Speaker 1: Pushkin. I was crazy. When I get to the United States,
Speaker 1: I didn't have like anything really, you know, just inside
Speaker 1: of me. It was something that was moving my heart,
Speaker 1: my soul. Every day. I have to do this. There
Speaker 1: is no other way. There's no mistakes here. You have
Speaker 1: to do this or you die. That's Colombian singer Juans
Speaker 1: and to me, he's one of the best examples of
Speaker 1: an artist whose success was hard one. He didn't grow
Speaker 1: up with connections in the business. It was his incredible
Speaker 1: work ethic that got him where he is now, the
Speaker 1: winner of two Grammys and more than twenty Latin Grammys.
Speaker 1: You might have heard his most popular song La Camisa
Speaker 1: Negra or one of his many hit albums like Undia Normal.
Speaker 1: His commitment to music started young. My first community I
Speaker 1: have a a small video and I am playing guitar
Speaker 1: with my brother is probably I don't know, around seven
Speaker 1: years old something like that. Since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I always saw my brothers, all brothers, playing guitar and
Speaker 1: singing music from South America. So since I have memory,
Speaker 1: I just have my guitar, you know, all the pictures
Speaker 1: and videos from my family. Always the guitar bigger than me.
Speaker 1: But I was always so inspired by by the sound
Speaker 1: of the guitar and the singing and all these music
Speaker 1: from all South America. This is Backstage Pass and I'm
Speaker 1: Eric Betro. I'm a vocal coach to some pretty successful singers.
Speaker 1: On this show, I talked to my students about their lives,
Speaker 1: their biggest insecurities, and how they keep building their careers.
Speaker 1: People think the great singers only rely on their natural talents,
Speaker 1: but finding your voice takes a lot of work. Together,
Speaker 1: will explore what it really takes to make it. Dare Now,
Speaker 1: did your parents play music too or just your brothers?
Speaker 1: Just my brothers. But my father used to sing tango
Speaker 1: music when he was at home, and he was not
Speaker 1: like a professional singer, but he used to do it
Speaker 1: really well. And then my old brother started to sing
Speaker 1: also tango music. So I just became a fan of
Speaker 1: this kind of music. And then when I became fifteen
Speaker 1: years old, I get crazy with rock music, like totally crazy, Eric.
Speaker 1: So for me, it was like a game changer because
Speaker 1: when I started to listen to rock music, I completely
Speaker 1: forgot everything else. I just wanted to listen to Metallic
Speaker 1: as Layer, Zeppa led Zeppelin, Black South at you know,
Speaker 1: vine Hell and all these bands, and I get so
Speaker 1: crazy about that. That was the same time that MTV start,
Speaker 1: so I used to watch MTV like crazy, and I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, Metallica, of course, when they released the first
Speaker 1: video on MTV, O my bread, I would say, Metallica,
Speaker 1: it's like my ferry band of all time. And also
Speaker 1: a lot of rock music from South America as well.
Speaker 1: Right right the middle of the eighties, Spanish rock music
Speaker 1: start to become like a very important for us. So
Speaker 1: bands like Sola Stadio and Charlie Asia, Fito Pies San,
Speaker 1: all of those start to be part of our culture
Speaker 1: and I was so inspired by them. I start to
Speaker 1: learn how to play the electric guitar, I start to
Speaker 1: learn how to play a little bit of drums, and
Speaker 1: then I became part of this metal band. It was
Speaker 1: very positive for me because at that time, managing was
Speaker 1: a very complicated time, you know, for the city. Columbia's
Speaker 1: drug bosses struck back today, bombing and burning buildings and
Speaker 1: homes and Madigan a stronghold at the drug cartel where
Speaker 1: troops this week carried out dozens of rains. We were
Speaker 1: living very difficult moments that I found through music, and
Speaker 1: especially through rock music, a way to escape and just
Speaker 1: to feel saved somehow. Wow. And actually we start to
Speaker 1: play a lot in Colombia, like almost every weekend. And
Speaker 1: I was finishing my eleventh grade, going to the university,
Speaker 1: and I remember that I was working a lot with
Speaker 1: this band, and I couldn't believe when they were paying
Speaker 1: us to perform. I was amazing, you know, the feeling
Speaker 1: like Okay, now I can just live doing this. This
Speaker 1: is fantastic. Wow. Yeah, that must have been like that's
Speaker 1: about dream right, come true? Do what you love. And
Speaker 1: it was crazy, Eric, because we record, we I mean
Speaker 1: we know knowing how to do anything. We were just
Speaker 1: like little kids, imenergine. We didn't have like a great
Speaker 1: gear to play, like a great amplifier, guitar techniques or anything.
