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Alvin I want to her from you about a couple things
we want to hear your warm-up process for sure.
And then your low notes are of course legendary.
I know folks would love to understand something
about how to improve one's low range
I don't think any of us are pretending
we'll ever get down where you can go.
But, nevertheless, any tips that you can share
with us about your experience in the low ranges?
Okay so for warm-ups…
First, I've been able to get away with murder for years.
God just gave me a low voice
and pretty much with Take 6 with a mic
I don't really sing loudly, I don't really sing truly
out of my range.
So I can I can pretty much get away with it.
However, as I'm getting older and I'm doing different things
I'm I'm starting to notice that when I don't warm up
I get this rasp that you hear now.
So what works for me is the singing straw
with the back pressure.
That philosophy, for whatever reason,
it warms up or goes through a mechanism that I have
never engaged before and it helps me to be able to
reach new heights.
So here's an interesting thing that I've noticed recently.
I’ve been singing with the LA Opera.
And I guess as a stereotype you would think that
there's ♪ ME ME ME ♪
all the stuff you'd be hearing in the dressing room.
Very little of that.
You hear very little vocalizations in the dressing room.
And I talked to one of the lyric tenors.
Incredible high notes.
Just an amazing voice.
And I said, the guy's name is Barry, I said
is it true that you don't warm up at all?
He said yes I've never warmed up.
I said how do you do that?
He says, I never mark my rehearsals.
Especially my high notes.
If you're going to mark something, mark your low stuff.
And I’ll always know since I'm constantly singing
what I can do.
And I notice with these guys
in our dressing room you hear constant singing.
As we're driving along around the town
you'll hear constant singing.
Somebody will be singing and somebody will join it.
W’ere constantly warming up.
Umm, it's just kind of more of a culture
than a specific training or we're trying to get somewhere.
It's just like we're in that mode.
[Dave] It’s socializing versus working.
[Alvin] And it helps us relax.
It helps us to be able to bond with each other
and all that kind of stuff.
So I've learned a lot of different things about myself
that uh I’ve got to observe physics like everybody else.
As far as low notes are concerned,
just relaxing.
Either it's in there or it's not.
I just, I literally ♪ AH ♪
I just breathe this stuff down.
But I have to control myself even if I did that right now
when I was nervous you would hear it.
And what I've learned about bass singing is when
you constrict your voice through stress or pressure
or whatever it is, the timbre changes.
I can always tell young basses.
They've got this ♪ intensity ♪
You know, you can't blend with the guys
or whoever you're with.
It jacks up your breathing.
All that stuff.
Relax, relax, relax, relax.
If God has put it in there it will come out.
Back to the first question you asked about
being a bass with the breathing,
I can't keep up with these guys as far as holding notes like that.
They're just- they just- the physics, I'm hitting a note that I can't sustain.
But if I want to even attempt to get the length that they get
I truly just have to control my volume, control my breathing,
as I expel.
You know, to be able to do that.
It's just about control.
Relaxed control.
[Justin] Yeah.
[Khristian] When you said that it made me think about something
that I've never had to really be concerned about
growing up in, you know, in black church really.
Um, you just belt out everything.
[Justin] Yeah.
[Khristian] The microphone was just something that was there
just because.
Really!
Because you were blowing your face off.
And so what I've learned in this group is
you have to trust your engineers,
you have to let the mic do the work,
because if I'm singing, I don't care, whatever song we're singing,
if I'm pushing out- which also has to do with blending,
[Justin] Yeah.
[Khristian] We didn't have to worry about that
in the church or in the choir really, honestly.
Because it was just- you just go for it.
But in a group setting and my note is the only one,
I'm the only one singing this note and it's important to this chord.
So if I'm just belting it out and not allowing the microphone
to do the work then I am going to run out of air.
It is going to cause me to get fatigued faster
and by the time we get to the end of the show
even though I can still hit the notes
I won't have any sustaining power because
I've let it all out, you know.
[Mark] And chances are you will not blend
[Khristian] Yeah oh no, yeah.
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