Vibrato Control Today we worked on learning and using different style techniques in a pop ballad song. The first one we worked on was vibrato control. In many cases, singers use vibrato as a crutch to improve the overall sound of their tone - masking imperfections in the pure tone with a little bit of style. Because of this, vibrato is something that is hard for our brain to process as a trick rather than a baseline vocal technique - making it hard to increase or decrease the speed and amount the singer uses vibrato in their song. Today we worked on being able to control the speed of our vibrato by pushing it forward (with our vocal and mouth placement and with our airflow) to speed it up, and how to increase and decrease the frequency in which we use it in a song. To do this, we started by singing one note -- 2 counts with no vibrato, adding vibrato for 2 counts, removing it again for a straight tone, and then adding it back in. It is difficult at first for our brains to process it as something we can turn on and off -- but Estelle crushed it!
Today we started working on our digital Christmas project! (we will be recording songs in my recording studio in the next few weeks!) We worked on "The first noel". We worked a little bit on studio technique - how to sing with a condenser microphone (making sure not to move, singing extra bright with an extra big smile).
We also worked on making sure Estelle's voice is a little bit more forward than usual (or a tiny bit squeakier), that her voice had the extra brightness that we need in the studio coming up!
Pop ballad placement We also worked on our pop ballad placement - simplifying our style, widening our vowels, and making sure to sing extra forward - removing the bass from our voice. Estelle did so great!