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Well I think that’s really interesting to bring up
because singers sometimes are wanting to have
a perfect voice before they go out on stage.
But that’s just not realistic or practical
for most of us.
[Dave] Especially as a professional.
Yeah!
Do you want to speak a little to that?
About not always being at 100% but
having to go out there and be brilliant anyway?
Well, I don’t know about the brilliant part,
but having to go out there I can definitely speak to.
Not only do you just do your best,
but what I’ve learned, speaking to what
Khristian was talking
about relaxing and what Mark has been saying,
is that I have to have a joy in my spirit
so-to-speak.
And because if I feel some of the concerns
of daily life,
I have to be able to let that go
and have that joy, that helps me to relax.
Once I get there, suddenly it’s almost like
I have a little extra boost of…
I don’t know,
it’s like fortitude or spiritual energy
that I can literally just ride that for a while.
And when I get around my brothers here,
that one of the things that we focus on.
We try to let go, we share,
we’re very transparent, in the way that we
deal with the things that are going on
in our lives.
And we share that with each other,
we pray about it, and we move forward.
And by the time we hit the stage, usually
that joy is in the midst.
I’m gonna piggy back on what Dave
is saying.
Singing the top part,
the looser I am the easier it is to sing
those notes.
If I’m thinking about it or I know this is coming,
in this next song or whatever,
you can almost guarantee that either I’m not
going to make it, or it’s going to be tougher
to make it because I’m thinking so much about it.
But the crazy thing about that is,
right after whatever that hard passage was
I have all the notes that I didn’t have.
[Dave] Suddenly your relaxation is complete.
Because I’ve already gotten past
that point.
So it’s not that you don’t have the notes,
it’s that your spirit isn’t allowing you to
actually fall into that.
Well let me add one more thing to that though.
So, especially in a group, if you’re a solo singer
you probably have to focus a little bit more on
how you’re projecting, but in a group
sometimes you can hide behind the falsetto sometimes
which doesn’t actually require quite as much air,
at least that’s what I’ve found.
[Claude] Not true.
[Dave] At least that’s what I’ve found.
So some of those times you can
sort of blend in, because in a group
the blend is very important.
Well let’s talk about high notes actually.
Because that’s something that everybody wants
to know about.
How do you approach them?
Are you ever afraid of them?
Do you have a thought or an idea in your mind
of how to hit your high notes effectively?
That’s for everybody.
[Alvin] I’ll take this one!
[Laughter]
[Justin] I want to ask you about low notes too.
[Mark] Well, I’ll jump out there again.
Because, I sing the second part from the top.
It requires me to be up in the, you know,
higher registers most of the time now.
Early on in our career we pushed a lot harder.
We felt like, now that we’ve done this
we have to prove our selves, we have
to sing harder.
We have to bring it, we have to
throw some juice behind everything.
So you push a lot harder and you get tired.
Pathos, yes.
So, I pushed a lot harder and I petered out
a lot quicker.
You know, you find that you might
get hoarse and you might not be able to
get the notes for the last part
of the concert.
And I found that in those early days,
I would periodically crack during the
performance at some point.
So I had learned to reserve.
And take my time.
And so for hitting the high notes I actually
learned how to be up there
and not work hard.
Relax and hit the notes with ease.
You don’t have to hit them loud,
you just have to hit them.
And the more consistent
you are up there working in the mix,
working between falsetto and chest voice,
I just happen to have a very high chest voice.
And that’s even expanded over the years
because I’ve learned how to relax
when I’m there.
Can we hear any of these effortless high notes?
Not to put you right on the spot, but…
Well, I’m not warmed up today but-
[song suggestion]
[Claude] No no, we just want to hear Mark.
[laughter]
I’m baffled right now.
[Dave] I’ll say this though, we have this thing,
a few of us play golf.
We have the Take 6 Open, and you know-
[Khristian grunts]
[Dave] Yes KD’s puffing up because he’s the current
[Khristian] Champion.
[Dave] Champion of the Take 6 Open.
[Dave] But one of the things that
used to always happen to me was when
I would get around water I would say,
okay, don’t hit it in the water.
I’m so focused on not hitting it in the water
that the water can be behind me.
[Khristian] It can be behind him.
[Dave] I don’t even know how it would happen.
But the ball would be in the water.
So I say that to say when I started
singing in the group, when I talk about that
joy part about it, what I realized is that
I have to not really think so much about
what’s coming up.
And just sort of be in the moment.
And in the moment, suddenly the moment’s
passed and you did it.
You did what you had to do.
