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teacher of belcanto, Seth Riggs (Michael's vocal coach) interview

mjdove

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Recently back from Los Angeles where he stayed at Seth Riggs' (Michael's vocal coach) house, Michele Fischietti has pusblished a video interview to Riggs.

Seth Riggs'

POPULAR MUSIC, SELECTED STUDENTS
Anita Baker
James Ingram
Natalie Cole
Marilyn McCoo
Michael Jackson
Geoffrey Osborne
Al Jarreau
Luther Vandross
Julio Igelesias
Stevie Wonder

The interview is about the Speech Level Singing method, which is the one Michael uses.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=102918968&blogID=431785451





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm96t_ibXz4

Found: http://www.jacksonvillage.org/board/
 
Seth Riggs

sethriggs.jpg


Seth Riggs is considered by many to be the best and most successful voice teacher in the United States. He is certainly the busiest. No other teacher, past or present, has ever matched his phenomenal track record. His students are a veritable "Who's Who" of singers, actors, dancers, and entertainers throughout the world. Seth Riggs's vocal technique and the methods he uses to teach the technique were forged and tempered by the fierce demands placed on the world's top performers, who must often perform several shows a night - night after night! A great deal of money is always at stake, so his clients' voices must be able to function easily, without strain. It is no wonder that whenever singers come to Los Angeles from other parts of the world, producers, directors and fellow performers send them to see this master vocal technician.

In addition to assisting many superstar artists (Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Bette Midler, Michael Bolton, Natalie Cole) with their vocal skills, he has developed the technique of Speech Level Singing (SLS), which is known worldwide for allowing vocalists to sing in any genre of music clearly within their range, with a minimum of stress and fatigue. Riggs teaches this versatile technique to instructors all over the world, and his workshops are immensely popular with artists from every background, from pop to musical theater to classical opera. He also offers film voice consulting to directors Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone, to name a few. He lectures and conducts Master Classes on vocal technique at colleges and universities all around the world. He also has assisted some of the country's foremost doctors who specialize in organic and functional disorders of the voice in vocal therapy (the elimination of vocal nodules, polyps, and various conditions of fibrosis).

http://www.singers.com/instructional/sethriggs.html
 
thanks . only great artests develope themselves . none of the today so-called singers was mentioned in this interveiw.
 
That was great! Thank you very much for this interview. He really loves the Italian style of singing! I wonder what he thinks of German style...
 
Thanks for this. This is very cool. You read so much about him , but you don' hear directly from him.
He have worked with Michael for so many years. It's unbelievable.

It would be interesting to have him as a vocal coach for just an hour just to see how much better I can be at my singing. I bet he have some good advices for me, the difference is can I sing or not LOL
 
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I wish we could interview Seth. He's like a father to Michael in many ways. They've been close for over 20 years and Seth has a huge amount of respect for Michael, both as an artist and as a person. I was close to setting up an interview with him through another fan who doesn't really come here any more. But she was in contact with Seth's wife and we came close to getting that interview, but it never happened. I would love to ask him about Michael vocally, since we rarely get to hear any details on his talent in that area. If any of you remember oneofew, she was a student of Seth's, and she told us about him showing her Michael's warm up tapes and that he ran the scales better then anyone she had ever heard and that Seth had told her Michael was the most talented male vocalist he'd ever heard. He also told her Michael doesn't sing nearly as well on record as he does when he's practicing for him and because of that the world will never know how good a singer Michael actually is. He supposedly sings every song determined for final selection to Seth before recording to get everything right. But Seth has said some of the kindest and truest words about Michael. He's one of the only people I would say actually cares about Michael and who I would trust about him.
 
