25Mar09- TOP TEN

Overall an enjoyable show except for the boring bickering between the judges and the endless commercials. 2 hour show, 10 performances. That’s what… 15 minutes of music? Oh, but we love it anyway, I suppose, lol.

Here's how I ranked them, from #1 to #10:

*DANNY (Here I come) – Strong, solid voice, he demonstrated how to be “present” in a song (with it, in it) without ever pushing the voice. Very polished performance, he sang on pitch, and came across as grounded. Good song choice.

*ADAM (Take a good look at my face). Hmmmm. I’m a big Adam fan, but honestly I wasn’t too sure about this. I felt the voice sounded a little bit unsupported… the song was possibly set too high. Not that he doesn’t have range. The tessitura of this song (where in the range it sits most of the time) placed the voice in an area that seemed somewhat disconnected from the body. The tone was very sweet and very clear, tho. He sang with great emotion and he showed awesome control.

*ALISON (Pappa was a Rolling Stone) – Puleeeeaaase. Look, I’m getting just a little suspicious of the ‘raving’ over the last performance of every show. Oh is that just a perception on my part? Alison sang… okay. I thought the last few notes of the song were solid and showed something real and deep. It showed what she might be capable of doing with the right song. It wasn’t the best performance of the night, it wasn’t the worst performance. It was a decent performance, but my socks were still on my feet when she sang the last note.

*ANOOP (Oh, Baby Baby) – Clear and very solid tone, firmly on pitch. Some depth in the sound. A real ability to ‘paint the song’ with his voice. I would have liked a little more support in a few of the top notes (funny, just after I wrote that, Kara said it). If I had Anoop in the studio I’d give him specific exercises to do that would assist in understanding the instrument and negotiating the range easily and with consistency. Very good tho.

*KRIS (How Sweet It Is) – As soon as Kris started to sing I felt he was ‘present’ – he brought character to what he was doing. He was solidly on pitch, he negotiated the phrases easily, well done.

*MICHAEL (Ain’t too Proud to Plead) – Hmmm. It’s interesting to hear the judges talk about a performance like this, which came across as being ‘hot’ in a sense, but is also ‘not’ what they want. They’re looking for authentic artistry and I think that’s really hard to ‘get’ sometimes. You pick a song you like, that you know the audience will like, but the judges aren’t wild about it, as they say it’s ‘not the ‘you’ we’re looking for.’ I thought that Michael had good phrasing, and that he was pretty solid on the riffs. Could he do better? I think so. Will he get the chance? I think so.

*LIL (Heatwave) – my goodness, what a song to pick. I sang it myself back a few years ago when we were the dance band at the local Legion. Before Lil sang I wrote: “should be in her element.” After she began, I wrote: “what isn’t working about her singing for me?” In this particular performance, it was… that she was all at one level. There were no dynamics (or just one – loud). In addition, she thinks too much about what she is doing. With the ‘shouting’ of the song – which partially might have been reaction to the band, who was very loud & covered her – the voice started to get tired and you could hear the stress. If Lil was in my studio, I’d show her some technical things to focus the tone and give power without effort, and I’d work with her to ‘balance’ the voice so that she could negotiate the range easily and evenly. I’d also work to help her use texture in her voice to express the song, rather than volume.

*SCOTT (You Can’t Hurry Love) – I thought Scott did a little better tonight. Like I said last week, he sings with the voice placed in the back of the throat, but he didn’t lift his head so much this time, which helped the tone stay more consistent (stretching the neck means we stretch the infrastructure around the vocal chords & add tension to the voice as well). He sounded more present in what he was doing, he had a relationship to the text and the song. He’s very talented on the piano. I agree with Simon, though, I have always thought that Scott sounds too ‘lounge-like’. One of the reasons, IMO, for this, is the lack of ‘form’ in the production of the sound. Right now there is a sense that the voice is separated from the body. If I was working with Scott, I would try and help him develop a deeper connection to the resonance of the voice, and teach him how to frame the words so that the tone is solid, consistent and has depth.

*MATT (Let’s Get it On) – I liked the top of the song, but when he stood up, he lost something. It was like it was less grounded. Towards the end, he seemed to find it again. So the middle was (as Randy might say) ‘sort of okay for me’, but it didn’t thrill me. I thought his tone was good, he sang on pitch. I think it can be difficult – or distracting – to move and sing at the same time. We have to be careful that we don’t ‘throw’ ourselves by trying to do too much. It was interesting that the judges felt opposite to me – that he was more grounded when he got up.

*MEAGAN (For Once in My Life) – if one of my students came to the studio and sang like Meagan sang this song, I would stop them, and say ‘you’re trying too hard.’ I’d say ‘you were sick last week, and you want to prove that you’ve got it, but you’re actually pushing ‘it’ away.’ In the beginning, the voice had a nasal resonance, and as she moved into the song, it was obviously constricted. It’s like she is clamping down on the voice in the throat and often pushing at the same time – this can often give the illusion of power, but it’s actually tension that holds the voice back / down, which is why she is pitchy & has an unnatural vibrato. She shouted the song, and I was particularly worried when she ground her throat. The voice was already tight, and grinding does nothing to assist it to work effectively. It did not add anything to the performance & is unhealthy. She did look fabulous, though.

Who should go: Meagan
Who will go: Lil

P.S. RYAN SEACREST (little riff from ‘oh Baby Baby’) – sweet tone, Ryan, if a little… unsure. Could be a little more grounded. Let me know if you need some coaching. *blows a kiss*