Another really good one that shows off Geoff's full range (and is also a phenomenal showcase of Layne, Cesar, and Eli) is VoicePlay's cover of "Enemy" by Imagine Dragons (from the Arcane TV series). I highly recommend you check that one out. He actually gets higher there than he does here (or at least sounds like he gets higher), but with a stronger voice.
Geoff usually does sing in all his ranges, by using clones of himself to make his own backing group. It's a lot of work of course. Recording each part, then filming each part, then editing it all together but Shenandoah is a lovely example of this. Breathing from the diaphragm is just a breathing technique as opposed to chest breathing. Studying chi kung makes this obvious. It's his control across the range that's very impressive. He sings all the time, according to his wife who says she always knows where he is in the house. :) He has had training of course in the past but works on his voice and his range constantly.
Your diaphragm is active when you breathe, but you can not voluntarily active your diaphragm. It's an involuntary muscle, you can use you core for support. Diaphragmatic breathing is the same as belly breathing, which involves expanding your breath from your stomach area, opposed to your back or chest which are the other two main breathing methods. I have said in the Dimash (I think) react, belly breathing I find requires more core support particularly as you're running out of steam, whereas back breathing holds your pressure a bit more efficiently from the beginning of the breath. Belly breathing, supporting your core is used in sports such as pilates, yoga, taichi etc but we cannot physically breath or control our diaphragm. 😊
@@vtstudio173, all this talk about how we breathe reminds me of when I was in about 2nd grade (7 years old here in the U.S., I know some places have different grades at different ages than we do) and one of the nuns told us that our tummy should expand instead of our chest when we breathe. Even at that tender age, that seemed really stupid to me since that’s not where your lungs are. But I think she may have said your tummy should expand because your diaphragm is moving down.
@@DennisKovacich that's correct, belly breathing/diaphragmatic breathing (I hate that term as it suggests we can breathe through our diaphragm) is when our stomach gets bigger on inhalation due to our lungs filling and our diaphragm being pushed down which is what allows our lungs to fill as they have more space. As we exhale our diaphragm moves back up to its resting position, just under the ribcage. While it is a good breathing technique for singers, back breathing has become a preferred method for singers requiring a bigger breathe hold. Other than moving up and down, our diaphragm can't really be controlled.
It's so much fun to watch your reaction to Geoff. Your technical expertise is wonderful, but that touch of fan girl? Perfect. Thanx for your instruction on vocal technique. I am developing that old lady quaver and would like to continue to sing without making people cringe. I appreciate the instruction. Can't wait for your next Geoff and/or Voiceplay reaction!!
Thanks for watching and joining me! I'll probably hold off on another Voiceplay or Geoff for a month or two so I can cover some other artists too, but I'm sure I'll be back to them sooner than later. Big fan girl. For pretty much every artist though because it takes a lot of practice, time and commitment to sing at the level the people I'm reacting to are, and I never want to put down another artist. Simply be here as an experienced education tool for other singers. 😊
Love your analysis, this is fairly early in Geoff's solo works, he has worked on his range significantly since this was done. Any of the recent high vocals in his newer songs are cleaner and stronger. Glad you had plenty of suggestions for this one. I would also suggest checking out Way Down which is a fairly new one, also agree with another suggestion that is Shenandoah for his range, control, and beauty
This is one of three or four early songs where he was still not quite using his full range as powerfully as he does now, but still demonstrates his range very well. As you said "he sung that part in 3 octaves, in his chest voice". Many of us would be happy to just have a stable 3 octave range, let alone be able to hit it consistently in chest voice. PS, his first low note is normally either that E1 or G1... I love watching people reacting to him for the first time, and they get caught on it.
@@vtstudio173 I love when I am watching a reactor, and in the first minute they go "That is so low"... since I pretty much only watch them, Sabaton, and a couple celtic groups, I forget that G1 is low.
