Pentatonix "Mary, Did You Know?" REACTION & ANALYSIS by Vocal Coach/Opera Singer

welcome back to the charismatic voice we're going to be returning to the pentatonics today a bunch of you have been requesting this and your most requested christmas song has been mary did you know so we're going to be checking that out i love the pentatonix for christmas music i've listened to them for tons of christmas music before i think i've heard this one on the radio as well but we're gonna do a really deep dive into it today and fun little tidbit that i found while doing a little bit of research this was filmed in a cave in griffith park so that's like central la and it's the same cave that they used for the original batman movies how cool is that let's get to it mary did you know that your baby boy did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new this child that you delivered will soon all right i wanted to let it go for a bit before i did too much talking um some of the things that you guys know i like to really look at in acapella music is how this arrangement's been put together so they did something here that you hear fairly commonly in really good acapella arrangements and that is they drew you in with some ooze this ooh sound just really helps the audience ears kind of you know listen a little more closely so that you have their attention for the rest of the song so i really love that they uh they made that intro there also it was just beautiful harmonies and blend then i love this like little ear candy the dum dum dum dum it's very soft but it creates a really nice texture without being overwhelming of that central melody it's interesting here in this uh first verse you don't hear a bass drop happening yet in fact we got the two lowest voices in this group i think you had scott singing the lead first and then that handed off to avi who's saying it second and you had a little duet from them so they've left room for themselves to bring in more of a climactic moment later on or maybe set a groove at some point with a bass by giving it very very little base notes at this beginning section let's go back and listen to that again so you can catch it all let's see boop there's your ooze [Music] so a little base in there but in this verse it's gone one of the really cool things there that i didn't even catch the first time is that they've panned where those voices are coming from on the dum dum dum dum and that makes even more your candy happen so if you've got some good headphones or just like a nice like a couple different speakers notice where those are coming from let's go back a little bit that your baby boy did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters did you that your know boy has come to make you new this child will soon deliver oh and there's the spot where the bass drops in right um i really love the way they open their vowels and shift to different sounds to kind of give these swells so it's not just volume that's creating that swell it is a shift to a different vowel really great example in here [Music] it's almost like a filter opening in music production all right sorry kirsten [Music] did you know that your baby [Music] did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels tried [Music] so many cool things happening in there i i just love acapella music and production bowl um i really love uh kirsty i think kirsty right kirsten kirsty she uh i love her voice taking over in this like higher register and then it was fascinating to hear mitch come in on the exact same pitches i like the way that they've sort of um tag-teamed this melody here similar to what avi and scott did in the beginning so i love that parallel uh introduction of the melody i think that's again really cool arrangement um it was fascinating this uh it sounds almost like a a rim shot uh sound that kevin he's the beat boxer he's making i really love that it has like a really sharp attack on it and the decay is is sort of uh it has a nice lingering to it as well and accenting that along with the baseline really helps that bass line also pop so it had a nice feeling of hello we have arrived here's the base and the beatbox at the same moment really really really love it let's go back and cash out a little bit [Music] actually this moment was one of the other moments that i was listening to uh i've been learning a lot more in some conversations about how uh how some of these top top acapella groups are being produced and i think that what's happened at this point where it sounds really sick um i think that they might have doubled all of the voices or just done like an extra take of each of the voices to make it sound a little more full like a chorus right here i'm not 100 sure but i know that's done a lot uh and you should definitely check out the video that i did with lane from voice play if you want to learn more about production of acappella [Music] groups your little baby you kiss the face [Applause] [Music] [Applause] wow well that gave me shivers oh that was really really lovely so essentially what they did is um probably in production that they might have done this too on their microphones as they as they either stepped back from their microphones or maybe uh placed them further back with some some post-production and then brought it all forward at the end so it felt like it was far away and then it felt like it was really personal and close at the end i loved hearing these little mary did you know mary did you know the fall off of that too so it sounded like almost like echoes pinging off of this cavern that they're in and then the way it all came back together at the end was so effective wow let's go [Music] will speak [Music] [Applause] mary did you know that your baby boy is lord of all creation mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nation oh that was a cool sound going into that next drop i love getting to hear kevin sing he's usually doing a lot of mouth percussion and this is really lovely to just get to focus on him for a moment awesome voice too of course of course but it's rare that we really get to enjoy kevin singing like we do in this moment there's also a really cool like like almost like a backwards whoosh sound that uh i'm sure that he did i don't know if he did it probably in two different takes one that would be his solo take and then one that pushes into the next section that's right i just made that a verb it was very exciting let's go back and listen a little bit to kevin's inning there and that whoosh [Music] sounds [Music] [Music] that sleeping [Music] that was so wonderful i liked the wish song in the first place and then they just kept giving me more whoosh and it was so nice i'm like i wonder if they did it backwards or forwards and sometimes you can flip audio takes so it makes me wonder if he went on the way out and then reverse that audio take but probably he just made it organically went on the way in oh that's so cool that was really really fun to get to hear over and over oh i want to hear it again [Music] [Music] that sleeping child you're holding [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mary did you know whoa this is this is such i think this is the end here i'm not sure i might have just stopped in the wrong place but whoa that beautiful huge sound suddenly stopped into this end with really beautiful coordinated mary did you know i think that's even a different tempo that they went into i'll check that it was really nicely timed very nicely timed uh this this ending section i love the fullness of the sound there while you're still able to hear individual voices that's a sign of just really great mixing and mastering and i also love hearing out over the top of this mitch's belt mitch has got a voice that just melts my heart every time i don't know what it is other than saying he sounds characteristically like himself i don't hear anything in the way nothing's forced uh it feels like it's just really great unimpinged vocal production it's really gorgeous just love love love his belt um let's go back a little bit and catch that again oh yeah felt [Applause] mary did you know oh yeah this is my favorite version of mary did you know that i've ever heard that's just delightful all the wushy sounds were especially wonderful and really awesome that we didn't have any of those sounds early on and they used that sound as part of their mechanism for building you have to keep in mind that in acapella music you've only got voices to work with voices can make a ton of sounds but it's not going to have the same variety of sounds that you would get from an orchestra or from a full band so they have to figure out how to arrange their voices so that you create a continual a continual journey if you will that's why the ooze at the beginning going into that really interesting almost uh percussive ear candy then having that beat drop and getting your whooshes and then when you had that really big breakout moment and eventually you had it suddenly stop and be able to reel back in those things are really important for acapella music and their structure on this is just incredible and awesome and interesting at every single moment not to mention that they're all really fantastic singers i just love what the pentatonix do great thank you so much for your recommendations for recommending this song in particular for the pentatonix thank you thank you thank you please continue to make those recommendations down below this video and also come and join me on mondays tuesdays and fridays at 8 am no arizona time arizona time 8 am and i'm here at those days for live premieres on youtube so you can find me in a chat room basically while we watch a video and you can also find me on patreon and on my website thecharismaticvoice.com i'll see you guys somewhere soon

Channel: The Charismatic Voice

Views: 202,714

Rating: 4.9489136 out of 5

Keywords: pentatonix, pentatonix christmas songs, pentatonix mary did you know, pentatonix reaction, mary did you know, pentatonix mary did you know reaction, avi kaplan, mitch grassi, kirstie maldonado, mary did you know reaction, reaction video pentatonix, reaction video ptx, analysis of the pentatonix, professional reaction to pentatonix, reaction video acapella, pentatonix reaction mary did you know, pentatonix reaction vocal coach, ptx reaction, reacts to pentatonix, reacts to ptx

Id: -S7QAxBYaQU

Length: 16min 36sec (996 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2020