How interesting, Wannabe. It would be wonderful if you could get the chance to ask him some questions. Since you yourself seems to be well educated and interested in this subject you are one of those persons that can come up with some good questions too. Maybe you can email him and let him answer your questions through there? You never know. Anything is possible =)

Thanks for sharing this information. it's very rare.
 
wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
I wish we could interview Seth. He's like a father to Michael in many ways. They've been close for over 20 years and Seth has a huge amount of respect for Michael, both as an artist and as a person. I was close to setting up an interview with him through another fan who doesn't really come here any more. But she was in contact with Seth's wife and we came close to getting that interview, but it never happened. I would love to ask him about Michael vocally, since we rarely get to hear any details on his talent in that area. If any of you remember oneofew, she was a student of Seth's, and she told us about him showing her Michael's warm up tapes and that he ran the scales better then anyone she had ever heard and that Seth had told her Michael was the most talented male vocalist he'd ever heard. He also told her Michael doesn't sing nearly as well on record as he does when he's practicing for him and because of that the world will never know how good a singer Michael actually is. He supposedly sings every song determined for final selection to Seth before recording to get everything right. But Seth has said some of the kindest and truest words about Michael. He's one of the only people I would say actually cares about Michael and who I would trust about him.
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That's too bad you didn't get to interview Seth, wbss21. I agree that we don't know half of what MJ is truly capable of vocally.
 
Thanks very much.

Was it this man who once said that Mike sings more high C's in one song than an opera singer sings in an entire opera? -
 
Wow...thanx a lot mjdove and wannabe! As a teenaer I had a secret dream to work as a back-up singer and do chorus and had so much passion about singing. This kind of info interests me a great deal.

Damn....look at the list! The artists themselves can be vocal teachers. The Speech Level Singing sounds interesting.

Michael is a soul singer, period. I don't know much about technical stuff but I always say his emotion is there regardless of what his singing actually is like. The kid of Jackson 5 ain't changed.
 
What Seth explained about the voice is all true and it's all really interesting. When he talks about a lot of todays singers pushing their chest voice, he means that they're trying to push that one register as far and as high as it will go and they end up screaming or yelling, rather then singing. Belters, they're called. To sing your upper registers, you need to switch in to head voice or you can severely damage your vocal cords. And when he's talking about connectiveity of the voice, so its all an even tone and seamless transition between the registers, using the mixed voice. He means the mark of a good, proper vocalist is someone who, for example, if they're switching between chest register and head register, that the listener cannot ditect the switch because they blend the two registers together so seemlessly before making the full transition. That's what makes Michael so freakishly good. His transitioning is the best. As is his range. You heard Seth say the man's voice he was talking to was all connected up to A flat above High C without needing to switch to falsetto. That's exactly Michael's natural, upper range too. From basso low C to A flat above High C. Very wide and all connected. He doesn't skip out on any notes or jump from one register to the next, like Prince, for example, who has to jump straight to falsetto to hit higher notes. Michael's voice is all connected, and he has seemless transition between the registers by mixing and blending each register so well. You can't hear it when he makes that shift. He's the top, but he doesn't get any credit for it, not even by his own fans a lot of the time. People who know about these kinds of things appreciate Michael's technical brilliance though. Seth is talking about the different registers. There's a lot of debate as to how many registers the human voice actually has. Generally, there's chest, which is your lowest and richest register, head which is higher and more clear, but should be strong. Then there's superhead or falsetto. There's debate over whether falsetto counts since it uses only part of the vocal cords, the outter layer. Singers who use it often generally have it counted as part of their range. Which of course Michael does. He has a beautiful falsetto too. Its very strong.
 
Anyway, here's some quotes from Seth about Michael:

“Every night the kids would come in on stretchers, so sick they could barely hold their heads up. Michael would kneel down at the stretchers and put his face right down beside theirs so that he could have his picture taken with them, and than give them a copy to remember the moment. I’m a sixty-year-old man, and I couldn’t take it. I’d be in the bathroom crying. But Michael could take it, and right before going on stage no less. The kids would perk right up in his presence. If it gave them a couple days’ more energy, to Michael that was worth it. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a prince of the world.”
- Seth Riggs on Michael Jackson

“He would always take time to see the sights. I recall that when we were rehearsing at Liverpool, he stopped the rehearsal so that we could look at some beautiful clouds that had wafted in. That’s how Michael is... He’s the most natural, loving person I’ve ever known, a very good person, as corny as that sounds. He’ll see a picture of a baby, and if it’s a cute kid, he will go absolutely gaga over the picture. During the tour, on his nights off, he would go into a toy store and buy ten of this and ten of that and then stay up all night long putting batteries into the toys, making certain each and every one worked so that he could have them ready to give to kids back-stage the next day. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about.”
-Seth Riggs on Michael Jackson

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 onstage, 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
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These quotes are from either the late 80s or early 90s. But Seth's always been a very good friend of Michael's. He also said in a documentary that working with Michael was like re-tuning a Ferrari, lol.
 
