Adel

Adel Sang Live  At the Grammy’s on Sun­day, Her First Per­for­mance After Voice Surgery.

2 Days After the Grammy’s

Ok, the Grammy’s are over, so are Adel’s vocal prob­lems  and she basi­cally “swept” the awards. Did she deserve to win? OH YES!!!!! Why? Because she faced her vocal prob­lems and beat the odds as many singers before her have Not done. Instead of whin­ing, mak­ing excuses, and deny­ing her fears,  she admit­ted that before her per­for­mances she gets so scared that she lit­er­ally throws-up. On her 60 minute inter­view, with Ander­son Cooper, before the Grammy’s, she held noth­ing back. From her love of “cussing” on stage, to her anx­i­ety before each per­for­mance. Adel is not only  a “real” singer who uses no gim­micks,  she is a “real” per­son and a delight to watch. (See the link below to her inter­view at the bot­tom of this post.)

As singers, speak­ers and peo­ple who depend on our voice’s to make a liv­ing, what can we learn from Adel’s bat­tle with her voice prob­lems you ask…? I have always advised my stu­dents to treat the voice like the pre­cious, fine tuned instru­ment it is. Proper use of the voice takes the co-operation of the entire body, not just those two lit­tle vocal cords that reside inside your lar­ynx or voice box, located at the “Adams Apple” point of your throat. The vocal cords are pow­er­ful when used prop­erly but on their own, they can only do 20% of your vocal work, while your body does the other 80%. Learn­ing where to posi­tion your higher, “power” notes will take the strain off of the vocal cords and avoid those dreaded nod­ules and polyps.

With all this inter­est in Adel’s voice prob­lems, (as well as Whit­ney Houston’s  chronic voice loss), it’s impor­tant to  take the time to at least know who the voice cul­prits are and how to avoid them if pos­si­ble. So here is my take and I’ll try to keep it simple…

Under­stand­ing Vocal Cord Nod­ules and Polyps

The symp­toms of vocal cord nod­ules and/or polyps are:

1. Hoarsness for more than 3 weeks
2. Breath­i­ness
3. “Rough, scratchy”  sound­ing voice
4. That “lump in the throat” feeling
5. A Con­stant need to “clear” the throat
6. Decrease in pitch and vocal range.
7. Weak­ness in the voice

Nod­ules are non-cancerous growths on your vocal cords caused by vocal abuse. We think instantly of singers, but teach­ers, pub­lic speak­ers, actors, busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als and even chil­dren can develop these callous-like growths on their vocal cords. The longer the abuse, the big­ger those cal­louses can get. Polyps on the other hand are more like blis­ters with leisons on the cords and they too are caused by vocal abuse.

After diag­no­sis by a oto­laryn­gol­o­gist who spe­cial­izes in voice prob­lems, treat­ment can range any­where from med­ically, sur­gi­cally to behav­iorally. Although med­i­cine and surgery may relieve the prob­lem tem­po­rally, if the behav­ior that caused the prob­lem in the first place is not changed, the nod­ules and polyps can return. Also, as in Julie Andrews (Mary Pop­pins) much pub­li­cized vocal prob­lems, surgery  can leave you sans voice and sans singing and speak­ing career. Voice prob­lems are espe­cially hard on politi­cians in a polit­i­cal cam­paign year.

Bot­tom Line;

The best defence against ruin­ing your voice and jeop­ar­diz­ing your career is proper voice tech­nique PERIOD!!!! Even Adel told Ander­son Cooper, ” … If  I  go on another long tour, my vocal prob­lems will return.” I would add to that; ” Only if there is not a proper change in her vocal tech­nique.” As I watched her; “Rollin’ in the Deep”, at the Grammy Awards, I noticed a big change in her tech­nique which made me smile. I know the doc­tors first advise to her had to be,  “STOP SMOKING!!!” because her voice was clean and clear when she sang. Sec­ondly, her vocal posi­tion was more in the front of her face, focus­ing at the bridge of her scrunched-up nose, and the biggest, most effec­tive change was   … Her Mouth Was  WIDE Open. These are all good, effec­tive, things to do to keep those pre­cious vocal cords from strain­ing on the high notes.