@@leechowning8728 It is low for many of us, though now TikTok is pumping out bass singers I'm am permanently amazed. Geoff though has a clarity and precision I don't hear as much elsewhere. The resonance he gives (while I know it's all edited and the EQs are pulled way up) its such a deep well rounded sound. I was actually listening to Can't help falling in love - Voiceplay, if you haven't heard it you should check it out, I was listening to it in my car and the volume was quite loud, my whole car and my leg started vibrating from Geoffs bass notes. I could physically feel the vibrations coming from my car body, through my brake pedal and through my body. It was insane.
Don't know if you'll see this a year on, but I LOVE that you point out the idiocy of saying "sing from your diaphragm" because as you say it IS involuntary, it is our core muscles that support the tone! I've had to teach this physiological fact to actual PROFESSORS of vocal music! I know what they mean, but they need to use the correct terminology! As to this song, I think he is trying to be gentle here...he can actually even wail up pretty high! Thanks for the tip of working on upper range on an EE vowel. I am 65 and lost my upper range (I used to be a coloratura soprano) because a surgeon's knife slip cut my super laryngeal nerve. I was in mourning for the loss of my voice for a few years (it was like my voice was my identity and my life and it was gone!) I couldn't sing any of the music I wrote because it had such a wide range and that killed me. I finally decided I can't stop singing and I'm NOT satisfied with being in a Dianna Krall range (I love her, but it's not ME!) So Now I am trying to figure out if I can work it with that damaged (severed?) nerve. Anyway, I thought Geoff was absolutely BRILLIANT on this. One of my favorites if not my very favorite of his solo work (excluding where he sings harmonies with himself as in I See Fire, etc.)
I’ve noticed that he likes to play on the airyness of his voice based on the song. I’ve heard him do VERY high, strong, well supported high notes-but he likes to soften them to keep the dynamnic of the song and/or the harmonies he’s trying to create. Which I think is cool, because it shows he doesn’t sing high just to show off. But I’ve seen him go up to an F5 in a mixed belt, and an A#5 in a falsetto (and even in the falsetto, it’s very strong and clear). It’s in VoicePlay’s mini “Peaches.” In the video lip-syncs it like he’s squeaking it out, but when you see him do a similar high note live he has amazing placement and posture. But yeah, he likes to keep notes light and soft if he feels it’s fitting to the song, so it’s more of a stylistic choice for him. And I’ve seen him do slides that hold a full five octaves (like the one he did in Mermaid Medley with VoicePlay) and one with four (that he preforms live in Elvira), and it’s all really well connected all the way through, even through his head-to-mix-to-chest transitions.
Yeah oogie boogie wrecked me. 😂 The E1 is still incredible to me, the control over his range gets me every time. That's what we as singers should strive for, regardless of our range in terms of notes. It's much more important we can produce the sound, note and tone we were wanting to with clarity, instead of belting or growling incorrectly or inconsistently to try to reach our "highest note" with tension, strain or cracking.
