Hello, and welcome to Groove Singh and all the things.
I'm your host Amy Halstone.
Today, I'm asking you, who is your all time favorite singer or singers? And what makes them great? What makes you love them? What is it about their voice that draws you in and removes you? So that's what we're talking about on the podcast today.
Again, I'm Amy.
I've been teaching guitar for over thirty years, and I've been a vocal performance coach for nearly a decade.
I'm also a recording artist and performer myself.
So let's jump into the episode.
Do you have a favorite singer or singers? What do you love about their voice? What is it that draws you in? What moves you emotionally? Or are you mesmerized by their vocal riffs and runs, their vocal gymnastics? It could be a myriad of reasons of why you're attracted to their voice.
Maybe you don't know, maybe you're not quite sure what it is about their voice that you love.
But this week, I'm asking you to identify who these singers might be, and try to figure out what you love about their voice and their performances.
So why is it important to have singers to look up to.
I think it's really important to have heroes in whatever you're learning.
Looking up to someone in your industry whose footsteps you would like to follow in.
Your hero doesn't have to be a super successful or famous singer.
They could be any singer you look up to who moves you every time you hear them.
It could be your neighbor who sings at the neighborhood cookout, and you're just blown away every time.
It doesn't matter who they are.
What matters is why are you drawn in by their voice.
So it used to be that when we loved to singer in their songs, we had to actively seek out their music.
Maybe we heard a song on the radio, and we decided we wanted to hear the entire album.
The song was on.
So we had to go to a store and buy buy the CD and hear the whole album and just have this whole experience and really value.
We really valued that CD.
Um, it it it motivated us to take all of those steps to acquire that music and have it and listen to it and really love it.
We didn't know There was no way to listen to the entire album unless until we got it.
So we just figured, Hey, I love this song.
I'll probably like the rest of the album.
So we consumed music at a slower rate than we do today.
So what's the point of me telling you how we used to consume music? It's one reason is I'm not sure younger people who are learning to sing today who don't consume music in that slower way who just like we can just like blow through a playlist today and like we don't latch on to to any of the songs or any of the voices.
Um, and so so we don't get we don't follow any particular singers, maybe.
So we don't have those heroes to look up to.
So I I'm just encouraging you if you are one of those younger people who never had that experience of buying an album or buying a CD, when an artist release album, maybe listen to the whole album, and, like, maybe fall in love with that artist.
You either will or you won't.
But you won't know until you listen to more than, like, one song.
Right? Or maybe you hear a song and you fall in love with it, and that really causes you to dive in and learn more about that artist and hear more of their songs.
And maybe they will become one of your favorite singers who you listen to a lot and you sort of internalize some of the things that they do, which will in turn come out in your music at some point.
So before we continue on with the episode, I'd like to invite you to sign up for my weekly newsletter.
In return, I'd like to send you a PDF on five steps on how to really learn a song.
Learning a song can feel overwhelming, and I share a series of steps that you can take to make the process of learning a song easier and more enjoyable.
So just click the link in the description below, and I'll send that right over to you.
Okay.
Back to the episode.
So the next time you're listening to one of your favorite singers, actively listen.
Turn on that more analytical part of your brain and try to identify what traits draw you in.
And yes, you will in you will enjoy the music a little bit less when you're being over analytical, but try to pick out what is it that makes me really drawn into this song.
They might not do a lot of technique or flashy runs, but that doesn't matter one bit because you wanna hear every word that they're saying, and you're drawn in on an emotional level.
So we can learn from all the singers that we listen to.
In fact, we can't help but learn from them.
So that's why I I really think it's important to to pick a few singers out and really dive into their catalog and and just take some traits away that you can use in your own singing, your own artistic interpretation of a song.
You may take a little riff that they did, and you love it, and you learn it, but you change it a little bit when you do it.
Because that's your interpretation of the riff, and you put it into your interpretation of the song.
This week, maybe slow down a little bit, listen a little bit more, and maybe you most singers probably already have a favorite singer.
But if you don't, if you if you said when I asked you the question, who's your favorite singer? And you were like, I don't have a favorite.
I like all genres of music, and I like all singers.
Um, if you answered that to the question, I'd challenge you to find one or two singers who really draw you in.
Kinda zero in on it, try to learn the song like they did it, and then you can make your own interpretation of their song or the next song you write, maybe have elements of they're influencing you.
So even if you don't know why you like something, it doesn't matter.
All that matters is you like it.
Let it sink in, and it will automatically start to influence your own music.
Which brings us to the section of this podcast.
I just labeled influence.
So ultimately, your favorite singers will influence you whether you know it or not.
It just happens.
And yes, I'm asking you to actively listen, but even if you listen passively, it happens.
But having heroes gives us singers to look up to and to aspire to be as good as them.
I hope this makes sense.
It's all about really loving music, really loving singers, and digging deep into their catalog, and learning from what they're doing.
So you can in turn use some of those techniques in your own music, and you learn a lot about everything from song structure to recordings, and you just learn by listening.
Get some influences that really inspire you.
Listen for fun, actively listen and learn, and see what how it comes out in your own music.
Alright.
Thanks so much for listening.
Thanks for sticking with me today.
Again, sign up for my newsletter.
I would love to have you Grab a hold of that PDF on how to really learn a song.
There's a few more steps that really help you internalize the song early on when you're in your inter learning process.
Thanks so much for listening to me today, sticking with me on green, singing all the things, and we'll see you in the next episode