Hey gang welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing. I'm
continuing my series on How To Sing Like, next up is Layne Staley from Alice In Chains. Before we
get started, if you wouldn't mind, please like and subscribe to my channel, that'd be super cool.
Don't forget to ring that Bell so I can keep awesome videos coming your way and I have a
singing course, the course is called How to Sing Better Than Anyone Else and you can find it
right here at Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy.com where the proof is in the singing. I also have a free
singing forum there guys so if you want to start to learn how to sing, if you're an intermediate singer,
if you're an advanced singer, we have a gob of free tutorials you can post videos to get evaluations,
like I said there's like 20,000 people in there, that's a lot of people, that's a couple of arenas,
big rock arenas, full of people all discussing all these different ideas about singing,
how to get to certain places and singing using the KTVA method. Now I want to say something, I've said
it a few times, I'm going to keep repeating this. Einstein, Albert Einstein said something that is
very prescient which means a lot of foresight. He said that demonstration isn't a way to teach
it's the only way to teach so the only way to really teach you guys how to do this stuff is to
physically demonstrate it. Anything less how could you possibly know, you can't go to a guitar teacher
if that guitar teacher can't physically show you how to do it, just well a little of this, a
little that, take some textbook information, maybe something they learned on the internet they're you
know regurgitating some information. If they don't do it themselves, they really can't teach you guys
how to do it guys, come on let's be realistic about this so it, and a little tip here and there blah,
blah, you think that's really helping, I could be, I could be a personal trainer right now and
tell you to run up and down the block a bunch of times and you think that I'm great because
you think you're getting a little more strength, a little more energy but that information ends very
quickly and you really don't get very far and it's really not expert advice, it's just a little bit of
information a quick tip or trick but it's not the nuts and bolts. So we're gonna get into nuts
and bolts right now. Now I chose "Man In The Box" and this version here I'm going to do with Gabriela
Guncikova, is actually up a full step and a half because Layne didn't sing super high, Gabriela
has a lot of range so in fact I'm gonna grab my guitar real quick because I forget, I think
the original version is in E flat, let me double check this here so yeah. So it's an E flat sorry
I didn't get you too excited, I'm not gonna play the whole song that's why I get a pitch reference.
So you know (sings) right. So if you want to get that out, he grinds into the sound a little bit (sings)
he's got like a real grindy kind of tone. Now in Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy, I kind of
tell you not to do this however, sometimes we have to make exceptions if we're really
truly trying to sound like someone else. So instead of my big open throat (sings)
to get that kind of big sound, we gotta thin the sound out if we're gonna sound like Layne. So we go (sings)
and then if we really want to sound like Layne we bring a lot of mask in (sings)
right. Now another thing he does is the way he compresses his air for distortion is also
not technically correct but it sounds cool right and you can hear the desperation in it so. I remember
seeing a couple concerts with him and two of them and he was pretty drugged out unfortunately
but the guy just left it all on the field, I mean it sounded like he slit both wrists and was like
you know okay this is my last concert and I'm not kidding I mean, I walked away from there and it was
kind of depressing you know it was, I said this before in one of the other videos that I did. In
the grunge era, a lot of these bands and Alice In Chains kind of borrowed a lot from Led Zeppelin
and stuff like that, it was very riff rock oriented unlike the 80s metal movement that was very,
was also riff rock but very corporate and very you know I don't, I don't want to use the word
homogenized but it was very, very corporate. Let's just use that term but, but in, in, in
the grunge era, they kind of went all the way back to like 60s, like you know listen to to a
lot of the Kurt Cobain stuff, you know a lot of Nirvana stuff, was sort of like you know okay we're
going to get in our garage and we're going to bash out a bunch of stuff together as a band
and whatever kind of comes out we'll put some vocals on top of it. So it's more about the vibe of it and
then songs ensued whereas previously in 80s metal which no one seemed to relate to is what kind of
spawned the grunge movement, was when they looked at 80s metal and went I can't relate to that, I don't,
I don't know about you know "Livin' On A Prayer" and all these happy clappy songs and so they kind
of moved to more of a depressed, anguishy kind of thing, you know I hate the world around me, I don't
know how I'm going to live, I don't know where I'm going to live, I can't make any money, I want
to play music, I'm frustrated with my family if I even have any, I'm definitely doing drugs you know
and so you can literally hear the desperation in all of these guys, whether it was Cobain and
Staley whatever, you know even Eddie Vedder which I just did one on Pearl Jam a minute ago and, and
maybe not as much as as Layne Staley but you could really hear, Scott Weiland you know and, and believe
it or not too, Chris Cornell, you know he even discussed a few interviews about him having also
depression issues and so you know as you hear these bands that came out of Seattle, a lot of them
didn't like to be called grunge bands they just wanted to be called you know rock bands whatever,
you know there was Faith No More, you know whatever there was a lot of angst and frustration
and pure desperation and you can really hear it in the music so you know (sings) right. So do it with me kind of (sounds)
kind of grind into the sound. Now you're going to feel a tickle in your throat, especially you know down
in the trachea and that's an esophageal reflex. What happens is, is that you're actually, it's
tickling and you're compressing air all the way down at the glottis and then and then you're kind
of choking off the throat a bit so there's a, at some points you're gonna, what it does is it
kind of makes the whole vocal tract kind of numb after a while and you get used to the sensation
and I'm not instructing you to do this guys, I'm just saying that's how you get the sound.
