You are right Daniel. BUT singers must also learn to take vowels as high as possible without any modification to truly understand the limits of each sound. If they constantly modify they get confused and never learn to take the hard vowels up freely as high as they can go. A singer needs to understand both maintaining purity and modifying really, though I haven't made that clear in my video.
Being African American I've noticed Black and Southern Americans almost intuitively understand phonetics and it's almost exclusively the secret to out runs, riffs and dynamic range and it baffles me how people don't hear it. What works for me is to take the scale of A-E-I-O-U and Borrow from the highest shape (for me) which is Aah (as in at) and and the lowest being uh (as in ugh)... My coach always stressed that O is the natural high point which is why people struggle to turn off falsetto for O's but I never agreed. Love your video's man, I wonder how well you handle melissma
With this exercise and video, are you referring to singing through the break / mixing, please? If I 'belt', I must modify the vowels else they sound strained and 'splatty'. I can mix, but I lack power in this coordination - Would you consider vowel modification 'stabilisers' for someone who cannot sing 'mix' yet, and can only belt? Thank you
One distinction that may be helpful is traditional notions of singing (not just opera) versus pop vocalizations, which can include all kinds of things (and may require substantial technological enhancement as well).
Sang for the 1st time in 2 weeks, worked though your pre show warm up. That coupled with many videos from you over the last 2 weeks had me hyper focused on my technique..the warm up had me feeling my fatigue at about the 7 min point. I waited 15 min and had a great 2 hour session. Think about guys like Eddie Vedder, and Michael McDonald who barely use words in their vocals. There are some Doobie Brothers songs that are 1 constant vowel movement in my humble opinion. Thank you Coach, these exercises have helped me beyond belief. I eagerly await the day I can repay you!
Just kidding. Carl covers a lot of ideas that aren't covered by other singing channels I subscribe to. I like the quirky somewhat experimental approach. Taking his advice, every time I record myself singing, I hear improvements. It also reminds me why I should stick to playing bass
Chris Wilson Watched a few of your videos, you have a great voice ! You can see my old ass singing on Resurge Pulse on youtube, I'm the guy doing 7 nation army, whole Lotta love, paranoid...we are a bunch of veterans trying to make a difference....cheers!
Tommy Cox oh god, I'm so sorry.....about you finding my channel. And I'm sorry you won't get that bit of your life back....but hey that's TH-cam. You can tune into live streaming of kittens....or grass growing.... I'll check those vids out of yours. I'm a much better bass player. This is me on bass....and guitar. youmightdie.org/em.mp3 They used it on the No Agenda podcast. The clip was from the show. I've kind of got bass down, though I could always do better. Guitar is a challenge, but I can fool people into thinking I'm a guitarist I'm working on being able to sing well enough to fool people I can sing. I need to practice more Btw it was really hard to sing that Christmas carol without pissing myself laughing.
Guys, I know anyone can sing all the vowels eeven on belting. If you cant find position for the vowel, try find a new position for the hole thing. It much better when you sing in one position and have all the options. You can just stay there and express feelings! I thought I can't make a certain vowels with more solid sounds. I found that I'm changing position of my roof and tongue root for U and E vowels. I decided trying to stay in the same position with upper part of my mouth, don't squeeze larynx but let my self instinctively do everything else. It's like gug type of shape, where tongue intuitively closes throat while jaw can move anywhere it needed. It was unnatural, for sometime, but finally I made it. And now I feel like I found a better position for my harder approach. I thought I just gone crazy - cause I could sing Ee Uu only on lighter approach. Too light for a lot of good old rock songs. I mean sometimes you should work not only from the problematic spot, but find the roots of the problem. In my case wider vowels didn't need a place to rest, cause Iwas opening the whole mouth, but for Es and Us, I had to form a special placement, so I could squeeze them anyway I needed for the song. I think modifying vowels aren't about modifying sound, but rather about knowing how to release sounds inside your mouth. I really dig into your stuff Carl, especially on lighter approach I do everything what you're always telling. But I really need more intensive colors too.
hey there, do you happen to have a vid on vibrato? im new here and I know you talk a lot about compression and getting the vocal cords not to leak air and work efficiently which is my problem in my mid range, how do we know when were using the right amount of air/compression? and is vibrato a result of the perfect balance of those two? so many questions lol
I've been studding the Signing Voice for about 5 years. (Still early) And different vowels make it harder for me to go higher than others.. BUT! I always felt I should not change my sound in order to go "through" my bridge or a hard to sing note. I felt it inside that I should keep the sound and keep on trying to pass my hard parts with a 'natural' tone of the specific vowel as I believe that is what sets anyone apart: The way their vowels sound different in color or tone if you like~ :) Your Video has confirmed my ideas and will keep working to go higher without modifying my vowels! ;)
Sure Carl, some singer change the word of lyrics because the vowel is difficult for them. As for me I couldn't sing the word ( I can't ) with high notes on G # Major ( G # 5) the A vowel was too hard to sing.
