Opera Singer Reacts to Voctave | O Come All Ye Faithful | MASTERCLASS | Performance Analysis |

what's up youtube it's me justin i'm an opera singer so today's video is all about the beauty of acappella music now just a disclaimer i have seen this performance before so i know what is in store for all of you newcomers to this specific performance however i'm super excited to dive really deep into the music and listen to parts that i didn't pay attention to before and maybe try and hone in on some of those inner harmonies and the harmonic progression because normally my ear goes straight to the soprano line because i'm a soprano so without further ado this is avocative singing oh come all ye faithful let's go [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] okay you can tell this is going to be a good sound just from the unison they are okay one two three four five six seven eight no i think nine nine people in this group right now the blending of nine different voices to create one sound is so beautiful okay i actually want to talk about the alto line look at me talking about the altos first because they had a really cool moment let's rewind a little bit to catch that cool moment [Music] okay did you all hear the alto line so their line went something like i don't know the exact notes but oh come on and it's it's really nice because their line gives a forward motion to the phrase because everyone else so far has sang in quarter notes or half notes or whole notes basically longer notes for the entire part that we've listened to so far so everyone else has been going oh come on [Music] it just really propels the phrase forward and it just brings a little bit of excitement to the overall line i'm really really excited y'all this might be a long video i'm just gonna warn you early now let's keep going [Music] joyful [Music] to i can't contain myself okay how much this group is in sync with each other is seriously unmatched they are breathing together they are starting notes together they are starting consonances together they are ending with consonances together this is so hard to do but so important when singing in a group because if one person is even half a second off it will stick out now i know this sound that we're hearing has post-production but for me i'm going to throw that out the window mainly because i remember hearing a short snippet of them live it was years ago i don't even remember what it was but i remember being in awe of the professionalism and the artistry for which they sing and if they can do these types of things live i don't care about post-production it seriously trumps that entire idea for me all that to say seriously job well done on just being in sync with one another now [Music] your voice okay i love what he did with his very first phrase uh oh come on ye faithful he he's saying the entire phrase with straight tone except for the last syllable of the phrase which was full in the word faithful [Music] so he went straight or straight or straight on straight on straight on vibrato does that help uh let me know down below in the comment section but so good it brought his vibrato to center stage uh when he chose to put it kind of at the end of the phrase really really nice now i don't know if you all saw my reaction but there was a beautiful beautiful harmonic progression on the phrase that started with born uh i don't know what was going on but i want you all to listen to the consonances the dissonances and the resolutions right and if you don't know what that is or what to listen for just uh be in tune with what your body feels during this progression that i'll replay for you do you feel like oh or do you feel like ah wow that felt good or do you feel aha pay attention to those because each one of those tells you that something different is going on and that's very valid [Music] oh did you hear that okay okay i need i i'm i'm gonna do this i need to find the sheet music because for all i know they could break off into nine different parts for all of my poor ears could tell uh i do not have perfect pitch by any means where's eddie from twoset when you need him so sheet music it is okay y'all i found the sheet music so i'll just put a screenshot of it right here so you can see what i'm talking about as i'm talking about it so the cool part in this harmonic progression of born the king of angels for me is in the second alto line so they sing born the king of angels so juicy [Music] yes [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh my god ej your mixed voice and your chest voice is so powerful i would literally literally give up my speaking voice and my singing voice to have your voice now here is why i am so in love with the sound that i'm hearing right now i have a love-hate relationship with the tenor voice and that is because to me the tenor voice is the most unnatural sounding of the voice categories yes even more so than a high coloratura soprano and here's why the tenor voice is a fine line between yelling which is a form of singing and straining um and that fine line is present in a majority of their because a they bring up their chest voice a lot higher than the other voice categories and b because the repertoire that they sing calls for that tessatora where that fine line is present it's easy for me as a listener to get tense when listening to a tenor yes even a professional operatic tenor because of that fine line unless the tone and the timbre of that tenor voice sits and sounds higher than normal so i'll go ahead and insert some clips of tenors within different genres of music who have a naturally higher sitting uh voice than normal [Applause] [Music] so when i hear ej sing that high note in the phrase christ cries this note is really high for a tenor that is a b natural four and that is high especially bringing up that much chest voice into that note but when i hear ej sing that note it's so satisfying because it doesn't sound like his voice is is straining or even reaching to hit that note it doesn't sound like that note is the limitation of his range do you know what i mean it still sounds like he can sing all of those little notes above it right which to my ears is super satisfying and important to hear especially in a tenor voice [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Applause] beautiful i love that they're using a similar sequence um every time they want to modulate right and that is just reusing the formula of crises the key change and if they want a key change again they just use that same formula let's uh hmm let's do a little bit of music theory uh because i want to see if there are some similarities within the harmonic progression when they choose to modulate because it sounds it sounds very similar okay so here is the first time that they choose to modulate which is towards the beginning of the song and they were singing in g major right so let's see what's going on harmonically right here so you've got uh cora so you've got in the base line you've got a petal note which just means they're singing the same note over and over again so you've got the base petal note and above that you've got it looks like a g major chord and that g major chord goes on into the downbeat to form a c major c e c a c major chord right the four in g major and then that progresses to it looks like a five four two so the seventh of the five chord is in the bass and that then goes into the new key which is b major so let's reanalyze you've got a bass pedal note you got