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1:28

Back in college, I was a music major. And

1:31

one of the requirements of my degree was that I

1:33

had to take singing lessons. Out

1:35

of every class I took, this was the most

1:37

anxiety-inducing. Because while

1:39

I was a good trumpet player, as a kid

1:41

from Arkansas, I just couldn't get rid of

1:44

the country twang in my singing. I was

1:46

super nervous about it, and let's just say

1:49

it didn't go that well.

1:52

The only song I remember singing was, You'll

1:54

Never Walk Alone, from the musical carousel.

1:57

And to this day, I still can't hear that

1:59

song without a cringing.

2:12

But on the plus side, that experience did

2:15

give me an appreciation for just how complex

2:17

the human voice is.

2:20

I'm fascinated by the ways that people can

2:22

manipulate their voices to the point where

2:25

they can make sounds that feel truly out

2:27

of this world. Our producer, Martin

2:29

Ostwick, is also a talented musician, so

2:31

when he suggested that we make an episode about

2:34

the extraordinary range of the human voice,

2:36

it seemed like the perfect chance to give this topic

2:39

the attention that it deserves. I'll let

2:41

Martin take it from here.

2:44

My

2:44

love of audio all started out with my love

2:46

of singing. I've been a singer-songwriter

2:48

for probably about 20 years, but I've

2:50

never formally studied singing, so I

2:52

don't really understand how people make these

2:54

incredible sounds with their voices.

2:57

What's the difference between head voice and chest voice?

3:00

How high and how low can people sing? And

3:02

most importantly, how does Mariah

3:05

Carey do that whistling thing with her voice?

3:16

I know enough to know that singing starts with vocal chords.

3:19

Our vocal system is really complicated,

3:22

but imagine a big tube that comes up from

3:24

your lungs. What's the trachea, or

3:27

windpipe?

3:28

The vocal chords are basically a pair of fleshy

3:30

curtains, and they can close across

3:32

that windpipe to stop things falling down

3:34

into your lungs.

3:35

Things like food, twigs,

3:38

small birds. But these curtains

3:40

are really flexible,

3:41

and as they move in different ways, the

3:43

air passing over them makes them vibrate,

3:46

which produces sound.

3:52

And it's absolutely most basic.

3:54

There's really only four things that your

3:56

vocal chords can do. That's vocal

3:58

coach Matt Ramsey.

3:59

They can stretch, they

4:02

can thicken, they can open,

4:05

and they can close. Everything

4:08

we do with our voice, from whispering to

4:11

screaming to singing, starts with some

4:13

combination of these ingredients. But

4:15

before that sound comes out of our mouths, it

4:17

goes through something called the resonation

4:20

system. And the resonation system is

4:22

everything that's on top of the

4:24

vocal cords, from the throat

4:26

to your cheeks to your lips,

4:29

tongue, and teeth. All these

4:31

things are creating resonance and kind

4:33

of shaping the sound of the vocal

4:35

cords.

4:39

With enough control over these components, we can do

4:41

some truly amazing things with our voices,

4:44

like singing two notes at once.

4:46

Here's a clip of a German singer named Anna Maria

4:48

Heffella.

4:59

But before we can reach the outer limits of

5:01

the vocal stratosphere, we need to

5:03

start at ground level.

5:04

First up is the chest voice. Chest

5:07

voice is probably the most common terminology

5:09

used for the lower range of the voice.

5:12

Basically, the vocal cords, they're

5:14

a little bit thicker and slacker. And

5:16

so when we hear those low

5:18

notes that Johnny Cash sings, because

5:21

you're mine, I walk

5:23

the line.

5:24

Or Amy Winehouse sings, waiting

5:27

for you in the hotel at night.

5:30

Or Adele sings,

5:31

I was wondering

5:33

if after all these years

5:35

you'd like to meet.

5:37

Those are coming from the vocal cords

5:40

vibrating a bit slower. Next up

5:42

is head voice, which is basically the

5:44

opposite of chest voice. And that

5:46

just comes from the opposite vocal cord

5:48

configuration. So in chest voice, the

5:51

vocal cords are kind of thick and slack. But

5:53

as you stretch them, it's going to vibrate faster,

5:55

creating higher notes. So

5:57

a fantastic example of this really...