But of all of the things we must do to make our voice happy,  keep­ing the stress, along with the stress­ful peo­ple, out of our lives, is our first order of business.

Adels Inter­view:

Here is the link to Adel’s delight­ful inter­view with Ander­son Cooper. For more info on proper voice tech­nique, visit www.virtualvoicecoach.com and please share this info with all your voice-abusing friends… !

 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7398480n&tag=mg;mostpopvideo

Wow, What a Month Full of Vocal Prob­lems, Flubs, and Tragedies! 

First Adel recov­er­ing from Voice Surgery, then the recent Steven Tyler bash­ing over singing the National Anthem, and now the Great­est Tragedy of All … the Loss of Whit­ney Hous­ton the Day Before the Grammy’s. What is Going on with Our Singers?

The vul­ner­a­ble thread con­nect­ing each of these events is: “Vocal Prob­lems.” Each singer has been crit­i­cized and con­demned for NOT LIVING UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS OF THEIR AUDIENCE, REVIEWERS AND FANS dur­ing live per­for­mances. Adel’s recent can­celled tour stretched her voice to it’s lim­its and caused her vocal cords to rebel from the abuse she put them through try­ing to live up to her  amaz­ing recorded CD. Steven had the courage to sing the National Anthem LIVE even though he had just got­ten off of a flight from Los angles where he had  attended  2 funer­als. His reward for that was the media call­ing his National Anthem “The worst since Rosanne Barr.” (Read my take on that is in a recent post… ‚) And now today the media is filled with sto­ries of Whitney’s amaz­ing voice fail­ing due to drug abuse and per­sonal problems.

Voice Real­i­ties For Those Who Have Never  Walked In A Singers Shoes

This morn­ing amid all of the spec­u­la­tion as to why Whitney’s tragic death has hap­pened, Record Pro­ducer David Fos­ter (who had worked with Whit­ney many times), said it so well; ” Don’t spec­u­late or judge Whit­ney unless you have walked in her shoes.”

I would like to now, amid all the spec­u­la­tion as  to “the big why…”,   address David’s insight­ful state­ment. As a voice coach I not only lis­ten to my stu­dents who con­stantly face the typ­i­cal “voice demons” that con­front us all when we step on that stage to sing, whether its the lead in a high school play, the National Anthem at a major sports event, an Amer­i­can Idol audi­tion, or a con­cert in Cen­tral Park, each one has  of these singers HAS walked in Whitney’s shoes, includ­ing me:

To begin with, it has been said that the great­est fear peo­ple have, is the “fear of pub­lic speak­ing.” Well, amplify that 10,000 times  and try; the fear of stand­ing up in-front of a crowded room full of expec­tant peo­ple judg­ing how you sing.

They call it Stage Fright but for singers it should be re-named, per­for­mance anx­i­ety. On the news, they have been announc­ing all morn­ing that they found Xanex, used to treat anx­i­ety and panic attacks, in Whitney’s room. After the last two years of Whit­ney hav­ing to hear in the media, over and over again, how her “amaz­ing voice was, gone, shot, destroyed by drugs etc.etc. etc…”  that night she was about to  sing again at her men­tor Clive Davis’s yearly Pre –Grammy party. Was she anx­ious, scared, ner­vous, pan­icked to once again open her mouth and sing in-front of the record­ing indus­tries biggest stars????? Wouldn’t you be if you knew that each per­son in that room, no mat­ter how much they loved you, would be dis­ap­pointed if your voice was not up to their expec­ta­tions? Put your­self in Whitney’s shoes right now. . . can’t you just imag­ine the fear she was fac­ing???? If you are a singer, hav­ing a “bad voice day” , (which hap­pens way too often), know­ing you would dis­ap­point every­one in the room if your voice “cracked”, wouldn’t you want to take any­thing to keep the fear and panic out of your voice? She had gone to the voice doc­tor the day before she died and it’s very com­mon to sub­scribe some­thing to relax the voice before a big event.

