THIS STUPID SONG Olivia Rodrigo I Vocal Coach Analysis

[00:00:00]Oh, I really like this song. I love that  though. And we're like, you could use this.

[00:00:11]She is really a very fantastic singer.  K. Welcome. My name's ODB and I'm your vocal coach for today because we're going to be  taking a look at Olivia Rodrigo with Stupid Song Live. Let's see what she's up to with her vocal  technique. How is she creating these sounds and how can you create them? So, if you want to learn  more about your favorite artist vocal technique, hit the subscribe button. Honestly, I'd  love to help you with your singing. Let's just get straight to the video. Pretty sad for  a girl in love. It came out just moments ago, Olivia Rodrigo.

[00:01:04][music] free. Okay, she we know that Olivia Rodrigo  is a fantastic singer and it can't, you know, we can't go past the fact that a lot of these  singers, well, not a lot of these singers, a lot of singers are also in instrumental lessons  from a very young age. Um, so she obviously plays the piano. I'm sure she plays a guitar, I  think, as well. Let's just go back on that.

[00:01:34]York.

[00:01:59][singing] Okay. I've never heard the song before  actually. So, we've got It's quite low actually, but she's kept a higher larynx position. There's  some breath in the sounds. So, that's telling me that the vocal folds are a little bit  open. Got very low volume though. [music] I can't help but say cool. So the same same vocal  quality then for the second I think that for a lot of people they're going to  find this quite low within the range. So [singing] when we're going down to that F sharp three we're  wanting to think low volume but we're also wanting to think about pulling back on the breath because  especially on a microphone this is going to amplify everything that we put into it including  the breath. So in the bathroom. So, we've got very very little vocal fold closure there. And we're  also like not trying to make fun of Olivia in in this sort of moment, but you know, if you're  trying to make the sort of like I don't care less sound. She's not articulating all of the words,  but we're still understanding what she's saying.

[00:03:23]It's sort of like this this wonderful mix of like  acting uh and articulation in that moment. [music] [music] and then speak of me. So, this is where so many  singers look at these sorts of songs and they go like and it's just they feel like it's just sort  of like this neverending amount of like air that come or like sound that comes out. We actually  there's very, you know, she's stopping it with the bathroom. She's allowing those consonants to  just be placed over top of the sound there so that they're not stopping the flow of the air, but we're still understanding what  she's saying. It's not just one big [singing] Feel how [music] stupid.

[00:04:38]Okay, it can't go past the fact that Olivia  Rodrigo has been an extremely good singer for a very long span of time, right? Like,  we've looked at her perform on the channel, which was quite young. So, let's go  into this leadup of the song because I think that a lot of people are going to  think that this is belting or chest voice taken high. And I'm here to tell you this is  speech quality. This is thicker vocal folds, but we're allowing acoustically the volume to  go lower as we're going higher in the range.

[00:05:11][singing and music] Okay, so we're going to get  ahead. She's introducing that.

[00:05:21]I feel like I'm changing the melody there,  but we've got a that thyroid tilt coming in there. Thyroid tilt is one of the main  differences between speaking and singing. So, what it does is it thins the vocal  folds, but it also allows the sound to sound more sung. I'm afraid in the dark.  You notice that there's less breath in the sound there as she's going into the se that  section and she's I don't know the words.

[00:05:50]That's that that speech quality taken higher  in the range. We got thicker vocal folds without a break. Now she's allowed the  larynx to raise but she's acoustically getting quieter now because of the thickness  of the vocal folds. That is what's giving us the volume rather than going without a break  cuz you can see that she's very close to the microphone. No matter how good the sound  engineer is at like playing the desk, you as the singer are still the first port of  call for volume control with the sound. [music] could ever say totally insane.

[00:06:42]Oh, I really like this song. This is a  really great example of speech quality taken higher up in the range. Now, what  is speech quality? Speech quality is an ESTO voice training term. So, you  don't need to know what that is, but I'm an air store master trainer. And what  that means is that we say that thicker vocal folds taken higher in the range when the sound  is allowed to acoustically be uh getting quieter and we don't have loads of thyroid tilt in that  section of the song as she's gone higher up. So, in the pre chorus, there was the thyroid  tilt and then as she's gone higher, there's less thyroid tilt. sounds more  like she's speaking on pitch high up there in that section. That's what we would call  speech quality. There was a big difference between speech quality with or without  thyroid tilt. And you're going to hear it Can you hear that?

[00:07:52]She's not got a lot of VBR in the sound. It's not  sounding particularly sad or sung in that moment.

[00:08:02]We've got that higher larynx position.  And that's what's going to be giving us the volume without changing  into a belt sound or into uh using twang in that moment to increase  the volume even more because she's just so close to the microphone as well. That's  what's telling me it's still speech quality.

[00:08:26]stupid song could ever sing.

[00:08:31]Walk through the park all the girls.

[00:08:44]We need to go back on that because this is going  to be difficult for singers who struggle to take their speech quality higher up in the range.  Okay. So, think like Jesse Jay that she is another singer who takes the speech quality really  really high up in the range rather than changing uh into so we could call that chess voice  as well. Yeah. Speech quality, chess voice.

[00:09:10]That's where she changes into the head voice and  then she's gone back down in the range now and she's gone she's still in that speech quality  that she's still in that chest voice sound.

[00:09:24]past all the college.

[00:09:42]This is very low volume here.  So, we've got chess voice still.

[00:09:48]So yes, it's sort of like that E4.