5:59

full head voice sound that I'm talking about

6:02

is a song, Grenade by Bruno Mars. When

6:04

he goes for that. I catch

6:06

a grenade for ya,

6:09

throw my hand on a blade

6:12

for ya. I

6:14

jump in front of a tree

6:16

for ya. Some other examples of head voice

6:18

would be the higher notes of Sir Duke by

6:20

Stevie Wonder. Baking feelings

6:23

all over. Baking

6:26

feelings all over. And

6:30

Two Birds by Regina Spector. Two

6:33

birds on a wire.

6:38

Another way that people hit those high notes is something

6:40

called belting. It's a technique of singing

6:42

loudly and powerfully in your upper register.

6:45

To the point where it can sometimes sound strained.

6:48

Think John Lennon singing Twist and Shout.

6:50

Well

6:50

shake it up baby now. Shake

6:53

it up baby. Twist and

6:55

shout.

6:56

It just doesn't get any better than that. He's

6:59

just screaming it out basically. The

7:01

legend goes that this is at the very very end of

7:03

their recording day and John's voice

7:05

was already shot. Which is why there's so much

7:07

kind of a rough quality which we

7:10

all love about this recording. Well

7:12

shake it, shake it, shake it baby now. Shake

7:15

it up baby. Well shake it, shake it,

7:17

shake it baby now. Shake it up

7:19

baby.

7:20

Aside from belting, another way to

7:22

add a bit of grit to your performance is

7:24

with a so-called pharyngeal voice. It's

7:26

what makes Axl Rose sound like Axl Rose.

7:29

I'll bet you at another time.

7:33

Shake it to the end of the line.

7:35

We think that pharyngeal voice was first discovered

7:38

by choir singers before they

7:41

allowed females to sing in the all-male

7:43

papal choir.

7:49

And so these choir directors were

7:51

trying to figure out, man how do I get these

7:53

guys to sing higher?

7:57

And so what they discovered was that there was this weird.

8:00

kind of like ugly voice, what they call the

8:02

voce farinja, or the pharyngeal voice,

8:04

or the throaty voice, which just kind

8:06

of sounds like.

8:07

Oh. But

8:16

if you need to get even higher, you may need

8:19

falsetto. Whereas head voice, it's

8:21

typically a fuller, rounder

8:23

sound. Falsetto is a little bit thinner.

8:26

It's just a little bit more hollow and kind of false

8:28

sounding.

8:29

When most people sing falsetto, the vocal

8:31

chords never completely close.

8:33

And since there's always a little bit of air coming through,

8:36

it sounds breathier.

8:37

So a great example of this kind of falsetto

8:40

sound would be the song Reckoner by

8:42

Radiohead.

8:43

["Reckoner"]

8:52

Some people say only men can sing

8:54

falsetto, but Matt is not very impressed

8:57

with that argument. Remember, falsetto

8:59

is just a thinner closure of

9:01

the vocal chords. And so these

9:03

days, when we're seeing lots of modern female

9:06

vocalists that are singing really breathy,

9:08

I'm talking about Olivia Rodrigo.

9:10

["Reckoner"]

9:16

I'm talking about Billie Eilish.

9:25

I'm talking about Maggie Rogers. ["Reckoner"]

9:32

All of these female singers are singing

9:35

very, very lightly throughout their range.

9:37

And that falsetto is absolutely

9:39

present there. At the very top

9:42

of the vocal range is the whistle register.

9:44

That's what Mariah Carey is using in tracks

9:46

like Emotions.

9:48

["Wistel Register"]

9:54

Whistle register isn't just limited to women. For

9:57

instance, his Adam Lopez using it in his song

9:59

O Sole Mi. The

10:11

way that sound is produced is still a bit

10:13

of a mystery. What

10:17

scientists think is creating that

10:20

is rather than the entire length of the vocal

10:22

chords vibrating together, they

10:25

think it's just maybe the very, very front

10:27

portion. And since it's just a very,

10:29

very small portion of vibrating

10:31

mass, the frequencies that you get off

10:33

of that are incredibly high. Whistle

10:36

seems to be a bit easier for children.