Big Shoes to Fill

Adel walked in Whitney’s shoes at every con­cert, as her voice began to weaken from over-use and stress (accord­ing to reports). Steven walked in her shoes singing the National Anthem with­out sleep (accord­ing to fel­low band mem­ber Joe Perry), every singer who has had doubts and fears before a per­for­mance has walked in Whitney’s shoes, as have I, when I was diag­nosed with COPD (Chronic Obstruc­tive Pul­monary Dis­ease  (from in-haling sec­ond hand smoke singing in smoke-filled rooms, which forced me to stop singing 2 years ago.)

The human voice is an amaz­ing God cre­ated instru­ment and like any instru­ment, it must be under­stood, loved and not abused. The high notes and the loud vol­ume expected from today’s singers is caus­ing chronic voice prob­lems because much of what the pub­lic hears is cre­ated in an elec­tronic stu­dio and CANNOT be dupli­cated live all the time. (Just a note: For those that are com­par­ing Whitney’s National Anthem to what they are call­ing “Stevens Flub”, need to re-evaluate their think­ing because Whitney’s Anthem was cre­ated in a stu­dio and she was lip-syncing while Stevens was LIVE. (Read my post)

Bot­tom Line:

As the true facts about Whitney’s death become known and all the spec­u­la­tion is put to rest, David Foster’s sug­ges­tion to “Try walk­ing in Whitney’s shoes before you judge her action.” will ring true for every singer who has the courage to step on a stage and open their mouth. Do not be so quick to judge next time your favorite artist does not “sound exactly like the CD!”  Maybe they are hav­ing one of those “human bad voice days.”

Whit­ney IS  still the great­est singing voice I’ve ever heard and is now singing with pure joy in her heart…  

When I first heard Adel sing I was so impressed by her sul­try, blues, jazz vocals and so glad that a young singer could find an audi­ence in a gen­er­a­tion that was used to scream­ing vocals.

Then her cur­rent CD was launched with ‘Rollin in the Deep’ and ‘Some­one Like You’  jump­ing off the charts. I liked both songs but when I heard Adel’s “new” voice pulled tight to the top of her range, I knew that on tour she would be in BIG trou­ble. I bought tick­ets to her first con­cert in San Diego because I wanted to see how she was going to pull-off the power on those high notes ‘live.”

Well, long story short, the con­cert was can­celled because of “vocal problems”…DARN!!!!! Although Adel did come back to San Diego at a larger venue, her voice prob­lems forced the can­cel­la­tion of her tour and she had to have surgery on her vocal cords. Tomor­row night she will sing for the first time at the Grammy’s so I will con­tinue this after I hear her sing…  I can hardly wait. Stay tuned.

OK … So Steven Tyler’s Ren­di­tion of  Our National Anthem Wasn’t Per­fect, and He “Blew-out” a Few High Notes  as  Many Famous, and NOT so Famous, Singers Have Done Before Him …

By now, isn’t it obvi­ous to all of you crit­ics and Steven Tyler bas-hers that our National Anthem is  a hard song  to sing? Those of you who are com­par­ing Steven’s “Anthem” to Whit­ney Houston’s “Anthem” at the 1991 Super­bowl, which many believed set the stan­dard  for the “per­fect Anthem”, or the Jen­nifer Hud­son “flaw­less Anthem” at  Super Bowl XLIII,  are in need of a Big Voice Real­ity Check!

It’s com­mon knowl­edge that Whit­ney and Jennifer’s per­for­mances were pre-recorded in a big record­ing stu­dio with auto tune and then edited to per­fec­tion, long before the Super­bowl.  They, along with many of the singers on “The 10 Best National Anthems” list, were  lip-syncing their song. If you are not famil­iar with what the words, lip-sync means, it’s this: They mouthed the words to the National Anthem as the pre-recorded CD played over the arena sound sys­tem. They did not sing the National Anthem live. (This group also includes Faith Hill’s crit­i­cally acclaimed ver­sion at Super­bowl XXXIV.)

