Hey guys welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing.
I'm continuing my series on taking isolated vocal tracks of some of the most epic, legendary pieces
of music of all time. Next up is Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall is the singer obviously, the song is
called "Sara Smile". Before we get started if you wouldn't mind, please like and subscribe to my
channel that would be really cool. I have a singing course if you guys are interested in wanting to
learn how to sing or you're a medium grade singer or an advanced singer. You can find it right here
at KenTamplinVocalAcademy.com, the course is called How to Sing Better Than Anyone Else
where I also have a free singing forum over there with about 25,000 singers all talking about
how to get great at singing okay. Now I want to say some things about this tune I did a version of it
I'll put it in the description you can see how I did. I didn't do that great of a job most of the
stuff I feel like I did a really good job, this one is just kind of schmidt for me so
you can schmidt me if you want when you listen to it in the description but the reason I
feel that I didn't is because Daryl is so unique in the way he sings, not just his phrasing,
not just his mixed voice, not just his falsetto but his sensitivities in his phrasing and also just
his personality and let me explain what I mean by this. If I were to sing most rock anthems, a Bon
Jovi song or a Def Leppard or so you know whatever it is right, 80s rock anthem, 90s or anthem or
I'll kind of even, even, even a big ballad or something for Whitney Houston, no that's a bad
example because she does have a lot of trills and stuff but anyway just something that's you know
kind of on the square on the dotted line it's not that hard for me to sing I can dissect it,
memorize it, kind of get pretty doggone close and I'm good to go. I remember when I was doing
this tune and I'm going wow this is really hard. It reminded me when I tried to do George Michael too
I did, I have done a couple of George Michael things like "Freedom 90" for example and, and I, and
I was attempting to do this and I went you know it's kind of like singing Al Green or something
I'm like, I'm just not going to be that good at his sound I'm just going to have to sound more like me
in the song so I've done that with Donnie Hathaway which is true, like I said Al Green, you know I've
done you know a few artists like that and this is one of those artists where when you're trying to
imitate or em. Now it's good to get the influence of it and it's good to attempt it and try it,
but I don't pretend that I'm that good at it okay. i just pretend that I understand it.
Maybe if I just sat there forever and this is true for Stevie Wonder, I don't care who it is
with this kind of phrasing and sensitivity but I, so I really want to focus on that as we're going
through this and take a real close you know microscopic listen to this. Check it out.
Now (sings) yeah i can get all the notes, yeah I
can sing it in pitch, yeah I could get some mixed voice together but it's like he's talking to you.
Imagine this for a second okay let's say I'm saying to you hey guys how you guys doing today
I'm Ken Tamplin blah blah blah got to this I'm doing that and man I just can't wait until you (sounds)
right and I, I say this this phrase and now it's your job to play that back and match the inflections and
everything the way, and this is even more intense because it's really sensitive but it's your job
now to match that exactly and you're gonna go I can't do that that's you talking, I, how am
I supposed to sound exactly like you and not mess up, exactly. So when a piece of music is written and
it's kind of written out and you know pete ellis dodge long beach freeway firestone exit southgate
right, there's that and then there's this. Okay so check it out again.
Cool. Now I got to bring the track in because you could go well I can do that, I can do that,
no you can't, you can try but check it out with the track, how sexy this is with the track.
Okay now let me point something out, now I'm gonna do this
I'm gonna, I'm gonna butcher it for a second so I'm gonna go (sings) right.
Now what happened was I missed how he hesitates on some parts, how he pushes something else, how he's
keep, he comes back you know he's really piano on it and then he comes forte and then he comes
piano or you know crescendos and diminuendos back and forth and he's (sings)
right and he's just got all this stuff going on you're like, he's in the moment man he's like,
he's singing to this girl and he means it you know what I mean. So I'm gonna put the track back in.
See that (sings) right he's
okay. I get it, I get it, no wonder he was like the king of blue-eyed soul that was
sort of one of his claims to fame early on. So let's continue, whoops here we go.
Did you guys get all that, did you hear how sexy that was. Did you hear how sexy that was I mean
that was sexy. Check this out now listen to it with a band. It's one thing to hear it alone
and it's cool but the way it sits in the track and Clarence who played on this god rest his soul he's
no longer with us, who's playing the keys on this. Wow it's just, nobody's stepping on anybody and
everybody's giving everybody space to be sexy right, Check this out.
Now in this section here,
I felt like okay I think I can fake this part (sings)
right cause he's a little more straight
on the groove on it. Check it out so.
Until he gets to (sings) and he's got (sings).
He's got these little trills at the end that you know you're gonna have to memorize those too right.
(sings) right
that great control and mixed voice. So guys when you're doing this I want you to
really try to kind of stay on the head voice side the whole time (sings)
right. (sings)
right. So try to get like (sings).
Try to go in and out of chest and head with mixed voice. (sings)
right. Get in and out of that space with a lot of mixed voice
and then you'll kind of get close to the sound but if you don't and you try to muscle through it
you'll never make it, it'll just be, you'll be too thick on the bottom you'll over bloat the
bottom and you won't be able to get through the passaggio with that kind of sensitivity
and go into head voice with that kind of sensitivity as well.
So good.
He always does (sings) you know those kinds of things at the end too. Now I can only imagine the guy that
did the tracking, engineering for this, for the vocal must have driven him nuts
he had to probably use at least, at least two compressors so he probably used one
that was real up front and then when he leans into the (sings) you know kind of leans into, he used one
on the backside to grab anything that was too big or too loud so they could have a mean average and
everything kind of sound really smooth because it's really hard to track something like this man let me tell you.
Now we got to put this track back in man cause you got to how this
is, how this phrasing is going against the track.
So good. Gosh man. I think this, I heard it said about "I've Been Waiting For A Girl Like You"
but I think this song also increased the population of planet earth significantly.
So good.
Phew. Makes me sweat just thinking about it. Anyway gang hopefully you enjoyed this as much as I
enjoyed sharing it and the information and we're all learning together, I'm still learning and every
time I listen to these tracks I'm just wowed. I am just, no wonder this track has been around for
so long and no offense, no wonder new songs just kind of come in and out real quickly without the
staying power, the legendary staying power of a tune like this but anyway thank you for joining,
joining me, please don't forget to like and subscribe to my channel that'd be really cool if
you're interested in singing, check out my singing course and definitely check out my next video.