10:40

Part of that may be a cultural thing that as

10:42

kids we're encouraged to kind of play with our voices a

10:44

whole lot. And we just go and explore

10:47

all the lengths of the human range. Now

10:49

an interesting thing about Mariah Carey's

10:52

whistle is that she talks about

10:54

in many interviews about how

10:56

she was able to discover that part of her voice is

10:58

that she was sick a lot as a kid.

11:01

Here's Mariah Carey talking about being sick as a child

11:04

on KBS

11:04

and Career. And when

11:06

I would wake up I would always be like, I couldn't

11:08

speak, I wouldn't sound like this. And

11:11

then I would also be like, I

11:13

can't talk.

11:15

And I was in that range. And

11:18

my mother was like, why are you talking

11:20

like that? Like, what are you doing? And I was like,

11:23

let's go.

11:26

The whistle register takes us to the upper limit of

11:28

the human voice. Brazilian singer

11:31

Georgia Brown holds the Guinness record for the largest

11:33

vocal range by a female.

11:35

Here she is demonstrating her incredible upper

11:37

range.

11:38

If you have dogs in the house, maybe cover their ears. Now

11:53

that we've reached the top of the vocal range, let's

11:56

head down to the bottom. We're now entering

11:58

the land of vocal pride.

12:03

Vocal fry is basically

12:06

the lowest vocal

12:08

register in the voice, and whereas

12:11

with chest voice, the vocal cords are

12:13

kind of thick and they're vibrating,

12:16

but they have some amount of tension to them.

12:18

Vocal fry is like if I just let loose completely

12:21

and just let air just kind of bubble

12:23

through it, creating that kind

12:24

of

12:28

sound. One performer who's

12:30

especially known for vocal fry is Britney

12:32

Spears.

12:33

Back in 1998, we heard

12:36

Britney Spears singing,

12:38

oh baby, baby.

12:47

But this technique is extremely common

12:49

across genders. For example, in the chorus

12:51

of Hero by Enrique Iglesias, he

12:54

fries the start of each line.

12:56

I can be your hero,

12:58

baby. I

13:03

can kiss away the pain.

13:07

Using vocal fry, some singers can reach incredibly

13:09

low notes.

13:10

Vocalist Tim Storms holds the Guinness

13:12

record for the lowest note produced by a human

13:14

being, as well as the widest overall

13:17

vocal range. Here's a bit of that

13:19

unbelievable low end. But

13:33

of course, there's more to vocal technique

13:35

than just hitting high notes and low notes.

13:38

Singing is also about conveying mood, tone,

13:41

and emotion,

13:42

and certain styles of singing were developed

13:44

to convey extreme emotions like

13:46

anger and despair. Big Growling,

13:49

for example,

13:50

that's a vocal style that was popularized by vocalists

13:52

like Chuck Schuliner from the Death Metal band

13:54

called, well, Death.

14:04

To achieve a sound like that, you need some help

14:06

from some of the other muscles in your neck.

14:08

So outside of your

14:10

pair of true vocal cords, there

14:12

are a couple of muscles. And when you get those

14:14

guys involved, you get a little bit of that, ooh,

14:19

where it sounds a little bit thicker, a little

14:21

bit gruffer, tends to be used a whole lot

14:23

more in metal music. The rabbit hole

14:25

of extreme metal vocals goes pretty deep.

14:28

From the low guttural tones of death metal bands

14:30

like Nile,

14:38

to the mid-range, almost goblin-like delivery

14:40

of black metal bands like Gorgoroth,

14:50

to the high-pitched shrieks of symphonic metal

14:53

bands like Cradle of Filth.

15:06

Now when you combine a wide range of very

15:08

precise vocal techniques into a single

15:10

performance, you can get some truly mind-blowing

15:13

results.

15:14

Here's a piece called Sing a Little Harmony by

15:16

the beatboxer D-Lo.

15:26

So in this specific performance, I think

15:28

what would be super cool is if

15:31

we could just see almost like an MRI

15:33

of all of the things that his throat, his mouth,

15:36

his tongue, his teeth, everything is doing. And

15:38

what you would see is an absolute insane

15:41

view of the crazy machinery

15:44

that makes up the voice in general.

