♫
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 85 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you 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
Matthew M. in San Diego, California.
And Matthew writes, get this,
"Dear Justin, I'm learning how to sing to propose to my girlfriend.
And I've been watching your videos on
high larynx, low larynx, chest voice, head voice,
but I'm confused how to put it all together to find my voice."
Now Matthew, this is the greatest idea known to man-kind.
And so for the next 10 minutes or so you can consider me:
Justin Stoney, wingman.
What we're going to do today is we're going to learn
how to put all these technical elements together
to discover our own unique voice.
And if we do things right, there may even be...
["Here Comes The Bride" music]
wedding bells for Matthew.
So let's take step one: where is your larynx?
Now Matthew, you're very right to say
that we need to know where our larynx is when we sing.
Try something for me, find your larynx
and place a finger there.
It's that bump in the middle of your neck.
Good!
Now take a yawn.
[Yawns]
Great, you felt your larynx drop.
Now try a swallow.
That's right, you felt your larynx rise up.
Now there's all kinds of larynx positions
that we can use when we sing.
Lower larynxes give us more darkness and depth to the tone
and higher larynxes give us more brightness in the sound.
You can use that for stylistic effect.
But if you want to sound the most like you,
to have the most authentic sound,
you've got to use the neutral larynx.
Today, we're going to be looking at a love song.
"Can't Help Falling In Love" the classic love song
made famous by Elvis.
And we're going to apply these tools to the singing.
Now I can't really use my low larynx here, right?
♫ Wise men say ♫
I don't want to have all of that depth.
But I also can't really use my high larynx.
♫ Wise men say ♫
It's not gonna be right, nope.
I want to sound the most like me.
♫ Wise men say ♫
So I use my neutral larynx.
How do we know what larynx we're using?
It's as easy as placing a finger there.
We're not going to hold it down,
we're not putting any pressure on the larynx,
we're just using that for information.
So if you're trying to get that neutral larynx
you know what you're doing.
Now step two: what vocal register are we in?
You're also very right Matthew to ask
what vocal registers should I sing in?
Now for good vocal technique we want to develop
all the vocal registers.
But that doesn't mean we sing a song
in all the vocal registers.
I don't want to be in falsetto...
♫ Shall I stay, would it be a sin ♫
She gonna throw you out on the curb.
[Hits piano]
But I also don't want to be using
my full, thick, chest voice either.
♫ Shall I stay, would it be a sin ♫
Yes, yes it would be a sin
if you sing a love song like that.
No!
I want to take the strength of my thyroarytenoid dominant chest voice
and the flexibility of my cricothyroid dominant falsetto and head voice,
and merge those together in a kind of mixed blend.
♫ Shall I stay, would it be a sin ♫
And it's got both the flexibility of the top
and the strength of the bottom together.
Feels like talking, sounds like talking on pitch.
And that gives it its authentic sounding quality.
So how are we going to do this?
We're not going to sing too thick, too big, too heavy, too loudly.
We're not going to sing too softly, too breathily, too lightly.
We're gonna find that speaky quality to the tone right down the center.
Next, step three: what stylistic choices will you use?
Now that you've found your neutral larynx
and your blended vocal registration,
we really get to have some fun with stylistic choices.
There's really no right or wrong to this.
You can add and subtract stylistic choices
in whatever quantity you like.
This is the number one way that you're going to
get the sound of your voice,
your personal performance.
Based on what stylistic choices you choose.
So I'm going to give you some options,
starting with compression textures.
Compression textures is the tension on the cords
that we use when we sing.
Will they be too loose, just right, or too tight?
We're actually going to want to use
combinations of all these textures.
For example, too loose...
♫ If I can't help ♫
Or, just right...
♫ If I can't help ♫
Or, perhaps a little vocal fry.
Too tight for a moment...
♫ If I can't help ♫
That little vocal fry is actually pleasing
in a lot of contemporary circumstances.
So that's compression textures.
Next let's look at straight tone versus vibrato.
Straight tone and vibrato we've talked about in the past.
But we don't want to use either one too much.
♫ Take my hand, take my whole life too ♫
Too much straight tone.
♫ Take my hand, take my whole life too ♫
Too much vibrato.
What about a blend?
♫ Take my hand, take my whole life too ♫
It works very well to have a balance.
Next, riffs.
Riffs aren't something to overdo but the right riff
at the right time can really accentuate your songs.
Here's some examples...
♫ Wise men say only fools rush in ♫
♫
♫ But I can't help falling in love with you ♫
Now that's too many.
But I might find one or two riffs
that I really like for the song.
Next, dynamics.
Dynamics really just means volume control.
Moving from loud to soft gracefully.
This is one of the greatest ways to bring musicianship to your songwork.
♫ Like a river flows surely to the sea ♫
♫ Darling so it goes some things are meant to be ♫
And it really brings a lot of life to the song.
Last, rhythmic variety.
Changing your rhythms is one of the best ways
to bring the words that you want to say to life.
We don't want to be so metronomic all the time.
♫ Wise men say only fools rush in ♫
No, we can do so much more!
♫ Wise men say only fools rush in ♫
And it brings some of the text to the forefront.
So these are some stylistic choices that you can play with
There so, so many more.
But just implementing some of these will help you
to find an authentic style for yourself.
Now, step four: will your soul shine through?
After you've done all this work there's only one thing left to do.
And that is to sing straight from the soul.
To mean every word that you say.
And to look the love of your life right in the eyes
and say this one goes out to you.
♫
♫ Wise men say only fools rush in ♫
♫ But I can't help falling in love with you ♫
♫ Shall I stay would it be a sin ♫
♫ If I can't help falling in love with you ♫
♫ Like a river flows surely to the sea ♫
♫ Darling so it goes some things are meant to be ♫
♫ Take my hand take my whole life too ♫
♫ For I can't help falling in love with you ♫
♫ No I can't help falling in love with you ♫
♫
Matthew, break a leg on the most important
and beautiful vocal performance of your life.
My prayers go out to you and the bride-to-be.
And I hope that's been helpful for all singers today.
If you've got questions you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
So I encourage you don't lose that joy, [♪]
don't lose that passion, don't you dare let people [♪]
tell you that you can't sing, you and I both know it's not true. [♪]
And hey maybe you'll end up like Matthew, [♪]
singing to the love of your life. [♪]
Get with a great voice teacher in your area [♪]
or if you're in New York or you'd like to Skype with one of our staff [♪]
check us out at NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course you can do at home, [♪]
the Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course [♪]
is a twelve part course that takes you on a singing journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find that at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
And if you'd like free vocal tips sent to you every day, [♪]
sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
♫
Manny Cooner, wingcat!