Hey everybody welcome to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the
singing. I got quite a few requests of Ken will
you please do a vocal coach reacts to John Mayer. So I chose to go ahead and do
"Neon" live in LA and then "Stop This Train" and I'm gonna you know get to as much of
that as I can but anyway I'm gonna go ahead and start it around a minute into
the video cause I know he has a long guitar intro intro I've been told. So let's just
dive right in and take a listen here we go.
Great guitar player man. I like how
he's using all his thumb as a. Now I want to stop one thing for my guitar
friends out there. Hey gang if you notice he's grabbing the neck with his thumb
and he's tapping on it with his other hand you know his percussive hand so
he's playing kind of bass notes with his thumb and then he's also doing some of
the pull offs and other chord structures with the rest of his fingers. I used that
technique all the time but very few people do that when you're playing
guitar so that's pretty cool.
Okay now I have to point something out to my singer friends out there. Guys this
is so important. John has gone through two not one but
two throat surgeries over his singing technique and that's because
predominantly of a lack of good support, he doesn't support really well. Now he's
an amazing talent, great songwriter, bluesy guy, decent singer and and and but
the remember me saying that the over use of air is the arch enemy to the voice
and so he hadn't learned how to compress that air and so I even read an article
where he says you know he's even learned to laugh differently because of the way
that that's affected him from his throat surgeries. So there now there's
other people that use a lot of air when they sing and it's definitely not the
healthiest thing. Jason Mraz is one, Jack Johnson is another and it's just a
matter of time over time where that overuse of air will overtake the folds,
it's kinda like taking a flamethrower of air across the folds, the folds become
inflamed and swollen and because of that they don't get good phonation, good cord
closure so we get something called dysphonia or the lack of sound or no
sound and when that happens we find ourself shoving more air across the cord
taking the cricoarytenoid and arytenoid cartilage that holds the vocal
folds together, pulling them tighter and tighter and tighter and shoving more air
across to get phonation, to get sound and that is a recipe for disaster. So he has
you know kind of taken a whole reconsideration to his voice and so instead of (sings)
right you can compress that air (sings)
right. You can actually have compression do the work for you and not use that
much air and subject your voice to that kind of pressure on the folds to
get that kind of inflammation okay. Let's continue and I love John man he's
awesome but I have to point that out because it is important and he did go
through surgeries.
Nice pitch.
And it's a very unique sound too so. It's it's it's hard to say not to do that, you just need to know how to compress correctly.
Big audience man.
You hear how he can (sings) he's kind of breaking it up a little. He's he's having a
tough time keeping kind of even on the low notes and again imagine if you had a
big band around you and you're trying to project, you can't really project with
that kind of sound. Now like I said I know Jack Johnson that's his main staple
and it is the signature of the sound of these guys's voices is to use a lot
of air like that but again over time can be pretty doggone dangerous okay. Anyway
but everything else is awesome I just have to keep pointing that out for my
singing friends out there because we talked a lot about this stuff so.
See (sings) low note. Kind of struggling just to get to that.
Now that's a pretty sexy way to do that so instead of just kind of belting (sings)
right. So he's finesse fully getting up to that top and he's actually kind of cutting
back the air when he does it and then he comes back down into chest. So (sings) right he
comes back into his chest voice. That was really nice touch.
Head voice (sings)
A sexy fun rhythm man. That's cool.
Now that's cool (sings) right. He's got...he's starting to compress the
sound and that's actually a healthier tone even though it's very throaty,
he's able to kind of recover into that sound and then get some of his voice
back, get some of the bright, timbral sound we've talked about so that it can
resonate with more projection alright here we go.
He and his band kick major butt I gotta add to that you know and they're always
changing it up which is really cool, he's always doing something different. I love that.
A true musician
and artist I should say.
Woo that was great. Okay
as promised I'm gonna hunt down let's see here. I'm gonna go ahead and do let's see.
Come on Ken you just had it. Here it is. Alright so I'm gonna so I think
it starts around 20 seconds in so bear with me guys. I'll just start on
ten seconds and see what happens.
This is from the same show by the way.
Kinda reminds me of Blackbird a little bit.
(sings) right.
Beautiful melody, beautiful guitar thing.
By the way one more thing to again kudos to his musicianship and his artistry. He
chooses some really avant-garde, some really esoteric chords you know what I mean.
Not avant-garde but esoteric chords which means understood only by a chosen few
or in another word some jazz chords if he's
able to integrate into his music and be really outside of the box of just
playing things typically and then putting these really cool melodies on
top of it is no easy task let me tell you that. Say that.
It''s pretty.
Spot on pitch man that's great.
Do you guys here the same, the Jack Johnson influencer that I was
talking about, the kind of similar tone in the voice.
Nice a guitar tone too. It's hard to get an acoustic to sound good live.
And that's true looks like he's using an an SM 58 and old-school one and those are
hard to get to sound that good too.
On his voice.
That's cool. Good whistler. You know I've never been able to whistle.
I don't know yeah it's one thing I never figured out. I can play a lot of
instruments and sing a lot of different stuff but I can't whistle to save my life
I guess if your voice goes out you just whistle right.
Good timing too. You notice he hasn't sped up or slowed down. Very consistent with his
rhythm, rhythmic timing.
Great change.
Smart, smart songwriting.
Very Beatles.
Now of all of the musicians that have come in and out and I mean true
musicians. I don't mean you know people just standing up in a microphone
singing cover songs on a TV show. I mean of true artistry, musicians. They're
very few of them out there and he has just absolutely cut his own path and is
so unique and so different and as really has his own unique personality and style
and songwriting and singing and playing guitar and has just really come into his
own. Kind like you know Jeff Buckley did that and a lot of people, not a lot. A few
artists have done that but the few that have have really stamped their own
signature on something to be this unique which is super awesome. I wish more
people would do that.
It's beautiful.
Really cool guys.
That's awesome. You know John is one of those people for
myself where you could just you know sit and listen to him all night long. There's
very few artists like that. Like I said not just because the uniqueness but also
the spirit that he has when when he sings and when he plays. He just loves
what he does and you can tell it and he loves sharing it you know not so much
showing it off as much as sharing it with everybody and how interesting you
know to be to have that many people in the audience and just to kind of feel
like I'm right there in the in the living room with him as he's just
singing songs right to me so to speak so. Anyway two thumbs straight up for John.
Incredible musician like I said and it's just an honor to be able to get to
do this. Sorry John I wasn't trying to be offensive in any way talking about your
voice. I'm actually you know really concerned about a lot of my singer
friends out there that really need to understand how to use their voices
correctly and I just want to see a lot of success for you and for them as well.
So anyway if you guys like what you heard please like and subscribe to my
channel and until next time peace out.
Hey guys if you like what you heard
please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my channel by clicking on the SUBSCRIBE button. That
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