15:55

But

15:55

for me, there's one singing technique I've

15:57

been fascinated with since I first heard it

15:59

over 20 years ago.

15:59

years ago. It's called throat singing or

16:02

overtone singing and perhaps the most famous

16:04

tradition in the world is from Tuva, a republic

16:06

of Russia that borders Mongolia.

16:08

To

16:18

understand this incredible vocal style we

16:20

spoke to one of its genuine superstars. That's

16:23

coming up after the break.

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18:42

For a couple of fleshy curtains that stop

18:44

our lungs from filling up with debris. Food,

18:47

twigs, small birds. Our

18:50

vocal cords are surprisingly versatile.

18:52

They can create everything from head voice to chest

18:55

voice, to falsetto and vocal fry,

18:57

growling, whistling, screaming

18:59

and beyond.

19:04

But none of these techniques fascinate me quite like the

19:06

throat singing of Tuva.

19:18

I am Albert Kuvezin. I am musician,

19:22

singer and the leader of

19:24

Yad Ha band. Albert's band Yad

19:26

Ha have been recording and touring globally

19:29

for over 30 years. We are from

19:31

Tuva, which is south of Siberia,

19:34

just on the border with Mongolian People's

19:37

Republic.

19:39

When Albert was growing up, Tuva was part of the Soviet

19:41

Union.

19:42

And in the USSR, Western pop culture

19:44

was pretty much banned.

19:46

When I was young, it was really

19:49

only Russian language in

19:51

the radio and on TV too. It

19:53

was so hard to find other

19:55

music than offered by Communist Party.

19:58

To get around this, Albert and his-

19:59

friends started trading records they'd bought on the black

20:02

market.

20:03

Cassettes with western rock

20:05

music, but also Soviet underground

20:07

bands. Albert wanted to make his

20:09

own music, but he didn't have a very

20:11

encouraging start. I never was

20:14

a good singer, and even

20:16

once I was thrown from the school

20:19

choir,

20:20

because the conductor said that I

20:22

have no good ears, and

20:25

I cannot sing with the other people.

20:30

But

20:30

Albert was undeterred.

20:32

Luckily the school band offered him a new way to

20:34

make the music he loved.

20:35

In the school band, mostly we're

20:38

just being a kind of cover

20:40

band for a deeper pull.

20:48

All that's happening. Oh, let the

20:50

sun beat down upon my face.

20:54

The stars to fill my dreams.

20:58

Also some Soviet

21:00

pop and rock music.

21:02

Rastanjana chalam.

21:07

Nothing new.

21:12

In the Soviet Union, Tuvan culture

21:14

was basically ignored. The

21:15

Tuvan language wasn't typically taught in school,

21:18

and when Albert studied music in college, he

21:20

learned about classical music from Europe and

21:23

Russia. And nothing from

21:25

our own traditional music. But

21:27

as a young man, Albert connected with some throat

21:30

singers who inspired him.

21:31

I met some guys from countryside

21:34

who were great singers, and

21:36

they said I could try myself

21:39

Tuvan's role singing, and step

21:41

by step I just started to repeat

21:44

their voices. This meant learning

21:46

the proper technique, which was a very different approach

21:49

from the western style he was used to. It

21:51

is totally opposite. Like

21:53

for example, opera singing, they

21:56

must open, the mouths were

21:58

white and white.

21:59

made resonator.

22:02

But in throat singing? We must

22:04

press muscles of the throat and

22:07

make in the mouth very narrow

22:09

hole.

22:10

With practice, Albert developed his technique.

22:13

And suddenly I got the sound.

22:20

There are three broad styles of

22:23

tube and throat singing. The kargara, which

22:25

is very low, like a

22:27

growling sound.

22:32

The

22:41

second style, chumé, introduces a

22:43

subtle whistling overtone on top of the low

22:45

note.

22:58

In the third style, sugut, that

23:00

higher whistling tone is much more prominent.

23:03

Albert doesn't sing in this style. So here's

23:05

a singer from the Alash ensemble demonstrating

23:07

it. As

23:20

Albert developed his throat singing, he realized that

23:22

these techniques had something to offer rock

23:24

music. I got an idea

23:27

that, for example, Jimi Hendrix spent

23:29

a lot of money and time to

23:32

find effects for guitar.

