Hey guys welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is
in the singing. I want to do a vocal coach reacts to
Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder uh and the song is called "Ain't No Sunshine". Now
I've done a version of this myself of the Bill Withers tune and I'll put it in
the description and you can check it out for yourself to see how I did but with
that said let's just go ahead and rock and roll on this. Now this was done
speaking of rock and roll at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it was I guess
the 20th what does it say 2015 that's it is. So without much further ado let's
just do this and here we go.
Okay something right out the apagey player. This is actually a device that
you can do a lot of things with it but it collects a guitar sample in this case
and he's playing a guitar sample and to be honest it's a little clunky at the
start so definitely not digging on the intro of this yet but it's Stevie so I'm
sure it's gonna get great any second so let's continue here we go.
It's a little flat there.
There we go.
Still a little clunky.
Now he's in the groove that's good or we're in the groove now.
Ok I have to comment on this part here. In that section of this song. If you listen to the original.
(sings)
He does this big long I know I know. Now the genius thing of that is if you
listen to the original or listen to my version, there's some amazing breath
control. Try to see how long you can hold out those I know I know I knows
right and then he kind of exits that riff in a kind of an awkward rhythmical
a way and I think what Stevie was doing just now, I think he was kind of making
fun of it or having fun with it and I think that the reason that Bill's
laughing is that he knows that Steve he's making fun of it so it's like an
inside joke except it's not inside now because Kim Tamplin just told you about
it. No seriously so I think there's a little chuckle behind the scenes and him kind of
overdoing that section and it's just my opinion but I'm pretty sure I'm right
here we go let's continue.
Okay now I wanna...
I want to say one more kind of interesting
thing about this. I've done a lot of Stevie songs in my life and I've done a
couple that were cool and I've done some epic fails and I remember like "Sir Duke"
for example. I remember various songs that I've done you know "Sign Sealed
Delivered" and whatnot just plethora of hits, just crazy amount of hits that
Stevie's had and he almost is like left-brain, right-brain in the way he
performs. Let me explain this. It's like his left brain is the instrumental side
can just go on and be subconscious and do this thing over here and his right
brain is going on doing this riffing on the other side and they rhythmically may
not mean but for some way he's able to separate his brain and keep locked down
the instrumental side. Now for those of you that asked you know how do you sing and
play at the same time well he takes that to a whole new level like he's playing
some crazy lick and then he's singing. So like
(sings)
you know "Sir Duke"
(sings)
you know it's almost like these James Brown sort of stabs and that are very
opposite or pulling against the rhythm of it and he does a lot of vocal licks
like that too which leads me to another point guys and this is really important.
Please listen what I'm about to say for you singers out there. Stevie Wonder is
sort of like the poster child of singing a lot of riffs and licks and melismas
and stuff in his music but when Stevie did it. First of all he's one of the
original guys to do it. It was very natural to him and it never got in the
way of the song. Like he always had this great song and this great melody and
whenever he'd do a lick it's like a guitar player that could play a fast
lick but doesn't play fast all the time, he plays appropriately for the song and
then when it's time to open up he does his thing and then he comes back in
place for the song. Same thing with Stevie. Stevie will you know sing his his
you know his chorus and his verses and whatnot
keep those somewhat straight and then when it's time to riff, he'll riff. Well in
today's climate, vocal climate, it seems to be like you know everyone wants to
draw attention to themselves as to show off to show how cool that they are. So
it's either I can sing a high note or I can do this lick or this riff or this
melisma thing here. Well are we good it's kind of lame because what happens it's really
distracting and it gets in the way of the song and it distracts and detracks
from the beauty of a lot of songs. So I hear a lot of covers and stuff
(sings)
all this crazy
stuff. Guys sing for the song. He never stepped on his own foot and you know it
got in the way of himself when he was doing his music. He always let the music
spea,k he always told great story, you always hear it and then when it was
time to show off, you can show off. So let's kind of maybe get back to some of
that. Again it says my own personal feeling but again it's not about just
singing the high note and it's not about this cool lick that makes you a great
singer, it's about your artistry delivering this
song, delivering the story, the the swag, the charisma, the emotion, the passion and then
when it's time to show off your talent and all the cool licks you learned and how
high you can sing, you do that later. Sorry for my rant but I did have to put
that in there. I wonder when Bill's gonna sing. Maybe this is just a tribute to
Bill and he's not gonna sing it all because we're we're coming in the
homestretch here but let's check it out.
It's cool.
Little flat.
It's different every time. It's cool, like Aretha.
See what I mean, different stabs rhythmically against what he's playing.
Guess yeah so this is more..
I guess this was more of.. was more. I guess this was a tribute to Bill
Withers. It should have been labeled differently but you know that was really
cool man, one legend you know you know paying a tribute or homage or eulogy or
eulogizing I should say not eulogy that means he's dead usually but eulogizing
another great artist. So hey if you guys like what you heard please like and
subscribe to my channel that'd be super awesome. I have a singing course yes
there is a shameless plug for my singing course why cause it's cool and it works. No
seriously though where we walk you through all this stuff step-by-step.
Whether it's melismas and singing cool riffs, whether it's singing for the song,
whether it's tone. Now in Stevie's case I want to add one little extra thing, he
sings with a lot of nasality.
(sings) right and you know
there's a lot of people to do it, Axl Rose does it, you know Klaus Meine from the
Scorpions does it. We talked about female vocalists Celine Dion, Donna Summer, you
know Barbra Streisand. A lot of people use this nasality and but I choose not
to use that as the first line of defense for singing. I like to get the sound a lot
more warm and round though I do love Lou Gramm and other people that use
nasality but at the same time too and then you warm it up and only use nasality
when you need it or want it for and effect. Okay all right guys and until
next time please like and subscribe to my channel and God bless you peace out.
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