Speaker 1: We were just dreaming with this idea of being rockstars
Speaker 1: and musicians. Now what'd your parents think? Where they like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, No, they were so so worried about me.
Speaker 1: Oh they were. They were worried, but because he I mean,
Speaker 1: they were listening to this music and they were thought
Speaker 1: that there was like you know, satanic music or I
Speaker 1: used to I try to have my long hair at
Speaker 1: that time. But I was fighting with my parents, fighting
Speaker 1: at school. It was so complicated for me to let
Speaker 1: them know that I was really really serious about this,
Speaker 1: you know that I really wanted to be a musician
Speaker 1: and just to leave making music. They understood now later
Speaker 1: on they said, okay, this this is I mean, this
Speaker 1: guy's taking this serials list, so we have to support him.
Speaker 1: And then that was it. I was obsessed, obsessed, eric
Speaker 1: so obsessed that I say to my mother and my family, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have to go to the United States. I cannot
Speaker 1: stay here. I have to go. But what you're gonna
Speaker 1: do that you do have no, no, no, I have
Speaker 1: to go. I have to go. I have a couple
Speaker 1: of friends that can help me, and I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: And I was like a jumping from from the airplane,
Speaker 1: you know, in no parachutes. I was crazy. When I
Speaker 1: get to United States, I didn't have like anything really
Speaker 1: just inside of me. It was something that was moving
Speaker 1: my heart, my soul every day. I have to do this.
Speaker 1: There's no other way, there's no mistakes here. You have
Speaker 1: to do this or you die. Wow, you really took
Speaker 1: a leap of faith, Like that's a true leap of faith.
Speaker 1: Faith was really important in this process eric Apart from
Speaker 1: music and everything else, faith something that my mother teached
Speaker 1: me through Christian religion. I don't follow any religion. I
Speaker 1: have my own concept of God, but at that moment
Speaker 1: when I was in LA, faith became a super weapon
Speaker 1: for me to stay alive every day. I moved to
Speaker 1: LA in ninety six, and that was probably the worst
Speaker 1: time for me, very difficult time because I was by myself,
Speaker 1: not too many friends. I had no morning, no label,
Speaker 1: no deal, nothing. I was just like trying to survive
Speaker 1: and make my dream come true. I was renting some
Speaker 1: motels and then finally I get contact with a friend
Speaker 1: who invited me to his house for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and then I needed to move because the manager done
Speaker 1: and allow me to stay there. How old were you
Speaker 1: at that time, twenty six maybe twenty seven, and I
Speaker 1: was walking on the streets thinking, Wow, okay, I am
Speaker 1: one among a million of musicians trying to make it here,
Speaker 1: so this is not going to be easy for me,
Speaker 1: but I need to try it. I was like, so
Speaker 1: decided to take that road. When you were starting out,
Speaker 1: was there any major artists that you met who gave
Speaker 1: you some great advice. The first time I was in LA,
Speaker 1: I met Paul Stanley from Kiss. He didn't know who
Speaker 1: I was, but I was in the rehearsal place and
Speaker 1: he was there and I said to him, Hey, I
Speaker 1: am a musician too. I'm here in LA to make
Speaker 1: my dream come true. And he was like, man, you
Speaker 1: have to be very discipline and work hard and believing
Speaker 1: yourself and all these things. And they, okay, this is
Speaker 1: very important. Yeah, that was very important. Yeah, those things
Speaker 1: are so important. I always tell the people i'm working with,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're talking to someone younger, really encourage
Speaker 1: them to work hard, because it's not just luck. It
Speaker 1: takes a lot of work. Yeah, and more. In these days,
Speaker 1: everything is so fast, you know. So you know, I
Speaker 1: have three kids teenagers, so they think everything is right now.
