Bottom-End, Writings and Reviews from Music Producer Pete Strobl

It was the summer of 1968. My parents, having seen “The Sound of Music,” had saved for the better part of a year in order to alleviate their homesickness and make the journey back to Salzburg to visit my grandparents for the summer. It was a summer of milestones for all of us. My father had only flown in an aircraft once before and for my mother the 14 hour journey would be her first experience away from terra firma. The trip would ultimately prove to be the last time my father would see his parents alive. We had also hoped to visit with my great-grandmother, known to me as “Wolfgang Omi” and my god-father, Ludwig. Sadly, they had passed within days of our departure and our visit was limited to planting fuscias on their new graves.

For me, the summer was a time of discovery. I was 15 years old, about 6′5” and looked at least 20 so there was nothing off limits. After a cup of my grandmother’s coffee, my first discovery of the summer and the beginning of a life-long addiction to the sort of coffee that turns spoons into forks, I would head out into the city on foot. I was alone and could do as I liked, go where it pleased me to and linger over whatever caught my interest. I became particularly enamored of the Mirabell Garden. The idea that this formal baroque garden, with its fountains, statuary and manicured flower beds was once someone’s back yard impressed me. So regardless of where my fact-finding mission of the day took me, a portion of the afternoon was spent sitting on a bench fantasizing that this was mine and those enjoying the garden were there by the grace of my benevolent nature. My usual perch turned out to be just under the open windows of the Mozarteum and the sounds of practicing singers and musicians pouring out into the garden air became the “first hit” of the second addiction I acquired that summer.

Up to that time I had been sitting on the fence between being a basketball star and becoming a world-famous musician. I was fifteen and had that curious combination of confidence and inherent laziness that marks that age. Sitting in the garden I decided that music had to be an easier way to get girls than sweating in a gym and my fate was sealed. I decided to study at the Mozarteum. The last thing that occurred to me as I made up my mind was that I would have to actually learn something. Sitting in my personal garden I was convinced that the music world was waiting to strew my path with flower petals.

Flash forward and thirty years of reality have not dimmed my ambition of entering the Mozarteum. This spring I produced the “Out Of Confusion” album for the Salzburg band, ConFused5. Herbert Hopfgartner is a multi instrumentalist, composer and one of the two talented lead singers in the group. During the recording of the album we discovered that we had a lot in common and subsequently, Herbert’s wife Regina Hopfgartner, a teacher of vocal pedagogy at the Mozarteum, asked if I would have interest in teaching a workshop for singers at the school. I played hard to get for a nano-second and accepted the invitation on any terms and at all cost. We decided that it would be a workshop aimed at singing students with a classical background and training but who wanted to sing pop and rock material. As Herbert is more adept at interpreting these styles than the average school accompanist, he graciously offered to lend his fingers to the project.

The workshop was attended by a wide variety of students and a few faculty members as well. As I scanned the room I saw that the teachers were all in the back row and imagined they might have been thinking, “Okay hotshot, show us something we don’t already know!” I could not have been more wrong. After a short introduction, I brought the first victim to the front of the room.

My chief aim for the workshop was to prove the value of keeping an open mind, When I went to school, and what eventually drove me to leave the academic environment behind, was the close-minded attitude of my teachers and the manner in which they used their authority to foster the same prejudicial tastes in their students. I respect teachers for their learning and for the work that they do. But I have a great deal more respect for students because of the work they have yet to do. Teachers are already plying their trade, they have made their choices and are living their lives accordingly. But students are a blank page waiting for the words to be written. “What shall I do?” and “How shall I proceed?” are questions yet to be asked intelligently.

And so, given my rebellious nature, I had no qualms about instructing the students on more than one occasion to forget everything they have learned in school, if only for the next few hours. The reaction from the faculty members was not at all what I expected. The questions they asked and their welcoming attitude toward me demonstrated a willingness to learn something new and a genuine effort to give their students a different viewpoint and perhaps some tools they didn’t know were in the toolbox.

