A quick thanks to all of those who helped us pack the house at the Paramount Theater last night in Denver. We had a chance to unveil an original song, some cool new tricks, and rock the songs you came to love from the show. Make sure you tag yourself on the Facebook pic Tony took on stage!
So what’s next?
Now it’s time to put it all together. We’re going to hit the studio and write. That’s right, original music. We’ll be putting music videos together, creating new and exciting content, and building OUR show. The plan is to have that done by summer time (2012) and then hit the road.
Until then…
thank you so much. Our friends, our family, and our newest supporters….we couldn’t do this without you!
How’d you like it?! We made the top 3 and now we need your votes. You can help us become the champions of The Sing-Off. The show is in it’s 3rd season and we’ve seen Nota and Committed win it all. Now, vote for Urban Method in 3 ways…
It was so hard to see Vocal Point go this week. Both of their songs were just great, especially that Bobby Brown song with all that choreo, some of those boys can dance better than I can! Each and every one of the Vocal Point boys are so talented, kind and so much fun! Urban Method and vocal point were best buds. Every thursday before a taping we would sing for eachother so we could get some nerves out before the big day! In one of our little meet and greets we got to see another talent that Ross was hiding. Did you know that Ross can catch jelly beans in his mouth from all the way across the room? It was crazy!! All in all Vocal Point was a great addition to the show and we had to much fun with them on our sing-off journey.
Simple Things is the title, and it’s about appreciating your friends and realizing that it’s never to late to say I’m sorry to your friends. It’s a simple song, so we kept it simple musically with only one guitar and vocal line.
Regarding Urban Method, OMG!! I can’t believe we made it to the top 6, so sad to see my girlfriends of Delilah go.** ** I’m really excited for tonight’s episode with R&B. We have some rockin’ outfits and even better arrangements. Man I love, singing and even better I have so much fun with Urban Method.
Well, happy Thursday, Urban Method folks! It’s Kim Dawson again with some lovely tidbits for your eyes and ears.
I’m a jazz vocalist and a huge jazz fan. I often find that people don’t really like jazz because they think that it’s cheesy or it’s slow or it’s too complicated. Or, they think it’s old folks’ music, and you can’t really groove at all to it. I say, bah! There are so many different styles of jazz out there. Jazz isn’t always a saxophone playing a lot of loud notes at lightning speed, doing something only music nerds can really appreciate. And it isn’t cheesy songs that Las Vegas lounge musicians sing while lying across a grand piano. There are a lot of amazing jazz musicians, and notably, a lot of amazing YOUNG jazz musicians, making some awesome music out there. My favorite thing about music is that each genre, style, or what-have-you continues to evolve. You can find elements of latin music, r&b, hip hop, and classical music in it. And that’s why I love it! Music is just awesome! Here are some of my favorite jazz musicians out there today. Happy listening!
Hey all!! So I was watching the Ellen show the other day and these two girls from england put up a video on youtube singing “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj. Ellen brought them on the show and they got to meet their idol Nicki Minaj. I thought this video was so adorable and so funny. These little girls, sophia Grace and her little sidekick Rosie put on quite the show. They have so many views on youtube its crazy!! Hope you enjoy this video, always nice to take a break from our busy lives and smile!!
Happy Friday, Urban Method fans! It’s Kim Dawson here with another vocal health tip for you.
When our voices are fatigued, we often have a tendency to whisper when we speak, believing that this is easier on the voice. Well, guess what? It’s not. Speaking in a forced whisper actually harms the voice more than it hurts. It makes the cricothyroid muscle work harder than it has to, and it wears out more quickly than it would if you just spoke at a normal level. Here’s a diagram to show you what that muscle looks like:
The cricothyroid muscle tenses the larynx, and helps with phonation. And since whispering is not quite to the point of phonation, the muscle works hard to make that phonation, but never quite gets there. How frustrating! So, what should you do instead of whispering? You just shouldn’t talk at all! If you are put on vocal rest, then mime, write on paper, use sign language, or whatever! Just don’t talk! I know it’s hard. I’m quite the chatterbox myself. But, I promise that you will reap the rewards in the end if you take care of your voice. The voice is the only instrument that people use all day long. So it would stand to reason that using our instrument makes use tired faster than say, practicing the violin for hours. I know. I’ve done both. Take it easy on yourself. Don’t use your voice when you don’t have to, and take care of this precious instrument. You only get one! I’ll leave you with one of my favorite jazz tunes sung by one of my favorite jazz singers. Have a wonderful vocal health day, and a wonderful weekend! Much love to you all!
Everyone in Urban Method lives and breathes music. Of course, we all love a cappella, but one of the things that I think makes our group so awesome is that we are all deeply immersed in music of many kinds. From Broadway to funk to classical, someone in our group is passionate about just about any genre you can think of. My passion is producing electronic pop music, and I’ve been working away, creating original material using my laptop, keyboard, a mic, and a midi controller. It takes a loooong long time to go from start to finish when I’m doing everything from building beats to playing a synth line and singing, but OH MY GOSH it is the most amazing feeling when it’s done.
I showed a song I was working on called “Take Me Down” to Myke when it was still in the early stages and asked him if he might want to rap on it, and he wrote a rap for it in like five minutes. Myke is crazy! Then Tony heard about our project and offered to do some production/mixing/mastering work on the song to make it sound all sparkly and gorgeous. So this song is truly a collaborative effort made possible by Urban Method. And it’s also pretty exciting to think that we can build a repertoire of original songs with Urban Method in the future….
I am just so grateful to be surrounded by a group of people that not only loves music, but also loves collaborating and sharing their musical gifts and passions with each other. We use our collective skills and drive to come up with original arrangements on The Sing Off, but we also share ideas and love to support and collaborate on each other’s other musical endeavors.
Check out “Take Me Down”, and let me know what you think! I’m just so happy I got to make this song with my awesome UM friends.
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.
A quick thanks to all of those who helped us pack the house at the Paramount Theater last night in Denver. We had a chance to unveil an original song, some cool new tricks, and rock the songs you came to love from the show. Make sure you tag yourself on the Facebook pic Tony took on stage!
** I’m really excited for tonight’s episode with R&B. We have some rockin’ outfits and even better arrangements. Man I love, singing and even better I have so much fun with Urban Method.
