I'm starting on a two week layoff to try to finally get rid of the persistent hoarseness that led my ENT to tell me he'd like me to get a second opinion. So, I'm going to be doing things to improve my overall musical abilities such as playing guitar and educating myself on how to out a home recording studio together. I've never used a DAW, but I just bought a computer that has Logic Pro installed in it as well as Final Cut for video. I expect there's gonna be quite a learning curve on these things like learning to use a DAW and learning to make videos! None of it will be as challenging as avoiding the temptation to sing, but I'm so tired of not having a clear voice that it should give me an incentive to stay with this two week rest period. There are still a couple places in the Extreme Singing course I hadn't seen yet. I just watched "Head Voice Edging Grit. As soon as I first heard your example, my first thoughts were: "Oh, Axl Rose's technique...or Rob Halford's technique"! Speaking of extreme singing, it occurred to me that one of the great pioneers of raw, gritty singing was Janis Joplin, but she seems to rarely get talked about in those terms because she wasn't a heavy metal vocalist. Her music wasn't even hard rock, but her vocals were more extreme in the late 60s than what Plant or Marriott were doing. Sabbath started heavy metal but Ozzy Osbourne wasn't an extreme vocalist. Janis Joplin's influence would go on to be felt for decades. Her vocals were intense by any standards!

Has a song ever moved me to tears? Hell yeah! A number of songs have. I think guys tend to be hesitant to talk about this, since crying isn’t seen as manly and of course, I get it. I really do. As men, we're supposed to be tough. This isn’t crying from weakness though. This has nothing to do with how tough I am. This is crying as a result of being heavily emotionally moved by the beauty of a song! I’m a musician. I have to feel things strongly to do what I do. There have been times when if tears were blood, I'd have needed a transfusion as a result of being overwhelmed by the power and beauty of music. One beautiful lady’s music has caused me to spill quite a few tears. Her name is Tori Amos and I've been to five of her concerts. Tori Amos is a phenomenally talented singer, songwriter and piano player. She was the youngest person ever admitted into the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She was five years old. Peabody is for classical music. Around the age of twelve, Tori got expelled from Peabody for continually insisting on playing rock music. It showed she had the right attitude for the rock music world. Still, the seven years she studied there gave her a great musical background! I don’t think there are too many musicians who deliver the emotional intensity Tori Amos does. Many tears have been spilled listening to her songs. Her song Precious Things is a song so exquisite that it can have that effect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpk_ZjdGPnE&t=3s If you listen to the live performance of Precious Things that I've included, you’ll notice that at 5:25 into the video you will hear her being transformed by her music. She's abandoning all inhibitions to dare to be vulnerable enough, to leave herself so exposed as to let her audience see into her soul! Tori Amos is also one of the most passionate live performers I've ever seen. She gives her all in every concert. Once in a while, in a transcendent moment, she’ll even go beyond just “giving her all.” At those moments it’s almost like a religious experience. It's certainly a spiritual experience!

The "bridge" is a term I had heard before finding Rock Singing Success. I had been told there is one bridge, also called a passaggio and that learning to navigate the passaggio well (think of Chris Isaak singing Wicked Game) is the key to being able to sing with tonal consistency from low notes to high notes and not have your voice crack while you're doing it. By tonal consistency, I just mean being able to sing throughout your range and not sound like one person in mode one and sound like somebody else in mode 2. Navigating the passagio meant being able to transition from mode one to mode two seamlessly. That may be valid information. I learned it even before I ever met my first vocal coach, so since it didn't come from him, its certainly possible that it's an accurate description of what the "bridge" is: The thing that you use to move back and forth between modes one and two and not have your voice crack, or sound like two different singers. As far as I know, unless you want to count fry as "mode zero", there are just two modes. Mode one is what you typically use to speak, unless you're Mickey Mouse, and then there's mode two, which is also sometimes called head register. The voice breaks if you're not skilled in navigating the passaggio. I had gathered that you could think of the passaggio as the "bridge" that takes you from mode one into mode two. This was my understanding of "bridge" before I found RSS. R.S. found RSS. Imagine that! Good thing too, since the way I was being taught to create grit was pulverizing my larynx. "Just imagine you're lifting something heavy" - No thanks! If I were deliberately setting out to create as much unnecessary muscle tension as possible, then that would have been useful, but otherwise, no. There had to be a better way. "Just use the least amount of constriction necessary." - OK, I'm paraphrasing, but essentially that was what made RSS different from the way I was previously taught to create grit. My first coach encouraged me to constrict until no air at all was coming out and then just release tension ever so slightly until a little air can finally escape and we have "Grrrrrit"! And Reinke's Edema too!

Podcast Chats are where we keep the conversation going and dive deeper into the topics of our podcast episodes with you! 🎧 You can find this episode on our website or by searching for Rock Singing Success on your favorite podcast app! ➡️ 𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀! Even if you don’t plan on writing music, learning the ins and outs of songwriting is essential to becoming a better singer and performer. From simplifying your music to overcoming busy schedules and writer’s block, join me in exploring essential songwriting tips that are useful both as a singer and songwriter. In this episode: - The importance of making songs your own - Stupid simple: why simplicity is essential in songwriting - Why writing bad songs is necessary to create good ones - Using experimentation to turn familiar riffs into something unique - How stripping down to simple chords leads to powerful music - Why collaboration is key to creating memorable music - What covers can teach you about songwriting - The value of finding your voice and style through songwriting experimentation - Utilize modern tools and apps to make songwriting accessible - How simplifying the process can make songwriting more productive and fulfilling - Why scheduling and prioritizing songwriting is crucial—from afterthought to habit - Overcome writer’s block with modern tools for inspiration - How the concepts of songwriting benefit you overall as a singer SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLATFORM: Amazon Music/Audible Apple Deezer iHeartRadio Pandora Spotify

Mick Jagger is a great singer for The Rolling Stones. For them, he's perfect. However, there is nothing about his singing abilities that is spectacular. He’s average at best in technical ability. The Rolling Stones never needed a technically great singer. They needed a singer who could do what Mick Jagger could do and they were lucky enough to have him. Why then, has he had such spectacular success as the lead vocalist of The Rolling Stones? What is the secret of becoming so successful when there are so many others with far greater singing skills? This is something that I briefly discussed with one of the leading vocal coaches on the internet. The coach made a YouTube video where he made the statement: “Vocalists that get into character have a better voice no matter what.” Whether you like Mick or you don’t, you can’t deny that he gets into character! He certainly couldn’t out sing Freddie Mercury or Robert Plant or Steve Perry! But Mick didn’t need to. Mick needed to be a character singer and he’s one of the best in the business. I asked that same vocal coach I mentioned earlier about the statement I just recently quoted: “Do you think that’s a big part of the reason that The Rolling Stones get called The World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band even though Mick jagger isn’t the best singer in rock”? He replied: “Absolutely yes. He is the perfect example of a great character or musical actor but a pretty average vocalist.” Some of you may be asking what it means to be a character singer. Fair question. Mick Jagger is not a technically impressive singer. What he does so well is to get across the emotion and the guts of what makes the song meaningful! Much like an actor, a “character singer” gets into character for a particular song. Now, make no mistake about it, Mick Jagger gets “into character” before he even hits the stage! Absolutely. He becomes something bigger than he is the rest of the time. He basically takes his personality and “turns it up to 10.” That’s what makes Mick Jagger the perfect singer for The Rolling Stones. He can amplify those particular aspects of his personality that a particular song needs. For the next song he sings, he will likely amplify other aspects of his personality.