Speaker 1: You know, it needs to be now, and everything take time,
Speaker 1: and you have to work and get prepared to next level,
Speaker 1: you know. But I think it's just part of the
Speaker 1: process of growing. The work in preparation really paid off.
Speaker 1: For one as and two thousand, one of his dreams
Speaker 1: did come true. He made it to the radio as
Speaker 1: a solo artist. Was the first single released by me
Speaker 1: as a solo artist and Scholfie Hativien, And it was
Speaker 1: very particular time because I wrote this song about Colombia.
Speaker 1: We're having having a big problem in Colombia with drugs
Speaker 1: and narcos and mafia's and guerrillas, and because of all that,
Speaker 1: there was there was a landmine situation in Colombia, a
Speaker 1: very serious Linelan situation. So I wrote a song about that.
Speaker 1: But when I went to the radio with that song,
Speaker 1: the lyrics were not too nice, you know, it was
Speaker 1: it was not it was like serious stuff. I record
Speaker 1: my first solo album in La. Actually, what a beautiful
Speaker 1: moment because after all those years that I was having
Speaker 1: difficulties in La, finally Universal Music through Circle Music signed
Speaker 1: me as an artist. So I was like in a dream,
Speaker 1: you know, leaving a dream in La quoting my first album. Man,
Speaker 1: I was so incredible moment for me. How long had
Speaker 1: you been in La before that happened? Almost three years? Wow.
Speaker 1: That's good for people to hear because I think that
Speaker 1: quite often people forget, like sometimes it takes a while,
Speaker 1: but it's worth while hanging in and working at it
Speaker 1: because eventually it can happen. You can't give up too quickly. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: And it's a good thing he didn't, because his first
Speaker 1: solo album won the Best Rock category at the Latin Grammys.
Speaker 1: Then just a few years later one has released another
Speaker 1: huge hit like that song is very inspired by Glasgow music,
Speaker 1: which is a kind of music that is very popular
Speaker 1: in my area from the countryside. Back in the sixties.
Speaker 1: It was like a revolutionary music with bad words and
Speaker 1: very funny thing, very smart. I grew up listening to
Speaker 1: all this kind of music in my house and it
Speaker 1: was inspired in that music, which is like a mix
Speaker 1: between reggae and funk. It's a break hard song means
Speaker 1: the black shirt, So when somebody passed away, you were
Speaker 1: in black right, So I was kind of an association
Speaker 1: of that when you are when you feel so very
Speaker 1: hard because you'll break up with your capital and then
Speaker 1: you feel so sad, So you were a black shirt, right. Oh,
Speaker 1: I got it now, totally makes sense, yeah man. You know,
Speaker 1: it's very local, like the sound and everything is very
Speaker 1: local and became universal because I can go around the
Speaker 1: world saying that song and I couldn't believe it when
Speaker 1: I was in German, in Japan, everywhere, and what is
Speaker 1: happening here. Did you keep visualizing yourself like as successful.
Speaker 1: Did you go, all right, I know I can do this.
Speaker 1: I never think I am successful. You know, sometimes I think, okay,
Speaker 1: I am thankful with life in music because I mean
Speaker 1: never in my biggest dream, I never realized that I
Speaker 1: was going to be like this. So I feel proud
Speaker 1: of that. I remember especially a moment probably wasn't two
Speaker 1: thousand and three and four. I was in Madrid doing
Speaker 1: promotion and shows and I listened you know, my song
Speaker 1: on the radio in Madrid, and then the next day
Speaker 1: in Buenos Aires, and then two days later in Colombia,
Speaker 1: and then three days later in Mexico, and I said,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is happening. Yeah. I've heard people say
Speaker 1: that when people sing along know the words to their song,
Speaker 1: that's when they feel like, ah, I've really accomplished something exactly.
