This is an original thought I had that no noteworthy youtuber's mom has ever mentioned - vocal coaching is more about psychology than anything else. Great job on this video, Ben!
100% I’m sure singers are going to say “it’s actually a lot more complicated yada yada” at the end of the day, it’s making your voice do a certain pitch. It’s in our blood as humans to be able to do that. It is more mental than anything, I’m sure if you wanna be a opera singers it’s more tenchinval but still
@@brown9671 I am a singer here saying that for as long as I have been teaching and coaching singing I can not ever stress enough the importance of confidence. Yeah sure after that whatever raise eyebrows or something sure that's fine but really what means the most more than any other singing technique is simply just developing confidence in your voice and learning to have fun. (Also edit here: To sing like an opera singer a majority of it is actually just mocking how ridiculous an opera singer may look and then realizing that that's exactly how you do it.)
@@brown9671 I think u r right about just singing in tune, but about singing good and controlling ur tone with control I imagine it's at least a little complex
'Getting over the cringe' definitely is something I learned by just doing it constantly. It's basically saying, "Yeah, no, you still sound damn weird," and just rolling with it. Once that is through though, you can actually focus on the technical aspects, honing what your natural voice is capable of and uncapable of. Keep in mind that even if you're finally comfortable with your weird voice, other people will need time to adjust as well depending on their cringe tolerance.
I’m a girl with a very deep voice and I always hated that. My parents always tell me that i sound like a man. I know they just think it’s funny but still I became super insecure about it. When you say that sounding different （even in a conventionally unattractive way）is a good thing it’s very comforting to me. Thank you☺️
aand im a guy who's been told that i kinda sound like a girl lmao. ik that's probably not rly true and is an exaggeration, but still i have this thin kinda voice that just sounds weird to me 😬
FWIW you guys would be golden for choirs :). Most people's voices fall in the middle (between bass and tenor for men, and between alto and soprano for women), so having voices that sound natural in the extremes is fantastic.
Ben, you are an international treasure. So many teachers out there are on that "YOU MUST FOCUS ON MAKING EVERY NOTE 100% ON POINT AND SOUND LIKE PROFESSIONAL SINGERS" grindset and it can be demotivating as hell. It took me years to at least partially accept the timbre of my voice (which isn't really a voice a "proper" singer has) and now doing things with it is so much more enjoyable. It's depressing just how widespread the emphasis on performance and perfection is in society, even when it comes to doing the things we love, and I love when someone with a platform bothers talking about it instead of just silently supporting this pain we're causing ourselves by trying to satisfy unrealistic expectations right from the start.
That speech at the end was something really special. Totally don't have a tear running down my face right now. "You're somebody that sounds like you, and that's incredibly valuable." That chord sequences at the end was beautiful too.
These methods were mostly how I got used to hearing myself sing. I think getting over the "oh no I sound weird" is the biggest hurdle, but once you've forced yourself through it you're set to go for life!
I didn't expect an awkward educational fever dream today. Thanks I hate it in a loving way, and that is ok you've helped me and entertained me and broadend my horizons to a new genre of strange and I will remember this in years to come
Great work, Ben. I think there's an interesting discussion to be had here. How do we balance something like Panky's ruthless quest for technical proficiency with the need for personal artistic expression? How are these things related? And what about recognition? As artists, we have a certain innate need for our ideas to be validated and accepted by a wider audience. There really isn't any right "answer" to these questions, but it's interesting to think about how we might balance technical prowess, artistic self expression, and the human need for recognition. I've been working on exploring some of these questions on my own, as well.
this is more fit as an introductory quick course (or reminder of where your roots are once youve gotten better) to finding comfort with your voice, to get a fundamental control and intimate knowledge so that you have a basis to build proper technique off of. these things arent isolated from proper technique, theyre essential parts of proper technique. its kind of a "learn to crawl before you run" thing
I love what you’re saying about not focusing on intonation first. I recorded an album where I hyper focused on hitting the notes as well as possible. My intonation improved, but it doesn’t sound like I meant what I was singing. I’ve been focusing a lot more on emoting and choosing takes that have character rather than the best pitch on my new project, and I’m happier with the results!