23:45

But Albert realized he could make similar tones

23:47

just using his voice.

23:49

I just got these effects

23:51

in my throat.

23:53

Wow. Wow. Wow.

23:55

Wow.

24:16

Soon after, Albert fended Yapkar, a

24:18

band that blends tube and throat singing with rock and

24:20

other influences. These

24:34

days when he's not touring or recording, Albert will

24:36

sometimes just sing those low notes as a

24:38

way to relax.

24:40

When he does this, he often sings with his mouth closed.

24:42

I use my nose

24:45

holes and you can feel the vibration

24:47

in your body, especially in the chest

24:50

and head and

24:53

it is more like meditation.

24:56

He loves doing this in places with a great

24:58

natural reverb like a cave.

25:20

To me throat singing feels completely

25:22

different from any kind of singing I've ever done,

25:24

but

25:25

Albert told me it's not that difficult to learn. If

25:27

you can sing like tenor, body tone,

25:30

you can easily produce low

25:32

throat singing style. You need to have

25:35

good lungs and

25:37

good physical shape.

25:39

It's nothing special.

25:41

And this technique isn't limited to one particular age

25:43

group or gender.

25:44

Even young boys and

25:46

girls, they can

25:49

do this low style too.

25:51

It's an all female tubing group called Tuva

25:53

Kuzi.

26:06

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it's become much

26:08

easier for people in Tuva to learn these traditions.

26:11

Thright singing is now taught at music schools for children

26:13

and in music colleges. In 2003,

26:16

the Tuvan National Orchestra was

26:18

founded.

26:19

Their performances often include multiple throat

26:21

singers singing in unison.

26:37

Tuva isn't the only place to have a tradition of throat

26:39

singing.

26:39

This is La Matashi from Tibet.

26:49

And

26:49

Mrs. Noah Letty Biswene from South Africa.

26:58

Northern Canada has a very different style of throat

27:00

singing, practiced as a kind of competitive game

27:03

between women as part of the Inuit culture.

27:05

This tradition often involves making sounds

27:07

with the inhalations as well as the exhalations.

27:10

Here's a demonstration by Inuk performer Tanya

27:12

Tagak.

27:19

Tanya is also a recording artist who blends

27:21

throat singing with industrial and electronic

27:23

sounds. Here's a clip of her song

27:25

Retribution.

27:40

Alba Kvazin and Tanya Tagak aren't

27:42

the only ones pushing throat singing in interesting new

27:44

directions. For example, a Mongolian

27:47

band called The Who

27:48

created a song for the game Star Wars Jedi

27:50

Fallen Order

27:51

in which they sing in a fictional alien

27:53

language.

28:17

There are so many ways that people use their voices to make

28:19

music and express themselves. But

28:21

how difficult are these techniques for people with very

28:23

little vocal training? Well, we

28:26

decided to put our money where our mouth is, quite

28:28

literally, and let vocal coach Matt

28:30

Ramsey put us through our paces. That's

28:32

right, you will hear me sing. And

28:35

wherever you are, do feel free to sing along.

28:38

That's coming up

28:39

after the break.

28:43

Back in the 90s, I used to love

28:45

getting new CDs. I can still remember the

28:47

crackle of tearing off the shrink wrap, opening

28:50

the jewel case, and thumbing through the booklet

28:52

inside. CDs also sounded

28:55

incredible. While I do miss the

28:57

quality and tactile nature of CDs,

28:59

there's a lot I love about streaming music.

29:02

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30:07

Okay, where do you want to start?

30:09

So why don't we start at the very bottom? Let's just start

30:11

off with vocal fries. So just pretend

30:14

like you're just waking up first thing

30:16

in the morning.

30:18

You feel a little groggy and

30:20

you're just going. Another

30:27

day. Here we

30:30

go again. It's

30:33

another day to be Dallas Taylor.

30:36

Cool.

30:42

Beautiful, gentlemen. It's a beautiful choir

30:44

with vocal fry. There's our promo

30:47

right there. Good. Now

30:49

let's make our next stop in the chest

30:51

voice. So what we want to do is

30:53

we want to just say a nice, open,

30:56

ugly, na

30:57

na na. Like

30:59

you're saying nasty. There

31:01

you go. Uh-huh.