@@zitriphyer8429 I have to disagree with you on that. If we are trying to sing low and are consistently over lowering our larynx or trying to to use vocal fry with too much air pressure it absolutely can cause strain, and later on damage if done repeatedly. While vocal fry is usually a pretty safe way to try to extend your lower range as the vocal folds are at their most relaxed position, incorrect breathing and lowering of the larynx too far will add tension, thus creating the problem. I prefer to use resistance training, or Semi Occluded Vocal Tract methods, which help to create a pressure equilibrium either side of your vocal folds, allowing them to move freer of tension. SOVT methods can be used for extending your vocal range, both higher and lower however they must be done correctly if you want to see improvement. 😊
@@vtstudio173 Unfortunately that's not true. Going off plenty of exuberant experience (To the point that I can do subharmonics consistently as though second nature down to an E1 when my lowest chest is an E2), vocal fry is completely safe to practice for extended periods of time. The same with chest. My normal speaking pitch is A2. Though I force myself to speak in F2, while only breaking that around several sentences a week. And also singing an octave lower than I would be normally when listening to music (Which is often). And never once at all has there been any signs or feelings of strain. Now after typing this, I'm thinking that could be different for females (I'm a male). 🤷♂
@@zitriphyer8429 Well done you for putting in the effort and hard work 👏. If you forcefully lower the larynx, it can cause problems. We have a whole bunch of muscles used for supporting the position of our larynx, both raising and depressing it, and if you continually depress it you absolutely can end up with strain and pulling those muscles. I'm glad you're not feeling tension, you'll know if it feels uncomfortable and you seem to know that which is great, but other singers may not. It may also be different for male and female, I haven't researched specifically for each gender, however our supporting muscles for the larynx can be strained. I hope you don't come across it and train a balanced voice. Don't let your upper register go! As I said in my previous reply, vocal fry is usually not problematic at all, given our vocal folds are actually most relaxed when we are doing this BUT if you combine it with to much air pressure and too lower larynx, again, it may cause issues. If you want to flick me any voice science articles for me to consult please do go ahead as voice science is still a moderately new science and theories are often changing amongst vocologists and the more reputable articles and knowledge available the better teachers we can all become. 😊
Definitely check out his cover of Blackbird, as well as Voiceplay - Queen in 5 Minutes, the little mermaid medley and if I were a rich man for other examples of his range.
Little mermaid is my favorite of all time. I quite often have it on in the house on repeat and if I glance at my phone or tv and see J.none being a snail or Eli being a seagull it always brings a smile to my face.
Geoff and the E1 or Eb1 seem to have a close relationship within a lot of songs. It's just below his chest range of F#1 and it almost sounds like a chest/subharmonic mix to my ears... it barely sounds like a subharmonic it's so resonant.
That was a pretty good demonstration of his talent, but I encourage you to react to voice plays oogie boogie song from nightmare before Christmas. He goes full on FIVE octaves, so I've heard people describe.
Love this song by Geoff! Have you heard of Peter Hollens? He has done a lot of covers of Lord Of The Rings tunes. He teams up with low bass singer Tim Foust of Acapella group Home Free on, "Misty Mountains". It's a production piece where Peter layers their voices over 120 times to achieve Gregorian chant sounds to choir with just the two of them. Thanks!
I've seen them. They're wonderful, but require an immense amount of practice. Even with all the practice, some of us simply may not be able to do that. Our vocal folds all have different levels of capability. While I'm 💯 here for people trying to master their voice and expand their expertise if it comes to a point where there's strain or your pushing it too far for your anatomy, you could hurt yourself. By all means try, but listen to your body. You'll know if it's uncomfortable. 😊
He is quite definite on how he is singing each note. Head voice, chest, airy,not airy ..... its all deliberate . I would never suggest an elementary exercise like siren to a singer of his ability. Insulting.
Sirens are an incredibly useful exercise for singers of all abilities. I think you'll find professional singers often use them as warm ups too. Just to be clear, I've never suggested he's a beginner singer, or that he would benefit from my advice. He's a professional, and an incredible vocalist. I thought my views on his (amazing) vocals were clear, but perhaps I've been misunderstood.
I'm not paid for these videos. I haven't monetized them. I do them for other singers to learn from, not to tell Geoff what to do, I'm well aware he doesn't need me or any other voice teacher telling him what to do 😅
Another really good one that shows off Geoff's full range (and is also a phenomenal showcase of Layne, Cesar, and Eli) is VoicePlay's cover of "Enemy" by Imagine Dragons (from the Arcane TV series). I highly recommend you check that one out. He actually gets higher there than he does here (or at least sounds like he gets higher), but with a stronger voice.
Loved how much insight you had while still obviously enjoying his singing so much. Lovely reaction!
He does a high chest/mix in Voiceplay's 5mins queen medley, and their Little mermaid medley, and the Oogie Boogie song.
