♬
Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 42 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later
but our question for this week comes from Susan P. in Boulder, Colorado.
And Susan writes, "Dear Justin, why do classical singers and teachers
hate on rock and pop singers so much?
Now this is good, Susan.
Thank you so much for bringing this up.
And you know it's not just the classical community
that is sometimes against the contemporary community.
But it's sometimes the contemporary community
that's against the classical community.
And what I want to do today is make peace, okay?
Can't we all just get along?
Because we know that the larynx, the amazing larynx,
is capable of more than one style.
One person can do multiple styles.
So we need to get rid of this old thinking
that one style is superior to another.
Now I'm going to talk to you today about
why there are these misunderstandings that
sometimes cause that hate as you're talking about there, Susan.
And we're going to see if we can really have truth here, okay?
So the larynx to a classical person
needs to be a little bit lower, right?
And the mistake that the classical community has made
is to insist upon that lowness at all costs.
That's a mistake because the larynx can do more than one thing.
But that's why people in the classical world
think that it's dangerous to sing with a higher larynx.
It's not.
It's just another way of doing things.
Now the mistake that rock and pop singers make though
is to think that that lower larynx and that deeper, richer sound
is somehow not natural and somehow doesn't
sound normal or appealing to the ear.
It in fact does, it sounds beautiful.
So I want you guys to know that you can do more than one larynx.
And you can do more than one sound.
And I hope that people keep their minds open
so that we know that we don't have to get stuck in one style.
Now let's talk about the larynx's tendency.
I'm going to talk to you about two amazing sounds
that the larynx can make, alright.
There's more, but two here today.
If I lower my larynx down my cords tend to get looser.
So I have a deep larynx and loose cords.
Right?
Now if I raise my larynx up I tend to get a tight sound.
A very, very squeezed, pinched tight sound.
Neither of these are so amazing.
This is just what the larynx does.
Down, loose.
High, tight.
Now what if I go down and tight and up and loose?
Then I have amazing classical sounds
and then I have amazing pop and rock sounds.
And that's what I'm going to show you today
and also give you a chance to try it.
One more time, it's down and tight.
And up and loose.
So here we go I'm going to show you what I mean
and then you're going to do it later, Okay?
So, amazing sound number one,
larynx down but solid, right?
I'm not going to be breathy I'm going to be solid.
So I'm going to take the song "The Impossible Dream"
from Man of La Mancha, okay.
♪
♪ This is my quest, to follow that star ♪
♪ No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ♪
♪ To fight for the right, without question or pause ♪
♪ To be willing to march into hell, for a heavenly cause ♪
Okay?
So that's pretty cool.
I've got my larynx down but it's a solid, tight sound.
Right?
Awesome.
Now same notes, same range in my voice.
I'm going to do a pop song, raise up my larynx
and let the cords go loose giving it the polar opposite
of that sound that I just did.
Here's "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato
♪
♪ You can take everything I have ♪
♪ You can take everything I am ♪
♪ Like I'm made of glass ♪
♪
♪ Like I'm made of paper ♪
♪
♪ Go on and try to tear me down ♪
♪ I will be rising from the ground ♪
♪ Like a skyscraper ♪
♪
♪ Like a skyscraper ♪
♪ Whoa - Oh ♪
Okay?
Cool.
I raised up but I had looseness to my cords.
Now again, neither of these are bad or good.
The classical sound with a deep larynx and solid cords, awesome.
The high larynx but breathy and not squeezy cords.
Also awesome.
Neither of these do we need to say bad or good.
These are just awesome.
And the amazing larynx does it once again.
We have the capability of so, so many things.
So I hope that starts to break these notions of
right and wrong for you guys.
So that you have possibilities and options.
But now you're going to get the chance to try it.
I'm going to create an exercise here for you guys where
you're going to go first deep and solid
and then the next instant go higher and loose, okay?
So it's going to be this, okay...
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Did you get that?
Low and solid and then high and tight right away.
Take listen again
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Okay so we're gonna have guys down here...
♪
And ladies up here....
♪ BUB- BUB - BUB ♪
Okay and we're gonna go up and down together,
alternating between low and solid, high and loose.
Here we go...
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Nice.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Awesome.
♪
Good for you!
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Nice stuff.
♪
I like it!
♪
That's it.
♪
Solid.
♪
Now loose.
♪
Nice stuff.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Good for you.
♪
Nice.
♪
Good for you.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Nice stuff!
♪
Nice work.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Good for you.
♪
Mhm!
♪
Nice work.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
That's it.
♪
Keep it up. Solid.
♪
Right! Now loose.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
Great.
♪
Two more.
♪
Last one.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - HE - HE - HE ♪
♪
Okay that was great, spectacular stuff.
And so now you guys are actually seeing for yourself
why there's no reason to hate on rock singers
and there's no reason to hate on classical singers.
You can do everything.
You can do everything that you want with
the amazing larynx.
So Susan and all, I hope that starts to
break some of these myths about the voice
and starts giving you the chance to explore
the possibilities of what you can do.
Which is multiple styles, multiple sounds
and so much amazing awesomeness with your larynx.
So I hope that's been helpful for you guys today as singers.
If you have questions you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to, Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And we just encourage you don't lose that joy
don't lose that passion.
Don't let people tell you that you can't sing
or that you can't sing whatever style you'd like to sing,
or that it's going to ruin your voice if you do.
Get with a great voice teacher in your area. [♪]
If you guys are in New York City [♪]
or you want to Skype with us [♪]
you can visit www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
And I really encourage you guys to download our free app [♪]
for iPhone and iPad and hopefully more things later on. [♪]
There's tons of free resources on there. [♪]
Tips, articles, videos, lots of things for you guys to explore. [♪]
That hopefully helps you guys take your voice to the next level. [♪]
You can also visit www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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