But if you start thinking and start stressing
about it way in advance,
by the time you get there you’re
already worn out.
Because that stress, you feel it.
The vocal cords are muscles.
You know, highly specialized
but they’re still muscles.
So you’ll be stressed and they’ll be worn out
but the time you get there.
So what I started realizing was,
just be in the moment and just enjoy
what you’re doing.
And suddenly, you’ve done it.
[Claude] So while all of that is amazing to hear,
and this guy can sing effortlessly on
the top of everything.
[Dave] I don’t know what Claude’s talking about
because at the beginning we used to marvel at the-
[Claude] That was 40 years ago.
[Dave] -the miracle that is Claude McKnight.
Because he would say that there is
no difference between the range of his chest voice
and his head voice.
And we would say we don’t believe you.
And he would do it.
Like, wait, what?!
[Claude] I could do it a long time ago.
I may need to get some lessons to get that back.
But what I was going to say is-
[Mark] He needs your help.
Ouch!
[Justin] I don't know about that.
I’m playin’ with you man, I’m playin’ with you.
The interesting thing is, all these things are true.
For me personally though, since I’m not an actual
first tenor but I sing first tenor,
it takes a long time, especially as I get older,
to really get to where I need to be each night.
So it's like lifting weights, to where I used to be able to,
I’m going to say the weight analogy,
You know, you know that warm up and you can
go higher and higher and higher
as far as the weights are concerned.
It's the same principle for me.
I have to warm up at a lower range or level or whatever,
and gradually get there.
So even at the end of a sound check
I'm not where I need to be yet.
I have to peak in the shows now.
And sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.
So it's a struggle sometimes because my voice
isn't actually as high as it used to be.
I can listen to recordings from our first album
and I'm like, who is this guy?
You know, honestly.
Because my voice was so much higher
and it was easier to do things.
Like when we listened to the um…
[sings]
You ever listen to that?
We did this whole thing where we did a section of
Getaway Jordan.
And we did it over and over and over again,
and that thing is so high and I did it so effortlessly.
I was like, I don't remember who this guy is.
So can we hear a little bit?
We can do that one.
[Dave] But you know the thing is, before we do it,
I'm gonna say this too.
[Alvin] It's the second time he got you!
Every time you try to go there he says,
“but before we do that”
“before we actually sing”
“and cut!” Oh thank you!
I'm gonna wax another 30 minutes. Go ahead.
It's one thing to be able to hit the note.
But back in the day, it was not just hitting the note
but it sounded musical if that makes any sense.
You've heard people sing that are hitting notes
but it just sounds ridiculous.
You know what I mean?
And it just feels like, uncomfortable
you're out of your range.
But man, back in the day I'm telling you,
because even when we do it now
you'll hear that it’s- if you listen to the-
I wish you would play the album version
and then juxtapose them.
We can do that, yeah, yeah.
[Dave] You'll see what I'm talking about.
[Alvin] There's a difference.
Do you know this section?
[Khristian] Yeah! This is my jam right here man.
[singing “Getaway Jordan”]
Okay how about we do that again.
Yeah I thought we were just doing the first part of it.
But the high part is the next part right?
And you have it, so hey, good.
So we're gonna do that again.
Two, three…
[singing “Getaway Jordan”]
[Claude] Do you do anything there?
[Dave] No.
[Claude] Who does it?
[Mark] Me.
[Laughter]
[singing “Getaway Jordan”]
[Khristian] Did you notice how they were switching?
[Justin] I was just taking it all in. Wow.
[Claude] So the funny thing is I sing up, the first, the top part
99.9 percent of the time I'm on top.
The highest, highest parts of things that we still do
Dave will take over at times.
Okay just for a little break here and there.
Sometimes Mark will as well.
Because not only can't I hit those notes but sometimes
because I'm lifting so heavy through the concert
I literally am doing like this sometimes.
And I just need a spell, even if it's just for a line or two.
[Justin] Absolutely.
But what we just did demonstrates is that you
have to really focus on how much air you can push that high.
Push too much, can't do it.
Push too little, you can’t support it.
So it has to be exact.
And that amount of pressure changes depending
on how warmed up you are, for me personally.
[Claude] Are you warmed up now?
[Dave] Not even close!
[Claude] Okay, I didn't think so, but you could hit those notes.
How do you do that?
But if you noticed at the beginning
I was hitting it better
than when we were trying to sing it together
because what my subconscious feels is
that the volume needs to be at a certain level
based on what I'm hearing.
So when I hear that, I pushed a little bit too hard
at the beginning when we were doing it the second time.
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