Oogie Boogie’s Song yesssss
Geoff usually does sing in all his ranges, by using clones of himself to make his own backing group. It's a lot of work of course. Recording each part, then filming each part, then editing it all together but Shenandoah is a lovely example of this. Breathing from the diaphragm is just a breathing technique as opposed to chest breathing. Studying chi kung makes this obvious. It's his control across the range that's very impressive. He sings all the time, according to his wife who says she always knows where he is in the house. :) He has had training of course in the past but works on his voice and his range constantly.
Your diaphragm is active when you breathe, but you can not voluntarily active your diaphragm. It's an involuntary muscle, you can use you core for support. Diaphragmatic breathing is the same as belly breathing, which involves expanding your breath from your stomach area, opposed to your back or chest which are the other two main breathing methods. I have said in the Dimash (I think) react, belly breathing I find requires more core support particularly as you're running out of steam, whereas back breathing holds your pressure a bit more efficiently from the beginning of the breath. Belly breathing, supporting your core is used in sports such as pilates, yoga, taichi etc but we cannot physically breath or control our diaphragm. 😊
@@vtstudio173, all this talk about how we breathe reminds me of when I was in about 2nd grade (7 years old here in the U.S., I know some places have different grades at different ages than we do) and one of the nuns told us that our tummy should expand instead of our chest when we breathe. Even at that tender age, that seemed really stupid to me since that’s not where your lungs are. But I think she may have said your tummy should expand because your diaphragm is moving down.
@@DennisKovacich that's correct, belly breathing/diaphragmatic breathing (I hate that term as it suggests we can breathe through our diaphragm) is when our stomach gets bigger on inhalation due to our lungs filling and our diaphragm being pushed down which is what allows our lungs to fill as they have more space. As we exhale our diaphragm moves back up to its resting position, just under the ribcage. While it is a good breathing technique for singers, back breathing has become a preferred method for singers requiring a bigger breathe hold.
Other than moving up and down, our diaphragm can't really be controlled.
It's so much fun to watch your reaction to Geoff. Your technical expertise is wonderful, but that touch of fan girl? Perfect.
Thanx for your instruction on vocal technique. I am developing that old lady quaver and would like to continue to sing without making people cringe. I appreciate the instruction.
Can't wait for your next Geoff and/or Voiceplay reaction!!
Thanks for watching and joining me! I'll probably hold off on another Voiceplay or Geoff for a month or two so I can cover some other artists too, but I'm sure I'll be back to them sooner than later.
Big fan girl. For pretty much every artist though because it takes a lot of practice, time and commitment to sing at the level the people I'm reacting to are, and I never want to put down another artist. Simply be here as an experienced education tool for other singers. 😊
Love your analysis, this is fairly early in Geoff's solo works, he has worked on his range significantly since this was done. Any of the recent high vocals in his newer songs are cleaner and stronger. Glad you had plenty of suggestions for this one. I would also suggest checking out Way Down which is a fairly new one, also agree with another suggestion that is Shenandoah for his range, control, and beauty
This is one of three or four early songs where he was still not quite using his full range as powerfully as he does now, but still demonstrates his range very well. As you said "he sung that part in 3 octaves, in his chest voice". Many of us would be happy to just have a stable 3 octave range, let alone be able to hit it consistently in chest voice.
PS, his first low note is normally either that E1 or G1... I love watching people reacting to him for the first time, and they get caught on it.
Not even my first time. Still gets me 😂
@@vtstudio173 I love when I am watching a reactor, and in the first minute they go "That is so low"... since I pretty much only watch them, Sabaton, and a couple celtic groups, I forget that G1 is low.
@@leechowning8728 It is low for many of us, though now TikTok is pumping out bass singers I'm am permanently amazed. Geoff though has a clarity and precision I don't hear as much elsewhere. The resonance he gives (while I know it's all edited and the EQs are pulled way up) its such a deep well rounded sound. I was actually listening to Can't help falling in love - Voiceplay, if you haven't heard it you should check it out, I was listening to it in my car and the volume was quite loud, my whole car and my leg started vibrating from Geoffs bass notes. I could physically feel the vibrations coming from my car body, through my brake pedal and through my body. It was insane.