The most common impediment we encountered was fear. Most of these singers had excellent voices and good technique. What was missing in their performances was intent. The notes were correct, their diction and enunciation were, with a few adjustments, acceptable. But when attempting to sing anything contemporary they delivered data and not music. Years of learning technical exercises don’t yield an end product. They are meant to teach the body to respond in the most natural way to what is required. I have yet to see a poster advertising Gabriella Sans-Corazon in a program of vocal exercises. In working with these singers I attempted to take them out of their comfort zone. I asked them to describe what their song means and what they wished to convey to the audience other than “My, what a lovely vibrato, or, Doesn’t she stand with good posture?”

There were some corrections to make in the area of what I call Vocal Architecture. And there was the baritone who was trying to sing a song that had a high ‘G’ and I could see in his eyes that he knew it was coming and he also had a plan ‘B’ which he availed himself of every time. Apparently this singer had not heard of Leonard Warren, the great American baritone who sang the sort of high ‘B’-flat that made tenors look into their trousers to see if the twins were really all they were supposed to be. I asked the young man what his highest note was. He told me ‘E’ was about it. And I observed also that he was very sure about this and that it was based on many hours of training. Yep, ‘E’ was it and then he had to go into his head voice. So I took him to the piano and vocalized him a bit. I went up to ‘F’ sharp and he had no problem at all. But as soon as I told him that he had sung a, ‘F’ sharp he folded again. I explained to him the importance of not caring how the note is named. And if he could sing an ‘F’ sharp freely, then a ‘G’ was nothing to worry about. It’s like being a receiver in football. How many times do we see a tough pass go off of a wide receivers fingertips? But if you can touch the ball, you should also be able to catch the ball with just a fraction more effort. This baritone had told himself that a ‘G’ was too high, and as long as he believes himself, it will be out of his range. No amount of exercising will change that belief. He already has the note, he’s just afraid of disobeying his own instructions and just letting it out.

The two days were heaven for me. And I want to thank the students for their attention, the teachers for their warm welcome, Herbert for putting up with me and providing expert accompaniment and finally, Regina Hopfgartner for making a thirty-year-old dream come true for me…even if I did come through the back door.There isn’t anything I love more than seeing young musicians step out of themselves and be who they really are, not who they think their teachers want them to be. And to freely express themselves without regard for what they think is right and wrong. Because there really isn’t a right or wrong in the arts. There is only “I dig it” and “I dig it not.”

The fourth of July is a big day in the United States. For most Americans it is a day of hot dogs, apple pie, homemade ice cream, outdoor band concerts and fireworks. There are also a few people who recognize the day as commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence and signaling the birth of a nation.

This year the fourth of July will be cause for celebration of another sort in one of the great music capitals of the world. ConFused5, the popular Retro-Rock band from Salzburg, Austria will be headlining at the Rockhouse to celebrate the release of their new album “Out Of Confusion” on the internet-based record label Sellaband. Taking on the role of impresario, bandleader Markus Melms has scheduled a night to remember. On the bill will be the sensational young Dutch band So What and from Argentina, the very talented Gisel de Marco accompanied on guitar by my good friend Pieter Vos, aka Pieps.

Local boys ConFused5 always put on a memorable show but this lineup offers a wide variety of music and is Markus’ way of thanking the Sellaband community for the support which made the new album a reality. So What has already raised their $50,000 recording budget and is now interviewing producers for their turn in the studio. Gisel de Marco is well on her way to the same goal and this concert could be the shot in the arm that puts her closer to her final countdown.

So who is Gisel de Marco? The tracks offered on her Sellaband profile reveal a pure voice of rich clarity and dazzling technique. The ambitious productions are still of decidedly demo quality but Gisel sings as if she is in the big room at the old A&M studios. Gisel has a mature sense of dynamics well beyond her years. Her performance on “I Wish I could Fly” demonstrates a flare for the dramatic and shows great potential for what will happen when she has the opportunity to sing on a full-blown studio production.

