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6:24 am
August 19, 2014
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How to sing high notes is a common question and so I want to outline the roadmap in this post. After this thread, you won't suddenly be granted the ability to sing high notes, but it will inform you on the necessary ingredients required. It will show you the types of things you need to be learning from either a coach/course/book etc.
Firstly, here are some points...
- If you think learning how to sing high notes is about pushing and straining in the throat you are dead wrong!
- Singing powerfully is never effortless. It is the management of effort/tension in the support mechanism.
- Singing with excessive breathiness will prevent proper compression/closure and will cause you to flip, go hoarse and can cause vocal damage.
- When stretching the chest up high, the resonance still needs to shift to the head creating a mix, otherwise you will always be PUSHING AGAINST A CEILING.
Read the full article here:
http://www.grow-the-voice.com/.....notes.html
Here's the video:
Good singing to you.
@PhilMoufarrege
Online Vocal Coach, Singer/Songwriter
Grow-The-Voice.com | PHILMOUFARREGE.com
5:25 am
September 2, 2014
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From what i noticed about Michael Jackson's belting ability.
He has different timbers and prefers to use head mix over chest mix
Chest mix sounds like a well pulled up chest(multiple C#5s on the earth song) so is it just chest?
He was trained by Seth Riggs, an SLS teacher. And doesn't SLS teach early bridging? If so, how did Michael learn to sing so well in chest mix or pulled chest up to C#5. Isn't chest mix and pulling chest taboo in SLS?
From what i noticed about Adam Lambert's belting ability
Brassy and resonant
Chest mix goes up to E5 and chest voice seams like it can be pulled up to C#5(Ring of Fire, Mad World)
Trained using Bel Canto technique
Both these guys have higher placed voices and learn different forms of vocal technique but yet can pull up chest. Is this the reason why Seth Riggs is the only good SLS teacher around who can teach his students to do things Bel Canto teachers can teach and show?
I don't get how Michael could pull up chest while using SLS technique. Its so oxymoron to me
6:52 am
August 19, 2014
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Justin Chew said
He has different timbers and prefers to use head mix over chest mix
Chest mix sounds like a well pulled up chest(multiple C#5s on the earth song) so is it just chest?
I prefer not to use the terms "chest mix" "head mix". The way I define things, there is only one mix and then you can choose to be lighter or heavier. This may be what you mean by "chest mix/head mix".
The mix is when your resonance shifts from chest to head. Some coaches call the mix "head voice" which is fine too. I have always taught headvoice to be a falsetto without breathiness. When you feel this resonance shift, you will still be singing in chest but you will feel it in your head and the ceiling on your voice lifted. Yes MJ was singing in chest, but it was a mix.
Here is a video I made that goes into more detail about the mix:
Justin Chew said He was trained by Seth Riggs, an SLS teacher. And doesn't SLS teach early bridging? If so, how did Michael learn to sing so well in chest mix or pulled chest up to C#5. Isn't chest mix and pulling chest taboo in SLS?
Because MJ started training with Seth I believe in the early 80s due to some vocal trouble after the Victory Tour. MJ had already been professionally singing for over 20 years before meeting Seth. MJ was a naturally gifted singer. Listen to him at age 11 (skip to 0:40):
He was belting long before he met Seth. And how much Seth taught him is unknown. As far as from what I've heard in the audio files, he just took MJ through some scales and "warmed him up". Also judging from MJ's depositions around the early 90s (he had been training with Seth for almost a decade at this point) he was still getting hoarse after his concerts. Now this could be him ignoring Seth's teachings or Seth just not teaching him properly, who knows. But I imagine that MJ would have sung the scales balanced like Seth wanted and then just went to town with the belting in the concert/studio.
Justin Chew said
Both these guys have higher placed voices and learn different forms of vocal technique but yet can pull up chest. Is this the reason why Seth Riggs is the only good SLS teacher around who can teach his students to do things Bel Canto teachers can teach and show?
Seth understands the things that many good bel canto teachers understand. One most SLS teachers don't understand is that those consonant exercises are crutches to help learn the right sensations. Then you must learn to sing with open vowels. Many SLS and SS coaches don't understand this. Also the volume and weight must be right. Too little weight in the sound will not grow the voice. Seth knew this.