Don't know if you'll see this a year on, but I LOVE that you point out the idiocy of saying "sing from your diaphragm" because as you say it IS involuntary, it is our core muscles that support the tone! I've had to teach this physiological fact to actual PROFESSORS of vocal music! I know what they mean, but they need to use the correct terminology! As to this song, I think he is trying to be gentle here...he can actually even wail up pretty high! Thanks for the tip of working on upper range on an EE vowel. I am 65 and lost my upper range (I used to be a coloratura soprano) because a surgeon's knife slip cut my super laryngeal nerve. I was in mourning for the loss of my voice for a few years (it was like my voice was my identity and my life and it was gone!) I couldn't sing any of the music I wrote because it had such a wide range and that killed me. I finally decided I can't stop singing and I'm NOT satisfied with being in a Dianna Krall range (I love her, but it's not ME!) So Now I am trying to figure out if I can work it with that damaged (severed?) nerve. Anyway, I thought Geoff was absolutely BRILLIANT on this. One of my favorites if not my very favorite of his solo work (excluding where he sings harmonies with himself as in I See Fire, etc.)
I’ve noticed that he likes to play on the airyness of his voice based on the song. I’ve heard him do VERY high, strong, well supported high notes-but he likes to soften them to keep the dynamnic of the song and/or the harmonies he’s trying to create. Which I think is cool, because it shows he doesn’t sing high just to show off.
But I’ve seen him go up to an F5 in a mixed belt, and an A#5 in a falsetto (and even in the falsetto, it’s very strong and clear). It’s in VoicePlay’s mini “Peaches.” In the video lip-syncs it like he’s squeaking it out, but when you see him do a similar high note live he has amazing placement and posture.
But yeah, he likes to keep notes light and soft if he feels it’s fitting to the song, so it’s more of a stylistic choice for him.
And I’ve seen him do slides that hold a full five octaves (like the one he did in Mermaid Medley with VoicePlay) and one with four (that he preforms live in Elvira), and it’s all really well connected all the way through, even through his head-to-mix-to-chest transitions.
Geoff "was that an E1!" Castellucci. It's not his lowest note, but he uses the E a lot and people react to it, lol
Yeah oogie boogie wrecked me. 😂 The E1 is still incredible to me, the control over his range gets me every time. That's what we as singers should strive for, regardless of our range in terms of notes. It's much more important we can produce the sound, note and tone we were wanting to with clarity, instead of belting or growling incorrectly or inconsistently to try to reach our "highest note" with tension, strain or cracking.
@@vtstudio173 well luckily you can't strain your voice singing low
@@zitriphyer8429 I have to disagree with you on that. If we are trying to sing low and are consistently over lowering our larynx or trying to to use vocal fry with too much air pressure it absolutely can cause strain, and later on damage if done repeatedly. While vocal fry is usually a pretty safe way to try to extend your lower range as the vocal folds are at their most relaxed position, incorrect breathing and lowering of the larynx too far will add tension, thus creating the problem. I prefer to use resistance training, or Semi Occluded Vocal Tract methods, which help to create a pressure equilibrium either side of your vocal folds, allowing them to move freer of tension. SOVT methods can be used for extending your vocal range, both higher and lower however they must be done correctly if you want to see improvement. 😊
@@vtstudio173 Unfortunately that's not true. Going off plenty of exuberant experience (To the point that I can do subharmonics consistently as though second nature down to an E1 when my lowest chest is an E2), vocal fry is completely safe to practice for extended periods of time.
The same with chest. My normal speaking pitch is A2. Though I force myself to speak in F2, while only breaking that around several sentences a week. And also singing an octave lower than I would be normally when listening to music (Which is often).
And never once at all has there been any signs or feelings of strain.