“I Found You” shows another side of this young singer. The vocal is engagingly performed and, as with the previous track, one could imagine Gisel really letting out all the stops. There is something a bit measured about this track but again, the potential is hugely apparent. There is real character and honesty in her voice on “All The Way.” “Roma” is yet another side of Gisel. The vulnerability of this track is haunting and touches the listener in a very personal way without being contrived or disingenuous.

The last track on her Profile is an excellent collaboration with fellow Sellaband artist
Marc Supsic. Hats off to Marc for creating a beautiful soundscape to showcase Gisel’s talent. A very musical effort on both their parts. Marc’s tasteful writing takes Gisel in more of an alternative direction and the result opens up even more possibilities for her future endeavors.

Gisel has that special ability to make a performance exciting without resorting to kitschy pyrotechnics or simply belting at the top of her lungs. If she continues to develop along the same lines her style and technique certainly offer the possibility of a long creative career. Her command of American pop diction is very natural and she does a great job of camouflaging how difficult these songs really are to sing. One of the keys to understanding how good she can be is the quality of her background vocal parts. Most professional background singers are highly skilled and technically more advanced than the artists they sing behind. Gisel proves beyond a doubt that she can do it all.

So…who is Gisel de Marco? The tracks on her Sellaband profile show a wide range of potential directions for a young singer at this stage of development. There are traces of many influences including Celine Dion and even the renowned vocal chameleon, Marnie Nixon. $50,000 will give her the opportunity to look inside herself and, with a good production team to guide her, she will surely reveal the genuine artist inside.

If you are in the Salzburg area on the fourth of July, do yourself a big favor. ConFused5 will rock the Rockhouse with their new album and So What will give a preview of what we can expect from their own upcoming album. But come early and get a good seat. Gisel de Marco, accompanied by Pieps, will be opening the evenings festivities and she is not to be missed.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of recording one of my all-time favorite singers. I’m finishing up the SolidTube tracks and we will begin mixing the album in a few days. While in Vienna, I had Mandana sketch out the background vocals but another voice will really add some meat to the tracks. And I know of no meatier voice than the one that lives inside Angela Carole Brown.

I met Angie many years ago at a cabaret in Los Angeles. Steve Haberman, Jim DiJulio Jr. and I were the house trio and one night Angie turned up with a pile of charts. We played a set behind her that night and from the first note, I knew that I was hearing something special. Angela’s rich voice oozes effortlessly and makes its way to the listener’s ear on waves of pure and honest emotion. I know, I know…the last sentence sounds a bit over the top, but if you go to her website and check out the video of “Slow Club” you will understand my lack of adequately descriptive vocabulary. So rather than try to put her abilities into words, give her a listen and see if you can come up with something better.

The first time I heard Mandana sing, I thought of Angela’s voice. They both have a rich and sonorous low range…this is a gift and cannot be taught any more than you can teach a young athlete to be taller. Stronger? Yes, but size is a natural attribute and both Angela and Mandana have big natural voices.

I had hoped to do the background voices for the SolidTube album with the guys in the band in combination with Mandana, and some of these tracks may ultimately find their way onto the album. But when we cut the guide tracks for a song called “Home” I knew that there was only one direction to go. I emailed Angela from Wild One Studio and begged.

One look at Angela’s website and it will be obvious why I begged…Angela is definitely not your average background singer. She is a published novelist, a composer and arranger, has produced her own albums and is a must see at her jazz gigs in the more popular LA nightclubs. But, she has always graciously stepped into the breech for me when I have needed her no matter what the gig.

Working with Angela is the ultimate experience in professionalism. She will stand in front of the mic and work all day to give you just exactly what the track needs. If you need ideas…she has a pocketful. But she’s just as ready to duplicate whatever parts are needed. Want vibrato?…sure. Straight tone?,,,no problem. Double the track and sound like someone else?…yep. Angela has all the tools of the trade and then some. And she is so good at what she does that ego never enters the room.