Speaker 1: And the feeling of being on stage, seeing the audience
Speaker 1: singing the songs, and when people on the streets go
Speaker 1: to you and say, hey, you have no idea how
Speaker 1: your song helped me when I was in these difficulties,
Speaker 1: and I say, really, well, I get married with your song,
Speaker 1: will get married with your stories? Really? Those stories just
Speaker 1: fool my soul of happiness, and I feel so you know,
Speaker 1: thanksful with the music because of that, don't go anywhere
Speaker 1: when backstage passed returns will here Juannas play his own
Speaker 1: rendition of an American classic, and we're back with juan As.
Speaker 1: Now you might be wondering how he started taking singing
Speaker 1: lessons with me. A few years ago, Juana saw one
Speaker 1: of my students, at Rosalia, performing at a theater in Madrid.
Speaker 1: I remember that day when I was seeing her performing,
Speaker 1: I was like almost dying there in my seat. I
Speaker 1: was like, I couldn't believe what I was watching, what
Speaker 1: I was seeing, what I was hearing. I mean, why
Speaker 1: Rosalia need to take singing lessons? You know, she sings,
Speaker 1: She sings so perfec it. I never had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to really to study music, and Rosalie I was starting
Speaker 1: with you, so I said, well, can you please connect
Speaker 1: me with Eric. That concept just inspired me so much
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to get better and better and better.
Speaker 1: And I start to work with you now, like in
Speaker 1: these days when I record here in my studio, when
Speaker 1: I rehearse with my band, it's like another world. I
Speaker 1: feel more secure about my voice and tuning in everything.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like relaxed and just enjoying the
Speaker 1: processes of singing, which is what I love since I
Speaker 1: was a kid. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to keep growing as a musician,
Speaker 1: so I want to learn to play guitar better. I
Speaker 1: want to learn about harmony. I want to learn to
Speaker 1: sing better. I want to try to make better songs.
Speaker 1: So I keep, you know, my energy and my love
Speaker 1: from music alive a lot. Well that's really admirable because
Speaker 1: a lot of people who would have had as much
Speaker 1: success as you have would probably not continue to try
Speaker 1: to work as hard to improve, you know. They feel
Speaker 1: good about where they were and go, Okay, I've made it,
Speaker 1: you know. So I find that very admirable. Yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I leave music so intense, to be honest,
Speaker 1: sometimes I suffer, but most of the time I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: What do you mean you suffer? You have to be
Speaker 1: ready for the next song, you have to write something
Speaker 1: different that you didn't do before. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: a pressure, you know, for me, But I really enjoy
Speaker 1: it because it's like something that I really want to
Speaker 1: make happen. Every day when I come to the studio,
Speaker 1: I have probably no ideas, and I come and I
Speaker 1: start to improvise, I start to search for something, and
Speaker 1: then five hours later I have a song. And I
Speaker 1: really love that feeling, you know, it's so cool. And
Speaker 1: then when I go to the studio to record a song,
Speaker 1: and then when I play with my band, it's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is crazy. I mean six months ago
Speaker 1: it was nothing. Now I have a song and people
Speaker 1: are singing that song with me, So that's great. Wow,
Speaker 1: that must be an amazing feeling. Yeah. Man, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you said that though about the pressure, because I
Speaker 1: think that fans don't realize that there is that pressure.
Speaker 1: I think they think, oh, it's easy, he sits down,
Speaker 1: he writes a song, he records it, puts it out.
