Vocal Technique

Welcome To Seth’s Collage…

Alexys Paris | January 2, 2011

Speech Level Singing SLS Seth Riggs Sing Like The Starz Studios Voice Lessons

Seth’s Collage…

Posted by Alexys Paris on May 25, 2009, Creator of the Speech Level Singing Technique and Founder of Speech Level Singing International, Seth Riggs addresses SLS instructors at the 2007 Teacher’s Conference in Los Angeles, Ca.:

Seth Riggs, Vocal Maestro…

(With his canvas completely clear, Seth begins with perhaps the fire color of Red…)

“…People say…, What is this Speech Level Singing thing? Why do you think that you got a better technique than anybody else? “… I say, I’m not saying that. I just put down something that I’ve been doing for a long time and have now patented it. (Seth began acting the role of others who’ve criticized him: “Ah, got a little something going, making all those people pay that money for certification, hmm, smart…”) Seth’s reply: “Do you know where that money has gone? All of it…!? (Long Pause) Legal Fees! For those people who come in (and take voice lessons from Seth) and wanna do what everyone has done for years. I studied with this teacher, and I did a little of this. Then I added a little of that. Then I added a little this and a little of that, and I think I’ve got my own technique now. I said fine, but you seem to have a break between your chest voice and head voice – Something you’re missing! And so David (Dave Stroud) bless him said we gotta patent this thing and we gotta make it a certain way. (Pause) We’ve got to do it, because otherwise you get a little of this, a little of that….

(Seth abruptly changes subjects with the color of Orange vitality for the canvas…)

And ah, Did you see that girl who sang so well, that Spencer Welch (Speech Level Instructor) trained? Up in ah, Tiffany Desrosiers. Look how that girl sang! That middle (mid-voice, between chest reasonance and head reasonance) goes right on up. Then she wants to go heady (Seth demonstrates the song vocally) well four hours sleep. I might be little bit better this afternoon. But she goes right on up, with no falsetto, just boom! She did do some falsetto stuff.

(Seth changes subjects again, a Sunny Yellow… )

So does Tamia. (R&B Songtress)” Tamia will get to the end of “You Put A Move On My Heart” and she’ll go into her head voice, use pure head voice, and then she’ll go back and do it with a Gospel mix. So you should have enough control to do whatever you wanna do. That’s the beauty of this. If your larynx is continually high, you’re stuck with whatever you can guts out with your gift. With this you have a choice.”

(Painting a poignant story of Sincerity: Color It Blue…)

Young man, was little boy. I’ve told this; many of you have heard this before. He came in, in knee pants with my son. He was a Cub Scout.

And Cub Scouts were to take their boys singing. So I went through all the little boys and they all sang. And there was one little boy who had a beautiful flowing – soprano. And I said, do you know when you grow up to become a man, you’re going to have a beautiful man’s voice.

(Seth imitating the child: “Thank You.”) (Laughter) So we only lived about six blocks apart, down in Wilshire district. So all of a sudden, this fellow comes in at sixteen, can’t sing pass an F. I mean to tell ya, I’m telling ya, he was pulling! (Seth demonstrates how bad it was: AH!!! AH!!! AH!!! – Cough Cough!) (Laughter) on an F#! So I said number one, your larynx is coming up, let’s get it down. So again, (using Speech Level Singing technical exercises such as) Gee Gee Gee Gee or Buh Buh Buh or Muh Muh’s all sorts of things as you all know. Bingo! He got into the top. … I said do you know what that is? He said yeah, it’s about an Eb. I said no, it’s an Ab. And he kept on going. And he went through the second bridge for whatever he was at – A Ab B natural and C at the very tip top. Turns out a beautiful voice, a beautiful tenor.

And then so he sang. The piece he sang for me…was a wonderful piece. Ah, I’m trying to think of the name of it. It’s written by …ah David Shier. And it was the story of, ah a man who goes to an old folks home, where his father needed extra help. (Someone in the audience says: “If I Sing” Seth: If I Sing, thank you.) This boy sang that, and I’m telling you I was in tears. I tried so hard to hold on to it, but it got me! Because we all love our parents.

Whether they’re with us or they’re not with us. No matter what they have done. We love them. So, and here was this boy singing a song that he was singing to his father in this home, thinking, and he’s saying, everything I am I owe to you. You’re the one who brought me to music. You’re the one who taught me to love music…. Well that gets me. I love interrelationships – like that! I love it when somebody goes out of their way to do something for somebody else. It’s so beautiful. …And so I finally got my self together, and I’m blowing my nose and wringing my eyes.

(Seth continues this story with a prosperous Gold… )

And this boy went to the ah, sang at the ah…, coronation. Not coronation, that’s ah, that’s too big. Where they swear in the Governor of California – Gray Davis. (Someone in the audience says inauguration) Seth: … inauguration, that’s right. And so ah, I was thinking too big wasn’t I? (Laughs) In any case, … this kid is going (Seth vocally demonstrates the song in head voice) Seth: that wasn’t falsetto either – but, well, almost. (Laughs) …The thing is that the kid went up there (high note in head voice) and the people fell down! They said wow! what a falsetto. They didn’t even know that it wasn’t falsetto!

So the next thing you know, he signed a contract. He’s now 26 and he’s made $35 million dollars. Now the producer…, they signed him. They had him sing with Celine Dione. She says, Oh my God! We don’t need Andrea Bocelli. We can have him do it. So he stood by at the Grammy’s and all this other stuff…

(Seth digresses to earlier in the singer’s career. How about more Red…)

At the time I was still with him…, I had an argument with the producer. … He was going to lower the keys. I said don’t lower the keys. If you do, you’re going to have a tendency to make these big, hard, bang climaxes on E and F. Now that’s at the top of his chest. …You’ve got to make them above that. That’s what you like about him. I said, if you do that, he’s going to start to sing flat and he’s not going to have this beautiful connection. He’s going to be singing in falsetto instead of a mix. They did it. Now he’s having trouble staying on pitch.

(The audience perts up when Seth adds a touch of Dark Green from the palette…)

But the first record, the first record went quintuple platinum. They gave me one point on that. I didn’t know it. My attorney said the check arrived from Warner Brothers for a $112,000 bucks. (Audience mildly reacts) Seth: So far from the first record they’ve paid me $523,000. (Gasp from the audience!) Now don’t get excited, because it just passed by. It went straight to uncle sam, most of it…, the whole thing went, plus more. That’s only because at that time, I was working 6 to 7 to 8 hours a day. And those 6 and 7 and 8 hours a day…, and hearing what you folks are doing, are what makes you a teacher. People say why do you do it? I say because I love it. There are so many more people who have so much more talent than I could ever have. I concentrated on one little stinking thing! Which is, how do you get from your chest into your head voice.

(Seth brings forth the Royal Color of Purple…)

You ever see these advertisements in the papers (newspapers) sex for life? (Laughs) Well, so far I haven’t had that problem. Cause being a Christian now, I’m waiting. (Laughs) But I’m going to take out one that says, Voice for Life – Singing for Life. And you know what, If you pay attention to those bridges, you will not have that problem. Because you will be able to go up soft, loud, no matter what. Because you know that there is a mechanical thing, a mechanical way the voice works.

So let me just stop right now. I’ve being kinda meandering, sort of giving you a sort of Collage. That’s my best speech, is a Collage, because it goes all over the place – splatters! (Laughs!) Seth asked the audience for questions and presses onward with only his palette and a paintbrush recreating…,