Thanks go to Dave Gilbert for hosting this!
I have in my possession a guide which is all about keeping your voice healthy - how and why you should even bother. It's nothing you can't find elsewhere on the net, of course, but it IS a crapload of good, concise info.
It's in Portuguese, so I translated it into English. I hope I did a good enough job on it. ANyway, I just thought I'd share. Do pay close attention to the first pages, you'll find good reasons to be aware of your vocal system.
http://www.davelgil.com/Voice.doc
EDIT - Fixed, sorry, Geof.
File not found? ???
Hey thanks for this, mate. Really interesting and helpful.
Holy shit I needed this. I have auditions in two days o_0
Break a leg!
Thanks. There's some really great info in there. Being a singer, I'm always looking for better ways to protect myself. :) And actually, I have a call back for a musical tonight, so this should help!
My dream is to sound like Tom Waits and this isn't helping!
/me stomps the .doc
EDIT: This is the kind of transition I want in my voice over the next years!
http://www.tdrdesign.net/uploads/30yearsofcheapboozeandnorthstatecigarettes.zip
(Songs used in example by Tom Waits - Ice cream man and Tom Waits - God's away on business)
Quote from: Haddas on Mon 15/08/2005 18:56:52
My dream is to sound like Tom Waits and this isn't helping!
/me stomps the .doc
You are stealing my thoughts, man. I hate this fine and healty voices, give me Waits or Captain Beefeheart any time!!!
My dearest, dearest friends, shut the feck up and think about what you're saying. I've only heard Waits' "The Piano Has Been Drinking", so I can't comment on him, but let me take Leonard Cohen. He began with songs like Suzanne and So Long Marianne. A long time later, he covered Suzanne live. Aye, he covered it - he damn well couldn't SING it! That guy's lucky that his voice happens to still sound pleasing, but he CAN't sing anymore, he wrecked his voice so.
Also, there is no ending to what sort of problems these guys may be courting. You have no idea how easy it is to bruise your vocal c(h?)ords.
And now let me tell you something. I asked my teacher about something, I asked him whether Leonard Cohen's voice had indeed gone to hell. He said it had, and then he added something which has stuck - there are ways, HEALTHY ways, to get those effects. You know, ways that don't ruin your most precious instrument called "voice". So "fine and healthy voices" doesn't necessarily spell, say, Sarah Brightman or Grace Bumbry or Caballé. Freddy Mercury had a very healthy voice. Heck, if he didn't, if he didn't know how to keep his voice healthy, there was NO WAY he'd be able to keep singing.
There, I got over-excited about it. But please, think about these things before you say those things, because, my friends, THINK you did not.
I think they were joking, Rui ...
...they were?
<me pours chilled water down himself>
Well I do want to sound like Tom Waits. I want to have a deep rough voice. not this girly one I have now (Britteneers can prove), however I'm not a singer either. but I want to be a voice-actor/actor :=
Another reason to keep your voice healthy, above all. And in all honesty, don't try to have a different voice. Learn to use your own.
Fark, man, I smoke, drink and do everything that they say not to, and I can still hit an 'E' an octave above middle C easily.
But yeah, taking care of your voice is a good thing. But, like anything else, moderation is the key. If all you do is worry about taking care of your voice, will you ever have time to use it???
Bt
Funny you should say that. Grace Bumbry was my teacher's teacher. She is arguably the best singer ever (and yet little known outside the "opera" circles... but within those, she's huge). At seventy, her voice is as fresh as when she was thirty. And she hardly lives at all. Her routine is wake up, get ready, do warm ups, do other things voice related, she does her stuff (recitals, concerts, operas, whaveter she has to do) then comes bedtime. She doesn't really have a life.
Naturally, that's a case in extremis. But to answer your question, as strange as it may seem, yes. :)
My 86 year old grandpa who smoked a pack a day could still speak, Im not worried.
Well, my 81 year old grandmother smoked a pack a day for 50 years. She now has emphazema, a hacking cough, a deep growling voice, has to be on a respirator at night, and can't walk more than five minutes without having to sit down and use an inhaler.
She quit smoking 7 years ago, and that is the only reason she is still alive.
That's enough to make me NEVER smoke.
What's weird about me is that, I know EXACTLY how dangerous it is to smoke... and still I do it. I'm aware of the consequenses and frankly, I don't give a poop. I can sing very high, and I can go slowmotion low. but I'd still like to have a deeper voice. is there any surgery for that?
