High and Light

Working with an artist on a new song she wrote that was so beautiful and tender required a particular approach. We worked consistently on it until the days before she recorded it.

The style of it was light, delicate on a melody that sits in the upper part of her range. Stylistically, she wanted it to be ethereal and angelic. To achieve that, I had her practice leaning into the song aggressively to obtain a strong, full tone, so when she recorded it, she could sing softly on those high notes with stability. 

Balance, strength and dynamics build from the middle out. We find our balance and our alignment and as we get stronger we can get both more intense and more gentle. Our dynamic range grows a greater circumference from the center out.

You need to go 45 miles an hour steadily for a while to get the voice strong and stable and then slowly but surely you’re able to go 60 or 80, 110 and 35, 15, 5 mph without falling off balance, without hitting the brakes, or without burning out. 

Singing a high note lightly requires just as much strength as singing a loud, strong belt. Dynamics are achieved by focusing energy to create consistency throughout the range first. 

If you want to win -

• Don’t go for power, go for balance.

• Don’t go for the note, go for consistency and ease.

• Don’t go for the endpoint build in stages. 

• The truth is, no one would attempt to bench press four times their body weight. 

Singing is athletic. There are muscles that you are training and aligning. Training takes time and repetition. You wouldn’t expect yourself to bench press 60lbs then 110 the next day. It’s incremental. Your vocal training is the same.

Slow and steady wins the race, consistency wins the race… by the way there’s no race. 

#vocaltraining #dynamics #vocalstyle #mindset