I saw a very rare clip of MSG on Youtube. It waz an interval between BJ and BOW. Michael was singing: "cmon gurl" "yea-yea" and his voice sounded better than all the live parts in the entire concert. In fact its one of the best live outputs by Mike I've heard post Bad tour.
 
mariemarie said:
Speaking of, do you happen to have any qoutes by him?

Thanks for the quotes from Seth Riggs. I loved the last one :)
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I didn't document them but I remember reading them and thought they were from Frank Delio. I could be wrong though, however, when you think about them, the wuotes are more fitting for Frank, Mj's manager, than a singing coach, who would hardly know what MJ gets up to outside of office hours.
 
Datsymay said:
I didn't document them but I remember reading them and thought they were from Frank Delio. I could be wrong though, however, when you think about them, the wuotes are more fitting for Frank, Mj's manager, than a singing coach, who would hardly know what MJ gets up to outside of office hours.
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That's what I thought too. The last quote fits Seth Riggs more and his profession.

I was just so curious about some quotes by Frank DiLeo. There should be a thread about him Frank.
 
wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
I wish we could interview Seth. He's like a father to Michael in many ways. They've been close for over 20 years and Seth has a huge amount of respect for Michael, both as an artist and as a person. I was close to setting up an interview with him through another fan who doesn't really come here any more. But she was in contact with Seth's wife and we came close to getting that interview, but it never happened. I would love to ask him about Michael vocally, since we rarely get to hear any details on his talent in that area. If any of you remember oneofew, she was a student of Seth's, and she told us about him showing her Michael's warm up tapes and that he ran the scales better then anyone she had ever heard and that Seth had told her Michael was the most talented male vocalist he'd ever heard. He also told her Michael doesn't sing nearly as well on record as he does when he's practicing for him and because of that the world will never know how good a singer Michael actually is. He supposedly sings every song determined for final selection to Seth before recording to get everything right. But Seth has said some of the kindest and truest words about Michael. He's one of the only people I would say actually cares about Michael and who I would trust about him.
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you say he shows the songs to seth before recording to 'get everything right'. perhaps..the definition of singing at his greatest is subjective here, since when MJ records to 'get everything right', he is fitting to the inspiration of the songs...whereas, with seth, MJ is showing seth some technical prowess.

so, to me, the definition of MJ singing at his greatest, is following the inspiration of the song. and i don't think he is holding anything back in that department. because if that were the case, the song would tell on him. the song never lies.
 
The quotes are from Seth. They aren't Frank. Seth has known Michael for a longer period of time then Frank and is a very close friend of his. He isn't "just a singing coach", he's been in many ways a father figure to Michael and knows him on a personal basis very well.
 
wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
The quotes are from Seth. They aren't Frank. Seth has known Michael for a longer period of time then Frank and is a very close friend of his. He isn't "just a singing coach", he's been in many ways a father figure to Michael and knows him on a personal basis very well.
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thank you for clarifying it ...
 
vncwilliam said:
you say he shows the songs to seth before recording to 'get everything right'. perhaps..the definition of singing at his greatest is subjective here, since when MJ records to 'get everything right', he is fitting to the inspiration of the songs...whereas, with seth, MJ is showing seth some technical prowess.

so, to me, the definition of MJ singing at his greatest, is following the inspiration of the song. and i don't think he is holding anything back in that department. because if that were the case, the song would tell on him. the song never lies.
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Michael's vocals are always the best, better then anyones. But the point is, and Seth has supposedly himself said so, Michael holds back big time and while his efforts are still the top, he could do even better.
 
wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
Michael's vocals are always the best, better then anyones. But the point is, and Seth has supposedly himself said so, Michael holds back big time and while his efforts are still the top, he could do even better.
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well..lol...i suppose that sounds like a dad who doesn't think his son has reached his potential..which isn't an healthy attitude.

i'm just glad MJ ultimately listens to himself.
 
I don't think he hasn't reached his potential and I don't think he needs to show us anything if he doesn't want to. He just doesn't show off or display the full spectrum of his talent, for whatever reason.
 
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