- There seems to be some misunderstanding in online land
about the difference between singable notes
versus performance notes.
The confusion seems to come from the idea
that would suggest that if you can sing a note
as a part of a scale,
then you should be able to sing that same note
as a part of a song.
Now, that sounds logical enough
until you try to put the theory into practice.
(crowd cheers)
- [Woman] Soundcheck.
(microphone squeals)
- Today I want to show you the difference
between singable notes and performance notes
using my own voice.
And I'm going to do this in three stages.
Firstly, I'm going to sing a five note scale
with a lip bubble and we'll see how high I can go.
And just so we keep our little experiment equal
across the three stages,
I'm going to start the scale on E3
because that will be the lowest note of the melodic tune
I'll be singing for the third stage,
which we'll get to soon.
But, first, let's do the lip bubbles.
Starting on E3.
(piano rings out)
Whoa, we'll do it as major scale.
(Dr. Dan vocalizes in scales)
(gentle music)
(Dr. Dan vocalizes in scales)
I locked up there on the last one.
Okay.
So my highest singable note,
when sung using a lip bubble is a Bb5.
Now I'll sing the same five note scale
on an ah vowel, and I'll do myself do my best
not to choke myself to death this time.
Here we go on an ah vowel.
(piano rings out)
(Dr. Dan vocalizes in scale)
(gentle music)
(Dr. Dan vocalizes in scale)
I'd probably give myself the A there, just.
Interestingly, I could reach not dissimilar top note
and in this case, an A5 to, what was it before, a Bb5?
I went singing on an open vowel.
So let's find out what happens
if I change the vowel to an E shape.
Here we go.
(Dr. Dan vocalizes in scales)
(gentle music)
(Dr. Dan vocalizes in scales)
I'm not going to give myself the A5 on that one.
So that was an Ab5.
And as you can hear,
there is a difference between my R and E vowels.
I'm intentionally allowing my voice to present in a very raw
and unpolished way,
which is not too difficult
due to the vocal load my voice has already carried today.
And this brings us to stage three,
with stage one having been the lip bubbles
and stage two being the vowels,
with stage three being a melodic tune.
Now, the melodic tune I've chosen for our little experiment
is taken from the final stanza in "Pity the Child,"
the slow rock ballad from the musical, "Chess."
This is a song I used to sing in my twenties and thirties,
and I always found the final note a challenge,
dare I say, I still find it a challenge.
Now let me sing the tune and then we'll talk about it.
The starting note is a F3, but we do visit the E3,
which we were starting on previously for the scales.
♪ Pity the child, but not forever ♪
♪ Not if he stays that way ♪
♪ He can get all he ever wanted ♪
♪ If he's prepared to pay ♪
♪ Pity instead the careless mother ♪
♪ What she missed ♪
♪ What she lost when she let me go ♪
♪ And I wonder does she know ♪
♪ I wouldn't call: a crazy thing to do ♪
♪ Just in case she said who ♪
(Dr. Dan laughs)
Still struggling with it.
As you can probably hear, I can sing those notes,
but the context of the melody and what the text requires
dictates that the final note is C5,
which is sung on an oo vowel,
my personal hardest vowel, is challenging to say the least.
So that's C5.
(C5 plays)
(Dr. Dan vocalizes)
Now notice, when I jump onto the note out of context,
boom, I can sing it.
And that C5 sits around a perfect fourth,
actually it's nearly an octave, not a perfect fourth,
below the Bb5 I sang with the lip bubble.
That C5 is almost an octave below the lip bubble
that I sang for the top note for the lip bubble
and pretty much the straight open vowels also.
So what might happen if I try to sing the same-
And can I just say-
I'm just going to do this for a bit of fun,
because it's going to be a hot mess.
What might happen if I try to sing the same melody up a-
Let's split the difference of what I achieved
with the lip bubble.
Let's go to a diminished fifth.
Which will sit the top note in the vicinity
of the top notes halfway there
with what I achieved with the lip bubbles.
So that means I'm going to be starting to sing the tune,
the "Pity the Child" tune on a B3.
You guys.
♪ Pity the child but not forever ♪
♪ Not if he stays that way ♪
♪ He can get all he ever wanted ♪
♪ If he's prepared to pay ♪
♪ Pity instead the careless mother ♪
♪ What she missed ♪
♪ What she lost when she let me go ♪
♪ And I wonder does she know ♪
♪ I wouldn't call: a crazy thing to do ♪
♪ Just in case she said who ♪
(Dr. Dan laughs)
Now, of course you would never perform this song
like that, context is everything.
A top note sung at the extreme of your range
doesn't just sit out and on its own.
Every note is preceded by other notes
and those notes each have vowel shapes and consonants
that determine whether or not that final note will be sung
or squealed.
And of course, we haven't even discussed the difference
between singing scale notes
or melodic tunes for that matter.
In the comfort of privacy of your practice space
when compared to the heightened experience
of hitting those very same notes successfully
in performance in front of a live audience.
I think the reality is,
there are going to continue to be singing teachers
who want to suggest that if you can sing a note in a scale,
then you can sing it in performance.
But hopefully my funny little video today,
and the experiment that we've conducted together
helps you to see that it isn't that simple.
And in fact, it's not always possible.
I look forward to reading your comments
about your thoughts and experience on this topic.
I'm Dr. Dan. Sing well.