La voce, darling, la voce...

Here's a quick test question:

With "Top notes like passion fruit and bass notes like chocolate", who's "voice" am I talking about?

She's joined a growing list of people who have launched a new perfume, called La Voce. This perfume was put together by Coty as a floral/oriental concoction that will retail for $200 per 50oz bottle, available only in exclusive stores. (Hint, she's an opera singer, and the first that I know of to join the named fragrance market.)

Having worked with singers all my professional life and endured their somewhat misguided protection of this mythical beast called "the voice" (never "my voice"), this is the first classical singer I know who genuinely has the excuse to say "la voce, darling, it's so precious".

Still, it gives me the legitimate reason to put the following people together in a single sentence: other celebrity perfumes by Coty include Celine Dion, Desperate Housewives, Kylie Minogue, David and Victoria Beckham, Playboy and Chupa Chups.

Answer: Renee Fleming


Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk/ for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
The Voicebox Videos DVD website tells you all about the Looking At A Voice endoscopy video series
The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.

Crack open the chardonnay, it's Robbie!

Can't imagine how I missed this, but in May this year a report emerged from Heriot Watt University in the UK on music and wine.

Research instigated by wine producer Aurelio Montes reveals that our perception of the flavour of wine alters depending on what music we listen to.

Montes is famous for playing monastic chant to his maturing wine barrels in their Feng Shui designed vault. He approached applied psychologist Professor Adrian North to see if proof of the power of music could be obtained.

Professor North has already conducted research in supermarkets noting that customers bought more French wine than German when recordings of accordian music were played.

Here's Professor North on the results:
“Background music influences the taste of wine. The specific taste of the wine was influenced in a manner consistent with the mood evoked by the music. If the background music was powerful and heavy then the wine was perceived as more powerful and heavy than when no background music was played. If the background music was subtle and refined then the wine was perceived as more subtle and refined than when no background music was played. If the background music was zingy and refreshing then the wine was perceived as more zingy and refreshing than when no background music was played. Ifthe background music was mellow and soft then the wine was perceived as more mellow and soft than when no background music was played. The magnitude of these effects was not insubstantial, and they were stronger for red wine than for white.”

Four types of music were played - Carmina Burana by Orff ("powerful and heavy"), Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky ("subtle and refined"), Just Can't Get Enough by Nouvelle Vague ("zingy and refreshing") and Slow Breakdown by Michael Brook ("mellow and soft")

The white wine was rated 40% more zingy and refreshing when that music was played, but only 26% more mellow and soft when music in that category was heard.

"The research showed that when a powerful, heavy piece of music is heard, a wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon is perceived as being 60 per cent more powerful, rich and robust than when no music is heard."

Montes is now looking into the idea of wine labels carrying music recommendations and has already suggested the following:
Cabernet Sauvignon: All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix), Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones), Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney and Wings), Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who)
Chardonnay: Atomic (Blondie), Rock DJ (Robbie Williams), What's Love Got To Do With It (Tina Turner), Spinning Around (Kylie Minogue)
Syrah: Nessun Dorma (Puccini), Orinoco Flow (Enya), Chariots Of Fire (Vangelis), Canon (Johann Pachelbel)
Merlot: Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (Otis Redding), Easy (Lionel Ritchie), Over The Rainbow (Eva Cassidy), Heartbeats (Jose Gonzalez)

Just a small glass of Kylie for me...


Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk/ for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
The Voicebox Videos DVD website tells you all about the Looking At A Voice endoscopy video series
The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.

Speak to the beat on Spoken Wor(l)d

Peruvian Composer and aptly named traveller Phileas has gone around the world collecting recordings of the spoken voice in more than 30 languages

What makes his work different is the use of those recordings over an electropop beat, to produce a dance album released in July 2008.

The voices, speaking in their own language, are used as instruments, and the meaning of the words are less important than the intonation, voice qualities and phrase shapes of the speakers.

The dialect world calls the melodic contours of a language "prosody", and it's obvious that Phileas has tapped into this idea and extended it via his electronic studio.

The music is clever, catchy and, frankly, groovy. Catch a sample of the album on http://www.phileasworld.com/english/artist/index.html


Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk/ for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
The Voicebox Videos DVD website tells you all about the Looking At A Voice endoscopy video series
The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.

Expert tips for tribute band singers

Is there a singer in your music collection that you want to cover?

How do they make those sounds?


You can't really go and ask them, so if you want to pay tribute to their talent, how can you find their vocal signature sound?

I train professional singers and their teachers, and I work with a number of tribute band singers who need to sound like someone else. I will use a mix of hearing, imitating and imagination to help find the "feel-sound" of a recording artist. So here are some exercises I use every day with my students.

First, I need to know whether my cover band singer has all the notes in their voice that they are going to need for the song. Remember that songs are always recorded in a key that suits the individual recording artist. You are not the same as your chosen artist (you may be a different age or even a different sex), so their key may not suit you. It does make a difference which key you are in, whether a tune sits well in your voice. I usually begin by asking my cover band singer to hum the tune, using ng' (as in the word "sing") instead of the normal mm humming sound. The humming lets me know whether the actual notes are easy to hit, without getting too worried about the sound or style. It also tells me whether we need to change the key of the song for that singer.

You can usually recognize a recording artist within a few notes because of their 'signature sound'. It's what the artist does with their physical structure (their body and throat) that makes the sound itself unique. Your favorite recording artist probably uses a singing sound close to their speaking voice.

Here's an exercise to help you feel what it's like to speak with your chosen artist's vocal "setup", the shapes they make with their throat and mouth: Use your imagination to find how your artist would talk. You don't even need to hear them speak (it's actually better if you don't know). Just listen to the way they sing and imitate what you think their speaking voice would sound like if they spoke like they sang. Listen to the way they pronounce words, the volume of the sound (soft and breathy, loud and straight), and how direct or gentle they are. Imagine them talking to you, telling you (for example) what they had for breakfast that morning. Feel the way they talk, and then speak, matching the sounds you think they would make.

With the same feeling in your sound, begin to talk on a higher pitch and then a lower pitch. We normally sing above and below the pitches that we speak on, so try speaking in a higher and lower voice than your normal one. You might feel ridiculous, but it really helps to get into someone's vocal habits.

Naturally, your chosen artist may be using several sounds or 'voice qualities'. That's fine. Choose another sound (louder or softer) that they use in their singing, and imagine how they would speak with that sound. Again, experiment with speaking higher and lower using the new sound.

When you feel comfortable with using their vocal setup in your speaking voice, you can start to use it in singing. Sing the song you were humming earlier and add the words, using the same shapes and sounds you've been experimenting with.

You'll be surprised how close to your chosen artist you sound. Go back and listen again to the recording, and notice how much more you understand the feel and flavor of the performance. Capturing the essence of an artist's voice is simple when you know how!

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Discover more simple and profound singing techniques from Jeremy's voice training company Vocal Process, "revolutionizing the way singing is taught" (LINK Magazine)
http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk



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Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk/ for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
The Voicebox Videos DVD website tells you all about the Looking At A Voice endoscopy video series
The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.