Hi, my name is Roberto delli Carri. I am a professional vocal technique teacher. I mostly deal with contemporary singing styles. I am the author of the book "iMIX. La tecnica vocale secondo la didattica del MIX", a book aimed to singers, voice teachers and anyone interested more or less closely in the voice field- and it's available on Amazon - and I'm one of the Master Teachers of the Institute for Vocal Advancement (IVA), an international organization that deals with training singing teachers around the world. The other time I reacted to the song "Bridge over troubled water" originally by Simon & Garfunkel and today I would like to react to the song "The sound of silence" and the version I was suggested to listen is the cover by "Disturbed" ... let's see what happens! Ready-Set-Go? Let's start! Not bad ... I really like what I hear ... and ... I find very interesting and also a little unexpected this beautiful timbre, beautiful "full-bodied" with, let's say, bariton tendential characteristics and ... I like it because I hear a nice important "vocal texture" with a nice "round" and "deep" sound ... I would like to listen to it again ... He's ... trying to maintain a lower-middle larynx approach which ... is definitely an approach that helps to give the tone of the voice more, let's say, "authority" - so to speak - and ... also gives a certain "solemnity" to the message he is singing about. So far, also, let's say ... the intensity of the music is very low ... he's definitely maintaining an accordance with this "soft" (in piano) dynamics on and he is keeping his voice in a range let's say comfortable, close to speech, with a minimalist approach as it should be ... This type of tone and this type of approach makes me imagine a bit as if the timbre of his voice was comparable to that of ... a "cello" and ... I hear a kind of vibration that ... reminds me of that type of instrument and here it is as if ... It is as if there was this beautiful "bow", let's say, long and gentle ... ...let's go on! Beautiful! It's nice because here, compared to ... let's say, to the "legato" approach, that he tried to use up to now, he's emphasizing a little more ... he's "accenting" the notes a bit here ... he's not doing ... ... but he is rather doing ... ... so he's creating ... a short ... ... small ... but interesting contrast for me. ...Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful, I want to listen to it again, beautiful! Nice here! Nice here on the word "light" he is making a variation, using this ... "acciaccatura" (grace note)... ... He is not doing ... ... but he is rather doing ... which is ... an "embellishment", an effect that ... requires that there be a very brief anticipation of one note in relation to the next that here it creates, let's say, contrast and ... impresses more, let's say, incisiveness than that what he has done so far; he begins to express a little more strenght, he is also singing an octave higher... Beautiful! And even here, he ... he's ... doing a variation, he's kind of splitting the vowel "A" in two, on the word "without" ... he is not doing ... ... but he's doing ... Basically ... by splitting the vowel "A" in two, he is lengthening it ... but on the second "A" he opens a little more the vowel, increasing the energy a little more ... and in this way, let's say, he is giving a sense of greater strength on the "melodic peak", which certainly contributes to ... strengthen the intensity and to express let's say ... "drama" ... very very very beautiful! And same thing here on this sentence ... ... beautiful here! Beautiful! He is singing here in the ... in the "second register passage area" ... and ... I must say that it is not ... at all simple for ... "important," "prominent" male voices, for "big" voices ... to sing in the "first register passage area", which is ... the zone between "E flat and G" ... ... and instead he's going even higher, singing this "A" ... But the thing I like is that he's not screaming up there ... and he's not going falsetto either! He's trying to maintain good "tonal homogeneity" while maintaining some control over the pressure that is touching the vocal cords, so let's say that he is not using a "thick vocal fold mass", which is generally one of the factors that prevents the access to high notes, especially in the second passage area ... and then the other thing that ... I am hearing ... ... is that he's not going ... ... he's not singing in a "horizontal vocal mouth posture" ... so he is not encouraging the ... rise of the larynx on high notes he is keeping enough ... sufficient roundness ... and I assume he's doing it, let's say, by lowering the ... jaw ... ... which is what definitely helps me keeping my throat open on high pitches. The lowering of the jaw favors this ... lifting of the ... soft palate which indirectly encourages the throat opening. So let's say there are two things that I really like that he is doing and that usually are the main obstacles