[00:09:57]I love that though. And we're like you could use  this actually as a vocal uh as a vocal exercise to work on your oral skills. So very low volume and  it's helping to bring in a little bit of that cry, a little bit of that creek in the bathroom. And  that low volume is also allowing her to create a little bit more constriction in the sound in order  to color it. Kind of like that that angsty vibe.

[00:10:42]Can you hear that?

[00:10:48]We still got the cyclical sense of the which is kind of giving us that turning  around in the head. Um, I really love the way that Olivia uses I mean I know she doesn't  write the songs necessarily all on her own, but I do really her her lyrics are just  so fantastic. And I like the way that she uses a lot of the music to reinforce  the theme of the song. That's what I love.

[00:11:23]caring down the boulevard without a  break. I want you more than any stupid melting.

[00:11:39]This is speech quality. Okay, we  haven't seen a lot of movement going on.

[00:11:47]When we take speech quality or we take that  chest voice that we've allow not allowed the larynx to tilt forward as much when we're  taking that further up in the range higher notes in the speech sound are going to sound  louder. So she doesn't actually need to work hard for the volume. It's going to automatically  be louder up there without her changing anything.

[00:12:13]more stupid.

[00:12:23]So, we've got that [screaming] going up  there into probably a little bit of falsetto, maybe even thin vocal f with some breath coming.

[00:12:31]And it's important that we don't  I hear this with singers a lot.

[00:12:34]They go any stupid and they make the  sound with lots and lots of twang.

[00:12:39]That's not what she's done there.  She's to lift the twang out of it.

[00:12:47]Yeah, cuz we want that change in the tambra there.

[00:13:00]Tell your friends [music] that you're  mine. I'm yours. With the hand of my heart, I'm yours. With the hand of my heart.

[00:13:17]That's it. Can you Can you see? [screaming] I  think what she did there was she tilted that cry. She went into a belt sound. Now,  I will admit belting is definitely my thing. I'm a big gold belter. I teach  people to belt all day, every day. So, if you would like to improve your  belt technique, you're like, "Zoe, I don't even know what on earth you're  talking about." I am running a master class to teach you about how to belt better.  You can check it out in the description below.

[00:13:57]I want you in the dark.

[00:14:05]How I feel when somebody name Yeah, this is not for everybody. Okay. So, I'm up on the the B for the I'm She's not belting them. She's has 100% thicker  vocal folds taken with a higher larynx position.

[00:14:39]You can see that she's looking cool as a cucumber  when she's singing that. Actually, my husband says I've been saying that to way too much lately, but  anyway, whatever. I love She's cool as a cucumber.

[00:14:49]Um, so she's got we we we're seeing there though  that she's not really got a lot of body engagement when she's needing to go that high up in the  range. What that's telling me though is all of the practice that's gone before is what's leading  up until this moment. This level of chill did not happen yesterday. Olivia Rodriguez has been  practicing this for a very, very long time.

[00:15:10]That's where the chill comes from. Her voice knows  what to do when she's in this position. Do not do this if you were a beginner singer. do not you  need and mostly in speech quality actually for even profession some professional singers  would need more body energy if this is not their bread and butter. This is Olivia Rodrigo's  bread and butter. We know that about her voice.

[00:15:41]And she does a into the falsetto on your  shirt. That's so hard. That's likened to the zombie going from thicker vocal folds  into stiff and we've got that kind of I like to tell my students you're thinking like  you're a donkey. Obviously she's not a donkey but it's like that sort of feeling and they're  going from thicker to um to stiff. Actually, the originals rock back and that's what gives  us that um think about when you go [sighs] when you're sighing at something. Actually, I don't know a single human in the world that  sigh like that. Think about a character sigh.

[00:16:29]totally insane. I want you  more than any stupid song ever.

[00:16:40]I love it. I love it. I want you more than any  stupid song could ever say. [sighs] She is really a very fantastic singer. Uh, and this sort of  vocal technique. Honestly, I had a singer actually yesterday come into the studio for an an online  lesson and they wanted to sing one of Olivia's songs. And they're not someone that necessarily  finds this higher uh speech quality sound as easy as Olivia finds it in this moment. And why is  that? Because Olivia has years and years and years of practice at this. And this particular singer  came in. This is, you know, she's been working at her voice for a good two to three years now. But  we're not talking about the like 20 that Olivia's been working on her sound. So I want you to think  about this in terms of like practice takes time.

[00:17:27]Practice building up this sort of muscularity  in the voice. It takes time. This is something that you build up slowly too. We're up on the  E flat. We need to though get those building blocks down lower and the range sitting well and  then building ourselves up to this. This is not like rocket science, but this is a very skilled  coordination of breath flow management and vocal fold closure. So, if you're wanting to learn how  to actually learn to sing through step-by-step instructions and what I'm saying is like I  will tell you I want you to go away and do A, B, and C in order to get a sound like this in  a song that suits you and your range for your best vocal ability. Then you can apply to join my  online singing school called the vocal academy.

[00:18:15]I'll see you down in the description below  because that's how we can catch up for a call to discuss your vocal progress. Honestly, I see  this all the time in singers and they just want to go from like A to Zed really, really quickly.  And I totally get it. I get the impatience, but I want you to enjoy singing. I want you to enjoy  along the way. There are so many beautiful sounds that we can make before we get up to this E4. And  that's what I'm here to help you to do. So anyway, me and my hands today are going to go. We're all  motivated and I feel like I'm going to go and do some practice. had a super play. Okay, I just  want you to check out some more Olivia Rodrigo up here so that you can keep on learning. She is the  ultimate master of singing. So much to go on here, especially with that speech quality sound.  And just remember, anyone can learn to sing.

[00:19:01]It's honestly about learning how to move these  beautiful muscles. So, go get practicing. channel.