a lot of singers sing "talky", where they emphasize on the rhytm of the words first and foremost and maybe sing out a long note at some words, the approach to it is more like publicly reading poetry or something, it puts more emphasis on diction, speaking tone, cadence, and emphasizing/accentuating words, before really worrying about those couple of words that sing out at the end.. usually it's like a speaking tone adapted to the music they're rather than homing in to the correct sustained singing note from the get go, it relies a bit more on the natural timbre, timing and style of the vocalist rather than their opera skills :D even if you're tone deaf, and can't sing to save your life, you can train yourself to utter things in a manner that sounds more convincing, being confident (or at least not held back by too much insecurity) plays a gigantic role in that it's easier to just sing what you sing with intent and feeling, even if you can't sing, the public will be way more likely to plenty of high selling artists sang off-key or flat or whatever, and it hardly matters this especially holds true for male voices that have some low quality, like johnny cash and the such high pitched voices being off key can be absolutely awful, and usually it doesn't fare as well for women or men with higher registers singing that far out of key but there's so much timbral quality to a low voice, usually comes with a lot of (accidental) vocal fry that makes the voice sounds broken and drives home all that despair better than singing it cleanly :') i like bluegrass too, which pretty much aims for perfection in vocal chords blending together as if they're one (unsurprisingly often the singers are blood relatives that share mannerisms), but there's something about dirty rotten old country singer voices of singers that technically can't even sing that somehow works. if you use autotune on those kind of voices, you destroy all the unique timbral and transient qualities of the voice and get nothing back but a overemphasized tonality that just isn't natural to that type of voice, and it will sounds like absolute synthethic shite without even going hard on the dials... voices like that can't be autotuned, it is the inharmonic content that has most of the value hammering on intonation and consistency of loudness is understandable if you're in some bigger choir with a lot of people of which some may still be a bit green, and you have to find a way to have these people perform something coherent together usually those sing 2 or 3 voices too, so it makes sense to hammer on intonation to make things fuse in better in a large group of singers, and practicing not being distracted by whatever the other sections don't the other voices are doing is invaluable too...because that too is something that doesn't come natural to most people, the the majority will unconsciencly adapt to what they hear unless they have some experience with knowing what external stimuli to ignore and focus on their part but i don't see why anyone that sings solo would restrict themselves to that, you can totally create your music around the qualities of your voice. talky singing works just fine, i usualy find it to sound a bit less stiff and frumpy sounds more geniune to me, because everyvoice is unique, as ben alluded to in different words, those kind of vocals tend to be more them, than someone that trained all their life to have a voice that's not really them but some character in an opera :D remember: mick jagger can't sing for shit either, but that never held back his career, because the stones is all about the attitude lol. who the fuck likes perfect music anyway? if everything is perfect, is it even still musical?
That was nice! The other day I heard a girl from a room below mine shout "halt die Schnauze!" In response to my singing, which roughly translates to "shut the fuck up", but just a little harsher. I felt super bad about my singing, and I realize you should respect other people's soundscape too, but i think next time, I'll just close the window, maybe hide under a blankie and continue to do my thing
i've always had a super deep voice for a "girl," but after coming to terms with my gender identity and presentation i've embraced it. i really like this one singer and musician, jun togawa, who has a great voice but screams and bellows out most of her songs. no one else has a voice exactly like mine and i think singing weird and "wrong" is my way of expressing myself.
jun togawa is amazing! great example of someone just owning their voice and making it something truly unique. and though i've never heard your voice i know just by the fact that you're embracing it that you also own yours. any voice can be beautiful!
Great video so far. I tell every - single - person the same thing. “The worst sound in the world is your own voice, recorded.” Once I can get them over this (ie realizing everyone feels this way) they can get out of their heads about it. :)
Even if I wasn't a musician, and even if the information in Ben's videos wasn't excellent, I'd still watch them for the awesome, trippy production values and editing.