So I actually come at it from, I go (sings) right. I take a different approach,
the Ken Tamplin method which is more of correct compression so I don't hurt myself,
but in Layne's case to get that sound, that's not how he got the sound so we have to be true to
really what he did so (sings) right and I like the seventh, they throw
in some sevenths at the time, or coming to a major gate you know but anyway let's, let's get Gabriela,
a shot. I'll grab my guitar again after this so I can go back to the original key but this is up,
let me see we did this a full step so that would be F sharp to G. I think this is in the key of G
Pretty cool to have a chick to it you know also.
That shows how my method works.
(sings) Now when (sings) right.
She uses the KTVA method. Now for me I like that sound better because we can actually take that
sound and kind of Dio it up a bit and and really distort the sound. So she, if you notice when she
does (sings) she's much bigger on the sound. Now again I'm singing it up a full step and a half so it's up a
lot compared to the original but she throws down really hard, she does a great job in the chorus, check it out.
Ok so now I'm not, I (sings) I'm not going to sing it up that high because it won't sound like
Layne because Layne's tone is a lot lower, it'll just sound really masky if I go so
(sings) right he's real
(sounds) and he's really pinching and squeezing on the sound. Now
for me I could deceive you and make you think I'm sounding like Layne if I go (sings)
rather than (sounds), I don't know if you can hear the
(sings). Do you hear the difference in the tonality of the two different types, types of distortion.
Well why that's important is one of them actually literally is like taking just vice grips
to my vocal folds and squeezing them as hard as I can and then taking the cricoid retinoid
and retinoid, retinoid cartilage, thyroid retinoid cartilage and pulling the cords
really tight and shoving a bunch of air across, that's one way of doing it.
The way that I'm doing it when I sing it more like Dio, is I'm pulling the cords a little bit
and I'm actually getting them just to relax and using a little bit of false folds,
a little bit of fry and some other things in it, to relax into a state (sings) rather than (sings).
I don't know if you can hear the difference but there's a big difference so one of them really
pinches and squeezes really hard over the chords so but anyways so Gabriela is actually doing the
correct way of distorting the sound, rather than a harmful way and she could sing like this for
hours on end without hurting herself and that kind of distortion that I'm talking about, also gives
you the ability to add percentages of tone. So you can have a little bit of it, a little bit
more, a little bit more until you get full-blown you know blood-curdling screams like I do on
you know the end of what is the casino song, the Chris Cornell song I did,
anyway the James Bond song. Anyway I do a lot of screams like that but
in this case you know it's Layne so let's continue with Layne..
So you hear that. I, notice the whoa how open (sings) right
she's real open and again for me this is up again a full step and a half compared to the original,
so I'm trying to find a way to not make it sound real small, like normally I'd have to bring it up
into the face too but I want you to identify my sound with her sound, how she's getting the
roundness of the sound, the fatness of the sound and still adding the distortion in a safe way
and it's really cool to have a chick do this too rather than just showcasing guys. I do have another
version I've done with another student of mine, did a pretty good job but I thought it'd be fun
also to showcase girls because they're more fun to watch and it's more unique to have a girl do
it too and i could be the guy in this scenario and show you the guide parts right. Here we go.
Cool. Now I want to point out something else. I, I get a lot of bashing, as you guys know I'm a man of faith
and i get a lot of bashing, you know I can't believe you sang this song you know it's so satanic
the devil you know was singing this song, is denying your maker, Jesus Christ, this, that
whatever and I used to think that too. I read this story about how the song was written
and then I also really listened to, instead of just judging somebody, let that be a listen
to all of us, I actually read the lyrics and the lyrics are interesting because you know,
let's, let's go through them. I want to do this just for all all my my judging guys out there so
Oops. Let me go back sorry. Here we go.
Let's look at the, do the lyrics watch.
Feed my eyes.
Can you sew them shut. So he's, he's wrestling with something and he said feed my eyes like one one minute I'm feeding my eyes with something I don't want to see
and the next thing he says well can you sew them shut right. So let's start there, next line.
Jesus Christ and then the next line, is now in this track I put don't deny your maker
but the original is deny your maker and people like oh, see that's the devil.
Well, listen to the next line after this guys.
He's wrestling spiritually with this.
So you know Jesus Christ, deny your maker. He who tries will be wasted right so he's wrestling with
this whole thing going you know gosh you know if I, if I do this, if I do that, I know what the outcome
is and you know if I deny my maker Jesus Christ I'm going to be wasted. So again guys some things
aren't always as they seem so hopefully some of my friends of faith out there would kind of like
you know take off their judgmental hats and, and take a, cause this guy was just really struggling, come
on he committed suicide right. I mean let's think about this these guys are doing drugs and
they're, they're having a really tough time and that's actually epitomized a lot of the grunge
movement I mean look at how many people died. Even Scott Weiland later like he may not have died in
that era but these guys, you know Chris Cornell killed himself, I mean we think he killed himself
but anyway there's a whole debate on that one too for sure. He certainly had depression
issues and he was taking antidepressants too, every time he went on stage and kind of, unfortunately
see that sometimes but all these guys, Eddie Vedder's the only guy i think alive. I don't
even think he does drugs anymore but one of the few guys that have made it out of this whole era
where all these guys are gone now and died early as a direct, Kurt Cobain, right died early
as a direct result of this depression and taking drugs and you know everything that went with it.
So gang hopefully you like what you heard, hopefully that was helpful and again I'm doing most
of this by request so make your request known, put it in the description and check out my next video.