I find that working with singers in foreign lands such as Asia, Europe, etc often have 'built in ' issues with projection, vibrato, and nasality due to their home language or culture. for ex: Indonesian is a naturally 'tight' language, Japanese women are taught to practically whisper and make their voice light so as to not offend people, French is a naturally nasal language, etc
I just wanted to give encouragement and let you  know that with hard work you can work though your cultural  'isms'.

1. You need to decide how Standard American you want to sound and then  focus heavily on diction. That may mean taking every word and phrase much slower than the actual speed.
2. Put aside culture and style and simply strive to find your own powerful, unique voice.
3. Be honest with yourself and accept your current singing ability. If you are over zealous and choose a wordy, powerful song you may just exhaust and frustrate yourself. So, don't be afraid to take it slow.

I was watching the BET awards and Alicia Keys came on. She looked beautiful and sand with Bruno Mars, She also passionately sang a song called ‘Typewriter’, which is a bit of a departure from her soulful offerings. This article will discuss the technique Alicia Keys uses to sing this song.

1.       Nasality- Alicia Keys sings with a clear nasal quality. It is common to hear people who sing mostly using their chest voice using this technique. Singing with nasality makes it easier to sing through breaks and to sing loud and powerful notes. Also, singers who use nasality often do not have a strong mixed or head voice because they are constantly in a high chest voice so it really becomes their only option to get certain notes out with good degree of clarity.

2.       Throaty slides- In this song, Alicia keys is less interested in singing with precision. She tends to start phrases with a slight groan and then a slide , or glissando to the desired note. Also in places where she could easily perform clear, concise runs, she chooses to do downward slides through two or three notes , giving the song a very laid- back feel.

Classical choir sounds: the bridge of ‘Typewriter’ is a clear deviation from what has occurred prior to that point in the song.  It goes from a laid- back ‘lazy’ croon to a purposeful, harmony- rich ‘choral’ feel. It is set to the tune of the old Christmas hymn ‘God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen’. She uses darker vowels produced by rounded lips and stronger breath support to produce a more resonant sound.

Alicia Keys is a singer with a powerful, distinctive voice. She is also an artist with great, timeless music. It is good to learn her techniques to master singing in chest voice and have greater endurance and musicality in a song.

I did a blog on imitating singers recently and felt the need to expound on the topic of 'matching a singer's intensity'. So here goes:

A singer must learn how to match another singer's intensity regardless of how different the voices are. For example, People withricher voices may automatically switch to a strong head voice when singing a song by a singer with a lighter higher voice. In reality, the original singer is in a chest voice. The singer with the heavier voice, if they sing in a strong head voice as opposed to a chest voice may be unsatisfied because they sound weak in comparison to the person with the lighter voice. The problem will be resolved if the person with the heavier voice sings in the full chest voice as well. On a scale of 1 to 10, everyone has their own level 10 and if the original singer is singing at his level 10, you should do the same, regardless of how different the voices are.

It may be weird at first because you may feel like you are screaming at the top of your lungs but keep in mind that
1. the original singer probably sounded the same way before the magic of studio 'softened' the sound
2. Their voice transition are alot more subtle because they have less voice.
3. You can always lower the key to acheive the same intensity at a more comfortable range. :)

I hope that help! Please comment and share this article!!

This week I've been dealing with the BET Awards' performers and their singing technique. Here is a quick blog about how to imitate singers. I just wanted to note that we're not trying to imitate in order to become caricatures of our favorite artists, its more so to learn how they do what they do so well and be able to add it to our own singing. this is how we become more and more diverse as singer.

1.       Placements- Imitating performers can teach a singer a lot about placements. Some singers place their voices very forward and have a very strong mixed voice with a clear, resonant belting voice. Other singers have very non- resonant voices and sing mostly with nasality and chest voice. If a singer learns to differentiate between a resonant voice that’s loud and a non -resonant voice that’s loud they will be much better at executing songs.

2.       Intensity- Imitating other recording artists teaches a great lesson on how to sing with intensity and how to match a person’s vocal intensity regardless of how different two voices may be. If one notices that a singer is in a strong chest voice, he must do the same thing in order to imitate correctly and give the same ‘feel’.

3.       Breathing and Phrasing- Another great reason to imitate professional singers is to learn advanced breathing and phrasing techniques. Many times the way a singer pronounces their works or moves there mouth serves a purpose musically, as opposed to it being for dramatic effect. Their mouth movements may serve to help them produce the very vocal skills you hear on their recordings. Its wise to take note and experiment to find out.

 Please share and feel free to comment if you found this blog helpful!