Yet another great resource, you're so open I'm tearing up a bit. Thanks for always inviting others to try things out and give us tools to make the best of what we've got.
Great video, Ben! For me, it was recording multiple times while singing and playing the guitar. It got me over the anxiety of being recorded. And I have a good ear for music so I could tell which areas of my voice needed improving, and I kept searching for good voice coaches on RU-vid until I landed on Chris Liepe's channel.
I've never seen anyone pad out to 10 minutes in such a creative and humourous way! Great tips Ben, I think the philosophical aspect of learning to feel free to be silly is possibly the most important one!
I never wanted to be a singer, but some kids in school were looking for a singer in their band. They bugged me for a couple months. I’m not sure why? But I finally gave in and said I would give it a try. Now singing full time, for the last 22 years, I make hundreds of dollars a year. 😔
I was shocked and disturbed when the puppet eyes as they drifted from their sockets. I couldn't stop laughing to continue the exercise. If I walked into a bar where I was singing... I would turn right around and leave...As much as I hate my voice ... It never stopped me from strangling many cats in public. Some people love that sound?
I have been a long time viewer of your channel (althogh an infrequent one), since when you used to call yourselft "fake" dr Levin. Not only you have come a long way but now you teach self love too! Hope you keep growing, best wishes!
Thanks Ben. I've always hated the way I sound on recordings and how I sing. That speech at the end was very inspiring and I'm going to try and push through the cringe and start improving
Excellent advice Ben, thank you. I was hugely inspired by your idea “getting songs done” and over the past coup,e of years, I’ve completed a few, and in that time, I’ve leaned to like my singing voice, and accept it as being MINE
I always loved to sing but never dared to pursue it. It required running into somebody new and supportive in my late 30's to get me to date try things out. Now I am a singer in different bands, perform live, etc. I still practice in my car though.
I often practise singing while walking to and from work. Not only is there a decent amount of privacy on my route, but there is also a big hill, which is good for training vocal endurance and breath control
I am all for the classics like Mark Baxter and Victoria's Victorious Vocal Tips on RU-vid, but this is equally as valuable a lesson. Glad I found this video. Thanks, Hand!
Your pep talk at the end was so motivational that it made me consider singing even though I will never sing and I'm only watching this video to see if its worth recommending to my friend
You are so weird and wonderful, dude. I love your videos. Thank you for doing what you do. Some of these things I already know, but your way of explaining and showing things is both humorous and enlightening. Totally on board with the loosening up and raising the silly quotient to eleven. Keep up the great work. I've subscribed and will be watching more.
Best advice you gave was to find you special spot... it is so important to feel comfortable to express. And singing.exspeically has a way of making u feel exposed... Find ur safe happy free spot you all can express and you will feel so much freedom and definitely make more killer music. Cool video .!.
Big video you got here Ben. I appreciate it. It echoes and puts words to some things I have been doing and gives me more ideas to try. I have been singing a lot during and since quarantine and improving my voice slowly. I started just playing songs on the guitar and singing because I didn't feel like I had anything better to do. I adopted one simple guiding principle to my vocal approach because I was pretty sure it would help: "stay relaxed." I felt I had a tendency to push too hard and it was hurting my sound and potentially my voice (physically), so I decided to try to find a way to sing more relaxed. After watching this video, I realize this was a way for me to focus on my tone. And it definitely helped. Just today I recorded a couple takes of a song that I learned last week and I listened back to it and thought for maybe the first time, "I don't hate my voice, this is okay." Still work to be done, but it's exciting to be on the journey and I'm having fun and not being too hard on myself. If anyone reads this, thanks.
Ben I love you, I think I needed to hear this now. I've had hardship singing for the last two years. I used to sing and practice all the time. And I was getting better. At some point I've decided I'm too shitty anyway lol
