What’s up people?! Hope you are all having a great day! I don’t know about you but ever since I was little I’ve loved Halloween. This year I dressed up as a nerd. I went to the thrift store and found the nerdiest sweater, some silly glasses and wore my top-siders with some crazy socks. Now I am a bit of a nerd myself so playing up the nerd card wasn’t too difficult. My friends and I also got together and carved pumpkins which is one of my favorite Halloween traditions. Mine is the one that says “Boo”! I would love to hear your favorite Halloween traditions and what you all dressed up as!
Hey all! Being back in school has definitely been a little weird. I am a vocal major at the University of Denver and we are working on our fall opera, Faust. Being a musician I appreciate all kinds of music but I have to say opera is not my favorite. These next two weeks we have rehearsals late almost every night and and a lot of music to learn and memorize. I have to say though when we had our first rehearsal with the orchestra it was so cool! It is always amazing to sing with a full orchestra. We had a set load in day this past weekend and all of the vocal majors had to come in and build the huge Faust set. If you have never seen an opera I recommend you do so and experience one, the music is gorgeous and it takes a lot of hard work. If you are in the area come see Faust Nov. 3rd-6th at DU, lamont school of music!
Well, happy Friday, Urban Methoders! It’s Kim Dawson again. Time to learn about the voice!
A friend of mine shared a video recently that I thought y’all might like. I’ve always found it fascinating to see how instruments work. I would watch inside the piano every time my dad played, mesmerized by the mechanisms inside that create the sounds. It’s the same when I can look inside the human throat and see what goes on when we sing, or talk, or make any kind of sound. It’s so crazy that the body can be an instrument, first of all. And it’s even more amazing that these mucus-covered pieces of flesh inside our throats are what allows us to sing. That was kind of gross imagery, but you get my point. Have you ever wondered what vocal cords look like? Here you go:
See that little lighter pink section that has a slit in the middle of it? Those are vocal cords. And this is the larynx of a very healthy singer.
Singers often get their throats scoped to make sure everything is healthy and in working order. I love watching video to see what happens to these cords when we make sounds. It’s pretty fascinating. Just disregard the mucus.
The human body is truly an amazing instrument. Take care of it! You only get one! Have a great Halloween weekend, and be safe! Thanks for stopping by!
Howdy, there, Urban Method folks! It’s Kim Dawson here to talk about a band I’ve been listening to non-stop recently. I’m talking about the Grateful Dead. Yep, you read that right. No, I’m not a secret Deadhead. I just have to learn a bunch of tunes for some upcoming work I’m doing, so I’ve got Dead on the brain!
I had never really listened to The Grateful Dead before. I just always saw them as the ultimate hippie jam band, and since I’m not really a hippie, I never thought much about them. But, I’ve gotta tell ya, they did some really hip stuff, man. The members of this band (Jerry Garcia, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzman) all came from varying music backgrounds, and used those different influences to create a very unique sound. Going through their song list, you can find bluegrass, r&b, funk, jazz, blues, and classical stylings all kind of rolled into one. Say what you will about their drug usage and lifestyles, or the drug usage and lifestyles of their fans, but the music speaks for itself. And there’s a reason their music resonates with so many people. I was surprised by the beautiful poetry that exists in their lyrics. Lines like “Without love in a dream it will never come true,” and “One man gathers what another man spills” are poignant no matter what your background. And Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart are two of the best drummers you’ll ever hear. (I just had to add that. They really did some amazing stuff.) Besides that, the music is just plain fun. Give it a listen. I’m sure you’ll find many, many things to enjoy.
Check out the vocal sound effect video! Here, Richard Steighner from Urban Method demos the sound effects he has used on the first few episodes of the Sing-Off, NBC’s all-vocal show.
Crab Scratch–It’s an imitation of a record scratch using an inward breath with a shaping of the thumb and pointer finger. The result is actually a highly controllable noise that Richard used in “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem and Rihanna to “bleep” out the swear words.
Vibraslap–A crazy little percussion instrument used for all kinds of reasons. Used in “Just Can’t Get Enough” by the Black Eyed Peas as a transition into the “Switch Up” part. It’s done with a tongue roll while breathing out and mouthing an “F” shape.
Vocal Guitar–The electric guitar sound is done by getting a buzz while mouthing an “F” shape and “W” shape at the same time. Then humming, you can get a pitched noise. It’s used in “Dance to the Music” by Sly and the Family Stone during the solo sections.
Shuffle–A fast snare pattern used for the intro of “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe. The pattern is “pf, pf, pt, tf, pf, pt, tf, pt, tf, psh” for those who wanna give it a shot!
The Cricket–I’ll keep it a secret for now; if you can do it, post a video and I’ll spread it around!
Hip Hop week on The Sing-Off. We are in the middle of lesson learning.