31:05

Martin. You

31:08

got it. You got it. Now what's interesting about

31:10

that sound is a lot of people when they start

31:12

singing is they're going to be very, very light. So

31:15

they might go na na na. The

31:17

issue with that is that if you start off na

31:20

na na, kind of light on the bottom, then

31:22

as you go up higher and those vocal cords

31:24

aren't closing as effectively, you're going to get

31:27

even lighter. And it's very, very difficult to

31:29

get access to those top notes. Sound

31:31

bad,

31:32

Matt Ramsey. Vocal coach extraordinaire.

31:36

I would just add an addendum. You have

31:38

to sound bad in order to sound good.

31:41

There we go.

31:42

So let's take a look at the head

31:44

voice now. Why don't we just try going for

31:46

a nice, easy foo.

31:49

So starting from a high note,

31:52

foo, on the word foo

31:54

as in food. So high note

31:56

down.

32:01

Right, now the reason

32:03

that you had a break there was because you

32:05

were starting in falsetto where those vocal chords

32:07

really weren't closing all that much. And

32:10

then when you came back to your chest voice at the very end, they

32:13

snapped together again. And

32:15

in fact, the break is actually a good thing. It means that

32:17

you're actually going between the different registers in your voice. But

32:20

of course, we don't want to stop there. We want

32:22

to continue to train it until it's almost indistinguishable. Oooooooh

32:30

That's impossible. That was black

32:32

magic. Martin,

32:36

why don't you try?

32:37

Where am I starting on this? Fuh?

32:41

Ooh. That sounds

32:44

high. Yeah.

32:51

Oooooooh That

32:54

was it. Now, let's try to thicken that sound

32:56

up a little bit and maybe even go towards a little

32:58

bit more of this kind of belting sound. Now,

33:01

can you say the word nay as

33:03

in neighbor?

33:04

Naaaaay Ooh,

33:07

there's a break up there. Naaaaay Ooh,

33:12

nah, nah, nah I don't think I

33:14

can go that high. That's totally fine. This actually

33:16

takes a really, really long time for

33:18

people to learn how to do, to just go from that

33:21

nay, nay, nay, nay to that nay, nay,

33:23

nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay,

33:26

nay and having

33:28

that really full sound at the top. Longer than 22 seconds or so, you think?

33:33

Usually longer than 22 seconds. Okay, alright.

33:36

Yes. Martin, you try now. Naaaaay

33:41

Lovely. Do you hear how there wasn't really that big

33:43

of a break on the way down there? So let's just experiment

33:46

with belting for a second. Dallas, why don't

33:48

we try this? Can you go naaaaa-troll?

33:52

Naaaaa, that pitch? That pitch. Why

33:55

does it sound so high to me and not very high to you? Naaaaa,

33:58

naaaaa You're right on my break. Exactly.

34:01

Exactly. So

34:03

belting happens above the brake, typically.

34:05

Oh, I'm on the brake. Natural.

34:10

There you go. You hear that? Yeah, I do. I do. But

34:12

you have such a lovely voice. I want to push

34:14

you even a little bit further, Dallas. You can tell how

34:16

uncomfortable I am. Thank you for that comment.

34:18

You're doing great, buddy. You're doing great. So

34:21

let's.

34:22

I'm not coddling you, I swear. Natural.

34:26

Natural. There you go,

34:28

buddy. Now go.

34:29

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na,

34:31

na, na, na, na,

34:33

na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na,

34:35

na, na,

34:37

natural. Natural.

34:41

Well, let's finish our tour of the different

34:43

vocal ranges at the very, very top whistle register.

34:46

Now this may be

34:47

very well something that you do or don't

34:49

have. Some days I have it, some days I don't. We'll

34:51

see what happens today. So you're

34:54

waking up first thing in the morning. And

34:56

then you just kind of go like you're going to stretch,

35:00

which brings your vocal cords together.

35:02

And then you just kind of let the note whistle

35:04

out. Like. Ah. Way

35:13

to go, Martin. There's

35:16

nothing, not a thing. There

35:20

you go. There you go. There's something there, Dallas.

35:27

There you go, Dallas.

