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!
Hey there, Urban Method lovers! Happy Friday! It’s Kim Dawson here with another vocal tip.
I am often asked if everyone can be taught to sing. The answer is simple. Yes! There’s an ancient African saying that goes, “If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance.” We all have different voices, and are born with different natural abilities. Some of us have to work harder at it, but we can all sing. Even those of us who are tone deaf, which aren’t really many of us, can be taught to sing on pitch. It’s true! I have a good friend who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket when she was young. She couldn’t tell one pitch from another, and didn’t know that what she was singing was different than what anyone around her was singing. But, she really wanted to sing, and had a very patient music teacher in school who worked with her every day to improve. Now she teaches elementary school music for a living, and has a lovely singing voice to boot.
Now, I may not sound like Barbara Streisand when I sing, but that’s okay. Neither does Aretha Franklin, and she’s doing just fine. So, don’t be afraid to try to learn to sing. You don’t have to be amazing before you ever set foot in a voice teacher’s studio. Go for it! Let your voice be heard! And have a great weekend!
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!
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, 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
Every year for the past 25, the Harmony Sweepstakes has crowned a champion. I have had the distinct pleasure of competing, losing, winning, losing again, winning it all, being judged by judges, being judged by peers, and learning.
I have seen young groups win and lose and old groups win and lose.
I have seen traditions succeed over novelty and I have seen innovation transcend time.
Most of all, I have seen a transition. “Just Friends,” the first group listed as Harmony Sweepstakes champions in 1985, the year after I was born and started working on my snares, sang jazz standards and originals. Roll a ’6′ and move forward as many years to when North Shore (yes, that North Shore) won in 1991. Scrolling the list of annual champs since then, North Shore marked the point of inflection when Doo-Wop/Jazz began to phase into Jazz/Contemporary vocals. The outliers are barbershop groups and comedy groups that either touch on perfection or sublime genius (by design or happenstance) to outshine trends.
All of these groups have in common the en masse closer “Goodnight Sweetheart,” flawlessly performed by the very North Shore of 1991. After years of stumbling through 80-person cluster chords to end a night of judged singing, North Shore’s swan song of 5 voices marked (for me) a departure of an era of a cappella through the Sing Off Vomitory, stage-left.
While we all seemed to miss the endearing personalities of NS, mourn the loss of polished professional stalwarts, and sympathize with the departure of a working model (not Guy, the group itself), NS took the term “A Cappella” with them (and everything that goes with it), perhaps for good. A cappella, despite the efforts of myself and friends and colleagues to define it as an instrumentation, is very much a genre. North Shore is that genre, and everything that is good about it.
Is Urban Method a cappella? What about Pentatonix? Vocal Point? Even Afro-Blue seems to defy the veil and gown of A cappella as representatives of the pre-neo-a cappella era. To be more clear, I’ve created a timeline (with a NON-EXHAUSTIVE list of examples):
20 BCE – Jewish Chant *
15C. – Renaissance Polyphony **
16C. – Palestrina, cantata, and madrigal ***
1873 – Glee Clubs (See: The Rensselyrics) *
1906 – Choir (See: St. Olaf College) **
1938 – Barbershop (See: African American tradition) ***
1950 – A Cappella (see: Hi-Los and The 4 Freshmen) *
1980 – Vocal Jazz Era (Post A cappella. See: Manhattan Transfer) **
1985 – Neo-A Cappella (See: North Shore) ***
1991 – Pop Vocals (See: Boy bands, Boyz ii Men, Take 6) *
1996 – Contemporary A Cappella (Anti-A Cappella. See: m-pact, Naturally 7) **
2003 – Vocal Reconciliation (See: Idea of North, Groove For Thought, Committed) ***
2007 – Indie Vocal (See: Imogen Heap, Moira Smiley and VOCO, T-Pain) *
Present – Vocal Renaissance (See: Sing Off) **
[* = Thesis; ** = Antithesis; *** = Synthesis]
Yes, I believe we are in an entirely experimental, antithetic, and perhaps soon sythetic period for vocal music where equipment is now affordable, experimentation is necessary, and novelty is diluted if not despised. Competition is high to make new sounds (see: bazillion beatbox videos) and tradition carries little weight anymore (see: episode 5).
