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Thread: Why the nasal singing?

  1. #126

    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    This discussion reminds me of something I heard at a Gypsy jazz concert the other night. The guitarist was talking about the guitars, and how poor they were for anything other than sounding like Django. He compared the tone to a low-quality banjo. Of course the instruments were disigned for the technical requirements of the time to allow an acoustic guitar to cut through the mix.
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  2. #127
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    Try singing an open "aaaa" vovel. Then, while doing it, move your tongue up until it touches the ceiling of your mouth. The "aaaa" has now become "nnnngggg", resulting in less output. Often, singers who try to sing high automatically do this as a side effect.
    This test may be further enhanced by banging on your thumb with a hammer
    My question was really rhetoric. E.g., Lester Flatt is given as an example of non-nasal singing. I don't hear it. But he certainly sang slightly lower leads than many other BG singers.

  3. #128
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeEdgerton View Post
    Don't sugar-coat it here Ralph, tell us how you really feel.
    Thanks for your encouragement. What I really meant to say was that the singing, at least that of Daves, is plain horrible.

  4. #129
    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Michael Daves is from another planet! I understand his voice isn't for everyone, but that boy puts all he's got into his singing, and I like it just fine.

    I can't stand Rickie Lee Jones or Iris Dement. But I like Blind Willie Johnson. Go figure.
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  5. #130
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Quote Originally Posted by mrmando View Post
    Michael Daves is from another planet! I understand his voice isn't for everyone, but that boy puts all he's got into his singing, and I like it just fine.
    There's many doing that style. I knew one who could actually sob while singing this way. And virtually everybody can do it - just hide this on stage:

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  6. #131
    NY Naturalist BradKlein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Most of the time, I truly resent the (thankfully small amount) of 'trolling' that I find on the Cafe. But this thread was kind of a perfect storm for trollish put downs, and I do find it entertaining watching the interplay between folks making a sincere effort and the bomb throwers (you know who you are... and aren't).
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  7. #132

    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Ah, the old calling-people-trolls troll!
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  8. #133
    Registered User mikeyes's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Quote Originally Posted by mrmando View Post
    I don't hear a lot of "nose" in most bluegrass singing, but I do hear forward placement from just about everybody.

    I recently acquired the Monroe Live at Mechanics Hall CD from Acoustic Disc. It's a bit uneven ("Brad" Keith is brilliant, but Joe Stuart was no Kenny Baker), but the worst bits are the two songs sung by Bill's daughter, Melissa, who is actually the opposite of nasal: she's placed right down on her vocal cords and sounds like she's trying to give herself nodes.
    I was at that concert, I was a student at Holy Cross College at the time, and I was unaware who Melissa was. I did remark that she was an awful singer, however. She seemed to be trying to become a typical country singer of the day and not a bluegrass singer.

    As for the church influence on singing, most of the early singers talk about how they sang in church and went to singing schools. There are several styles of shape note singing and Sacred Harp is probably the most common one. Sacred Harp singing takes place outside of the church in order to form the singing square noted above. The Monroes, The Stanleys, Doyle Lawson, etc. sang in church. They are all talented singers who probably have/had basic technique but not to operatic standards. You could certainly hear Bill Monroe from a distance. No one said that any of the bluegrass singers outside of Mac Wiseman ever had formal training, but they did learn to sing in singing schools and their secular singing took on some of the qualities of church singing the way Elvis, Ray Charles, Queen Latifa, etc. do/did. Singing schools encouraged the forward style of singing as did the other music in the early BG pioneers culture. Bluegrass music is about song and harmony with tunes as a sideline. Tunes are what captured the later fans of the music, especially banjo music, but if you take a 100 albums made before 1970, the vast majority of cuts are songs, many of them gospel music.

    Lester Flatt sang gospel too. He was a church going person while growing up in Sparta, TN and it shows in the gospel quartets that the Flatt and Scruggs show did.

  9. #134
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    Quote Originally Posted by BradKlein View Post
    ...this thread was kind of a perfect storm for trollish put downs...
    No wonder. After all, the human voice is like no other medium the carrier of personality, in turn the biggest source of conflicts. It all comes naturally.
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  10. #135

    Default Re: Why the nasal singing?

    While reading this post labeled "nasal singing", It is my oppinion that most of the examples offered, are NOT what I would consider true "nasal singing". There are examples of TRUE "nasal singing" such as a Bluegrass singer from Kentucky, "Dean Osborne". In my observation, a true "nasal singer" could record a complete album with their lips sutured together. In my travels as a musician for 47 years I have seen and heard these people. Perhaps, they aren't "REAL" tenor singers. Just searchin' for a way to hit the notes.

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