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Hi everybody.
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 43 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later
but our question for this week comes from Tiit M. in Pärnu, Estonia.
And TIit writes, "Dear Justin, what the heck is that Bee Gees voice?
Is that falsetto or head voice?"
That's good, that's good Tiit.
What the heck is that Bee Gees voice?
What is that crazy sound that we've heard
you know, from the 70s, that the Bee Gees did?
I'll tell you about what that is today.
And I like that question is that falsetto or is that head voice.
Okay.
It's actually something that people call a reinforced falsetto.
And I'll describe this particular coordination to you guys today
and give you a chance to learn how that's really done,
in case you want to.
And first let me show you though what that sound is, alright.
I'll take the classic "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees.
So you can hear that once again...
♪
♪ Ah - ha - ha - ha stayin' alive ♪
♪ Stayin' alive ♪
♪ Ah - ha - ha - ha stayin' alive ♪
Okay so, there's that reinforced falsetto sound.
Now why is that so hard to comprehend?
It is because falsetto, we usually think of that
as a thin sound.
But there's a certain solidness to that Bee Gees kind of voice.
That reinforced falsetto.
So I'm going to describe to you guys what is being done
to make that kind of sound.
This reinforced falsetto.
But let's go back one step.
We did the episode before on falsetto versus head voice.
And so let's make sure we remember what this is.
Now I know it's very confusing because women,
what you call a woman's head voice
is actually about the same thing as a male falsetto.
And the terms get so crazy when we
get them all mixed and matched.
But basically women do indeed have a falsetto
it's just called head voice, okay.
When a male sings in head voice it's
actually a more thick sound than
when a woman sings in head voice.
So women can do a reinforced falsetto too.
And males of course can do this.
But falsetto in general is a very decompressed
sound with the cords.
They're loose and they're kind of airy, right?
But when I go up top in this song
my cords do not sound loose and airy.
If they did I could do...
♪ Ah - ha - ha - ha stayin' alive ♪
♪ Stayin' alive ♪
But that's not the sound.
It's...
♪ Ah - ha - ha - ha stayin' alive ♪
And I have that little bit more solidness.
So how the heck am I getting that solidness
when I'm really not in a male head voice
or a female kind of belt mix?
I'm really in my falsetto what the heck is happening
to cause that to not sound so loose and breathy
like head voice and falsetto can?
In this instance what it is to reinforce this falsetto
is a higher larynx and also nasal resonance, alright.
In this case we're allowing the larynx to come up
and the fact that the larynx is coming up is
bringing the cords in greater proximity.
So we're getting a tighter seal but not in a
mix kind of way.
Now I could actually mix this, I could belt "Stayin' Alive".
It'd be crazy.
♪
♪ Stayin' alive ♪
Holy God, okay.
So we wouldn't want to do that.
I mean we could, but that's a real belt of "Stayin' Alive".
That's not a reinforced falsetto that's a true chest dominant mix, right.
But we're trying to let the cords be a little
looser like falsetto but be tightened by the high larynx.
So...
♪ Stayin' alive ♪
It's a little bit of a different sound.
So again, the key ingredients for a reinforced falsetto
something that doesn't compress all the way to a mix
but does have a compressed sound,
is just allowing that larynx to come up in this case
and adding some nasal resonance by dropping the soft palate
and allowing the sound to get into the nasal cavity.
Those are the key ingredients, okay?
So now I'm just gonna give you guys an exercise.
This could be done by males or by females
to get this particular coordination.
Again it's just one of many but we're trying today
for a reinforced falsetto.
So we're gonna do M-E-E-M, MEEM.
And I just want you guys to do...
meem - meem - meem - meem - meem
Try it...
That's cool... in the nerdiest possible way.
Try again...
meem - meem - meem - meem - meem
Crazy and awesome.
So here's what to avoid, we're not gonna go
meem - meem - meem - meem - meem [Breathy]
We're not going to let it be an airy head voice
or an airy Falsetto.
We're gonna let it be a little bit solid
meem - meem - meem - meem - meem
Fantastic.
Okay so now we're gonna put this to an exercise
and you're gonna let this be bright, let it be twangy,
let it feel really up here.
And nothing's gonna hurt nothing is gonna be squeezed.
But you are going to feel the thyroid cartilage lift up a little bit.
That's what we're doing for this particular set.
So here we go with that craziness, right here...
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
There you go.
♪
Nice.
♪
Great.
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
Good for you.
♪
Good
♪
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
Good.
♪
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
Keep it nerdy, keep it bratty.
♪
Nice.
♪
Great.
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
♪
Great.
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
Good for you.
♪
Spectacular.
♪
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
♪
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
So nice.
♪
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
Two more.
♪
Last one.
♪ Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem - Meem ♪
♪
Okay great, if any of you are still watching I'm amazed.
That's a crazy sound, okay?
And we want to be open-minded here.
I know that's kind of ridiculous but you've got
to be able to do multiple coordinations in your voice
as we know.
And so Tiit I think that's a really cool question
to ask about this sort of crazy different sound
that we sometimes hear and it's actually not just the Bee Gees
you hear this a lot in actually some of the rock sounds
and some of the metal sounds.
People get up super high in something that's actually a falsetto.
And learn to compress via different larynx coordinations.
So it's a lot of fun, and I hope you guys
had fun with this one today.
So Tiit and all, if you have questions
that you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to, Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And so we just encourage you not to lose that joy,
don't lose that passion.
Get with a great voice teacher in your area.
And don't let people tell you that you can't sing.
If you guys are in New York City
or you want to Skype with us you can visit, [♪]
www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
And I just encourage you guys to get the app that we have [♪]
for iPad and iPhone, hopefully more later on. [♪]
It's got a lot of free resources on there, [♪]
lots of videos, lots of articles, free tips. [♪]
Lots of information that hopefully helps you [♪]
guys take your voice to the next level. [♪]
So download that app. [♪]
Like I say, it's free. [♪]
And then you can also visit, www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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