Team Huddle and Studio Sessions - John Mathieu
Benjamin Kawsky:
Nice!. First of all, everyone positives and feedback. What did you love about it? Did you write this?
Tyler:
No, no, no, no, no. It’s Sam Fischer. I've been getting inspiration from this guy.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Great artists steal. So go for it.
Tyler:
Performs Sam Fischer - This City
Archie:
Uh, I have a positive and a constructive. So the positive is, whoa. That head voice and that control up there. That was beautiful. It was beautiful. Also, I don't think anybody noticed, but you said oops at one point.
Benjamin Kawsky:
This is a lesson for everybody when you're performing. If you forget the words, which is going to happen to you at some point in your career, know that you're not going to forget the notes. The notes are never going to leave you. They just won’t. So you can just sing “aah”. There's never a moment where you can’t. If you're in the middle of a sentence and all of a sudden you change to “aah”, people are just like, oh, he's, he's just imitating the instrument now. You can also choose to not sing and just feel it, in your head you’re thinking about the words, but you're showing us that you're still feeling the story. Your job is to always be telling us what to feel. Not to tell us the words, because we're not going to always hear the words.
Benjamin Kawsky:
We're not going to always hear the story, but we will always feel the story. So if you tell us to feel a mistake, we will, but if you tell us through the “aah” sounds to feel loved or hurt or joy or sadness, we will, and we won't know there's a mistake. So when I go on stage, I have to surrender. I kind of just say a Maria Callas prayer. Help me accept whatever comes out. And if I forget the words and fall on my face - like, that might actually happen - I'm going to keep giving to the audience and not apologize for being human and making a mistake. And the audience will always love you for that. And there are countless versions on YouTube of great singers, making a mistake and continuing to give to the audience and the audience applauds even more because that really shows how much you love and are dedicated to the people that are supporting you.
Banjamin Kawsky:
Ooh, great, great comment Wichie. I too really loved the falsetto. We haven't worked a ton in falsetto, but I love that you didn't pull off and pinch it or make it quiet. It was a really strong sound. It's definitely a strength of yours and something to show off when you're singing. Yeah, great job!
Benjamin Kawsky:
David, did you say you wanted to perform? He performed last week in the masterclass and did an original song and that was really great.
David Kushner:
Performs original piece.
Taylor Harper:
Yeah, I like that! So my main critique is I think you need to vary it up in terms of your range in different places. I think it could be a good song where the pre-chorus is higher than the chorus. And then you drop back down into that lower range. My ear really perked up when you went to a higher note, I think in the last chorus, you threw in some variation. I would go to that kind of area, because you're setting yourself up to come down and the best choruses are the ones that like anybody can sing. They're not super high. Did you write this just for guitar and vocals?
David Kushner:
Yeah. Mainly acoustic kind of stuff. I don't know, like James Arthur, Ed Sheeran, a more acoustic vibe.
Taylor Harper:
Right. Then I would definitely go higher at least on the pre-chorus. Is your falsetto pretty strong? I would throw in some falsetto too.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Especially with how repetitive is, because you say relatively the same thing three times, so you want to give each one a different vibe. I always recommend do one, the octave down in breathy chest, then do one up an octave (but chill), then one falsetto, and one fully belting the higher octave, you know? It gives you a big variation. That being said, the chorus is super catchy. That's what you want. You want a really catchy chorus that people can walk away singing. The "ooh's", are another opportunity to add variation because they stayed really low.
Taylor Harper:
Another thing you can do is on the pre-chorus switch up the guitar a bit. Just change the order of the chords and that should be good enough.
David Kushner:
Sweet. Yeah. I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thank you.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Ok, any other comments? Okay. Moving on, totally switching gears from pop to opera, Richard has been working on La donna è mobile which is about women being fickle. So you can just do the first part that we've worked on. You don't have to do the whole thing if you don't want to. That's fine.
Benjamin Kawsky:
This is literally one of the hardest arias for all of tenors everywhere. It starts off high. It stays high. It's very fast and you have to be amazing in one minute. There's no time to build.
Richard:
Performs La donna è mobile
John Mathieu:
Oh, that was really good! Good air energy. Just keep, keep the air roll on as much as you can, kind of even obsessively.
John Mathieu:
Yeah. Um, the other thing is I kinda like to think of visualizing my vowels. I'm kind of a visual person, so think of them as tall. Just think of them as nice and tall and not too wide. And the only other thing I'll say, I can hear you try doing a pretty good job of it, just when you go up a little higher, get on top of it. You want to feel the larynx nice and low and the vowel kind of deep and get on top of that sound. But you did a really good job with that. Honestly.
Benjamin Kawsky:
I really liked the moment of *sings*. The notes were really accurate. And then at the very end, it wasn't as accurate, kind of muddy. It needs to be held on the vowel. Don't let your vowel go or we don't get the accuracy in the notes. The first time you did it, it was really accurate! Also, what I want to say is when you do something acapella, this is a thing that happens to everyone - you don't take as much time as you have. You actually made it faster than is. It is pretty fast, but you have more time to breathe. You have more time to be settled. Because the breath energy is so extreme in this aria, you have to really recover in the moments. Use all of the time in between those phrases and when you're practicing, take even more.
John Mathieu:
Yeah. To piggyback off of that. A lot of people will tell you don't listen to the recording too many times, because then you sort of just memorize that particular singer. But I find it's actually kind of helpful because you'll actually have the orchestra in your mind. You can hear it if you've listened to the recording a lot. When it's acapella, it's so dry and your voice is exposed.