To be on the safe side, most ren­di­tions of Our National Anthem sung at impor­tant events, ARE pre-recorded to avoid vocal dis­as­ters and screw-ups.

It takes a true voice-pro and a ton of intesti­nal for­ti­tude to stand in front of thou­sands of fans,  micro­phone in hand, and sing LIVE with­out CD back-up, espe­cially when we live in an un-forgiving, elec­tron­i­cally enhanced soci­ety that hasn’t a clue how the human voice func­tions, or whether what they are hear­ing and lov­ing is live or “Memorex”.

Of course the edited, enhanced ver­sions are amaz­ing, but so is Steven Tyler’s singing on the Arrow­smith stu­dio albums. “There are too many vari­ables to go live.”, wisely stated Super­bowl pre-show pro­ducer Rickey Minor.  ”I would never rec­om­mend any artist go live because the slight­est glitch could dev­as­tate their per­for­mance.”  Which brings us …

… Back to Steven Tyler

For the media to con­sis­tently acclaim Steven’s anthem as the worst since Rosanne Barr’s dis­as­ter where she grabbed her crotch and spat on the ground, (which of course was ment to be funny…) is ridicu­lous.  Roseanne is NOT a singer, while Steven is one of the best! So…What DID hap­pen to Steven’s voice?

A Voice Coach’s Take on Steven Tyler’s National Anthem

Accord­ing to Arrow­smith band mem­ber Joe Perry, an amaz­ing singer in his own right, Steven had flown into Tampa to sing the National Anthem. after attend­ing 2 funer­als in Los Angles and was exhausted. The first thing I learned when I began teach­ing voice over 20 years ago was that the voice is not like a gui­tar or horn, that you can put in a closet when you are not using it. Your voice is happy when your happy, sad when your sad, sick when your sick and exhausted when your exhausted. The great Opera singer Pavarotti once said; “As a singer, if you have 5 good voice days in a month if you are lucky. The rest of the time, you must sing like you are hav­ing a good voice day, no mat­ter what is going on in your life. “

Emo­tions, hor­mones, cabin com­pres­sion in an air­plane, air con­di­tion­ing, what you eat and drink etc.etc.etc. The list of things that can affect your voice goes on and on. That’s why singing is such a bless­ing to the lis­tener, and a frus­tra­tion to the singer. We all want to sing our best, but there are times when out­side cir­cum­stances are so over­whelm­ing that no mat­ter how good we are, we suf­fer “vocal blowouts.”

As I watched Steven start to sing, I knew he was in trou­ble because he started too high which is so easy to do with the, oh so frus­trat­ing to sing, National Anthem. (I’m sure it would have been fine on one of those, “good voice days.”  For those of you who have been in Stevens shoes …  know­ing you are in deep trou­ble long before you get to the “rock­ets red glare…”, here is the great­est advise I can give when singing the National Anthem   a-cappella, (with­out music):

NEVER, Never  Get Your  Start­ing Note (Pitch)  by Singing the “Oh-woh. . . .”

It is the sec­ond word “Say” that you should use to set a safer key to sing in. If the word “Say”, as in; “Oh-woh SAY can you see…” is on the low­est note in your range…you will be just fine when you get to the high­est “Rock­ets Red Glare. . .” part of the song.  I swear, this has never failed to work with my stu­dents. Even those with­out big ranges.

I did a one-minute video for One minute U on YouTube a few years ago and have received hun­dreds of com­ments from peo­ple who told me; “This tip has saved my life many times!” So I know it works…

Please me know your suc­cess or if it doesn’t work for you, let me know and we will fig­ure it out together. Oh … and if any of you know Steven, will you please tell him the key word is SAY! In the mean time don’t be so quick to bash a good singer who fal­ters, unless you have; “Walked (or sung) in their shoes.”

Here is the link to: Vimeo How to Sing the National Anthem in the Right Key.