An Unintended Insult to Great Singers!

[@haroldtaylor5425]

Hey John - Bought your book sometime ago - found it very good, although I have no intention of being a singer, you know from hours I spent at your house many years ago - I really enjoy music! I admire great singers and feel we have lost the ability to tell stories and appreciate great story tellers through music - You know I knew Karen Carpenter and loved her abilities - she always did her best because she LOVED to play the drums and sang from her early childhood - practicing her craft every day of her life - and she had several fine teachers to support her and inspire her - we do not do anything in life alone! You are correct!

[@ThelSuperlKing]

It's an interplay between the internal factor (genes/DNA/soul/muscle build up etc) and external factors (information absorbed from the world around you such as songs, films, concerts, fellow musicians, internet videos such as vocal coach reactions, vocal coaches tips etc.. Then putting both factors into action with religiously dedicated practice/training LONG TERM (work ethic - you stop, your drop! Steve Perry's career is proof of this). Usain Bolt has a lot of innate speed and natural talent in sprinting but he didn't just got out of bed one day and broke the world record winning gold at the Olympics in an instant. That internal element was nurtured and polished LONG TERM (years!). I have followed the professional careers of many singers as I am 56 and notice the great ones evolve and progress and develop their craft. I'll use three legends Phil Collins, Steve Perry and Whitney Houston. If you pay attention to their albums they didn't get into their prime singing on their first album. They start at a high level but took it higher after a few years of being in the business no doubt big record companies will spend big dollars developing their vocal chops with great vocal coaches guiding and assisiting them. Whitney primed in the 90s when she started in the 80s. Phil was mediocre when he took over from Peter Gabriel in Genesis in the 70s and became a powerful singer in the 80s. Steve Perry took at least three Journey albums before he became a reckoning force as a vocalist being highly influenced by Sam Cooke consciously or unconsciously absorbing his idol's vocal chops. I know all this from observing and from personal experience. My KZbin channel is over 10 years old and I am now in my vocal prime at an extremely high professional and artistic level. You can see my vocal growth throughout the years and the turning point was when I started putting into practice the tips of vocal coaches on KZbin through doing the vocal exercises and practicing songs EVERY DAY starting in 2018. This was after being given vocal exercises (lip bubbles, tongue trills, humming, nay nay nays etc) by a vocal coach online having done a handful of sessions with him so I'll do them correctly. I have natural talent with a great sense of timing, rhythm, pitch and phrasing but resonance, placement, playing with vocal colors and vocal textures, hitting high notes with ease and power, vowel modifications, mixing registers and easily transitioning between head/falsetto and chest voice vice versa as well as vocal stamina require healthy muscle coordination and muscle strength that has to come with a dedicated work ethic and robust discipline. Every great vocalist learns from others as it is simply absurd to say they have all the knowledge from the get go which often implies from the day they were born. I don't remember having knowledge of vocal technique as a baby or a kid even though I'd say I have lots of natural talent. You put to use what you got and you build up what you got then implement them into pratice by doing thousands of hours of regimented routines like any other great musician who plays a musical instrument who build up on their natural God given talent.

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

Sir, I endorse your observations absolutely. I began getting paid for singing as a probationary chorister at Westminster over 65 yrs ago. My roomies and I each sang infinitely better six years later, when we left. There has to be some nascent talent, but whether it be as a musician, a painter in fine arts, a dancer, an actor, an orator, a writer, or an architect, this latent gift is brought to fruition only by practice, guidance, more practice, training, lots of sweat, and still more practice.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Well said!

[@Lengsham]

Hi John. Nowadays there is a romantic notion of the "self-made" person. We have to remember nobody is born in a vacuum. Some singers might not have had formal lessons but certainly had excellent role models along the way.

[@biglew1161]

you said pretty close to what I was thinking. maybe someone hasn't had formal training, but I'll bet any one of them who hasn't had formal training, at least follows and studies those who they think are great. and of course they practice, practice, practice.

[@direlyon]

GOOD reaction...some are gifted to criticize....they have natural comments. They write without thinking and that's their only art...Art is intelligence and work.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Yes, art is very hard work.

[@gtuxenbang]

Sabios consejos profesor!

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Thank you.

[@PaulD870]

Fantastic concept and well put. Thank you.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Thank you!

