How to become a great singer | Think Like A Musician
Learning Stats
CEFR लेवल
Total Words
Unique Words
Difficulty
सबटाइटल्स (157 segments)
DownloadNot only am I humming on an airplane,
I’m also the friend you’ll be walking with and I’ll be like, (singing) voo-zhhh.
The instruments on your body;
you just play it all day, you know what I mean?
Hey, you! Yes, you.
Is there music inside of you?
We’ve recruited working musicians from throughout the industry
to help you hear it, hold it, and share it with this wild and wonderful world.
My parents met in a gospel choir, they’re both gospel singers.
And they always joke that, in the Breland family,
if you can't sing, you'll get sent back.
My dad showed me a tape of a musical called “Les Miserables,” and I got hooked.
I was the new girl at a lot of schools,
and I would just take my guitar to some beautiful location
and sing myself into being okay.
The way that I came to singing was through school choir,
and it didn't hurt that I was also surrounded by some of the most eccentric
singer-songwriters on the planet through my family’s music shop.
A great vocal performance is first and foremost feeling.
Louis Armstrong does not have a huge range.
Nat King Cole— not a huge range.
No acrobatics, but you could feel the emotion in the words.
Oftentimes, it’s not the best vocalist that’s going to win on a song.
It’s whoever’s voice is able to best convey
whatever story it is that they’re telling
and whatever emotion it is that they’re trying to convey.
Like Alison Krauss, I feel like she's not singing notes.
The notes of existence are emanating from her.
Someone like a Zach Bryan, who maybe isn’t the best vocalist in the world—
and he would tell you that—
but he’s telling these stories and you believe him.
And I love Leonard Cohen, who's got this baritone speaking,
melodic spoken delivery.
And then you get to your Ella Fitzgeralds,
who had all the range and they had feeling.
So I try to look at other, more acrobatic vocalists like Aretha Franklin,
Celine Dion, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder.
I like to hear vocalists reach and explore in real time.
I'm so attracted to Brazilian music
because there's a certain style of singing
in bossa nova, specifically, that’s very intimate.
And it’s like the singers basically whispering into the microphone.
I think I was attracted to that because my voice suited it,
and also because I didn’t always want to perform loudly,
I wanted to write for myself.
The way that I’ve come into singing,
and going from learning how to sing as a kid
to singing every night on stage,
is, for one, I’ve trusted my voice and trusting your range
and bravely exploring where your voice can go.
Because we’re all born with an instrument.
Let’s figure it out, let’s put it through the paces, right.
We can all sing “Happy Birthday,” right?
But what’s going to make your singing it different from the way I sing it?
It’s how we color it.
It's how we phrase it.
And there are a myriad of choices that one can make.
And that’s why I say you have to be curious and you have to be interested.
You have to be excited about all of the many choices that you can have
in the way that you tell a story.
Chest voice is the part of your voice that is most natural to speech.
So I'm talking here in this chest voice.
That’s the voice from your chest, literally.
Falsetto is thin and high.
So, (singing) heyyyy.
You can hear a flip into falsetto if I go: (singing) ahhhh-ahhh-oooh.
You’re kind of thinning out the air.
Head voice is when you go high and you mix.
So it’s like a, (singing) meee-eaah-eaah.
There's a word called squillo in Italian.
It's bringing chest voice up into your upper register.
You can project very loudly like, (singing) haaaa!
Or you can do something more breathy like, (singing softly) haaaa.
Riffs— (singing) mmhmm.
All the melismas, I think is the technical word, but not to be used ad nauseam.
You know when someone’s doing too much of that
and it’s really annoying, right?
Great singers give you the melody and then once in a while—
I’m talking to myself—
we’ll add a little moment.
It's experimentation.
Experimentation is a really big part of getting familiar with your instrument.
I decide what part of my voice I'm using based on the song.
Based on the moment, based on the lyric, based on the feeling I’m trying to emote,
or the intensity I’m trying to put into it.
Am I trying to be intimate? Am I trying to be a little sexy?
Then I'll use a little bit more of my breathiness in my voice.
But if I'm trying to be more energetic and more excited,
or more even frustrated,
then I’ll get in my higher register and go (singing) naaa-naaa-d-daa-daaa.
And you develop your voice by finding yourself
and finding where singing feels natural.
I might like singing coloratura mezzo-soprano,
but that’s not what my voice likes, and that’s not what my personality likes.
My personality likes the fiery, sort of femme fatale women,
those bad, bad, bad girls.