I'd really like to know your opinion on Jacob Collier singing technique. I mean, the guys has an amazing ear, sings microtonaly and does awesome harmonies but, I really struggle to appreciate his sound. To me he sings likes a choir boy, there is no raspiness AT ALL. It's so frustrating considering the amount of talent and effort he puts in his music.
He's a conundrum isn't he? Really clever, technically brilliant and innovative - but it's all oddly passionless and the melodies are less than memorable - makes me want to put on something by PIL or Nirvana to remind me what a performance with some intent sounds like, ^oo^
This was an interesting video. I've been doing the Ken Tamplin course for years and always thought the vowel mods sounded a bit strange in actual singing. I can definitely feel the pockets resonating at full voice belting but not really sure if they help much for mid to soft singing.
6:28
My coach (classical) always suggests keeping the vowel pure, the modifications are stabalisers, pure vowels are like learning to really ride a bike.
If you're changing the sound artistically fine... But I think if you're doing it because you can't keep it pure... It needs work.
Agreed.
Daniel Urry Eee is my weak vowel... But no song in classical repertoire would have me do that note anyway..
You are right Daniel. BUT singers must also learn to take vowels as high as possible without any modification to truly understand the limits of each sound. If they constantly modify they get confused and never learn to take the hard vowels up freely as high as they can go. A singer needs to understand both maintaining purity and modifying really, though I haven't made that clear in my video.
I think the best choice to learn vowel modification and then to push boundaries.
Being African American I've noticed Black and Southern Americans almost intuitively understand phonetics and it's almost exclusively the secret to out runs, riffs and dynamic range and it baffles me how people don't hear it. What works for me is to take the scale of A-E-I-O-U and Borrow from the highest shape (for me) which is Aah (as in at) and and the lowest being uh (as in ugh)... My coach always stressed that O is the natural high point which is why people struggle to turn off falsetto for O's but I never agreed. Love your video's man, I wonder how well you handle melissma
Carl, thanks, THANKS! You explanations are SOOOOOOOO UNIQUE and helpful!!
I could sing but the problem is I sound weird with the vowels. I really want to master vowels and I am thankful to have this video at the right time.
With this exercise and video, are you referring to singing through the break / mixing, please?
If I 'belt', I must modify the vowels else they sound strained and 'splatty'.
I can mix, but I lack power in this coordination - Would you consider vowel modification 'stabilisers' for someone who cannot sing 'mix' yet, and can only belt?
Thank you
One distinction that may be helpful is traditional notions of singing (not just opera) versus pop vocalizations, which can include all kinds of things (and may require substantial technological enhancement as well).
yes this is a whole other can of worms :)
Sang for the 1st time in 2 weeks, worked though your pre show warm up. That coupled with many videos from you over the last 2 weeks had me hyper focused on my technique..the warm up had me feeling my fatigue at about the 7 min point. I waited 15 min and had a great 2 hour session.
Think about guys like Eddie Vedder, and Michael McDonald who barely use words in their vocals. There are some Doobie Brothers songs that are 1 constant vowel movement in my humble opinion.
Thank you Coach, these exercises have helped me beyond belief. I eagerly await the day I can repay you!
Shill !!!
Just kidding. Carl covers a lot of ideas that aren't covered by other singing channels I subscribe to. I like the quirky somewhat experimental approach.
Taking his advice, every time I record myself singing, I hear improvements. It also reminds me why I should stick to playing bass
Chris Wilson
Watched a few of your videos, you have a great voice ! You can see my old ass singing on Resurge Pulse on youtube, I'm the guy doing 7 nation army, whole Lotta love, paranoid...we are a bunch of veterans trying to make a difference....cheers!
Tommy Cox oh god, I'm so sorry.....about you finding my channel. And I'm sorry you won't get that bit of your life back....but hey that's TH-cam. You can tune into live streaming of kittens....or grass growing....
