Seemingly simple advice that made an impact on the way you do things.

Dudeman1967

Dudeman1967

blah, blah, blah...
A gal I met and know through open mic nights and karaoke with an amazing voice that covers AC/DC to Linda Ronstadt. She said to me once that singing “it’s all about the breathing“

Seems simple, kind of obvious actuallybut holy crap overtime when my voice cracks or squeaks or doesn’t work right I go back to my breathing and I can fix it. Unless I’m trying to hit a note that will never happen.

I’m not a great singer at all but I had a hard path to start. Almost ready to sing in front of strangers.

Also, dibs on the band name, Seemingly Simple.
 
"Breathing" is an oversimplification..... All singing is passing air over the vocal chords and into a resonating part of your body. Sometimes it's the throat, sinuses, forward into the nose, back into the round part of your neck.... the important part is control.

Most of the time people push the air too hard or too fast which causes the note to go out of control, squeak, break, or crack.

That's why typically male singers with warm up with smooth, steady, low notes. Concentrate on controlled breathing and holding the pitch. Work your way up some slow scales, and you'll feel the resonant shift move to different parts of your chest, neck, and head. If anything hurts, you're doing it wrong... go back down a note and slow down.

Once you've got a grip of those notes, you can move on to higher notes... it's like any other repetition exercise.

The fuzzy part comes in where stylistically rock music allows distortion and overtones in certain places for dramatic effect. The skill comes into play learning when to lean into that for style and effect without hurting yourself or wearing out your instrument.

I'll try to find some examples to upload.
 
That's why I said "seemingly".
Just being mindful of my breathing has made a huge impact.

Also good advice. If you want to be a singer you have to sing. Sing a lot.

She also started a band and then got knocked up a few months later. Not because she started a band mind you, but the band is on break for a while.
 
This one you'll note that I keep my head tipped back for good air flow... don't force the high note, just stay in the pocket and let the mic do it's job:



trying to upload a Karaoke of Creep but Youtube keeps fuckin blocking it....

It's got some good smooth low notes and some belts, but it's all about tempering that control. Hopefully you can watch it from this Google drive link since youtube sucks.

CREEP :helper:
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Since this is in the Jack's Place forum, something a bit more philosophical from my dad, who happened to be a singer his whole life.
"On the journey of life, be sure to smell the flowers along the way."

A simple yet important reminder to slow down and soak up your surroundings. Thanks, dad. You lived it.
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I once gave advice to my out-of-body-self while shredding on guitar in a dream to "Stop waiting for the fretting fingers. Pluck the damn string and make the fingers catch up"

My fingers are old now but back then it was a huge step in my lead guitar play.
 
Not music related, but. . .

Part a - your thoughts are just for you, and they only affect anybody (yourself or others) when you do something about them, and part b - you don't have to act on every thought that crosses your brain. I'd never actively considered this before a couple years ago, or at least I lost the ability to consider this for a while, which is probably what led to the crippling anxiety which led to the therapy session that led to these nuggets.

Sub part - stop muttering under your breath all those things that should stay inside your head, sometimes people overhear things :idea:
 
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Not advice, but last words…

Composer Jean-Philippe Rameau objected to a song sung at his bedside. He said, “What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune.”
 
Dudeman1967 said:
A gal I met and know through open mic nights and karaoke with an amazing voice that covers AC/DC to Linda Ronstadt. She said to me once that singing “it’s all about the breathing“
Click to expand...

The issue is many people who are good at something SUCK at teaching it, especially if it comes naturally to them.

One odd but great resource on YouTube is "The Charismatic Voice". Opera singer who became enamored with the distortion on hard rock vocals and started a reaction channel. Early on it was mostly her being wide eyed at the crazy different (often harmful) hard rock vocals being produced by different singers, but over the past couple years she started interviewing singers and even did scientific tests with putting a camera down their throats while they sing and scream.

I really think over the past few years she's gotten better at describing how to enunciate different vowel sounds and project your voice into different parts of your head and sinuses. Sometimes she geeks out on the lyrics... but there's many great nuggets to be found in most of her vids.


Here's a time stamped example from today:
 
She wasn't giving me a singing lesson. I complimented her range and she said what I wrote. We were in a loud bar with a live band.

She might be a great teacher. I have no idea.

I have an internet crush of the Charismatic singer. She is very informative and has a great smile.
 
Punchy said:
Not music related, but. . .

Part a - your thoughts are just for you, and they only affect anybody (yourself or others) when you do something about them, and part b - you don't have to act on every thought that crosses your brain. I'd never actively considered this before a couple years ago, or at least I lost the ability to consider this for a while, which is probably what led to the crippling anxiety which led to the therapy session that led to these nuggets.

Sub part - stop muttering under your breath all those things that should stay inside your head, sometimes people overhear things :idea:
Click to expand...
The times my mouth has gotten me into trouble were when emotion let the mind clutch slip, allowing the internal to escape. YMMV
 
So if we're just sharing non-music related Yoda-isms that we've shared or had shared with us.....


... after college I was an Art instructor for a while at a local Arts Academy, and a couple of the members took issue with this new young long-hair who was now their instructor. I explained that I had been studying art through various resources outside of public school since the age of 10 and that hopefully my diverse background of instruction might be able to bring a fresh perspective to their art.

Day one I said that there is no right or wrong way to do art. All art (paint, drawing, singing, instruments, dance, etc) are a form of communication for ideas that can't always be conveyed in words. Each person's perspective is unique, but some ways of communication can be more effective with the right skillset. My instruction was not going to be "how to do art"... it was going to be tools to help them find their artistic voice and communicate it.

It was interesting having them experiment with only lines, only color, reproduce another piece of art but it's hanging upside down in attempt to "deconstruct" the forms from the things that tell their brains "this is a tree, this is a book, this is a face". Have them replicate what they're actually witnessing instead of what their brain is telling them they're seeing. Collecting artistic tools so they can choose which ones are useful to what they're trying to convey.

I won over those skeptics by the end of the class and they ended up signing up for my subsequent classes. :baimun:
 
Not delivered in person, but Rick Nelson taught me you can't please everyone so you got to please yourself. That keeps me sane in many areas of my life.
 
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