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[Alvin] Okay so I want you to be completely honest
[Claude] Uh oh!
[Joel] Don't lie!
[Alvin] Last night, they did the concert without me
and so we were talking about pitch centers
and we're talking about buzzes
and different timbres of the voice
and all that kind of stuff.
What's it like singing with the other bass?
[Claude] Great question.
For me being on top is always a struggle
no matter how good the person is.
Because they're not you.
[Everyone] Awwww.
[Claude] What I mean by that is I'm so used to you
[Alvin] Right.
[Claude] that I know I know where you breathe.
[Alvin] That’s so immature.
[Laugher]
[Claude] The answer to the question though is,
and I think this happens for all of us no matter who
is subbing in, no matter how good or bad they are,
[Alvin] Right, right.
[Claude] you're used to the way this person breathes
[Alvin] Right.
[Claude] you’re used to their timbre.
you're used to all of these things that just
makes it feel homogeneous, you know.
So I can hear, uhh, the gentleman who sang with us,
and he was amazing.
He does a great job.
But there's certain things he does differently,
and there are triggers that I know Vin is gonna do,
and if I don't hear them it's like, okay that's different,
and so now I'm thinking about the song
rather than just singing.
[Alvin] or you might be trying to listen to what he's doing
[Claude] Yes.
[Alvin] Like somebody's coming to kill in their lead
and you're like, oh what's that, and then you miss your part.
[Dave] That's exactly what I was saying when, uh, Khristian
first got in the group.
One of the things that we always work on
is taking six individuals and becoming one organism
so that when we sing, we can sing with our eyes closed.
And know when- when Claude’s about to stop,
when Mark is about to breathe,
when we're about to start.
And when a new person comes in
they don't have that experience yet.
They haven't been with us long enough to actually
understand that.
And so even last night we were singing a specific song
and I really couldn't put my finger on it,
but it was in “Lamb of God”, I said something happened-
[Mark] I could!
[Dave] Something happened right there and it was like whoa.
And suddenly you go out of this subconscious
comfort zone and you wake up
and you’re like, hey what's going on.
[Mark] Yeah, I think the difference between
his voice and your voice is your tone is actually wider.
He has a more direct, you know, tone.
It’s just not- the whole wave is not as wide.
[Dave] But do you think that’s part of us learning how to blend?
Is to not be such an extreme piercing tone?
[Mark] Well, I think you know, everybody has a different timbre.
And even within our own timbres we have various ways
of how we hit notes.
There are sometimes that I might hit a note like,
♪ AH ♪
Or
♪ AH ♪
Big difference.
And depending on where I am, in my, you know,
how comfortable I am at that point.
Do I have, you know, is my voice warmed up enough
to hit it with a just a thin tone
or do I need to use more air and make it wider.
But that actually changes the whole timbre of the whole chord
depending on how you hit it.
[Alvin] It sounds like, you know when we go like to Japan or wherever,
and we hear a group doing our music and the notes are right
But it’s not us. There’s something that’s just…
[Joel] Well the other thing that happened with him too
is I think he had to use the original recording
to learn his part.
Over the years we have changed even
the original arrangement.
So after singing these songs thousands of times together,
there are little things that we've done differently
and we adjust to those little adjustments
and then it becomes something that is completely different
that when he sang the original, for me it was like,
“Ah, oh that's the original recording, let me go back”
and so now where you weren't thinking before
because you were in your natural state,
now you're in your adaptive state
because you have to adapt back to,
“oh that's the original recording”.
[Khristian] I think- oh go ahead.
[Justin] Yeah well I just want to say I think
we're pretty close to covered on the harmonies topic.
[Laughter]
But that's the biggest one I wanted to hit,
so I'm glad we went into depth.
But maybe we can just wrap up this topic
with any other thoughts if I'm a beginner
and I really want to start harmonizing,
what steps- people have mentioned, you know, listening-
but what's my next step or what's my first step
if I'm a beginner and I really want to start harmonizing?
[Mark] Well, yeah, oh go ahead waxing Dave.
[Dave] No man, Mark you’re the master.
[Mark] No man, I thought you had something to say
[Khristian] The waxing master.
[Alvin] It's the Commandments, right?
Affiliate with a group.
[Dave] That's exactly what I was going to say.
I mean one of the things after you start listening
and just start consuming,
you have to then start practicing.
It's like a lab, you know, you're gonna have to be with a group.
You know what I mean?
Just to see how it feels.
[Mark] I would say, you know, obviously practice
the simpler harmonies first,
get used to how that actually feels
singing against somebody that's singing
the third part.
[Justin] Yeah.
[Justin] Get used to it.
Then you know expand that with getting, you know,
you know soprano, alto, sing the tenor part.
You know, get used to what a tenor part feels like.
Because it has a certain feel throughout.
And, you know, if you can find the fourth part
then get used to what that feels like,
but gradually just build yourself,
build your learning, you know.
And, you know, more than that it's good to be able
to recognize what those parts are.
Know what a tenor part is.
Pick out the notes in the chord.
[Justin] Yeah.
And one of the things that I'm teaching
my private students now when I teach harmony
is I'll play a chord, a simple one,
and you tell me what you hear.
Tell me all the notes that you hear.
And you know if they're missing
chances are they're gonna miss one, you know.
And we'll find it and they'll recognize the note,
and next time I play the chord they're gonna know it.
They're gonna know how to figure out what
the inner note is that they missed before.
Because they're now listening for it.
So it's like ear training.
[Justin] That's cool.
[Mark] Yeah.
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