My dad specifically was like, hmm,
I think you should take some voice lessons to hone in your skills
and not wear yourself out so quickly.
When you practice and your voice cracks,
realize that that’s your voice getting stronger.
So it’s important to practice off stage.
Because anytime your voice cracks,
anytime you make a mistake and you go over it again and it sounds right,
that’s actually, the mistake is good.
It boils down to:
are you comfortable and are you singing and using your vocal muscle
in the most natural way possible
so that it's not creating damage?
I have a really soft voice,
and I really like the tone that I hit when I’m soft.
And the reason that I like the tone is my vocal folds are barely touching.
But it’s really hard to be accurate with pitch
when you’re singing all soft and quiet and cute.
When you’re singing all hard and vocal folds touching and strong,
you can actually hit the note much easier.
And so I learned that I have to actually train in strength,
with the vocal folds completely touching.
When I train like that constantly,
when I go back to singing in this way, with the vocal folds barely touching,
I can actually be a lot more accurate with pitch because I’m stronger.
So some of the ones that’ll help loosen up your vocal cords can be things like,
(rolling lips).
A lip roll or a tongue roll:
(rolling tongue).
(Vocal exercises) veee-eeeoo, or ooo-ooooh.
(Vocal exercises) vvvhhhh. Zzzzhhhh.
(Vocal exercises) eee-iii-aaahh, or, ney-ney-ney-ney-ney-ney-ney-ney.
(Vocal exercises) Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaahh.
Haa-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaahhh.
And kind of warm my way up.
(Vocal exercises) Yeee-eee-eehh-eee.
And try to get rid of the little break between the falsetto and the chest voice.
Singing, especially doing a 90-minute set, is a marathon exercise,
so you got to treat it as such.
The term vocal cord is a misnomer.
They're actually folds of muscle.
So if you put a lot of pressure or strain on that musculature,
you can develop nodes, and nodes will make it painful to sing.
They'll limit how malleable and flexible those folds can be.
You want to avoid strain because obviously, like any athlete,
if you strain a muscle, you have to take time off.
I know that my voice sings better when it's rested.
I know that the quality of my voice is better when it stays hydrated.
The thing is, I sing every day.
So, the daily practice of singing is, in and of itself, a caretaking method
because you’re saying to your voice, hey, build up to this stamina.
When I’m on stage and I’m starting to feel the nerves,
your voice doesn’t work the same way.
So that’s where practice and repetition becomes really important,
because I may feel a little nervous, but my voice, for the most part,
knows what it needs to do, even in a moment of stress.
Your body changes and your voice changes as you continue to grow and to mature.
The scariest part to me, though, about exploring one's voice for a lifetime,
is that I do feel strongly that, having sung since I was— professionally—
since I was 20 years old, to now, I’m 55,
I feel like I'm just coming into my voice.
Key Vocabulary (50)
toward
"Go to school."
belonging
"Cup of tea."
also
"You and me."
inside
"In the house."
specific
"That book."
A third-person singular pronoun used to refer to an object, animal, or situation that has already been mentioned or is clear from context. It is also frequently used as a dummy subject to talk about time, weather, or distance.
A function word used to express negation or denial. It is primarily used to make a sentence or phrase negative, often following an auxiliary verb or the verb 'to be'.
A preposition used to indicate that something is in a position above and supported by a surface. It is also used to indicate a specific day or date, or to show that a device is functioning.
A preposition used to indicate that people or things are together, in the same place, or performing an action together. It can also describe the instrument used to perform an action or a characteristic that someone or something has.
Used to refer to the person or people that the speaker is addressing. It is the second-person pronoun used for both singular and plural subjects and objects.
Used to identify a specific person, thing, or idea that is physically close to the speaker or has just been mentioned. It can also refer to the present time or a situation that is currently happening.
A coordinating conjunction used to connect two statements that contrast with each other. It is used to introduce an added statement that is different from what has already been mentioned.
Used to indicate the starting point, source, or origin of something. It can describe a physical location, a point in time, or the person who sent or gave an item.
A coordinating conjunction used to connect two or more possibilities or alternatives. it indicates that only one of the options is likely, required, or true.
A possessive determiner used to show that something belongs to or is associated with the person speaking. It is always placed immediately before a noun to indicate ownership, relationship, or authorship.
Sign up to unlock full features
Track progress, save vocabulary, and practice exercises
Description
Professional vocalists share how to give a great vocal performance by experimenting with styles, training, and taking care of your voice. -- "Think Like A Musician" connects you with working...
श्रेणियाँ
संबंधित वीडियोज़
TED-Ed
