It is my first article on the blog, and I decided to talk about something that is really important to me, and that creates a lot of misunderstandings : vocal technique.
I'm not a professional, but recently (the 6 past months actually) I've been interested in vocals, high notes and stuff. I found some websites that made me learn so much about it, and now I can say that I am a bit aware of what vocal technique is.
First of all, the thing that a lot of people seems to not understand is that vocal technique is not sounding good, and it is not singing high either. Straining to reach a high note is not healthy for your vocal chords. In fact, vocal technique relies on a healthy way of singing, and the more you sing without any tension, support your notes and place your voice in the right area, the more you'll be skilled. There are a lot of criteria, but the main point is to not strain and to not tense.
You can like a singer even if he/she is a bad singer. Often, fans say that theirs favs are the best singers in the whole world, but in fact their technique are generally not that good. And when you explain it, they act childish and sometimes even curse on you. Most of today's popular singers are in fact overrated (Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Zayn, Adele, etc...), except Beyoncé THE QUEEN that truly developped her instrument over the years and that deserves her reputation. Legends like Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston are also very good exemples of amazing vocal technique and ability.
"Ariana Grande is the best singer out there, she sings so high !!"
Singing well is quite vague as it is not the same to everybody. But liking someone's voice, tone, music, it has nothing to do with vocal technique. For exemple, there is a sort of trend that consists of singing with a breathy tone, that means more precisely that you let air pass between your vocal chords and that they're not fully connected. That's is a bad habit, because it restrains you a lot. When you're a skilled vocalist, you can use a airy tone at times for stylistic reason, but it becomes an issue when you don't do it on purpose. You don't need to sing in a specific style because it sounds cool, your own voice is naturally different from the other's, and adding air, cracks (Sia among others), is USELESS. My objective is not to criticize some singers, because I like their songs too. In fact, when you're famous and that people like your tone, who cares about vocal technique ? If you like something, you don't have to justify it, you just like it and people should understand that without arguing over who's the best singer.
"Listen to music, don't make fanwars, because it feels good !" Mathis Said, 2017.
(best quote ever right ?)