[@stewiegriffin993]

You are spot on, John, I hate this idea too. I also see in it a dose of anti-intellectualism in the broader sense, as if formal education or training in your craft is what destroys it. When in reality it's just the thing that gives a name and a structure to what you're good at doing and helps you move forward. And it's not just singing, people mythologize people like Jimi Hendrix in the same way, as if the fact that he never had formal training WAS the thing that made his playing special and not the fact that he developed his gift throughout his life in other ways. It needs to stop and I'm glad you're talking about this. (Sorry for the long comment, but I had the thought that the reverse is also prevalent in online discourse, with people loving to dunk on people like Jacob Collier as if he's just music theory incarnate, all technique, no soul. The same anti-intellectual sentiment applies, I think. Sure, you can't account for taste, you don't have to like his music, but to say that it's all just one big intellectual experiment is harmfully reductive, especially when the media coverage plays into this idea of him.)

[@mogulmeister]

Totally agree with that. I have often seen people saying “pretentious” when they really mean “I don’t understand this” or worse as a defensive dismissal.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

I agree completely!

[@StevenEverett7]

Well said John!

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Thank you!

[@EmeraldWings90]

Agreed :)

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Thanks for watching.

[@jbs256]

Hi John, I’ve been following this young (20) female singer since last October. I’ve noticed some commonalities in the comments to her songs. Some are breaking down and crying as they write in praise of her singing. Others are rude as hell and are telling her to “get your own voice!” She did what you talked about. She found her idol and studied her for technique and style. Her natural voice was close in tone so she learned from maybe the best voice in history. I wonder what you think and I’m going to link the song video that’s generating all the commotion. You’ll know it and I won’t waste your time. You will hear all you need to hear in her first verse. If you want more, sure why not? I’m used to her so nothing surprises me anymore. Her name is Tori Holub (Ha Lubb) her collaborator is James Wilkas and the song is “We’ve Only Just Begun.” Joe kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGqYnZmAptRsjLssi=FEc_MT5JRWkxSImR .

[@mogulmeister]

Very well said indeed, John. Lazy assumptions hold remarkable sway in all sorts of human activity.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

True!

[@lorainisrael]

I feel like these comments come from someone's internal insecurity about their own education (in whatever area). So they look for examples of success without education out there, to sooth down their insecurity. Fo some personal reasons (maybe someone's hurtful comments the other way around), they feel inferior to people with education and they try to somehow downplay the benefit of it. My grandma was an amazing natural entrepreneur, but she grew up in a small town, had few opportunities for educations, and didn't enjoy studying. She made sure her kids and grandkids all got higher education, but she only saw it as a social lift, as painful work one would have to endure to live better, to get essentially a permit to do higher paying jobs. She never saw the intrinsic value of education and she never understood what it is that people actually do in the universities. And sometimes she would make similar comments, about natural talent, and not being any "worse" than someone with formal training. I believe, if she was able to see her own life differently, if she had more respect for her own work and achievements, she would not be making those comments.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Well said!

[@gnzlpico]

Hello Mr. Henny, can you please do a reacto video on Diana Ankudinova "Can't help falling in love" ? I saw you did one of her a few years ago but couldn't find this one since it's really impresive of hers

[@jamesleasure8836]

Yours is the only opinion I come here for, John.

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

Wow! I appreciate that.

[@GarrettStack-yb2hw]

Ethel Merman was once told by George Gershwin to "never get a singing lesson." She had a "natural" gift. That gift, in my opinion, was never nuanced. In the days of no microphones she belted to the balcony - better than anyone. On the other hand, Patti LuPone on the occasion of her second Tony Award for Best Actress in Gypsy (2008), thanked everyone appropriately but made a special point to thank her voice teacher with whom she had been studying for dozens of years. There's a difference. Improve your voice. Get assistance from a pro.

[@ThelSuperlKing]

Everything that is great in people grew, evolved, progressed rather than just magically appear and stayed the same long term. In any artistic expression, we have to work to develop and fine tune our gift. That's just how life works! It's not creationism, it's evolution.

[@melfhlzahlpd]

We can change our brains. Here's to neuroplasticity 🥂

[@JohnHennyVocalStudio]

I’ll toast to that!