Justin Chew said I don't get how Michael could pull up chest while using SLS technique. Its so oxymoron to me
He wasn't. He was just singing the way he's always sung.
@PhilMoufarrege
Online Vocal Coach, Singer/Songwriter
Grow-The-Voice.com | PHILMOUFARREGE.com
9:51 pm
August 17, 2014
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Justin Chew said
He was trained by Seth Riggs, an SLS teacher. And doesn't SLS teach early bridging? If so, how did Michael learn to sing so well in chest mix or pulled chest up to C#5. Isn't chest mix and pulling chest taboo in SLS?...
Both these guys have higher placed voices and learn different forms of vocal technique but yet can pull up chest. Is this the reason why Seth Riggs is the only good SLS teacher around who can teach his students to do things Bel Canto teachers can teach and show?
I don't get how Michael could pull up chest while using SLS technique. Its so oxymoron to me
Ok, I want to make a little clarification here since my primary training was from a first generation SLS teacher. Whether or not you bridge early has more to do with WHOM you train under rather than the method itself. From the times I've seen Seth himself teach (private lessons), he doesn't have people bridge early; it's mainly the other SLS teachers who do that. What's really ironic is that a lot of the SLS teachers say to "lighten up" as you go higher, but I've never actually once hear Seth himself say that! He just says find your head voice/head resonance.
11:46 pm
September 2, 2014
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Another thing. What about michael bolton. He definitely mixed his voice but it is so chesty that it doesn't even sound like a mix.
Can basses, baritones di what he does and how does he do it. I am pretty sure he bridges very late
1:45 am
August 19, 2014
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Justin, everyone singing that high is mixing. Good vowel modifications, good support, glottal compression, bridging late and many years of singing is how Michael Bolton sings the way he does. Many people think they are training those things and so they say "well why am I having problems with my voice?! It must be something else!" Sometimes it is something else. But 9/10 it's the fundamentals.
You are training with a coach right? They should explain to you the process of building the voice, then it's just a matter of doing.
@PhilMoufarrege
Online Vocal Coach, Singer/Songwriter
Grow-The-Voice.com | PHILMOUFARREGE.com
3:09 am
September 2, 2014
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But still. Even if you bridge late, you still can hear some head in the voice but michael somehow knows how to cover the tone of any head voice in his upper mixed belts which sadly caused him some range due to his limit bing a strained F5
I have not asked my coach this question yet
10:00 am
September 2, 2014
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....5vTjdOTMGE
Check this video out. Freddie's technique wasn't really good during the 80s but on the miracle and innuendo, Queen stopped touring and partying. Look at how Freddie's voice and technique cleaned up. Furthermore, he was dying of AIDS. He had nodes, was dying and so weak that he could barely walk yet recorded The Show Must Go On in one take.
SALUTE TO YOU LORD MERCURY
9:45 am
September 2, 2014
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My day job is centered around analysis, so it's very easy for me to get wrapped up in minutia. That being said, I think that a lot of folks overanalyze many processes to the point of limitation.
It's certainly good to be well read, and I would never discourage anyone from the process of research. But when we start to draw conclusions based on concreted ideas, the room for growth begins to cave-in. I believe that everyone who's looked into voice study for even a week will find that there are lots of clashing ideaologies and terminologies. To boot, text-based communication in all forms is inherently flawed due to the possibility of misinterpretation; this, coupled with word of mouth, can certainly bungle-up a person's perception of reality.
This in mind, when it comes to singing, I find that I'm better off with more doing and less thinking.
"There is still a future with music, because people want music." - MJK
9:48 am
September 8, 2014
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"It's not how many notes you know. It's what you do with them."
10:56 am
September 3, 2014
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Writing about singing is like dancing about electronics :P.
Felipe Carvalho
Singer and Voice Teacher in Brasil - São Paulo
12:08 pm
September 2, 2014
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TommyTheHat said
All I can say is "Yes"
Especially that last line...great post.
Thanks man! 
Felipe Carvalho said
Writing about singing is like dancing about electronics :P.
Hey now... the robot is a very popular dance! 
I digress, totally true and yet hilarious statement. I like your style, Felipe!
Ultimately my sentiment was that there's no way to read/write/debate our way into great singing/expanded range/smooth passagio. We have to vocalize and sing to acheive this. 
"There is still a future with music, because people want music." - MJK
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