So I bid you a sincere adieu North Shore. I have had the distinct pleasure of crossing paths with you numerous times in a cappella and have the utmost respect for you. You are “A Cappella” as we have come to know it and it now becomes striking to me that the phrase “a cappella” is rarely heard in the show.
Happy Friday, Urban Methodites! It’s Kim Dawson again with some quick vocal health tips.
Students have a variety of questions about maintaining vocal health that gives me a lot of insight into how they conduct themselves in their every day life. One of the most common questions from my adult students is how much drinking and/or smoking they can do. I don’t think I need to get into the harmful effects of smoking tobacco, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 30 years. Smoking is bad for you in so many ways. Your voice will never be the same after smoking as it was before you started. Sorry. So, on to alcohol. Any amount of alcohol dehydrates you, taking away the moisture that your body, and most importantly, that your vocal folds need in order to function at their best. So, you’re fighting an uphill battle if you drink and sing. Caffeine has the same effect on the voice. So, sorry, coffee drinkers. That pick-me-up is wreaking havoc on your vocal folds! Now, I can’t tell you how to live your life. And I don’t want to make anyone’s life any less fun. And I definitely won’t say that I have had the greatest habits over the years. But, you have to weigh the costs of certain habits that you have if you want to be a great vocalist. Great guitar players take great care of their instruments. Saxophone players take great care of theirs. Well, vocalists, your body is your instrument, so take care of it. You’ve got one voice; treat it right! So, here’s to many more years of healthy singing!
Hey all! My voice teacher shared this video with me and I just about died!!
I have been taking voice lessons since 5th grade and not once have I ever had a teacher like this one although some people have said they have! For any of you that have taken voice lessons you know how crazy this would be to have a teacher like this. I love how she whips out a cigarette and starts smoking in the middle of the lesson. I’m sure this is what some people think of when they think of voice lessons however there are so many amazing teachers out there that have really made an impact on me.
If you have ever thought about taking private voice lessons or having your son or daughter take them, I would encourage you to do so because I know when I was younger they really gave me the courage to sing by myself confidently. And by starting them at such a young age really made me realize how much I love to sing. And as I grew older all the performing made me realize I want to pursue music as my career and chase after my dream. Thank you to all that have helped me improve my voice and given me the boost of confidence I needed in the toughest of times, including you urban method
Singing: It’s been a long time. I shouldn’t of left you… With out a dope beat to step to…. step to step to…..step to…. to step to…. step to… step to…. ficky ficky…
So it really has been a long time and after a FIRE of an a cappellaSing-Off episode last night I had to say Congratulations to all of the groups that were able to advance. We look forward to seeing all of you next week. Now to why we are here. Being a bass singer I am asked how do you get that great low end sound? Well let me share a little bass knowledge with all of you low end singers.
The Best Microphone For Basses and Vocal Percussionists!
Step 1: Relax; believe it or not, working on your low end is just like working on your high end when it comes to singing. You have to learn to relax and not push the lower you go. At first you will not have the volume you desire, but after a little while you will be a bass dynamo!! So Relax!!!
Step 2: Get a great microphone!! I swear by the Rode NT3 Microphone! It wil change your bass singing life! I am not endorsed by Rode but if anyone from that company wants to send me a couple of NT3 Microphones I would not complain…. waiting… waiting…. no takers? Oh well. Hey still go out and get that microphone. IT ROCKS!!!
That’s all for now see you all in a week!
Love,
T-Ho
Troy Horne – Bass Singer/Song Writer/ All Around People Person.
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!
