Ehwmatt wrote:kgdjpubs wrote:
I don't disagree...but it CAN be taught. Augeri had the same problem when he joined Journey (go see some of the earlier interviews). It requires a complete overhaul of singing style.
I think the "problem" here is the guitar analogy. Technical vs "feel" for guitar playing isn't quite the right one to use here. In vocal terms, that's the singer that has a ton of range and the emotional content/phrasing/delivery of a can of spam (and there's plenty of them out there). Totally different issue.
The issue here is like the guitar player who keeps hurting his hands/fingers because of poor technique. He's playing the notes, but he's suffering because of lack of training.
Clear as mud?
It can definitely be taught.. but only to a certain extent. Let me try a singing analogy. A gritty soul singer like Levi Stubbs isn't going to develop a convincing operatic vocal style of, say a James LaBrie of Dream Theater, no matter how much he tries to "learn." In other words, it's a question of style... there are belters (Bobby Kimball of Toto for instance), soul singers (Bill Champlin, Stubbs), powerful arena style singers (Arnel), metal singers (James Hetfield, Bruce Dickinson) etc.
see, now we're down into semantics. Someone like Levi Stubbs was never going to become an operatic singer like LaBrie, but that was an issue more about range and vocal style preference than anything else. Take a Journey analogy here....from a phrasing standpoint, Perry circa Escape was a totally different singer than Perry circa Street Talk/ROR. In 3 years, Perry totally overhauled his vocal style from a rock singer with soul overtones to a pure Motown vocal approach. With the decrease in range taken into effect, he could sing the Journey catalogue equally well in both styles. The change in style didn't affect his ability to withstand a tour as he was performing within his capabilities. He wasn't shredding his voice on account of that.
Given time and the desire, I'm sure Perry could have transformed himself into an opera singer, had he wanted to. He had the range and the voice. Easy? No
Bobby Kimball vs Perry is a little closer, however. Kimball, as mentioned, is a belter--with power taking precedence over finesse. He's had some vocal issues also over the course of a tour. He's survived though, so obviously, he knows what is needed to keep his voice, and not lose it completely.
Maybe the best example of what I think you are getting at is the difference in Augeri's vocal delivery from the first few shows, compared to what he sounded like midway through the 1st tour. He had to learn to sing like Perry. That's a style difference--Augeri's Robert Plant-ish blues rock delivery to Perry's Motown soul delivery. It took him about 20 shows, but he got it. Arnel had the same learning curve.
What I'm hitting on is singing vs. over-singing. Style and notes are irrevalent. Over-singing will tax your vocal cords and get you in trouble. It's all about relaxing, letting it come naturally, and taking care of your voice (warmups, cool downs, preventive maintanence, not going 110% for every song every night, etc). Arnel just needs to go at it a little softer, get a little better breath control, maybe a bit less running/jumping (or get in better shape), and learn to slide into a note as opposed to just belting it out full throat.
Ehwmatt wrote:Maybe that's the way I should have couched the guitar analogy instead of technique... as musicians we all have our own styles. Pros like Arnel and many other pros can emulate other styles (and this isn't just limited to singing or guitar playing... insert any instrument), but when push comes to shove, there will always be certain things they do better just because it's their natural style.
Arnel has his style--as does every other singer. The issue here is two-fold, but with one goal: keeping one's voice in shape for a tour. Part of it is adapting one's voice to cover someone else (legitimately, Perry isn't the easiest to "copy")....the other part is an issue of stamina, technique and training. Arnel's hitting the notes and the phrasing--he's just having the issue of keeping his voice running at 100% for the course of a tour. That's MUCH easier to correct.
Ehwmatt....I think we are thinking the same thing--just arguing over how to say it!
). Proper singing technique and voice preservation (ie breathing, posture, vocal warmups, etc) appears to be the issue, and that's something that you can learn.