As the Hip Hop group we’d like to represent our genre well. The name of this game is representing those who got you here. So in the process of choosing our songs, we’ve narrowed things down to a couple of options: either perform something from one of the top current artists or something from an icon.
The genre took off when East Coast and West Coast had their representatives (Pac and Big) hit the mainstream and develop followings that not only supported their reps, but fiercely opposed the other coast’s rep. It comes down to this–perhaps the most important part of successful music: “We need a little controversy” (thank you Eminem for the line). When there is rivalry, opposition, and something respectable for people NOT to like, the energy grows as does the fan-base. Biggie represented the East Coast while a strong contingent of West Coast artists had developed. Without the two artists, Hip Hop would not be where it is today. As we try to push hip hop into vocal music, what better way to honor the National competitiveness than in a competition like this one.
We chose to go with Love, iconic hip hop song from Tupac that would translate well into a cappella and the Urban Method style. Hope you enjoy.
Update: The NBC Execs have informed us that they are looking for a more current Hip Hop song for the show. In a scramble to find a new song for this week, we turn to Eminem, Jay-Z, and Kanye. Apparently there is a Kanye song on the books for this show, J’s crew will not release the rights for a song just like Eminem (especially after a favor from his crew allowing us to do Love The Way You Lie). So we will be performing a song from the current charts and adding our hip hop style and some UM flair.
The Lesson Learned? To fully understand and perform Hip Hop, you must get to the roots of what it is. The reason many people rap is that their message feels more expressed to them in words rather than song. The fact that you can focus on saying what you need to say rather than condensing and compressing that into words is the root of Hip Hop. The genre is very much about a confident stand for what you believe, and the drum and bass emphasis is crucial to delivering that message. Now, people are mixing song and rap, R&B and Hip Hop, Pop and Emcees…let’s explore that corner.
I’d like to start off by saying that I’m so proud of Urban Method and how far we’ve come on the show! When I chose the members of the group and asked them to try this “Sing Of” thing, my hope was that we would make it on the show. That was it. Make it on the Sing Off. Then, as we started to rehearse for the first times, I realized that we had more than a shot to do well in LA. People probably don’t know that the first time we actually sang together as a group, was the shooting night of our audition video for the show. Find it on Youtube under Urban Method Video.
Now that we are past week 5 where we ripped up some Poison and got the audience dancing, I found that the group is pulling together in new ways. We were shoved into working on the show and with each other 12-15 hours a day and sharing rooms in the hotel after starting the group only 2 months earlier. We have started to find a balance of power and personalities. It’s amazing to sit back and watch as the different personalities and talents just flow during our rehearsals. I’ve found that the quality of our performance improves when everyone gets their voice heard and has input toward our arrangements. So, GO URBAN METHOD! I hear the feed back we are getting on Facebook and continue to be proud of how hard the group works, how hard they want to win the show, and more importantly, how they remain professional and have become friends with a common love of music as our direction. We let the music direct us and it flows from the heart every time we get on stage. Hopefully that is what sets us apart, not only on the Sing Off, but in the future as we move forward.
Hey Urban Method folks today was a crazy day for a cappella! First I see that Urban Method has been mentioned on IMDB. That is the Internet Movie Database if you don’t know, now you know! (Biggie Smalls) Take a look. They said that we KILLED the performance!! WHAT!!!! Take a look.
IMDB Article:
TV Replay It was Guilty Pleasures night on ‘The Sing-Off‘ (Mon., 8Pm Et on NBC) and Ben Folds certainly got into the spirit of the theme. While his professional work has …..(Click to Continue)
Then I was watching a Football Life – Walter Payton. AMAZING!! and then this commercial came on.
A cappella is everywhere! Isn’t that great! I hope you all can appreciate what is going on here! Our music a cappella music has made it to the main stream! That is amazing!! See you on Monday! Oh and if you have not told your friends to like Urban Method. Please do. We need as much support as we can get as we go through this Sing Off thing!
What’s up guys!! Hope you are all having a good Friday! It sure has been a gorgeous fall here in Colorado! I took this picture last weekend up in the mountains and just made me realize how lucky I am to live in such a gorgeous state. Coming from California I was a little apprehensive about moving from home to a brand new place but it is such a great place to live! My first winter here definitely took some gettin used to but with the right gear and some good snow boots I did just fine. If you have never been to Colorado I recommend that you do! There is so much to do here and so much to see and hey you might even run into Urban Method! Gotta love Colorado!!
Since I was talking earlier this week about how I love working with vocal effects in a cappella, I thought it would be fun to share an example of how technology can be used to make beautiful vocals.
“Lost in the World” is a collaboration between Bon Iver, a folk band that works extensively with vocal effects, and Kanye West. Bon Iver is one of the only groups I’ve ever heard that uses autotune to create beautiful, haunting harmonies instead of using it to correct pitches.
