It's like a trapeze act with the voice! 9Lana "DYNA MIND" Vocal Analysis

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]I've been told many times now that I'm saying her  name wrong. Koulena. Koulena. Is that right? Uh, also I've been told many times that I need  to check out her latest song here. Uh, and then there's all sorts of neat vocal  things going on. So, I'm excited to unpack this and experiment with my own voice and  help you guys learn and be inspired as well.

[00:00:37]You got you.

[00:00:50]Okay, there's like six things right  there. We got to talk about it. So many interesting things going on in the melody.  Notice the consonant comes before the fry that's actually maybe it's part of the  language or something but a lot of times you know if we were doing this in a  normal way in in the English language I like I would not fry after a  consonant. I would fry as a way to onset into a vowel like I would not  go. It's actually really hard to do.

[00:01:37]Really interesting.

[00:01:46]the same coordination as uh chesty verb, a percussive air intake. That's an inhale. And  she's really exaggerating that inward breath.

[00:02:14]That is an epiglottal rattle type of distortion.  She uses lots of different distortions. She uses that one a lot. And you can get that one  by talking like cookie monster. Cookie cookie cookie cookie. It's not of all the  types of distortion. It's it's providing the least amount of compression. We have  the which is using your false chords and a little bit of your retinoid cartilage to  get a gritty sound. You're building that over a clean voice. And then we also have  fry distortion which is a loose vocal cord engagement. She is using the rattle there. It'll  be interesting to see where she goes with it.

[00:03:01]So there, that's a a compressionbased  rasp that's based on the e based on the false chord distortion I was talking about.

[00:03:17]Pardon the lyrics. Cool how I just went into it  for one moment, for one little section. That's what she's so good at. And it's so much more  interesting than choosing a particular vocal posture and only using that, right? She's not  going for like, oh, I got to find my ideal tone.

[00:03:35]She's bouncing all over the place with all sorts  of different approaches. And that gives it her character. This is so important for any vocalist  to keep in mind. It's not about being one thing, it's about being many things. And in being the  many things, you end up finding your identity as a vocalist. If you'd like more help finding  your identity as a vocalist, but you're not quite sure where to start and you're inspired by singers  like Koulana, click the link below in the pinned comment or video description and join my free  course. I'll help you take what you already do, connect with it on a deeper level, and learn all  sorts of new ways that you can use your voice.

[00:04:17]mate. So there are two different types of  distortion in a very short amount of time.

[00:04:27]We have the epiglotal rattle at  the beginning with the closed m and then she follows the engagement up in her throat m. So there's three  different postures, right? clean.

[00:04:46]I'm exaggerating the second part. It's almost more like a glottle stop with just a  little bit of grit at the end of it.

[00:04:59]Very little amount of actual distortion, but it's a very hard stop which  creates a little distortion.

[00:05:24]There's some fried distortion at the end. But the  main thing about this section that stands out is that she has completely changed her placement.  And she's dynamically changing it again over almost every phrase, every note, but she has  a different home placement for this section.

[00:05:52]Now she's utilizing cry cry and with a little  bit sometimes a crow crow crow cry. This is a mixed posture. It's brighter. It's brasher. It  has the pitch that you would normally have in your head voice, but it has the weight, some  of the weight that you would have in your chest voice. And you get that by practicing  rocking your placement and using airflow in different ways, experimenting with those  balances. But listen to what she does.

[00:06:27]Hear how she's she's kind of mousy there and  it's bright and then she adds the weight.

[00:06:36]You can be bright with or without the  cry. That is the brilliance. She knows how to manipulate her placement and the  shape of the notes independently of the intensity. That's another very important  thing to be able to do as a vocalist.

[00:07:01]Yeah. Yeah. Now notice how she she went real far, cried, and it was lower. And then that sort of  gateway into the fry posture. Doing it real slow.

[00:07:32]I like how she attached the little  giggle to the actual sung phrase.

[00:07:40]This is my It's not really very sung, but it's contextualized with all sorts  of other singing. Beautiful expression.

[00:08:04]So there was pure head voice, right?

[00:08:09]Up there and you can hear it's it's  a lot lighter. She's going in and out of that cry sort of thing. That  whole section really really tasty.

[00:08:37]That's super cool. Just try that. Nice sort of  mixed note. Cried a little bit. Head voice. Just What you're doing is you're you're  taking three notes and you're being intentional about how you deliver  each one of those notes. It's not just about singing the notes. It's  that each note matters in its own way. And each note has its own package of  self-expression, resonance, and experience.

[00:09:26]That was cool. Listen to how  she worked with her head voice.

[00:09:29]She was in her head voice and then she  went one note higher and it was a mix.

[00:09:58]Superdy. Super bratty. Witchy.

[00:10:06]She's throwing her voice. It's all  again. There's this giggle about it.

[00:10:28]Hear that distortion subtle rattle that subtletal rattle starts clean. It's that cry but it's clean. And then she's compressing over  that cried mixed posture.

[00:10:54]Such a cool sizzly engaged sound.

[00:11:16]That was cool.

[00:11:33]I almost have to sigh into that.

[00:11:41]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:45]Mix mix. For what it's worth, it's a fry sensation  that I'm leaning into. Even though it's not full fry. And then before it goes into full fry  like I just did, I end up compressing into it.

[00:12:10]She just turns the knob up. It's not a switch  for her. It's a knob, which is what it should be.

[00:12:34]I like a little bit of English in there.

[00:12:41]Head voice. Head voice. epiglottal rattle and then sliding into chest  compression or mix compressions.

[00:12:55]I don't even know my head voice  is is pathetic compared to hers.

[00:13:02]That's what it sounds like in a in a male  baritener sort of sort of way. But those are the techniques that she's sort of slamming  together. She's so agile. And part of the fun here is is I'm not trying to be good as good. I'm not  drawing any comparisons. I'm saying, "Wow, this is really fun and inspiring. What happens when I  mess with it in my own voice? What kinds of things does it unlock? And what kinds of inspirations  can can I create?" And um again, I help you do way more of that in my free course linked in  the pinned comment or video description below.

[00:13:48]Cool key change. I like the spoken.

[00:13:54]What yeah?

[00:14:10]Oh, the way she's going in and out  of those different distortions is so fun and fast. And I love the key changes.

[00:14:38]She floats. She's able to float  and be really aggressive. That's hard to do. But it's because she  is able to float so much and insert uh passion and aggression and distortions and  all these things. The basis of her sound is quite light and I don't think she'd be able  to do it any other way. Most vocalists can't.

[00:15:16]Dynamite.

[00:15:20]Great singers sigh.

[00:15:34]That was masterful. That was  incredible. This genre, I think, but particularly there's just a handful of  vocalists. Maybe there's a lot more that I haven't even discovered yet. Please leave  in the comments other uh artists that use their voice so dynamically. I mean, she  is one of the best, you know. Of course, auto. Here is a growing list of nine Kana  voice analysis videos I've done right here on this channel. And I hope to see you in my free  course at some point. I'll see you for more.