I'll check those vids out of yours.
I'm a much better bass player.
This is me on bass....and guitar. youmightdie.org/em.mp3
They used it on the No Agenda podcast. The clip was from the show.
I've kind of got bass down, though I could always do better. Guitar is a challenge, but I can fool people into thinking I'm a guitarist
I'm working on being able to sing well enough to fool people I can sing. I need to practice more
Btw it was really hard to sing that Christmas carol without pissing myself laughing.
Tommy Cox link to those vids please
Hi, have you heard Darren Espanto sing? I'm really interested in your opinion about his singing technique.
Guys, I know anyone can sing all the vowels eeven on belting. If you cant find position for the vowel, try find a new position for the hole thing. It much better when you sing in one position and have all the options. You can just stay there and express feelings!
I thought I can't make a certain vowels with more solid sounds. I found that I'm changing position of my roof and tongue root for U and E vowels. I decided trying to stay in the same position with upper part of my mouth, don't squeeze larynx but let my self instinctively do everything else. It's like gug type of shape, where tongue intuitively closes throat while jaw can move anywhere it needed. It was unnatural, for sometime, but finally I made it. And now I feel like I found a better position for my harder approach. I thought I just gone crazy - cause I could sing Ee Uu only on lighter approach. Too light for a lot of good old rock songs.
I mean sometimes you should work not only from the problematic spot, but find the roots of the problem. In my case wider vowels didn't need a place to rest, cause Iwas opening the whole mouth, but for Es and Us, I had to form a special placement, so I could squeeze them anyway I needed for the song.
I think modifying vowels aren't about modifying sound, but rather about knowing how to release sounds inside your mouth. I really dig into your stuff Carl, especially on lighter approach I do everything what you're always telling. But I really need more intensive colors too.
thanks for the kind words! I always get it to float first and then worry about shaping the sound later :)
hey there, do you happen to have a vid on vibrato? im new here and I know you talk a lot about compression and getting the vocal cords not to leak air and work efficiently which is my problem in my mid range, how do we know when were using the right amount of air/compression? and is vibrato a result of the perfect balance of those two? so many questions lol
I going to work the uh in my first bridge
I've been studding the Signing Voice for about 5 years. (Still early) And different vowels make it harder for me to go higher than others.. BUT! I always felt I should not change my sound in order to go "through" my bridge or a hard to sing note. I felt it inside that I should keep the sound and keep on trying to pass my hard parts with a 'natural' tone of the specific vowel as I believe that is what sets anyone apart: The way their vowels sound different in color or tone if you like~ :) Your Video has confirmed my ideas and will keep working to go higher without modifying my vowels! ;)
yeah keep it free and pronounce it just like you would at the bottom and good things can happen.
Thank you so amigo!!
Keep up your great work~~~~~~~ :)
Sure Carl, some singer change the word of lyrics because the vowel is difficult for them.
As for me I couldn't sing the word ( I can't ) with high notes on G # Major
( G # 5) the A vowel was too hard to sing.
FYI your paypal link seems to be broken.
thank you will look into :(
should be fixed now
ermmm you seem to have found it, amazing help dude, thank you so much! :)
Yes, it worked fine after your fix- You're welcome
I'd really like to know your opinion on Jacob Collier singing technique. I mean, the guys has an amazing ear, sings microtonaly and does awesome harmonies but, I really struggle to appreciate his sound. To me he sings likes a choir boy, there is no raspiness AT ALL. It's so frustrating considering the amount of talent and effort he puts in his music.
He's a conundrum isn't he? Really clever, technically brilliant and innovative - but it's all oddly passionless and the melodies are less than memorable - makes me want to put on something by PIL or Nirvana to remind me what a performance with some intent sounds like, ^oo^
Is it me, or does he sound too nasal when singing notes?
I'm not singing in this video ;)
Ever heard of Robert Plant?
This was an interesting video. I've been doing the Ken Tamplin course for years and always thought the vowel mods sounded a bit strange in actual singing. I can definitely feel the pockets resonating at full voice belting but not really sure if they help much for mid to soft singing.
The idea is this stuff helps you focus on small details, adjusting the articulation whilst keeping the rest of the coordination very still and free.
Pls do react "WHAT KIND OF FOOL I AM" by Regine Velasquez. Plssssss and thank you.
pleaseeee react to ailee a love that was too painful
6:28