which way is mine so clapton uses
this kind of thing and this is the more of a cookie monster kind of approach than i usually
advocate for and notice he's doing it for a very short amount of time so it's okay
but let's unpack this a little bit but i don't know which one
but i don't know but i don't know that's your standard compression that i've talked about
but i don't know where it's high in the throat okay but i don't know which way and then way
which way no but i don't know which way is mine that works but there's a lot more
texture going on here but i don't know which way don't know it's clean which way way is mine
way now i'm doing that much lower in the throat it's not quite which word is mine but i don't know
its way is mine but it's almost there which we who is there's the nice balance it's not which were
not all the way back or down ah yeah ah cookie monster you feel the sensation
below your voice box this takes a toll much faster than anything above the voice box
but there's this range between lowest and highest that we can place this and he's on the lower side
of of the voice box as i feel it but it creates this nice tonality but i don't know it's way
is mine notice how i'm moving the resonance around but i'm also moving the grit around quite a bit
to really exaggerate this but i don't know which word is mine through my jaw forward
and i'm i'm embracing that low sensation as i'm phonating oh which way ah compare that to which
way which way that's high which way which way which way it's not just about changing your mouth
shape or your jaw it's about feeling the sensation high versus low in the in this line in particular
but i don't know which way is mine that's how it opens up as is but i don't know which way is mine
but i don't know it's a way is mine which way is mine which way is mine
there's all sorts of ways you can play with it and these type of lines where the resonance
is so dynamic and the placement of compression and grid is so dynamic so fun to dig into next
love the tone on arms
get it clean first open your arms up and scar have that lower lip posture
have that awareness of the nasal resonance open your arms and then add the compression
open your arms i've been scared
open your arms it's fun to experiment with bringing that resonance down and forward
only if you can bring your resonance around and experiment with not just trying to imitate the
crowish nature of richie's voice will you be able to actually get there that's why i'm doing
this that's why i'm moving it around so much and not resisting the the croaks or weirdnesses that
might come out because through experimentation we find comfortable placements that also sound
good we also find lots of uncomfortable placements but that's part of the journey
i like this example because listen to how he does yeah this is a rare moment for richie
yeah this is not yeah like he would be doing
that's how he would normally do it right but he's got instead of yeah he's got a yeah
and then he goes he dynamically switches the way he resonates
yeah
my path is written in stone
this is a really interesting line because he starts so forward more
forward than i hear him most of the time with that yeah my yeah my
even just experiencing that that forward higher mixed note down to the crow lower a lot of times
he goes the other way right he starts like we talked about at the beginning i'm singing like
this and then as i bring my pitch up i go right yeah but here he he switches it yeah my stone my
and lets that grit happen
yeah my path is written in stone
yeah i've got no control i love this line because listen to how he does control
the word control he loses control and he's saying i've got no control
it's just a wonderful way it shows the connection that he has to what he's singing
i've got no that's controlled right i've got no and then
he breaks in kind of a control and then he has this vibrato out but
there's almost a sigh at the end i've got no control yeah i've got no control
listen to the background vocals on this one
we've got ryan all the way up there and it's not even that pitch accurate
he's another guy that doesn't rely on on pitch correction he he lets himself be
artistically off here and there and makes the music and melodies are better because of it
we've got all these lower things almost spoken we've got a riot you know but what
really where your ear really goes is to that high uh that high harmony or background vocal
even though it's not as prominent as some of the other stuff that's where my ear goes
and there you can hear that he's a little bit more open because it's so high
he's lost a little bit of that we've got right although that works
is definitely that crow right and then the the it shifts the focus of the line down to going on
really really beefy there at the end neat stuff
it's how much brighter he is a lot of this is the production
elevate me take me higher
a lot less crow there hi
but a lot of it too is the background vocals and the support that he's got there
listen to the next sample though
this is also off the winery dog stuff
is he not not that fifth is flatted or almost flatted i'm not
and then he goes for the the full five there i'm not what i was yeah any
chance
so now he sighs right here
so get me to get me no he doesn't he doesn't keep it going no no sir not that
so get me to get me there's deliver that stage whisper that i've talked about before on the
channel to get me he lets that sort of take over false chord engagement compression without a note
to get me to get me to get me to get me blended but put together it's a really nice arc of a line
i'm not what i was i keep looking for a second chance
hey they improvise around within a little bit them not what i was i keep looking for a second chance
i love playing with his lines because he improvises in and out of his tonalities
and melodies so much i hope you've enjoyed this breakdown of the many
nuances of richie cotson's style thank you so much for suggesting richie over
and over again on the channel keep making suggestions and if i get enough of them i
finally do them i appreciate all of you for watching my videos interacting commenting
and of course joining my courses as well if you'd like more personalized help
with your voice and you haven't already join that free voice course linked below we'll see for more