Quote from: Potch on Mon 15/08/2005 21:26:55
Well, my 81 year old grandmother smoked a pack a day for 50 years.Ã, She now has emphazema, a hacking cough, a deep growling voice, has to be on a respirator at night, and can't walk more than five minutes without having to sit down and use an inhaler.
She quit smoking 7 years ago, and that is the only reason she is still alive.
That's enough to make me NEVER smoke.
I'm already dying young - I'm enjoying my death.Ã, Singing and smokin' is fun.
EDIT FOR MORBIDITY: Yes, I realize that statement may sould bold and impeteous, but it's true. I believe in ALL things in moderation, even such detrimental acts as smoking. My situation is more unique than most, and some people would question WHY I don't quit all so-called foul things - it's because I don't fear death - I fear not living and enjoying things. Indulgence on a grand scale and gluttony isn't good, and yes, I spent my life gorging on somethings (such as food) and less on others. I'm rectifying the balance now, by trying to balance the scales so I can enjoy the fruits of the earth, and my time on it. Now back to our regularily shceduled voice conversation.
Bt
My granny isn't enjoying hers. She wishes everyday that she hadn't ever started smoking. It's really hard to watch, because she is the neatest lady on the planet.
Quote from: Potch on Mon 15/08/2005 22:53:45
My granny isn't enjoying hers.Ã, She wishes everyday that she hadn't ever started smoking.Ã, It's really hard to watch, because she is the neatest lady on the planet.
Yes, I'm sorry for those people who struggle later in life - it's no fun to see people wincing through the twilight years. Sometimes it makes me wonder if medical science keeps us alive for too long. Sure, we can live longer, but is our quality of life at those ages worth it? Life is about living, not length.
I'm sorry for your grandmother's struggles. The best we can do in those situations is love them, and offer the comforts that only the heart and mind can offer.
Bt
Quote from: Haddas on Mon 15/08/2005 21:35:41
What's weird about me is that, I know EXACTLY how dangerous it is to smoke... and still I do it. I'm aware of the consequenses and frankly, I don't give a poop. I can sing very high, and I can go slowmotion low. but I'd still like to have a deeper voice. is there any surgery for that?
I'm afraid not. I am lucky that I have a deep voice (not like Waits, more like Cohen).
And about Cohen: Yes, he sure lost his pleasant voice, but his later albums are way better then older ones (with exception of Dear Heather), and his voice sonds much better.
As I said, that's his only stroke of luck, because he can't sing anymore, he can only do what he now does. If he'd cared for his voice, he'd still be able to get that sound in a HEALTHY way, and still be able to actually sing (One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong, Suzanne, Who By Fire and So long Marianne are some of my favourites, and I think it's a terrible loss that the guy who sang those can't do it anymore).
You mean Tom Waits used to not sound like that? Gar.
Back in the Closing Time days Waits just sounded pretty much like any slightly smokey-voiced man on the street, really. It's always fun to play a track from that album back to back with his unhinged recent stuff like Everything You Can Think Of or Hoist That Rag. But he's always been great at making his voice fit the music / the music fit his voice whatever state he's is in, so I'm not complaining.
And yeah, I wish I could sound like him.
[lgm], I was talking about Cohen on that last post.
Quote from: Rui "Brisby" Pires on Tue 16/08/2005 08:31:10
As I said, that's his only stroke of luck, because he can't sing anymore, he can only do what he now does. If he'd cared for his voice, he'd still be able to get that sound in a HEALTHY way, and still be able to actually sing (One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong, Suzanne, Who By Fire and So long Marianne are some of my favourites, and I think it's a terrible loss that the guy who sang those can't do it anymore).
Yes, he can. Only now they sound better.
If you are unsure about that, check his latest concerts!
I have. :P He murdered Suzanne, and he didn't sing it. He did the only thing he can do now, he sorta "acts" the songs, gives them feeling, and waves his voice around notes which are much, much lower than they used to be, and in such a way that can only be described as "speaking", not "singing."
Accourse, as I said, in most cases it works (but I still say he murdered Suzanne and One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong, while Who By Fire, for instance, or There Is A War, became quite kewl) - which is his saving grace, and the only thing that keeps him in business. Because, and that's the whole point, he ruined his voice - and he didn't have to to get that effect.
no no no.. I meant Tom Waits because I listened to that MP3 of how he sounded then and now. I thought he always sounded rough.. Mainly because as Las Naranjas's sig states, I am a moron.