35:29

OK, I can do it. I don't know if I

35:31

could control that. But I'm sure as a very positive

35:33

vocal coach, you'll be like, you sure can.

35:39

OK, so Dallas and I, we probably

35:42

won't be covering Adam Lopez any time soon.

35:45

But while people like him and Tim Storms

35:47

and Mariah Carey may seem to have an almost

35:49

superhuman range, it's really important to

35:51

remember how many hugely influential singers there are

35:53

whose range is much, much smaller. There

35:56

is kind of an obsession

35:58

with expanding.

35:59

vocal range and I just want

36:02

to make it very clear that that is not the

36:04

point of vocal training. The point

36:06

of vocal training is to sing songs better. So

36:09

I think of these different

36:11

techniques as kind of like colors in

36:13

your palette as a singer. You

36:15

know you can use vocal fry to express

36:18

emotion. Not the entire song has to be in vocal

36:20

fry but if you look at the song I'm

36:22

Not the Only One by Sam Smith they

36:25

sing.

36:36

So it's just those little tinges of

36:38

that fry that kind of express that emotionality

36:41

to it and the same thing is true for belting.

36:46

When

36:46

you're belting for that high note

36:51

That's designed to elicit an emotion

36:54

and to express what the singer

36:56

is feeling. In

36:59

fact there are times when quote

37:01

unquote bad singing might be the perfect

37:03

way to express the emotions you're going for.

37:06

Over the years there have been plenty of famous

37:08

singers who have pretty terrible traditional

37:11

vocal technique but that doesn't make

37:13

the music they create any less powerful. You

37:16

know this is even more controversial but

37:18

I think Bob Dylan's a great singer. They

37:20

sat together in the park

37:24

as the evening sky grew dark she

37:28

looked at him and he felt a spark tingle

37:31

to his bones towards

37:35

then he felt alone and wished

37:38

that he'd gone straight.

37:41

I define good singing as people that make

37:43

me feel something

37:45

and whenever I listen to Bob Dylan sing I feel

37:47

something even if it's not great technique

37:50

so there's a difference between good technique vocalists

37:53

and great singers.

38:00

Twisted shout.

38:03

It's just a bit too polite. It's too

38:05

polite, yeah, exactly.

38:15

20,000 Hertz is produced out of the sound design studios

38:17

of De facto Sound. Find out more

38:19

at de facto sound dot com. This

38:22

episode was written, produced, and reported by Martin

38:24

Zoltz-Worstwick. It was story edited

38:26

by Casey Emerling.

38:27

With help from Grace East. It

38:30

was sound design and mixed by Justin Hollis,

38:33

Joel Boyder, and Brandon Pratt.

38:36

Thanks to our guests, Matt Ramsey and

38:38

Albert Kuvesen. You can find Matt's

38:40

online vocal lessons on his YouTube channel,

38:43

which is Ramsey Voice Studio. Then

38:45

you can hear Albert's band, Yaka, wherever

38:47

you listen to music. You can find links to

38:49

both in the show notes. For another

38:52

great music episode, check out episode 121. It's

38:55

called Progression Obsession, and it was also

38:57

written by Martin. It's all about the chord

38:59

progressions that get used over and over

39:01

again in popular music. I'm

39:04

Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening.

39:14

Congratulations to Kat Buck for correctly

39:16

guessing last episode's mystery sound.

39:19

That's

39:25

the sound of a bowerbird imitating children

39:28

playing. Bowerbirds

39:33

are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea.

39:36

These birds have an incredible ability to mimic

39:38

a huge variety of sounds in their environment.

39:40

They can recreate the sounds of other birds,

39:46

wood being chopped, and

39:49

even a dog bark.

39:52

And here's this episode's mystery sound.

39:57

If you

39:59

If you know what that sound is, submit your guess

40:02

to the web address mystery.20k.org. Anyone

40:05

who guesses it right will be entered to win a super

40:08

soft 20,000 hertz t-shirt. Speaking

40:10

of which, we recently launched our brand

40:12

new store. We have all the shirts you know

40:14

and love, plus a bunch of new designs,

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40:19

it out at 20k.org slash shop

40:21

or tap the link in the show notes.

40:28

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40:30

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41:00

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41:02

Thanks.