Doing vocals with Angela is a little like doing a photo shoot with an experienced model. All you have to do is say a few words, point and shoot. She makes subtle adjustments so fast that you just need to keep the machine in record and catch each take. We did five songs in two hours and I never felt like we were working too fast. It’s just that every frigging take is a keeper. Normally, there are takes that are better than others, but when she is at the mic, there just isn’t a lot that isn’t usable.

I’m really looking forward to mixing this album and am so proud to have been able to include Angela’s talent. I only wish that the SolidTube gang could have watched her work on their tracks. I know that her level of expertise and professionalism would have been an inspiration for them.

If all goes according to plan, the SolidTube album will be available in late May. I hope that you like it…I already do. And I’m a hard sell.

One of the first questions I ask a voice student is, “What is the first thing you do in order to sing a note?” The answers range from, “Breathe from my diaphragm” to “Stand up straight” and open my mouth.” But I think that I’ve heard the right answer only once. The first thing a singer must do is to hear the note. Remember my second rule…you can find it in the sidebar. “It is always simpler than it seems.”

This is not exclusive to singers. This first thing you do pertains to any and every musician. Before you make a sound, you have to hear the sound you are about to create. This is a mental tool that is valuable in conceptualizing that which you are attempting to create. But the importance of hearing brings me to my subject.

Have you ever performed or attended a concert and experienced ringing ears afterwards? You leave the venue, get on a plane or go to your room and the ringing is more than annoying. You feel as if it will never stop. So you turn off the TV, shut off the iPod, anything to hear only silence. But the quieter it is, the more pronounced the ringing becomes. It is time to heal your hearing.

First, here is the fast lane explanation of how your ear works. Sound waves enter the ear canal, striking the ear drum, setting into vibration the attached stirrup which passes the vibrations along to a bone-like structure called the anvil after which the vibrations are processed by thousands of little hairs, each attached to a nerve which tells the brain what to think of it all. When the sound pressure is too high, those little hairs call it quits and your brain gets less information. So what do you do? You turn it up, of course. Causing more of the little hairs to take a powder, so you…turn it up!

Now, those little hairs are frequency specific and if the sound pressure level stays elevated long enough, they will lay down and stay down…forever. That’s why drummers often lose hearing in the high frequency range. Good god, hitting a snare drum all night long is worse than passing out targets at the firing range.

Alright, that’s the problem, now what is the cure? Don’t ask me, I’m no doctor. I guess that the ultimate solution would be to stop making all that racket and stop going places where they are making a racket. But you gotta work. You know how to rock and roll. Here is something that might help you to rock and hear.

Let’s get a little anthropomorphic here and think of all those little hairs as tsunami survivors. Once the racket stops, they are all clinging to each other in fear of the next wave. After the initial look around for survivors, they start to talk to each other. “Did you hear that shit?” “Yeah man, it was LOUD!” “Boy, it sure is quiet now.’ ” Yeah, I wonder what’s next.” Did you hear anything?” “No, you?” “Anybody seen Bob?” “He’s down for the count.” and so on. Now, these little guys are tiny and they have little tiny voices. But when enough of them start calling out to each other, we hear it as a ringing in the ears.

Having taught in the classroom, I can tell you that the best way to get the attention of a noisy class is to speak quietly. Standing in silence just makes you a target for paper airplanes. But a whisper will always get the attention of a crowd. So here is how I get the little guys in my inner ear to shut up and go back to work.

Put on a pair of good quality headphones. Now play a string quartet or maybe the Bach Unaccompanied Cello Sonatas. And turn the volume down to the point where you have to struggle to hear the music. Very low. Inside your ear, the little hairs’ conversation starts to dwindle and finally die down. When the music hits the inner ear, you can imagine them saying to each other, “Did you hear something?” “Shh! What was that?” “I think it’s a violin.” Shut up man, It sounds nice.” “Hey, let go of me, I can stand up on my own.” “Will you guys shut up already, I want to hear this.”

And soon, the little hairs stop talking and are back up and dancing. When you make them seek out something to do, something to hear, they work very efficiently. The ringing will go away, and you can finally get some much needed rest. Try it. A little classical music never hurt anybody and your ears will be full of happy little hairs for years to come.