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize that most artists do get
Speaker 1: a bit anxious or they feel a certain pressure, like
Speaker 1: I have to do this again, I have to do
Speaker 1: it even better, or I have to keep evolving, And
Speaker 1: there is a lot of pressure with that. Yeah, definitely. Eric, Actually,
Speaker 1: ten years ago, I never told you this before, but
Speaker 1: ten years ago I was in the middle of a
Speaker 1: tour and I was so tired, you know, because I
Speaker 1: was ten years on the road, like like literally like
Speaker 1: ten years on the road. I missed most of my kids,
Speaker 1: you know, growing up, and I was always traveling and
Speaker 1: working with a lot of success, but inside of me,
Speaker 1: I was kind of try. I was so tired, and
Speaker 1: it was very hard for me to realize that I
Speaker 1: needed to stop for a moment, that I needed to
Speaker 1: take a break and just put everything together again because
Speaker 1: I was on stage singing and doing shows and I
Speaker 1: was not enjoying the process, and so that was kind
Speaker 1: of harbor. It wasn't also like a big lesson for me,
Speaker 1: just to understand that there is always a balance in life. Right,
Speaker 1: so now finding the balance, Like how do you find
Speaker 1: the balance? Now? Do you schedule time off so that
Speaker 1: you do have some time to just recharge? Yeah? Yes,
Speaker 1: because now I have a little bit more of control
Speaker 1: of my life and my career. And now yes, I
Speaker 1: can say, well, after twenty years and all the success,
Speaker 1: thank god, I can have a little big, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of approach to my career. And I am not
Speaker 1: looking for a number one heat on the radio or
Speaker 1: things like that. I'm just trying to keep finding my
Speaker 1: own style my own way to create music, and that's
Speaker 1: something that I really really love and I feel happy
Speaker 1: that now I can do that with no stress from outside.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just more relaxed now, and clearly
Speaker 1: it's an approach that's working for him. One has just
Speaker 1: won his twenty fourth Grammy for his most recent album,
Speaker 1: which was named Best Pop Rock Album. I play guitar
Speaker 1: like almost all day, Eric, like, I have a guitar here,
Speaker 1: I have a guitar in the living room. I have
Speaker 1: a guitar close to my bed. So I am all
Speaker 1: the time thinking, practicing, watching some lessons on YouTube or
Speaker 1: special lessons that I pay for that when I find something,
Speaker 1: Oh this is cool, this progression is really nice. I
Speaker 1: like the chords combination. So I come to the studio,
Speaker 1: record the guitar, and then I start to improvise melodies,
Speaker 1: like a lot of ideas, and then I listened to
Speaker 1: the whole thing, and then I choose the pieces that
Speaker 1: I really like and I make like a main track
Speaker 1: of vocals with that, and then from that part I
Speaker 1: start to build a song. Oh so you do the
Speaker 1: music first and then the lyrics. Yeah, Like the melody
Speaker 1: comes first. Yeah, melody most of the times can first,
Speaker 1: and I am always writing, so when I'm not in
Speaker 1: the studio, I'm probably thinking in ideas to write a song,
Speaker 1: a story to tell, or something from the past that
Speaker 1: I feel any feeling basically, and then I try to
Speaker 1: connect those melodies that I wrote before with the lyrics
Speaker 1: I have in the works. For me, most of the
Speaker 1: time like that. So let me ask you this, because
Speaker 1: you haven't you don't you sing in Spanish. I mean,
Speaker 1: you did some English and the covers, but you sing
Speaker 1: in Spanish. You haven't done the crossover. Is there a
Speaker 1: reason for that? Eric? Yeah, at the beginning, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to sing in English, but then when I
Speaker 1: try a couple of times, I found out so complicated
Speaker 1: for me, so hard to do it, and I realized
Speaker 1: that I preferred just to sing in Spanish because it's
Speaker 1: my language. When I sing in Spanish, I can close
Speaker 1: my eyes and feel. When I sing in English, I
Speaker 1: really need to think in the pronunciation. When I was
Speaker 1: in Colombia, when I was in Managine, I never studied English,
Speaker 1: like for real, you know, I never So I came
Speaker 1: to the United States and I didn't speak a word.