one going to four going to a 4-2 passing chord going into the new key now let's find the next time they choose to modulate which is right here okay so they are now in b major because they've modulated from g to b major from before so in b major let's look okay you've got the bass note which is holding an f-sharp pedal and above that you've got a b major chord that b major chord then goes to a okay goes to a four chord like it did before and that four chord kind of holds and then just goes into the new key of f major so this time it looks like they just left out that five four two passing chord all very similar i love that they keep this formula every time they modulate because it gives a sense of familiarity for you and i as listeners [Applause] oh [Applause] here comes the modulation [Applause] oh my god i'm sorry i'm sorry did you all hear the greatness of that phrase okay jesus the baseline don't worry let me get to ej's voice the baseline oh their line was so good let's just rewind and try and listen to the bass line ej's voice is at the forefront i know but try and listen to the bass line y'all this note is not in the key born this happy morning oh that's so good okay the crack that he did on the word morning oh seriously i could it almost made me want to cry it was so good and the the camera actually wasn't uh on his face when he was singing that high note but what he did is he went boy this happy morning so what he did is he actually sang on uh an aw shape but i could hear a good amount of the oh of mourning coming through and a good technique that i believe he's doing i just can't pick his brain uh is just thinking of the true vowel while you're singing on uh an open vowel right so that note is high so singing on an open vowel is just going to be advantageous but when you are thinking of the original vowel of the word you'd be surprised how much of that original vowel actually comes out even though you're singing in a more open space the advantage of that is you're obviously singing on a more open space but at the same time keeps a little bit of the integrity of the vowel and it's a hard thing to do i practice this a lot it's a hard thing to do because it's really splitting your mind into two you've got to think of that open vowel so that you can have the necessary space to just get that that sound out and then you've also got to think okay i know what the space feels like and what i need to have open in order to get that note out but now i'm gonna split my mind and think of the original vowel is this let me see how much i can think of that original vowel so i can get some of it out and this is a beautiful example [Applause] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] r [Applause] [Music] peace nice rhythmic change [Music] [Applause] i see [Applause] [Music] [Applause] still going [Music] every i listening to this is literally like listening to it for the first time all over again you all it's so good i'm actually going to try to explain to you all how ej is able to maintain these super long phrases and after i explain it we'll go back and just re-listen to those last two phrases which were the longest of the entire song besides sheer talent singing extremely long notes is a balanced coordination of breath pressure the use of straight tone notes and the use of vibrato notes especially in this style of music acapella and also pop music so if you noticed when ej was singing his two very long phrases he added vibrato at the very end of his phrases all of the other notes and the sustained notes were all straight toned and so let me tell you what is physiologically happening when you sing street tone notes versus vibrato notes when you sing a street tone note there is less subglottic pressure and there is less air flow in comparison to a vibrato note right and that just means there is less air ready to use underneath your vocal folds and there is less air coming out of your vocal folds to produce the sound now you have to think of this relatively right what is less air to ej may be an extreme amount of air to you or to even me right because thinking physiologically as well ej just has much larger lungs than i have so he will be able to take in a larger breath than i ever will be able to take in that's just physics so i say that to not compare yourself to try and do these extremes right but back to long phrases so when you incorporate straight tones in your long phrases you're then incorporating the use of less air again in comparison to vibrato notes which then gives you the possibility to manage the air that you have taken in efficiently to get through that extremely long phrase now i remember sitting in class in conservatory and my teacher had said that she had asked barbara bonnie if you don't know who she is google her barbara bonnie how she was able to sing such long phrases and her answer was i just incorporate more straight tones so that just shows you using straight tones is advantageous when singing extremely long phrases and it's great because you can do this in this style of music i can't do that singing velcanto repertoire we don't use straight tones now nobody wants to hear an entire song with only straight tone notes you need vibrato to bring the color and excitement to a phrase and ej brought us that vibrato and even better he actually brought it to us at the end of his phrases right so we got some tension of that just constant straight toe note but the satisfaction of the long phrase and then the final nice much needed resolution when he gave us his beautiful vibrato at the end of his phrase i hope all of that made sense to you if not just go back and re-listen to it a couple of times i know it was a lie let's just rewind and take soak in that information i just gave you and let's just re-listen to the beauty of these long phrases that ej is singing [Music] [Applause] [Music] straight straight oh my god straight [Music] straight straight straight straight oh my god oh i can listen to that 100 times i don't know about y'all but i'm going crazy over these two phrases this entire arrangement in general i hope this wasn't too much information for you all i hope you understood even just a little bit uh when i hear performances like this i just geek out and go kind of crazy i'm sure this is going to be a very long video but just so much recognition needs to be given to the arrangement and how they're performing it it's just immaculate all that said i hope you liked what you saw and what you heard if you did make sure you hit that subscribe button down below and let me know of any other vodka performances i should review i've seen this one and i've seen one snippet of their live performance that i can't remember but i've never listened to them in a sense of where i really dived in you know harmonically and even on the inner voices just because it's it's so much to take in and i'm willing to do that for you all on my channel so let me know what you'd like to hear below also make sure you turn on those bell notifications so you know when i put up a new video on youtube i hope you all have a fantastic week and i will see you all very soon bye [Music]

Channel: Soprano Notes

Views: 26,801

Rating: 4.9723182 out of 5

Keywords: opera singer reacts to voctave, voctave reaction, reacts to voctave, voctave o come all ye faithful, voice teacher reacts to voctave, vocal coach reacts to voctave, voctave

Id: vc3GZNrol3E

Length: 28min 1sec (1681 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 23 2021