Heal your hearing.

First things first. Before jumping into a series of vocal exercises that could easily harm more than help a singer experiencing fatigue, it is important to root out the cause of the problem. Again, keep in mind that every singer is different, with a unique instrument, and with a unique set of demands to be made on that instrument. Applying the generalized principles of “correct” vocal production can result in more problems than solutions.

Rather than write a boring litany of all the possible cause and effect formulae, let me illustrate by creating a hypothetical scenario. Sven the Viking is the lead singer of a metal band specializing in “Nordic Pillage Rock.” Sven’s band is preparing for a six month world tour and although he is gifted with massive physical presence, the stentorian tone which is his trademark is losing torque with every rehearsal. He wants two things. 1. The strength to sing a show without losing his voice, and 2. the prospect of beginning every show from square one rather then with vocal fatigue held over from the previous show.

Lets summarize what is before us:

Sven is a screamer…If we change that, his fans will pelt him with bottles.
Sven smokes…good luck changing that one, Sven just got out of drug/booze rehab and is clinging to his last known vice.
Sven is a hard worker and has reached his level of success by storming through whatever obstacles were in his path.
Sven has reached the point of saying, “It can’t get any worse, I’ll try anything.” He is receptive to my suggestions and “believes” that what I say will help him.

We start by listening, and watching Sven sing a song. Sven has no problem with support. But as I look at his upper chest and neck, I can see the muscles working overtime. Sven is trying to squeeze 10 pounds of sound through a 5 pound opening. He sings with his chin up and opens his mouth wide by raising his head. All wrong! But the sound and delivery are exactly the same as on Sven’s records.

Simply put, we need to find the range where Sven’s voice is most relaxed. I start by having Sven lay on his back. Now his head is in the proper posture for singing. (For a full explanation of this, see my entry Vocal Architecture.)

I have Sven hoot like an owl, very lightly and in his falsetto, or head voice. I find that there are 5 or 6 notes that he can “hoot” so we exercise just those notes, first by singing “Hoooo” in a light breathy tone as if blowing across a bottle. Remember, the idea is not to make a great sound, but to get the vocal machinery operating in its most relaxed state. I’m looking for free and easy vibration without the tension present when Sven does his act.

Next, I use the syllable “Voo” and exercise the same notes. I start with the “Hoo” in order to begin the tone with air. This allows the vocal cords to engage in a non-violent way with a minimum of tension applied by the surrounding muscles. (See my essay on this principle here) Using the “Voo” brings the initiation of the tone, forward as the lips form the “Vee” consonant, also allowing the tone to ride on a column of air. Repetition of these relaxed exercises will manipulate the mechanism and allow the vocal cords to vibrate freely thereby providing much needed therapy much as an athlete would have sore muscles worked on by a physiotherapist.

After the upper register feels free, I look for the most relaxed range of the lower voice. This is usually in the normal speaking range. The same principles apply, find the easiest notes and exercise them by beginning the tone on a column of air. The “oo” vowel is very helpful because when produced properly, it is not a loud vowel. I ask Sven to sing “Hoo” and “Voo” as if he were imitating very low level feedback.

Depending on the individual, various other vowel sounds are brought into the exercise regimen. Normally, “oo” and “oh” feel the most relaxed while the open “ah” will tend to expose problem areas. I will move through the vowels from “oo” to “ah” with an effort to letting the “ah” vowel be influenced by the habits of free vibration being learned from the “oo.”

This would be the very beginning. If Sven were not able to see me every day, I would record a regimen of exercises as he sings them and hope that he repeats these at least once a day. Progress is absolutely inevitable, IF the work is done. When Sven goes on tour, he will find that he is still screaming his guts out, his fans are loving it, and by sticking to a regimen of daily vocalization, his vocal mechanism will be able to survive.

Of course this scenario doesn’t represent the way it’s supposed to be according to every teacher I’ve learned from over the years. But what does Sven care about “Bel Canto” technique? Sven lives in the real world and only a real world approach will get him to the end of the tour.