that beginning singers or those who can't sing high pitches anyway tends to face... He is on one hand keeping under control the amount of weight he carries in high pitches because he is thinning out his vocal folds. He's using a thinner vocal fold mass ... as he goes up high and he's keeping the throat open ... so he's keeping enough "verticality" that allows him an access to this area of the voice. Very very beautiful and very very ... well executed! Beautiful! Beautiful!!! I want to listen to it again! Here the musical intensity is increasing He is also opening the "A" vowel up there ... Beautiful here! Nice variation here! What a beautiful variation!!! It is explosive! It is not obvious ... This is beautiful ... ... this distorted effect! Beautiful!!! This effect he's using now, this distorted effect ... it's very very beautiful and very ... ... punchy ... and he's creating a nice contrast that ... I didn't expect ... He's playing with this color ... and is voluntarily adding this "constricting" element within the ...the "vocal tract" ... but he's not screaming! And so ... this is very very beautiful and not easy to do! He's giving the illusion ... that he's somehow screaming, he's obviously looking to express ... anger ... I don't know ... frustration or ... of ... ... to impress even more strength and drama in his interpretation, but he is doing it in a controlled and ... lucid way! Because he's not building up the "pressure", he's not screaming, which is an unsustainable approach to vocal health but he's adding enough constriction to create this ... ... effect but still maintaining voice control! Very beautifull! Wow! WOW! Whoo! Wow... Very beautifull! Here is increasing the amount of ... distortion ... ... going towards the forte/fortissimo (loud dynamics)... * My wife is starting to worry * VERY BEAUTIFUL!!! ...WOW! I absolutely love it! I'm by no means an expert on ... distorted sounds and ... I'd love to surely ... have more confidence ... THIS beautiful confidence, this beautiful mastery ... of the use of distortion which ... is an effect that ... as I said before ... ... you have to know how ... to know how to do it ... and surely you have to have a solid basic technique to prevent that the constricting element ... is associated to the increase in ... the thrust of the voice ... ... which is what tires the voice out. But he is absolutely in control of what he is doing ... and it's ... just ... nice to ... listen to ... He's ... giving "value" to everything he's saying! And I like it because if you think about this ... song ... ... it's very repetitive ... in the end it always does ... ... and then again ... ... so let's say the pattern is quite repetitive ... BUT ... the clever thing in the arrangement and his interpretation is this presence of melodic variations on the one hand, of embellishments, effects, different colors, distorted sounds ... and therefore there is an evolution ... from a more "intimate" moment to a moment a bit more ... let's say "dramatic", to a moment a little more... "angry", to a moment of epicity that ... is reached here in the final that ... even from the images it seems ... very "apocalyptic", so let's say that... the vocal impact, the impact of the arrangement is very very strong! And this ... this choice, this continuous evolution between one verse and another it is a choice that certainly creates contrast and helps to keep the listener's attention alive, which gradually remains more and more suspended and ... surprised, in relation to what is happening, which for me is completely unexpected, especially at the end I didn't expect ... that kind of ... ... of grit, of ... strength ... it is really of great impact and ... ... it's really ... a very very beautiful reinterpretation, very "strong", very new, very unique compared ... to the original! This experiment by DISTURBED is ... very successful! I love it! And I will listen to it a lot of times for sure to ... watch the video even a little more carefully and ... to try to ... get a little more familiar with distorted sounds that I'm not ... a great expert honestly ... ... but ... there is so much to learn. Ok, end of the video! I thank you very much for your attention and I hope this video was somehow helpful. I thank you for suggesting it to me and I hope that maybe it has provided you with some food for thought in addition to your reflections, which I would like to read in the comments. By the way, if you liked this video I would be pleased if you could leave a "Like" and I would be very happy if you could "subscribe" to the channel and click on the "bell" to stay updated on upcoming releases. And ... if you want to train with me, I'm Roberto delli Carri, on my website robertodellicarri.com you can easily book a session with me, if you wish so. I teach online in English and in Italian, all over the world. Allright! Thank you so much again, it was a pleasure! See you very soon, bye bye from Roberto delli Carri.
