URBAN METHOD

Happy Thursday, Urban Method folks! It  seems so long since we’ve talked! I’m so glad to be back home in Colorado and really working on what we have coming next for you all! But now, for a little music history.

On this day in 1943, jazz piano great Fats Waller died an untimely death from pneumonia. The first time I ever knew of Fats was in the movie Stormy Weather, in which he played a jazz club owner and performer, and performed his hit “Ain’t Misbehavin.” I always thought of him just as that funny man who raised his eyebrows a lot. Through the years, I discovered that he was an incredible piano player and composer, and set the standard for many pianists who came after him. And beyond that, he was a great entertainer. He could just play, but he would always add little witty quips into his performances. He made his playing look effortless, and he never seemed to take himself too seriously. He was a much sought after accompanist for many vocalists at the time, and remains one of my favorite musicians to this day. Here’s to you, Fats! See you on the other side!

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…

TEXT “2″ to 97979

PHONE 877-674-6402

ONLINE http://www.nbc.com/sing-off/vote/

Check out All of the Lights from Kanye West here.

We’ll soon post the Mashup from Earworm featuring Peggy Lee’s Fever and Nelly’s Hot in Here!

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!

1. Gretchen Parlato

2. Esperanza Spalding

3. Kurt Elling

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!

Sorry I have not been posting recently. I had a little nightmare of my own (fitting for this season I guess). My dad had a climbing accident and broke his knee. So I flew home to help out around the house. Fortunately, the injury did not prevent my family from holding their 32nd annual Halloween Party! (I’ll spare you the gruesome details).

I’m excited to be celebrating Halloween on TV! We lucked out because the 31st is Monday. If the show was going to air on a day that wasn’t the 31st we might not have been able to do a Halloween theme. I think I am more excited for the opening number than anything else. I love Halloween, and on top of that this will have been the first opening number that I actually enjoyed wholeheartedly.

No health tip for today. Just enjoy the candy and the seasonal beer.

-CHEERS! and Happy Halloweeen! (Bwahaha)

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!

 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!

Thank You All!

Howdy, Urban Method folks! It’s Friiiiiiiiiiiday! Woo hoo! Hope you’re having a great one so far. Here’s the vocal topic for the day: belting.

I studied classical music in college, and there was always a constant debate as to whether or not belting was damaging to the voice. How would I describe belting? Contrary to what some believe, it is NOT just yelling on pitch. It’s kind of like singing in a high part of your range using a lot of your chest voice and a lot of gusto. This is what scares people in the classical world. The truth is, any time you sing anything with bad technique, it can hurt you. So, yes, if you are trying to belt and are using bad technique, it can be bad for your voice. It causes you to bring your chest voice higher than you normally would, which can put strain on your vocal folds. Therein lies the danger. If you are practicing belting, and your voice starts to hurt, you should stop! Singing should never hurt! Also, any time you are belting on a regular basis, it can very quickly cause vocal fatigue. We have witnessed a lot of that during the course of The Sing Off. Long days with lots of singing, and specifically lots of belting makes for very tired vocal folds. So, I would suggest working with a voice coach/teacher/vocal therapist to learn good belting technique. We want you to be able to sing forever, so let us help you out! And keep singing! Have a great weekend!

“If you sing a song a day, you will make a better way, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah….” — Earth, Wing and Fire

I almost passed out today towards the end of my work out. It is not just enough to drink a protein shake after working out. Health Tip #18: Water is not enough. Drink/Eat some protein and carbs before and during a work out. It is good for healing muscles and preventing fatigue.

 Hey there!! Katie here from Urban Method. So during our sing-off journey we would have very long rehearsals in rooms around the hotel and the rooms were ALWAYS freezing!!! So we would bring blankets from our room and bundle up to stay warm! In the picture is the lovely Kim Dawson and Christopher Diaz. Thank god for Christopher and the rest of the music team. They were such great people to work with and always had great things to say. And even when they would come in and help they would be cold so we would always share some blanket.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement through this process, we appreciate it more thatn you know. Go UM!