Now after typing this, I'm thinking that could be different for females (I'm a male).
🤷♂
@@zitriphyer8429 Well done you for putting in the effort and hard work 👏. If you forcefully lower the larynx, it can cause problems. We have a whole bunch of muscles used for supporting the position of our larynx, both raising and depressing it, and if you continually depress it you absolutely can end up with strain and pulling those muscles. I'm glad you're not feeling tension, you'll know if it feels uncomfortable and you seem to know that which is great, but other singers may not. It may also be different for male and female, I haven't researched specifically for each gender, however our supporting muscles for the larynx can be strained. I hope you don't come across it and train a balanced voice. Don't let your upper register go!
As I said in my previous reply, vocal fry is usually not problematic at all, given our vocal folds are actually most relaxed when we are doing this BUT if you combine it with to much air pressure and too lower larynx, again, it may cause issues. If you want to flick me any voice science articles for me to consult please do go ahead as voice science is still a moderately new science and theories are often changing amongst vocologists and the more reputable articles and knowledge available the better teachers we can all become. 😊
Please check out Oogie Boogie song, Geoff has several good higher range belts.
I think Shenandoah is a great showcase of his range
Ooh haven't heard it, I'll listen to it this afternoon.
Definitely check out his cover of Blackbird, as well as Voiceplay - Queen in 5 Minutes, the little mermaid medley and if I were a rich man for other examples of his range.
Little mermaid is my favorite of all time. I quite often have it on in the house on repeat and if I glance at my phone or tv and see J.none being a snail or Eli being a seagull it always brings a smile to my face.
That was amazing. My 1st hear
Do the Shenandoah cover
It's amazing.
Geoff and the E1 or Eb1 seem to have a close relationship within a lot of songs. It's just below his chest range of F#1 and it almost sounds like a chest/subharmonic mix to my ears... it barely sounds like a subharmonic it's so resonant.
You should give queen in 5 minutes a listen geoff goes very high there
I like the vibes
Yeah it's lovely hearing him do a slower version using different parts of his registers. I've really enjoyed it.
You could take a bath in that mug!
That was a pretty good demonstration of his talent, but I encourage you to react to voice plays oogie boogie song from nightmare before Christmas. He goes full on FIVE octaves, so I've heard people describe.
You'll hear his range better on Blackbird cover.
Love this song by Geoff!
Have you heard of Peter Hollens? He has done a lot of covers of Lord Of The Rings tunes. He teams up with low bass singer Tim Foust of Acapella group Home Free on, "Misty Mountains". It's a production piece where Peter layers their voices over 120 times to achieve Gregorian chant sounds to choir with just the two of them. Thanks!
Listen to blackbird cover
He has videos on how to sing low.
I've seen them. They're wonderful, but require an immense amount of practice. Even with all the practice, some of us simply may not be able to do that. Our vocal folds all have different levels of capability. While I'm 💯 here for people trying to master their voice and expand their expertise if it comes to a point where there's strain or your pushing it too far for your anatomy, you could hurt yourself. By all means try, but listen to your body. You'll know if it's uncomfortable. 😊
next
He is quite definite on how he is singing each note. Head voice, chest, airy,not airy ..... its all deliberate . I would never suggest an elementary exercise like siren to a singer of his ability. Insulting.
Sirens are an incredibly useful exercise for singers of all abilities. I think you'll find professional singers often use them as warm ups too.
Just to be clear, I've never suggested he's a beginner singer, or that he would benefit from my advice. He's a professional, and an incredible vocalist. I thought my views on his (amazing) vocals were clear, but perhaps I've been misunderstood.
how to make a 3 minute song into a 14 minute video paid by the the second perhaps Geoff sings wonderfully do you ?
I'm not paid for these videos. I haven't monetized them. I do them for other singers to learn from, not to tell Geoff what to do, I'm well aware he doesn't need me or any other voice teacher telling him what to do 😅