Others have pretty much covered it, having a good vocal coach can help a lot.
Michael Jackson’s Vocal Range
Concert Hotels has created a charting comparing the vocal ranges of today’s top artists with the greatest of all time. This chart shows the highest and lowest notes each artist hit in the recording studio. Hover over the bars to see the songs on which they reached those notes.
Michael’s Vocal Range
Michael worked with vocal coach Seth Riggs for many years. Seth invented the Speech Level Singing (SLS), which is a revolutionary vocal training technique that maximizes your vocal abilities in any style of singing. SLS has also been practiced by Academy Award winning actors and industry leaders to perfect their vocal presence and empower them in speech.
In many cases, SLS rehabilitates vocal damage caused by poor teaching or years of abuse, that could otherwise limit or even end a career, or worse require continual medical intervention. SLS training will both improve the voice and allow you to sing safely and with greater range, no “cracks,” “breaks,” or losing strength in the middle connection.
Speech Level Singing is a way of using your voice that allows you to sing freely and clearly with maximum power and clarity. It does not teach you what to sing but rather how to sing and maintain an even balance through your bridges. You can apply this technique to any type of music.
“He’s a high tenor with a three-and-a-half octave range. He goes from basso low E up to G and A-Flat above high C. A lot of people think its falsetto, but it’s not. It’s all connected, which is remarkable. During his vocal exercises he would put his arms up in the air and would start spinning while holding a note. I asked him why he was doing that, and he said ‘I may have to do it on stage, so I want to make sure it’s possible.’ I’d never seen anything like that before. I thought maybe I should stop him so he can concentrate on his voice now, and dance later. But I figured if he can do it, let him do it.” — Seth Riggs on Michael Jackson
Part 1. Preparation:
Here’s are some of Michael’s voice training sessions with Seth from 1994.
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gJAR7WITvwI [/video]
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mFPmXyiu30k [/video]
Part 2. The Creative Process – Putting Together The Music And The Sound
One morning MJ came in with a new song he had written overnight. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. “’Here’s the first chord, first note, second note, third note. Here’s the second chord first note, second note, third note’, etc etc. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57.
He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed MJ doing that with the string section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything. Not just little eight bar loop ideas. He would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills. Rob Hoffman
Michael beatboxing and explaining how he made music:
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LQuKbzWHvIo [/video]
Demo – Starlight before it became Thriller
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0_Eb7MYSPd4 [/video]
Part 3. In The Studio – Putting It All Together
Recording the song
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=53T7XC__kZk [/video]
“Damn near any chimpanzee could record Michael. I mean he is such a pro, it is unbelievable! Michael was not an ordinary vocalist or an ordinary singer,” he explains. “If any young people in the music industry take the decision to use Michael as an inspiration, that’s about the smartest thing that they could possibly do. In the studio you hardly knew he was there -— he was extremely quiet and polite and kind -— but he really cared about the quality of what we were doing. Not only the technical quality, but the musicality, and his pitch, and the lyrics, the arrangements, and so on. For example, I don’t think I ever saw Michael with the lyrics in front of him. He’d always been up the night before memorizing the lyrics and he sang the songs from memory. And every day that we recorded vocals his vocal coach was there, and he warmed up for an hour beforehand. That made a big difference.” Bruce Swedien
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uUoOukR-U-s [/video]
Michael Jackson and Bruce Swedien arranging ‘Dangerous’
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eyCdsu27OXY [/video]
The finished product – the golden voice we all love
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2jrh_CmquLk [/video]
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xjWTdW2qdmc [/video]
Part 4: The Gift Of Music Combined With Love
Seth shares his fond memories of working with Michael and his generous heart.
[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D3GhgHBK288 [/video]
Sources: Concert Hotels / Seth Riggs / All Things Michael / You tube
http://vallieegirl67.com/tag/seth-riggs/
