one of the most iconic yet relatable enjoyable intense yet relaxed voices
in all of rock history what is it about Kurt's voice that can coddle
us and slap us around at the same time well to start uncovering the secret as
to why Kurt's voice is so special we first need to listen to good old west scantland
Fitness
mainly laughing because this is how so many singers start by trying to get intensity
out of their voice they actually tense up which is the opposite of the intensity that
we love listen to and more importantly watch Kurt in the same section [Music]
you hear the pain you hear rasp you hear intensity in both voices but look at how
Kurt is he's relaxed right his face is it's almost dead pan Wes's face is not that way it's
pain it's striving there's a complete disconnect between between the experience he's having and
the experience we have as a listener this is the first reason we love Kurt's voice so well
it's not a direct dig on on Wes's approach but more an observation that we can begin to turn
inward if we're comfortable in our own state of expression even if we are emoting and relating
to painful things we will be able to invite people into an experience whereas trying to
be something or someone or trying to go for a particular sound ends up repelling The Listener
or viewer which leads me to my next Rabbit Hole of why we like Kurt's voice so much to do this
we're going to look at the same note we're going to compare Wes's approach again to Kurt's approach
this is a spectral analyzer and we can see the concentration of different frequencies within
this note here is Wes here is Kurt you say great Chris they sound different and they look different
what are we looking at and why well we have to take the way they were recorded into account
but let's look at Wes's spectrograph here a high concentration of the fundamental tone you know
there is some emphasis here in harmonics that's what we're looking at we're looking at harmonics
when we go up this graph but look at Kurtz you can see that we have a good concentration down
here of the fundamental pitch but look at how much more pronounced certain harmonics
are there is heat up here even on the same note natural hormone distortions like what we see in
Kurt's voice is what draws many ears to the sound of Records instead of purely digital
recordings there's a small chorusing effect on Kurt's voice and Wes's voice is way brighter
you would think that because of the extra EQ and audio compression on Wes's voice that there would
be more representations of those other harmonics but that's not the case the harmonic richness
that comes out of a single note from Kurt is far greater than what we see and hear with Wes there's
also tuning on Wes's voice which you can hear and there's not tuning on Kurt's voice we don't know
it when we're listening there's this thing that happens when when tuning is in the mix even if
it's subtle it disconnects us from the person who is singing this doesn't mean that Wes has a bad
voice but it does mean that it's been curated and tamed in a way that Kurtz has not let's listen to
some short isolated passages that give away even more about what we like about Kurt's voice Wes
all the way I hear Precision I hear pitch Precision I hear timing Precision some
good intensity on the on the higher layers there it's precise to the sterile degree Kurt [Music]
new legs
relax
the shoot is gone there's a floppiness the presence of imprecision and relaxation I find
myself breathing easier as I listen to Kurt's section than I do Wes's section I want more
of this he knows how to move his placement resonance and air around without involving
muscles that don't need to be involved at all this is the difference between what
we see Kurt doing and what we see Wes doing two simple things how we let air come out and
where we place that air as it's coming out as I experiment with holding back air and letting
air out more freely and holding it back and making my pitch go up and down my flexibility
Dynamic placement and relaxed nature help me bring out those harmonic distortions that we
saw and love so much in Kurt's voice and as I say different words and move my resonance
around more through my nose less through my nose with lower larynx with a higher larynx I
do so again with non-judgment and acceptance that what comes out of my mouth is going to
be for better for worse a shared experience and instead of your intensity being tied to pushing
and striving and contorting plus reach Let It Be sighing and reflecting and moaning come on
ask let this sort of passivity let this sort of experiential mindset and attitude infiltrate and
Encompass everything you do if you want more help with this click the link below and join my free
voice course and for more on the style of Kurt Cobain check out this video good in a completely
different way than Chris Cornell's Voice or Axel Rose Voice or even Lane Staley's voice