Day 12: Abrupt Register Shifts & The Pop Flip

From: 14-day Pop Vocals Course With Abram
by Abram Poliakoff
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Description:

The pop flip in particular can be tricky for singers, because most of the time, our goal is to avoid “cracks”, and this is essentially an intentional voice crack! To make it easier, we’ll use vowels that help us find chest voice and head voice distinctly, before attempting to “flip” on the same vowel. 

The first pattern gives us an abrupt shift, and the second pattern guides us into a “flip”. Try it with me once, listen and repeat. Let’s keep going!

Exercise 1: Nah No 1 1 Noo 5, HEY-oo 15

You already know: we’re not always lucky enough to have a wide, chest-friendly vowel and then a narrow, falsetto-friendly vowel to help us out. Remember the sensation and intensity from the last exercise, and use Nah to Noo or Hey to Oo as long as you need to. When you’re ready for a challenge, we’ll sing the same melody on HEY all the way. I find a physical movement can help: perhaps pushing down when you’re in chest mode and pulling up or back when you’re flipping into head voice. Let’s try it!

Exercise 2: HEY (1-8), HEY (4-8)

Let’s try an abrupt shift as well as a pop flip with “Never Leave you”

Song work: Pop flip “Never Leave You” (Chorus)

D
“I will never leave you
A
I’ll always hold you tight
Bm
I’ll Love you and protect you (change melody to LS(above)D) 
G
I will never leave you” (Try taking this up the octave with head voice on the top and add a riff for fun 3216561  (D)

If you’d like some more examples for homework, I recommend you check out “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence, “All of me’ by John Legend, and “Yellow” by Coldplay. 

Lessons:

Instructor: Abram Poliakoff

Abram Poliakoff is a singer, guitarist, pianist, teacher, conductor, and composer. He received a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts from USC’s Thornton School of Music and has been teaching music for 8 years. He is currently both the Associate Artistic Director and a tenor in the L.A. Choral Lab, which recently released its first studio album Sonic Visions in the fall of 2019. Abram teaches and performs a wide range of genres including Classical, Jazz, Folk and Popular music in the Los Angeles area. He has also sung with the San Francisco Opera and Pocket Opera in the Bay Area. His teaching mission is to help his students utilize vocal technique to find their authentic and healthy voice while maximizing genre flexibility and a naturalness of expression.