Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability

I recently watched this video and found it to be remarkable. She said so many things that I have recently concluded myself - not through a thorough research as Brown concluded, but from living my life. Please allow me to share a few of the highlights I loved from this video. Note: All of the following thoughts in italics come directly from the video and are as near as possible direct quotes from Brene Brown.

"Courage: To tell the world who you are with your whole heart.

"[People who live whole heartily have the] courage to be imperfect. They had the compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others. They were willing to let go of who they thought they should be to become who they were. They fully embraced vulnerability. They believed that what made them vulnerable made them beautiful. They talked about it being necessary. They talked about the willingness to say "I love you" first. The willingness to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out.

"[Vulnerability] is the birthplace of joy, of creativity, of love.

"We numb vulnerability. We live in a vulnerable world and one of the ways we deal with it is we numb vulnerability. You cannot selectively numb emotion. You cannot numb those hard feelings [fear, hatred, discouragement, shame] without numbing those better feelings [joy, love, compassion]. When we do, we become miserable.

"Let ourselves be seen. Deeply seen. Vulnerably seen. Love with our whole hearts. Practice gratitude and joy in those moments of fear. Believe that you are enough."

These thoughts are powerful. Absolutely powerful. Internalizing these thoughts and realizing that we need vulnerability, that it is okay for people to see the emotional sides of our lives, helps us to live passionately. It helps us to experience true joy, to find true love, to understand human nature and become our best selves. I believe this is powerful.

Now, you may wonder why I would put something like this on a vocal blog. What does any of this have to do with singing? To risk sounding cliche here, I think we should ask, "what doesn't this have to do with singing?" Music is one of the strongest forces to drawing out emotion on this planet. It is powerful, it is strong. By singing, we have the power to ignite emotions in others. But most especially we have the power to ignite those emotions in ourselves and then share an emotional connection with an audience. However, doing so makes us vulnerable and if we can't live with vulnerability we cannot share the emotional connection with others. Without vulnerability, singing just sounds nice but it isn't powerful. To be powerful vocalists {on top of learning technical things} we must be vulnerable.
Enjoy this video! Please let me know your thoughts and what you learn from this.




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David Archuleta: Parachutes and Airplanes

One of my students, Whitnie, sent me a link to this song a while back. I've been a little slow sharing on here but I wanted to post the video and also share what she said about it.

"To me this is an amazing example of energy and really good support especially to be able to just hit "airplanes" and not have to slide into it and it's still strong and not held back really.. and I think his "O" vowel is nice too."

Thanks, Whitnie!

I have a difficult time understanding a lot of what he saying. However, I thnk this is mostly due to the recording {and the screaming fans}. His energy is amazing and makes the song so much more fun than if he just stood there barely breathing out the words. I also love the "o" and "oo" vowels. They are so round and have a nice quality. His support on airplanes is very good and well held out. A fun song made even better by an artists ability to execute it well, manage his breathing and summon up a lot of energy, and use good vowels. Beautiful.

Katharine McPhee: My Destiny

Very nice start.
A bit airy in the first chorus. Anytime she sings "quietly", she goes airy. Unless this is done on purpose, it's an indication she doesn't know how to sing quietly. When she sings loudly, her voice almost goes nasally and makes her sound younger than I think she is.
Trying the "scratchy" technique on the second verse, which I am not really a huge fan of.
Good control of the moving notes. I like the vowel whenever she has an "ee" in the word {e.g. "destiny"}.

Carrie Underwood: I Told You So

All of her vowels are appropriately very country. There is a lot of country twang to this song, which should probably be expected from a Randy Travis song.
There is also a nasally quality to her voice, though I think this is just done stylistically. I love the control she uses for all the moving notes. They are not just arbitrarily moving around, but she is doing everything on purpose.
I would like to hear her transition into head when she sings "I told you so" just because it sounds a little strained, or at least just not to push so much.
All in all, this is a great song and Carrie does a wonderful job executing it.

Christina Perri: Jar of Hearts

Christina has a deeper quality to her voice. This makes the whole song seem lower than it is. It is a very distinctive style.
This song is pretty basic, almost boring because there isn't anything different throughout the whole thing. It has a very limited range and vocally she doesn't do much. She also appears to be straining as she's singing because there are times I can see every vein in her neck poking through. That isn't a very healthy way to sing and I don't recommend it.
{Note: this music video is kind of weird.}

Brooke White: High Hopes and Heartbreak

Her voice quality makes me think of the 60's and 70's. I'm not exactly sure why. It isn't a bad thing, it just means her quality is more unique than so many people today. But I like that she isn't trying to belt everything out of her body. Her voice is more unique and easier on the ears than some other artists of the day.
There isn't a lot going on with the range of the song. It just sits in about the same place, but she executes all the notes very well. There aren't any notes that have less quality than others because they are too high or low. I take this to mean that she is a good artist because she sings songs she knows she can sing well. She also does the moving notes well. I do think the "ah" of the word "high" could be a fuller quality, but I do love her "oo"s at the end.

Kelly Clarkson: Before Your Love

I really appreciate that Kelly is able to sing without the super airy quality of softer tones that so many artists employ. She does have some belting she employs for the choruses, but I don't think she overdoes it, which is refreshing.
She seems to be missing the second half of the diphthong on many of the "ah" vowels {except for the word "shine"}. Her consonants also seem to be missing several times and I probably wouldn't know what she was saying if it were not for the lyrics. But she executes the notes so well and has such obvious control.

Martina McBride: Anyway

Martina always such artistic quality and control to her voice. She knows what she wants to sound like and she knows how to do it. Most importantly, she knows how to do it well. It is very refreshing to listen to an artist who can sing loudly without sounding like she's pushing or straining her voice.
I love her "oo" vowels and the "ey" vowel, which is good since it's in this song a lot. Some of her vowels are very country, but she is very effective at singing country music without using all the twang typically associated with it.
Her breath is wonderful and you know she utilizes her air with great efficiency.

Sarah McLachlan: Angel

This song seems so ethereal, so easy and light. Sarah's voice quality really makes this possible. The airiness she employs throughout the whole song gives it that "on the wind" quality that makes it such a great song. This is a good example of how airy voice quality is applied stylistically to make the song better.
Her consonants are lacking and sometimes not even there. This makes it difficult to understand what she's saying. Her focus is mainly of vowels, leaving consonants in the dust of wishing we had a little more. However, in doing this she does add to the mystic quality of the song.

Katy Perry: Firework

This song is really quite fun. The very beginning sounds a little too much like everyone else. There isn't much unique about her voice until she gets into each chorus. The verses sound like they could be almost anyone. The belting is not exactly a style I like that much. I actually really like hearing her transition into head the few times she does it. Her voice sounds a little forced. I'm also not a huge fan of the "oh" and "oo" vowels, just because I think they could be fuller.