Richard:
And the nervousness speeds it up even more so.
John Mathieu:
Yeah. And with acapella you’re just shouting into the ether.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Yeah. With the *sings* you have time to breathe after that. But you didn't breathe you went straight for it. There's actually a couple of seconds in between that you can be fully relaxed, lethargic, abs out, and then attack it. So, when practicing, you know this, do one phrase at a time fully relaxed, breathe, make sure you can handle it, and then do another phrase.
John Mathieu:
Yeah. Great job! Hey, how many things were you thinking about?
Richard:
Haha! I wasn't thinking I just just wanting to get the song done! That's all.
Benjamin Kawsky:
You’ve gotta sing it again. Just make the vowels really big. That was so much better! Your voice is big. So it has to have time to breathe. You can't sing at the speed of somebody with a lighter voice or your breath gets away from you. So always take that time and sing your tempo.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Is somebody ready to go next?
Speaker 7:
I guess I could give it a try today, but I, but someone made fun of me and I'm like, I don't know, I don’t know what I'm doing.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Well, you can go! Yeah, go for it!
Speaker 7:
Yeah, one of my friends made fun of me. He's like, you “don't sound good”. I'm like, I'm learning!
Benjamin Kawsky:
This is a conversation we've had multiple times. Whenever you're performing for somebody that you care about, or their opinion, it's never good. But when you're just trying to tell someone a story like when performing for your little nieces, then it's always great. So just pretend we're all like your little nieces and that you don't care.
Speaker 7:
*Sings Goo Goo Dolls - Iris*
Benjamin Kawsky:
That was great! You weren't judging yourself while you were doing it, which was really nice. And whoever this person is, that's being all negative to you... You need to not ask their opinion ever again! Because you have this thing that my best friend has, where when she performs, she has so much joy singing that it's infectious. You have this infectious quality to your smile, to your voice. So I think that the more you develop and the more fun that you have, perform for people that support you because there's a lot of joy that you have to share. That's I think what your goal is, and it comes across really, really well. And let me just say your pitch is like a billion and a half times better. Like, no one would recognize you if they heard you a year ago.
Joe:
I would be interested in hearing you sing that without his voice, because you were totally on when you were singing it. And you were in the moment, feeling that song. It really has a meaning to you and you weren't thinking about someone saying something negative, you were singing your song. And that’s pretty cool.
Speaker 7:
Thanks!
David:
You do have a natural joy that I feel like you're trying to, I guess, shy away from so to speak. Cause when you're singing, it almost seems like “I don't know if I should show my joy because I'm not sure about my singing”. But at the same time, it's obvious that your joy is right there. And as soon as you smile, you see it. I would actually try to encourage you to sing that in a different key, maybe a higher, it seemed like it was a little low for you perhaps. But, other than that I believe Ben when he says that you sound 10 times better!
Speaker 2:
Okay. We’ve got time for maybe one or two more people. Who’s up?
Joe:
Benjamin makes me wear a jacket guys.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Yes. It's his focus attire!
Joe:
Can you see me? I'm so nervous. Why am I nervous today?
Benjamin Kawsky:
Don't be nervous. We don't want to feel your nerves. What do you want us to feel?
Joe:
The music, man! You want to fill the song?
Benjamin Kawsky:
Not the music. What's the emotion of the song?
Joe:
I don't know. Heartbreak and recovering from it.
Benjamin Kawsky:
Can you break all of our hearts? Don't care about the notes or the words or how you're standing or what you look like or what we think. All you care about is that you're going to break our heart. That's your goal.
Joe:
*performs*
Benjamin Kawsky:
Let's pause right there. That's a good stopping point. Good job! And this is a lesson for several people. Don't shut your eyes! When you shut your eyes, it makes technique way harder. You end up singing into your brain instead of singing through your chest. You also close off the soul. There are a few exceptions when you want to be introspective and you want to go like inward and into your guts. Sometimes you can close your eyes, but 99% of the time, you should pick a spot on the wall, stare it down, focus across your eyes, and sing through your chest. You are cutting off of like half of your sound. So I want you to do it again and you're not allowed to shut your eyes. Not even once, not even to blink.
Benjamin Kawsky:
We'll stop there again. That was a different singer. When you close your eyes, you stay in the nervousness. But when you open them, you might be nervous for the first sound that comes out of your mouth, but then it goes away and you know what you're doing. So do not allow yourself to close your eyes. And you're able to see how much of a difference it makes your intonation was like a bajillion times better. The first one was a mess. And then this one, there were fewer issues, but they weren't issues that really mattered much. You were in tune and it was much more steady and in control.
Benjamin Kawsky:
The one comment I would have is don't trivialize the instrumental music that's happening before you come in. Cause when you do this kind of stuff, it kind of makes us feel flippant about the background sound. And that's when you should be a character, that music is you. It's the feeling that you want us to have. Music is like you're singing and it's coming to us before you actually sing. So the singing actually starts when you first take foot on stage. That's when you start manipulating our emotions, like the moment you're on stage, you have to be asking, “what are they feeling? What am I trying to make them feel?” Even before you take a breath, when you take the breath, when you're singing, you're trying to manipulate our emotions. Thanks. Great job! I love the jacket. Keep wearing it.
Benjamin Kawsky:
All right. We're out of time. I'm really proud of everyone who performed in the masterclass last week. It was very impressive. You guys were phenomenal! You presented a very professional version of yourself. So there wasn't even as much critique as I thought there could be because you guys did so good. We’ll get it out on social media for everyone to see.