Speaker 1: I was totally lost Wow, when you came here, you
Speaker 1: didn't speak any English, no, no, no, nothing nothing. I
Speaker 1: was learning with close caption and watching TV, going to
Speaker 1: the bookstores to read English Spanish books, listening to the
Speaker 1: Beatles and music in general. Reading the lyrics. Well, that
Speaker 1: was crazy. At some point, I just needed to learn
Speaker 1: just to survive now. But it was a process just
Speaker 1: to learn, very difficult process. But I grew up as
Speaker 1: a person and as an artist a lot because I
Speaker 1: had to go through that difficult moment. So some of
Speaker 1: the songs on the last album you did do in
Speaker 1: English the original, like Bob Marley's Could You Be Loved,
Speaker 1: but you translated Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark. Was
Speaker 1: there a reason you did that? Yeah. The reason why
Speaker 1: I did that was because when I was trying to
Speaker 1: do the translation for Bob Marley in Spanish, it was
Speaker 1: kind of weird just to sing that lady, you know,
Speaker 1: I was no, no, this doesn't feel good. I think
Speaker 1: it's better. But when I started to do the translation
Speaker 1: to Dancing in the Dark, I was like, what is
Speaker 1: this because it was so vulnerable and so deep human
Speaker 1: like I was feeling that way somehow, and then the
Speaker 1: translation just came like beautiful in Spanish. Can you play
Speaker 1: and sing just a tiny bit of it in Spanish?
Speaker 1: Because it didn't really did come out so beautifully. Yeah, mississitomasity,
Speaker 1: no brand, little Figo, no bring the simple, the honey
Speaker 1: stadio e vio limbs are killous school. That was so beautiful. God,
Speaker 1: I wish I had taken Spanish class more seriously. So.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people artists I work with,
Speaker 1: talk about feeling anxiety, or they'll also talk about having
Speaker 1: stage fright. They get nervous before performing. Has that ever
Speaker 1: happened to you? Or You've been pretty lucky with no?
Speaker 1: No a lot Eric sometimes sometimes now I'm all the
Speaker 1: times I would say, all the times before I am
Speaker 1: going to perform, I feel insecure and I feel like
Speaker 1: why I choose to do this in my life. I
Speaker 1: should be at home, relaxed, you know, no pressure at all,
Speaker 1: just in the countryside. You know, I don't know. For example,
Speaker 1: you're gonna give the four show on the road in
Speaker 1: a weekend, you feel so tired, and you go to
Speaker 1: the sound check and feel like maybe you can sing
Speaker 1: and say, oh, I'm so tired, I feel headache. I
Speaker 1: don't know what to say to the audience tonight. But
Speaker 1: then I really I really feel so alive when I
Speaker 1: go to stage and the first moment until you play
Speaker 1: the guitar and everything sounds perfect, and then it's like, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: this is it. I'm here, this is who I am.
Speaker 1: Everything goes away and you are just like a superstar.
Speaker 1: A lot of energy. Man. That's that's something that I
Speaker 1: really love and I trust. Like when you say in
Speaker 1: the lessons that you have to trust your voice, that's
Speaker 1: what I do. Like, Okay, I know I'm very tired,
Speaker 1: but tonight I know that I'm gonna make it happen. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kick it. Everybody says there, yeah, well it's good.
Speaker 1: Once you've done it a few times, then you know, okay,
Speaker 1: I can count on that. Yeah exactly. I think my
Speaker 1: connection with music since that, you know, early time just
Speaker 1: changed my life and save my life. And definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: it's very important for me just to have a way
Speaker 1: to express feelings. If I have sadness or happiness or whatever,
Speaker 1: I can just take all that information and make it
Speaker 1: a song. There is something spiritual for me and energetic.
Speaker 1: I remember Erica when I was a kid, and I
Speaker 1: was in my living room in my house nighttime, and
Speaker 1: I was with my guitar singing, and just that was
Speaker 1: like the first moment in my life that I've feeled something.