So…to continue a discussion of vocal fatigue. There is a good possibility that I may go off on a bit of a rant but I’ll try to stay on point long enough to give some advice on conquering fatigue and rehabilitating the vocal mechanism. I find it important, however, to take a quick left turn and provide some background for my method.

I spend a lot of time in my lessons discussing what I call “vocal mechanics.” The human voice is produced by a machine made up of levers, tubes, reservoirs, intake manifolds, exhaust systems, tone generators, resonators, springs…Jesus, it sounds complicated, doesn’t it? The truth is, yes, it is extremely complicated. The good news is that most of these systems operate involuntarily and with utmost efficiency with every beat of your heart.

Singing can be a very simple process, and I try to keep technique as simple it can be. But vocal fatigue is a symptom of one or more of the many components of the mechanism being operated in a manner that causes other components to be overworked. At that point it becomes important to carefully analyze the singer’s technique with a mechanic’s eye toward detail and efficiency of operation.

Most singers suffering from fatigue experience discomfort or pain in the throat, hoarseness and inflexibility in the upper register. This indicates that the vocal cords are being misused. Now, try to move your vocal cords. Go ahead, move just the left one, now move the right one. Can’t do it, can you? So how can you expect to correct the abuse of the vocal cords without ascertaining precisely which component of the mechanism is not doing its job and causing the vocal cords to work overtime?

The vocal cords, or “vocal folds” as they are sometimes called, can more precisely be described as a valve. This valve’s primary function is to act as the last line of defense in protecting the breathing mechanism from foreign objects. When you swallow, the epiglottis closes over the airway to cap the opening. Below this cap, the vocal cords close across the airway just in case anything gets past the epiglottis. The vocal cords, or “valve” is closed when swallowing. Hum. Now try to swallow while humming. Impossible.

The function of the vocal cords as the “tone generator” of the vocal mechanism is secondary to survival, but primary for communication. It’s the architecture of the human mouth with it’s ability to form words that separates humans from the non-speaking species. The process by which tone is produced by the vocal cords is discussed in detail in my post from May, 2006 entitled, “Bernoulli, Doppler and Natural Vibrato’” found in the archives.

To illustrate how the abuse of the cords results in fatigue, hold your hands in a praying position with palms flat and together. Pull your hands three inches apart and put them together again twice per second lightly, so they just touch. Repeat this for the length of a short song…say, two minutes. This is a simulation of the action of the vocal cords when singing. Now repeat the process, only this time clap your hands firmly together, again, twice per second. Do this for two minutes. How do your hands feel? They hurt, don’t they? If you put your palm against your face, you’ll feel how hot they have become. This is precisely what happens to the vocal cords when you scream, yell or sing with crap technique. And as small and delicate as the vocal cords are, it’s no surprise at all that an ounce of abuse can require a pound of rehabilitation.

If you slap your hands together for an extended period, callouses will form at the points of most violent contact. When these irregularities form on the leading edge of the vocal cords, the surface of the cords are not able to come to a complete closure and some air flows through the opening(glottis). The resultant tone is breathy or hoarse, and there is a build up of heat and pain from slapping the cords together. Voila…Vocal Fatigue.

Okay, so I took a wide left, but let me get back on the road and suggest the first step in alleviating vocal fatigue. Step one? Stop talking! Don’t say another word. When you speak with a worn out voice, you just aggravate the cords. Step two, if you can afford to, don’t sing. It hurts and you sound like shit anyway, so just stop it. You’re doing something wrong and until you discover what that is, you’ll just continue to cause damage. Usually the fault lies in two areas. These are Breathing and Support, and Vocal Architecture, also covered in the archives. Step three, deep breathing exercises. There is no short cut. It all starts with breathing and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

In a future post, I will go into more detail as to the exercises that may be helpful in rehabilitating abused vocal cords. In the meantime, If you suffer from vocal fatigue, SHUT UP, DON’T SING, and BREATH DEEP.