Michael Jackson's voice

[chuy67]

In my opinion it is necessary to start a thread about his voice. For starters, exactly, if possible to sum up, what was his technique?

[kevthemusiclover]

This is a late reply, but he took voice lessons from Seth Riggs, the guy with Speech Level Singing, and I believe he generally follows their technique.

[Steven Fraser]

This is a late reply, but he took voice lessons from Seth Riggs, the guy with Speech Level Singing, and I believe he generally follows their technique.

kevthemusiclover: Michael's voice and his musicality presented themselves very early in his life. If you go back to the early Jackson 5 recordings and TV appearances, you find a core technique from which he built the fully-mastered instrument he enjoyed as an adult. Here are some of the things which I have always heard in his voice...

- strong sense of rhythm, especially of beat and syncopation

- range, range, range

- impeccable tuning, but used with a sense of abandon required by the style

- twanging of vowels, consistent with the bite of the Motown sound. Well-adducted onsets resulting in tonal clarity. Later in his life, he added a breathier quality which he used sparingly for more tender effects, for example in some phrases in 'Billy Jean', 'Ebony and Ivory', and other songs.

- nonclassical vowels throughout the range

Oh, and he could dance, too :-) Nobody else quite like him, IMO, though I would put Smokey Robinson high on his list of influences. Sell a song, and dance well while doing it... marvelous.

[joshual]

Steven, i would be very happy if could you get more in details with:

- twanging of vowels, consistent with the bite of the Motown sound: what do you mean by the bite?

and

-nonclassical vowels throughout the range: do you mean he uses diferrent vowel modifications?

Thanxs;)

[akarawd]

Steven, i would be very happy if could you get more in details with:

- twanging of vowels, consistent with the bite of the Motown sound: what do you mean by the bite?

and

-nonclassical vowels throughout the range: do you mean he uses diferrent vowel modifications?

Thanxs;)

I'd be very interested in that too. MJ's vocal -and dancing- performances are unsurpassable.

[joshual]

It may be what some call medialisation? the fact that vowel are modified through the whole range.

[Steven Fraser]

Steven, i would be very happy if could you get more in details with:

- twanging of vowels, consistent with the bite of the Motown sound: what do you mean by the bite?

and

-nonclassical vowels throughout the range: do you mean he uses diferrent vowel modifications?

Thanxs;)

joshual: I used the term 'bite' subjectively, nontechnically, as my own generalization of Motown singers' tone quality and energetic vocalism. While there were some that sang with a very mellow approach, to my ear, most had a particular twang quality that was distinctive.

As to nonclassical vowels... To my ear, Michael's vowel choices were very speech-like pronunciations of the English lyrics, with an afro-american inflection, especially when he was younger. If you listen and watch him sing performances from that era, he is perfectly understandable, but the resonance character of the voice is not a classical one. His audience heard him through recording and amplified performance, so he did not need to do any of the techniques employed by acoustic singers... no particular attention to optimizing vowel resonance or ring, and definitely not a chiarroscurro anywhere.

As he grew older, his vowel formations became even more mainstream USA. To my ear, he smoothed out his accent to the point that he sounded American, but not from any particular part of the country. He did vowel modifications, but they were subtle, almost inaudible. It takes a very experienced ear to hear them.