Speaker 1: And for me, just to connect myself to the universe
Speaker 1: through the singing is also like meditation time. Like every
Speaker 1: day when I come here and I close the door
Speaker 1: and I do my exercises, I go like an a
Speaker 1: trance and I start to go another dimension. I feel
Speaker 1: connected with something bigger than me. That's what I feel
Speaker 1: when I'm singing. Well, Wannas, thank you so much. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you for doing that. Oh Eric, my pressure man,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I'm sorry about my english and
Speaker 1: about my singing. Now, are you kidding? It's all gray,
Speaker 1: don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with a new
Speaker 1: vocal exercise. I'm not going to give anything away, but
Speaker 1: it's right on the tip of my tongue. So here's
Speaker 1: something for you to think about. Quite often singers don't
Speaker 1: realize that, but when they're singing, their tongue involuntarily pulls
Speaker 1: back into the back of their throat, and that constricts
Speaker 1: the sound and it makes it way more difficult to sing.
Speaker 1: There's quite a few exercises that can help fix this problem.
Speaker 1: I'm going to show you an easy one today. I
Speaker 1: want you to stick out your tongue as far as
Speaker 1: you can and touch your upper lip with your tongue.
Speaker 1: Try it saying la la la, and then try it
Speaker 1: on other vowels like lay lay lay or low low low.
Speaker 1: Go slowly to give yourself time to stick your tongue
Speaker 1: out and touch the upper lip. It's going to feel
Speaker 1: awkward on your tongue and probably on your mouth as well,
Speaker 1: but it should feel very comfortable on your vocal cords.
Speaker 1: You can practice sticking your tongue out touching your upper
Speaker 1: lip on any musical pattern. Don't overdo it the first
Speaker 1: time you try this. Try doing it just for a
Speaker 1: few minutes, and then each day you can add a
Speaker 1: little more time. For example, try singing la la la
Speaker 1: with your tongue touching your upper lip on this patternmaaaaaa.
Speaker 1: Bass baritones and tenors start on a C below middle C.
Speaker 1: Sopranos and alto's. A good place for you to start
Speaker 1: would be around an A below middle C. Eventually, as
Speaker 1: you feel like you have built up your stamina, try
Speaker 1: going to the lowest note you can sing comfortably, and
Speaker 1: then to the highest note you can sing comfortably. To
Speaker 1: keep your body loose and relaxed, try some of the
Speaker 1: physical mood movement we talked about in the other vocal tips.
Speaker 1: If you want to share it, I'd love to see
Speaker 1: a video of you doing any of the exercises. This
Speaker 1: one might be the most fun one to watch. Use
Speaker 1: the hashtag Backstage Pass pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or
Speaker 1: wherever you like to post. I can't wait to see them,
Speaker 1: maybe me. Backstage Pass with Eric Vitro is written and
Speaker 1: hosted by me Eric Vitro and produced by Morgan Jaffee.
Speaker 1: Katherine Girardou is our showrunner, Emily Rostek as our associate producer,
Speaker 1: Kate Parkinson Morgan as our editor. The show is mixed
Speaker 1: and mastered by Ben Tolliday. Additional engineering help is from
Speaker 1: Jacob Gorski, Martin Gonzalez, and Kay Wayne Mia Lobell as
Speaker 1: our executive producer. Our development team Litalmulad and Justine Lange
Speaker 1: helped create the show, thanks also to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fame,
Speaker 1: John Schnarz, Carl Migliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor,
Speaker 1: Nicole Morano, Daniella Lakhan and Royston Bazzer. The original theme
Speaker 1: music is by Jacob and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group.
Speaker 1: We record it Resonate Studios. Fred Talson does our videography
Speaker 1: and the photography is by Ken Sawyer. A very special
Speaker 1: thanks to Michael Lewis for his inspiration and the best
Speaker 1: guidance anyone could ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro
Speaker 1: as a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show,
Speaker 1: please remember to share, rate and review it. I mean
Speaker 1: that really share, rate it, review it, and if you
Speaker 1: love the show and others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing
Speaker 1: to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that
Speaker 1: offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for four ninety nine
Speaker 1: a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions.
Speaker 1: To find Moreskin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts.