Chuck Shute Podcast

Matt Ramsey (vocal coach)

December 08, 2022 Matt Ramsey Season 4 Episode 305
Chuck Shute Podcast
Matt Ramsey (vocal coach)
Show Notes Transcript

Matt Ramsey is a vocal coach, singing teacher and YouTuber.  He has worked with singers of all levels, but really enjoys working with adult beginners. His YouTube channel has over 30 million views and almost 300,000 subscribers.  In this episode we discuss different vocal styles, how voices change with age, vocal fry and more!

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:45 - Preconceived Notions of Singing
0:01:45 - Bob Dylan & Punk Singers
0:05:58 - Pop Singers, P!nk & Broadway
0:07:37 - Bob Dylan & Sustaining Notes
0:08:45 - Polished Music of the 80s Vs. Rougher 90s
0:10:50 - How to Sing with Emotion
0:13:30 - Matt's Path to Become a Voice Coach
0:18:55 - Starting a YouTube Channel & Growing It
0:26:53 - Vocal Ranges
0:30:57 - Vocal Fry
0:36:15 - Auto Tuning Singers
0:38:25 - Working with Beginners Vs Professionals
0:43:50 - Singers Voices Changing with Age
0:47:25 - Vocals, Abs & Being in Shape
0:52:33 - Talent Vs. Practice
0:55:00 - Medical Issues with Singers
0:58:00 - Working with Certain Songs
0:59:35 - Death Metal Singing
1:00:55 - Austin Music Scene
1:04:22 - Health Alliance for Austin Musicians
1:08:55 - Outro

Matt Ramsey website:
https://ramseyvoice.com/

Vocal Range Finder:
https://rangefinder.ramseyvoice.com/

Health Alliance for Austin Musicians website:
https://www.myhaam.org/

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com/

Support the show

Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Chuck Shute:

Hey guys real quick if you could do me a favor and please subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you haven't already, I would really appreciate that. Today we have a special guest joining us, Matt Ramsey. He is a renowned vocal coach who's worked with some great people. And he's helped people of all skill levels, improve their singing technique and performance skills. In this episode, we're going to talk to Matt about his career, some famous people who sing great and some who don't sing great and why. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn from one of the best in the business as we talk with Matt about singing and music. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I do like to do a lot of podcasts and things. And I love

Matt Ramsey:

it. Yeah, I love doing interviews, because it's just, you know, the more people that get to find out about the vocal training and vocal technique is not this like scary, mysterious thing, the better. You know, a lot of people have this idea. It's like, you can be 60 years old and pick up a guitar and people will applaud you. And they'll be like, Wow, that's awesome. You're learning guitar. But people have this idea about singing still, that it's like, oh, you're either born with it. You're born a great singer, or you're not. And I just love to dispel that myth that at every opportunity that I can,

Chuck Shute:

oh, really? So you feel like you could teach somebody at six years old? To become a great singer? You could do

Matt Ramsey:

that. Yeah, I often teach I often teach older students. Absolutely. But I think that part of the answer to that question depends on what your definition of what a great singer is. Because, you know, there are going to be some people that think, you know, Bob Dylan is a great singer. And I you know, I love Bob Dylan's music, I love his songwriting. And his voice definitely makes me feel something is that the definition of a great singer is a great vocal technique of somebody that's always on pitch, and always on tone all the time. Because he's not those.

Chuck Shute:

I was gonna ask you, I had Bob Dylan on my list of things to ask you about because yeah, yeah, I feel like he's an amazing songwriter. Maybe one of the best ever. But singing wise, I just, I never understood that. There must have been some record company guy. I mean, I bet you he got turned. I don't know his story. But I'm guessing that he got turned down by a lot of record companies that said, No, we love your songs, but you can't sing them. And then somebody eventually must have taken a chance. And the rest of them.

Matt Ramsey:

If I remember the story correctly, it was kind of one of those things of like, he he was in the New York village scene. And he was just a little bit ahead of the curve. And he was he was doing folk songs, like, you know, Woody Guthrie kind of stuff. And then the the market kind of caught up to what he was doing. And then all of a sudden, record labels were like, We got to find more guys like this. And that's when kind of like his singing and songwriting was like, they're like, Okay, this is what we want, we're gonna sign this guy. And then, you know, he had one of the fiercest agents and managers of all time, that was just like, super demanding about getting him the best possible deal and the best possible shows and stuff like that. And I think those couple of things together really were were responsible for the Bob Dylan story. But I mean, I think you'll even see some singers today that still have that kind of phenom quality about them that maybe their their technique isn't really as good as what you would expect is kind of like, you know, the, the minimum to be to be a superstar, but they still, they still, like have huge appeal, and still have huge shows and stuff like that. So I don't know that we're totally out of that. But I do think that we're out of the arrow, her Bob Dylan could make it.

Chuck Shute:

What about like, but like a, like a punk singer, like I remember in high school, and the song time of what is the time of my lifetime. The Green Day song came out, I was in high school, that song came out. And my aunt, you know, she's like, an older person. Now. She's like, my age, you know, now, but at the time, I was like, Oh, she's like, old and she goes, that's a really good song. But he's not the best singer. And I was like, right, even at the time in high school was like, she's kind of right on that. Yeah. The way he sings it. It's not I mean, I don't know how you would describe that the punks

Matt Ramsey:

do that's such that's such a good example. First of all, I love Billie Joe Armstrong. I love I love you know, everything. I kind of grew up with that music. How old are you? I'm 44. Okay, cool. So I'm 10 years younger ish. I'm 35. And so I just missed kind of like the pop punk explosion of like the early 90s. But I definitely hit that really, really hard once I got to middle in high school because I had older friends that hit me to everything from that. And so Billy Joe is a really interesting example. And I think a lot of the punk singers share this is that they were kind of channeling a lot of the English bands that came before them the English punk bands. And so you listen to like the clash. And even though they're not English, the Ramones, they all had very, very unique vocal styles that were not quote unquote pretty, but still made you feel something. And when you listen to a time of your life, you know, if someone's saying like, another turning point a fork stuck in your rope,

Unknown:

like if someone's saying that we're

Matt Ramsey:

perfect vocal technique does, it just doesn't hit, right, same way that another turning point a fork stuck in the road, you know, he's not even enunciating the words. But we kind of love that about Yeah, you know,

Chuck Shute:

you're right, it's like, it doesn't wouldn't sound the same, you kind of need to be a little rough. Sometimes

Matt Ramsey:

it all it all depends on the genre, too, you know, with generally speaking, pop music this is generally generally generally speaking, with pop music, and by pop, I mean, anything that you would probably hear on the radio, they're going to place a lot more emphasis on the sound of the of the tone of the voice and the end the vowel than they are the consonants that someone's singing with. And so consonants are really responsible for being able to understand what somebody is saying to you. So let me give you an example.

Unknown:

I was gonna say, give me an example. Yeah, absolutely.

Matt Ramsey:

So um, with a musical theater, the consonant is very important, because you have to actually understand what the singer is singing in order to catch up to the story. Right? So um, you know, let me let me think of an example. So if you think of like pink song, just just give me a reason. Right from the start. You were a

Unknown:

thief, you stole my heart and die, you're willing victim,

Matt Ramsey:

right? She's not saying right from the start. You were a thief, you

Unknown:

stole my heart and die, you're willing victim.

Matt Ramsey:

You know, she's not singing it like you would on Broadway, where it's like, you want everyone in the audience to catch exactly what it is that she's saying? No, she makes you want to feel something. You know,

Unknown:

right from the start. You were a thief, you stole my heart and die, you're willing victim.

Matt Ramsey:

You know, it's like she's placing a lot more emphasis on the vowels.

Unknown:

And ta young, willing, victim,

Matt Ramsey:

victim, not victim. You know, she's not like cutting it super short. Yeah, and what's what's kind of cool to go back to the Bob Dylan thing is like, typically, singers should be sustaining on vows. And Bob Dylan usually sustains on the continents. Right? So like, how does it feel? Not how does it feel? You know, he's got to make, like, this nasal consonant thing. Because you lied. You know, it's just, it's such an interesting approach. And again, I don't know if that would fly today. But it certainly worked back then. And that's not for any shortage of of great singers. There were so many great singers in the 60s to, you know, the zombies and the Turtles like a lot of the the bands, the Mamas and the Papas, they had so many great vocally talented groups out there. But at the same time, like you still had that one voice that was kind of cutting through everything, because he was so on the soul on the cutting edge in the vanguard.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, don't you think the 80s It's kind of like everything was so perfect in ways like even with the guitar, you had like Eddie Van Halen, I mean, every note perfectly. And then it was like, You just had to shake that up with like, the Green Days and the punk and the Nirvana's and like, singing off key, like, I mean, talk about Cobain, and how he totally flipped the rock world upside down with his vocally vocal stylings. I mean, because at the time, it was the high pitched perfect, you know, high note singing, screaming, and he just did like, totally kind of almost off key.

Matt Ramsey:

100% Yeah. So with Cobain, that was really interesting. That was kind of the voice that kind of showed everybody. Oh, you can, like do this completely opposite thing. And I think that it was just a time in like, the market place of ideas that people were ready for things not to be so you know. You know,

Unknown:

I do love that stuff to

Matt Ramsey:

that stuff, too. But it was like, like you were saying it was so um, the music itself was so polished. And, and a lot of wayward. Yeah. In a lot of ways. It was really predictable. There was nothing. There was not a beat out of place. You know, for all intents and purposes, it wasn't super organic. And so When you had bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam come out that even though they played their instrument, most of them play their instruments pretty well. There was still an element of organic newness to them. That felt really real. And half the time you couldn't tell what Cobain was singing, you couldn't tell what Eddie Vetter was singing. But again, they made you feel something. So that's kind of to bring a central thesis to, to these kinds of things about what makes a great voice. And what makes a great singer. It's just, it's not their necessarily their technical chops. It's not necessarily their amount of vocal training or how much they practice. It's, can they make you feel something? And hopefully, is that something that you're feeling a good thing?

Chuck Shute:

Well, yeah, I was gonna ask you about that too, because I know you're big Elliott Smith fan, which I am as well. Smith. And that's definitely one where I feel the emotion. I mean, obviously, Part of that's probably the songs that he's writing, but also, with a lot of singers. It's how they they're singing out the emotion I just had on this girl, this French girl, and I could tell when she was, yeah, Laura Cox. And she's, she does some cover, she did a cover Rocket Man, which that song has been done a million times. But some of the way she did it, I was like, I can, like feel the emotion in her voice. How do you know you have a lot of videos on your YouTube channel about how to sing and how to, you know, hit this note and that note and things but you don't have anything about how to get the emotion into your voice? How do people How do you teach that? Or can you teach that?

Matt Ramsey:

Yeah, you absolutely can. So the reason that I don't have as much content as I do have some videos around like finding your own natural voice. And I think that that in the short answer is kind of how you find that emotionality in your voice. But the reason why there's less of that content, and there's more about the technical stuff, is because so many of the singers that I see, it's really cool that you brought that up, because I haven't thought about it that way before is that most of the singers that I see are kind of putting the cart before the horse, you know, most of them are going for the emotion first. And the technique comes later, there was this, um, there was this great video that I saw of, and I don't think I'm calling anyone out here. But there was this great video of Katy Perry when she was like, she was like, judging for I think it was America's Got Talent or something. And she was judging the singer. And the singer was doing just like a perfect Adele impression. But the problem was, and she was saying Set Fire to the Rain. But the problem was, this girl was completely off pitch. And she couldn't like she, I mean, it was like, exactly sounded like Adele. But it was totally off pitch. And so it's one of those things of like, you could tell that something didn't smell right. Even though she had really great style. Yeah, just and there was emotionality to what she was saying. And if she was on pitch, you would have felt something, but in the moment, you just kind of felt sorry for her. And that's not what you want to make people feel when they hear you sing, right. And so that's why I focus so much on some of the technical aspects, like, you know, improving your range and singing more on pitch, and like being able to hit high notes. Because not only are those, you know, important things to people, it's also kind of like, if you don't have those than the style that you're singing with doesn't really matter. You know?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. How did you learn all that stuff? Like, how did you become a voice? teacher voice coach, what is that what you call voice coach, your voice teacher?

Matt Ramsey:

You can Yeah, you can call me a vocal coach, voice teacher singing teacher, whatever you want to call it. There's a lot of people that think that there's kind of like a difference between those and but these days, you know, everyone calls you different things. So it's whatever, it all makes sense to me. I'll answer to any of those. But basically, I was in advertising, I studied advertising in school. And I was really, really lucky to get this internship in San Francisco. And so I flew out to San Francisco, and I did this internship and advertising and realize that I absolutely hated it. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me. It was like, you know, crazy 14 hour work days. And at the end of it, I was decidedly not hired because they were like, This guy is not not doing what he's supposed to be doing. And it was true. I would just like, even though I was there in body for those 14 hours a day, it still it just wasn't there's something about it. That wasn't quite right. And so at the end of the three months when they not hired me fired me, whatever you want to call it. I was unemployed, living in San Francisco. And I was like sitting in the park one day and I was like, if that's the thing, that's the worst thing that could happen to me is like this thing that I think I'm crazy passionate about, and it doesn't work out. What would I actually do with my life? And music had always been there for me. I'd been Singing in punk bands and stuff like that in high school, but I didn't have any technique to talk about. I really wasn't any good at all. And I'd never really tried writing songs. And so for the first time in my life, I actually started writing songs and singing them. But rather than them coming out as punk songs, which is what I listened to, and in high school, instead, they were coming out as like folky singer, songwriter songs, which is when I really got into Elliott Smith and stuff like that. The problem is that a lot of those guys are really great singers. And a lot of them sing really high. And so I would go and I would play in the train stations with my guitar and just sing, you know, to the crowds of people that were passing by. And at the end of an hour, my voice would be completely shot like gone. Like every time I would try to go to a high note. You know, just like Tarzan out on me. And so for the first time, I actually tried to find some vocal training. And so I found this great vocal coach out in the Bay Area, and I started taking some lessons with him. Flash forward a year, I decided,

Chuck Shute:

wait, wait, I because I saw a video where you talked about this is this guy that was like, Why are you singing like a 13 year old girl? Because like Elliott Smith, so it's part of that finding your own vocal style. And you totally changed your voice, right? Yeah, yeah.

Matt Ramsey:

So it was one of those weird things of like, so I moved to Austin. And I found a great vocal coach here named Jean, and I started taking lessons with gene. And, you know, it was kind of one of those things of just like, you know, Kismet. Like everything just happened at the right time. The vocal coach that I was seeing in the Bay Area, although he was really good, technically, there was something just about our chemistry that didn't totally gel for whatever reason. And then, but when I when I met Jean, and I started taking lessons with him, I was like, Okay, this guy, I get like, we get each other. And so I started taking weekly lessons with him. And yeah, there was just this, this one weird time, where, you know, I was like, at the end of like, 20 minutes of exercises. He was like, Okay, what do you want to sing? And I was like, oh, you know what all sing? Say yes. By Elliott Smith. And so I do that.

Unknown:

I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl who's still around.

Matt Ramsey:

And like, you know, it's just like seeing like this, basically, like, what I thought my Elliot Smith voice was like, and I'd sung it hundreds and hundreds of times that way. And he was like, Yeah, I just have one question. So like, how old are you? Like, I'm 23 gene. And he's like, okay, so why are you seeing like a 13 year old girl. The time it really stung, but his point was, like, you know, if you listen to my voice, my speaking voice, you know, I don't, I don't go around like talking like this, like right now, like Michael Jackson, you know, like, I have, like, you know, this brash, bright, resonant, loud, AF voice. And so, you know, you put that same kind of a voice on that, and

Unknown:

I'm in love with the world through the eyes of God, you know,

Matt Ramsey:

it's like, it's a little bit closer to what my actual singing voices rather than just trying to do. My best Elliott Smith impression, which is, what I think a lot of beginning singers do is they're like, Oh, I started seeing because I really love the sound of this singers voice. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna do my best them impression. But again, kind of like we were talking about with like the girl that sang like Adele, it's like, if you try to go all the way there first, if you try to sound just like that person first, without actually having the technique and the chops to back it up. Most of the time, it's gonna backfire.

Unknown:

Yeah. So then when did you start the YouTube channel?

Matt Ramsey:

Oh, so I actually had a, I had a really good student, who was also named Matt. And he was like, Man, that that thing you just taught me that was really cool. Like, you should start putting this on YouTube. You should start doing videos. And I was like, No way, man, I'm good. I just all I want to do is teach. And, but eventually, I was like, yeah, maybe I'll try it. And so I started doing it. And I started getting a really cool response to my videos. And just it was really, really interesting to be able to reach people all over the world with you know, these simple videos that would just kind of go everywhere. And then I started getting more and more serious and more and more serious. And eventually it started building up to the point where I was doing you know, about two different jobs like to kind of have some jobs like I was teaching in person, and you know, online like via Skype and zoom and all that stuff. And then the other half was like content creation and actually shooting videos and, and putting things together to try to reach as many same people as possible. And so Wow,

Chuck Shute:

take you to grow because you're at like, almost 300,000 subscribers. It's crazy millions of years.

Matt Ramsey:

Five years, I think five years ago is when I started I think. So I liked I liked that you asked Laura Cox, that same question too, because I'm not as good looking, as Laura. And I just want to show people that

Unknown:

your tone is what you're saying. Exactly.

Matt Ramsey:

Yeah, exactly. Well, so also keep in mind, too, because I assume that you want to grow your channel, too, right. Yeah.

Chuck Shute:

I mean, yeah, I mean, but it's like, it's, it's different with a podcast, I feel like because people are just, they don't have the patience for even 30 minute videos, I feel like a lot of times is maybe too long, or I don't know, I mean, a podcast is such a different format than just like, Okay, I need to learn something, or I want to watch entertaining a three minute four minute song, or I need to learn how to do this certain thing. I'll look it up on YouTube, but not a lot of people are looking up, you know, my interviews on YouTube. And then a lot of the guests I've had, they've been on other podcasts. So now I'm competing, and it's really tough. It's competitive thing for probably

Matt Ramsey:

salutely. So so let's talk about that for a second. If I can ship if I can take off my vocal coach hat for a second and put on my Youtube. Yes, please help me vocal hat for a second is you will notice that there are lots of other podcasts like, let's say, Joe Rogan, or Lex Friedman and others like that. And whatever you think about those people, personally, they get millions and millions and millions and millions of views. And sometimes their videos are three hours long, right? So it can be done. The difference is in the content, right. So like those guys are well known for getting really, really high level guests, right. And that's just one way of doing it. That's just one way of getting a lot of views to your channel. Another way would be like, you know, taking a really interesting segment of a specific interview that you did, and busting that out into like one small piece of content, you know, something that is digestible. So rather than it being, you know, in our conversation, people are like, Oh, I have to listen to this whole thing. To even if they find it interesting, it's like, you can take out little pieces of that. Now for me, I have a different niche, and that I'm more like YouTube, vocal instruction kind of stuff. So for me, even I have lots of different types of content that I do, like, I'll do the kind of, you know, one on one kind of like, instructional thing where I'm like, Okay, no, singer, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, you know, I'll give them an exercise or something like that on camera. But I also do reaction videos, where I'm like, reacting to other singers and the techniques that they're doing. I've also done like interviews with music industry experts and stuff like that. So and, and the truth is, is that as time goes on, you start to find what hits better. And then you want to just like really nail down like, my guess is that there's probably a specific kind of guest that you have on that does a little bit better than other kinds. Does that mean that you need to stop doing the other kinds now, but it does maybe give you a clue about like, Oh, this is kind of what people in my audience are interested in. And also, you'll notice that that will change over time. This kind of crazy thing that I did where I don't know if you know this, but Filipinos are crazy about singing nuts about singing. They absolutely love everything about singer from journeys Filipina, right, yeah, yeah, the new one is Yeah, exactly. And, um, and he's just, he's one of millions upon millions of great singers from the Philippines. And so it's just a huge part of their culture. And so I started reacting to a couple of Filipino singers for my channel, and they would like instantly get like, hundreds of 1000s of views. And like, it's like, all the Filipinos were talking to each other that like, Okay, we've got a new vocal coach that's like reacting to our stuff. And the funny thing is that because those videos were doing so well, I started doing more of them and started doing more of them. And then pretty soon I started looking at my YouTube analytics and was like, rather than my audience being from America, or the UK, or wherever else that I could potentially get, like real students from, they're all from the Philippines. It's like one of those weird things of like, you know, positive feedback, it's like, you know, you want to make you want to have an idea of who you want to talk to first, and then, you know, make content that kind of speaks to that person. And then, you know, whatever you see of that, that's performing well, you know, to more and more stuff like that.

Chuck Shute:

So what you're saying is I need to make Filipino singing reaction videos.

Matt Ramsey:

Yes, that is that's the that's the, if you're if your goal is to get a lot of views, then that there are a lot of them Things that you can do if you're if your goal is just to get subscriber numbers up, that's definitely something you can do. But if you're trying to get good subscribers, or you know what quote unquote good means, for me is like, if I'm trying to, you know, promote my singing courses, or you know, promote my, my coaching or whatever, then maybe that's not the best audience to go to, because they already have, you know, so many different coaches that they look to, and it's like, it's a tight competition there. So instead, I've found that like, you know, reacting to, for whatever reason, you know, people with my channel, really, really resonate with whistle register stuff, they really resonate with high note stuff, they really resonate with how to find your own true voice. So those are kind of like, those are kind of, like types of of videos that I do a lot. And it's, it pays off well. So I would just say, like, kind of finding, kind of finding what, when people think about the chuck, shoot, you know, what does, what is it that they really think about? And also for Chuck, shoot, like you'd be thinking about, like, Who do I really want to be talking to? Right, and, and try to create stuff around that? Yeah, I

Chuck Shute:

mean, I think like the Joe Rogan stuff, like, I think it's interesting, because what I like about his show, it's like a variety, you know, you'll have like rockstars on, he'll have comedians. And they'll have these, like scientists and psychologists and I love that like, because there's a lot of people that we're all show this a lot of the same guests with other podcasters I'm friends with them. And a lot of them are more strictly music, and I love music stuff, too. But I just can't do just music. I just get burned out on interview positions. It's and this is this is why this interview is kind of fun, because we're talking something totally different. Yeah, than like a band that you were in that broke up and got back together and those kinds of things. So yeah, it's fascinating stuff, talking about different singers, but one of the things so on your website, you have how you test your vocal range. Yeah, I think I did it. And I'm two octaves, which I don't think that's very good, though. It's

Matt Ramsey:

great. It's great. Yeah. So um, for the humble listener at home and set rangefinder dot Ramsay voices.com. And it's basically like, it's an app that I coded, or had someone code where basically you like, enable the microphone on your phone or on your desktop or whatever. And then you sing your lowest note, like whatever it happens to be and then using your highest noun, or whatever it happens to be, and then it will spit out what your vocal ranges so it'll be what's your A, generally, so, I will answer your question in an interesting way. So I have a usable range, like a good sounding range from about see three. That's that note right there. Up to about a G five. Okay, so I'm typically see five below that sounds even better. So that's about two octaves right there. So to answer your question, I have like two octaves that sound pretty good. But I have an absolute range, which is like the very lowest all the way to the very highest of about three octaves, you know, between like, two and a half to three octaves. So most untrained singers only have about an octave and a half. So the fact that you can do two is already a good thing. Wow. In addition to that, the real point is how good do those notes sound?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I would need some help for sure. Yeah. Cuz

Matt Ramsey:

I mean, you can probably squeak out like an all or something like that. Yeah, I

Chuck Shute:

think that's all I did. I just did like the lowest and then the highest.

Matt Ramsey:

Right, right. Right. And that's, that's a really good place to start. Is like knowing what your absolute ranges. But as we would work together, or you know, maybe you got one of my courses or something like that, it'd be really about nailing down on like, okay, so you're really strong here, but you're kind of weak here. Like let's work on these notes. In order to make those sound as good as possible. It's actually kind of rare that I meet somebody that has like a really limited vocal range. It's more common that I meet somebody that has like a good vocal range, like what we're just talking about, like I think two octaves and up is great. But it's really more about making all those notes sound good.

Chuck Shute:

Sure. Sure. Yeah. So Axl Rose is the one he's got the biggest right six, five or six.

Matt Ramsey:

So it kind of depends on on how you look at it there. There's another singer called Tim storms that he kind of seeps into like the sub harmonics, Guinness Book of World Records or something. Yeah. And then there's also Adam Lopez that sings incredibly high. So it really just kind of Mike Patton from faith. To right he's definitely yeah. And and he they're all They're all it's interesting that you brought up those four different singers because is it for axial Tim storms, Mike Patton, and did we say one more?

Chuck Shute:

No. The other ones that like you said, like slip knots, chords. Taylor is one David Lee Roth is was up there.

Matt Ramsey:

We should also throw in Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey. Sure, yeah. Because what a lot of those singers do is they explore the extremes of the vocal range. So there's kind of like what you would think of as like the typical areas of your vocal range, like the bottom part of your voice, the chest voice sounded kind of like that, ah, just kind of like your speaking voice. And then you have the the higher notes in your voice, like your, your head voice like that. Those those higher notes in your voice. So there's those kind of two main registers that singers spent a lot of time you know, working between those two different voices. But what's interesting about all those singers that we just mentioned, is that they spent a lot of time below or above those different voices below that you have vocal fry, which is kind of like that.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, what is the I found that interesting that that's actually part of like some people sing that way? Or? That was something that just like the teenage girls do nowadays? Yeah. How did that how did that just become something that they learned from mimicking other girls? Or why is that such a phenomenon right now?

Matt Ramsey:

So I think you can trace most of it back to the Kardashians. It all it all comes back to them. Yeah, they're like, they're like the key to the whole thing. But but being serious I mean, Britney Spears like used it and hit me Hit Me Baby One More Time. I'll bay but Bay bear. Bet. You know, she uses that to kind of add some sensuality and some emotionality, to those to those words. And we even hear that today like in too good at goodbyes by Sam Smith.

Unknown:

You must think that hops do?

Matt Ramsey:

You must think that you must think that I'm a fool. You know, he adds just a little to the to the beginning of those things. And so there's some kind of interesting stuff about about that. So the way that I'm doing it right now is not in tune. It's not tuned, it's not on a pitch. Exactly. You could look at it. And you could actually look at it on like a vocal pitch monitor. And you could see that there are actual, technically real notes, because I'm actually seeing real frequencies, any sound that you make with your voice is going to have theoretically, some frequency that you can measure to it. Like it's some sort of like an A sharp or B flat or whatever it happens to be.

Chuck Shute:

But how does somebody get stuck in it so that that's their speaking voice? And then they just walk around? Like, hi, yah, I totally, like, that's just how they talk. Yeah, and every how do they get? Can you untrap that? Could you coach the Kardashians to talk normal? Or is that? Is it too late?

Matt Ramsey:

No, well, I don't think you could tell them to do anything. I think

Chuck Shute:

if they wanted to learn, we wanted to learn absolutely nobody else, maybe not the Kardashians, but somebody who got stuck into that vocal fry voice, because I feel like that's permanent. For some of them.

Matt Ramsey:

It's, it's not it's it's not permanent, but it is a self fulfilling bad habit. Because it's like they start doing it. And it's pretty easy to just let your voice just kind of like hang out down there. And then they just kind of stay there for a while. And like every once in a while, they'll get out of it. But then they're right back down. And it's like, it takes less breath pressure to actually speak that way. And so you'll notice, like people will speak like a really, really long time, long time, a long time. And then pretty soon at the very end, it just kind of drops down to that.

Unknown:

So so it's a lazy way of talking is what you're saying.

Matt Ramsey:

Your words not mine, Chuck. No, just because it's it is kind of like a it's kind of a controversial issue. They've done studies about vocal fry sound. And the crazy thing is, is like I think at the time of the study, it was like this is maybe like 10 years ago, that like people like 50 and older, just could not stand to hear that at all Period, end of sentence like anybody that spoke with a vocal fry like that automatically lost a lot of authority in their, in their eyes, but people like 50 and younger and the younger that you went, it was like they didn't it didn't even register it didn't bother them at all. So it's really been this kind of interesting thing of like, I don't speak in vocal fry a whole lot. But there are a lot of people that they don't care if it's vocal fry and and in speaking like normally, quote, unquote, normally to you and me, like up here and like a normal speaking voice is totally, that's totally fine. But yeah, it's one of those weird things have we had this kind of moment and culture, were particularly influential people started going from like, oh, like, this is like the valley girl, you know, there was that? And then it just dropped and then nobody hairs about like Chloe calm down. And it's just, it's one of those weird things that it's like, you know, it's in, like we were talking about with the Bob Dylan thing like, there are different moments in history where you know, vocal things go in and out, you know, vocal trends and fads go in and out. During the 80s, it was all about, like, how high you could sing, you know, and during the 90s it was like, sounding like you don't give a crap about anything. You know, it's like screw technique. We never, like every, almost any of those singers, even like the amazing, amazing singers like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, like kind of openly had disdain for any sort of vocal technique stuff, even though he's one of the best vocal techniques singers of all time. So it's kind of one of those things of like, like saying, like, Oh, we don't care about this. And then the early 2000s, of course, depending what genre you look at, it was back to like, polished with like, in sync, Backstreet Boys, and Auto Tune came out, and then pretty soon, auto tune just took over everything. And everybody was using it everywhere. So yeah, it's just yeah, vocal trends that go in and out, man. That's very wild.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. How much of music nowadays you think is using the auto tune? And how is there gonna tell

Matt Ramsey:

all of it? Well, it's using auto tune, not necessarily auto tune, there's two main software's when I say two main software's there's a million different pieces of software that do this now. But there's primarily auto tune and Melodyne. And both of them kind of do somewhat similar things. But basically, you'll be able to see like, what pitch you're singing, and you'll see how flat or how sharp it is. And you'll actually, you'll actually be able to take your mouse and bounce it up to the right pitch. And it's amazing how natural they sound. And you can actually play around with how accurate it is. Because if it sounds too accurate, if it sounds too correct, then it will sound kind of robotic, it will sound kind of Yeah, computerized. And so you can actually play around with how much those effects actually impact the sound too. And I've been in those recording sessions, where it's like, even with really great singers, where someone's just a little sharp and one take, but that tape had a lot of emotion to it had a lot of feeling to it. And so they just bump it slightly. But I've also been a part of those recording sessions where they're not within a mile of the pitch, I'm talking about like a fifth of range, which is like seven half steps, like a lot of pitch, and then you just bump it right up, and then all of a sudden, they're singing fine.

Chuck Shute:

So are these pop? Are these people that would sing live, though? Because they wouldn't be able to replicate it? Right?

Matt Ramsey:

Well, that's a good question. So not to name any names. But there are some like really, really, there are some well known celebrity vocalists out there that I'm trying not to name any names because I don't want to get anyone in trouble. But basically, there are a lot of really famous kind of like teeny bopper style singer, that that they're not they can't hold it together live. Yeah, they have to use Auto Tune live. There is that yeah, there is autotune live. And then there is also just having a lot of backup singers to drown out what it is that you're doing. Have you worked with

Chuck Shute:

big names singers, or you work with more local or

Matt Ramsey:

typically, typically, it's kind of funny. So like, I have worked with a couple of big name singers, and I've been in the coaching sessions with them, which is really fun. And it's very exciting. But I actually my sweet spot is with adult beginners. Like I love teaching people that are like, they're getting started on this music journey. Because that was kind of my story too is like, you know, I started, you know, actually taking lessons properly at like 2122 23. Like, well, after the age that a lot of people think that you should start vocal training.

Chuck Shute:

I don't know, it's that's still pretty young. I would say adults, like more like 3040. So like, yeah, like you're kind of a kid still basically,

Matt Ramsey:

I definitely I definitely was a kid. It's absolutely true. But I would say that. Yeah, that's the age ranges that you named, like 30s 40s. That tends to be the kind of people that I attract. And I love working with adult beginners because they practice. It's hard. It's hard to tell someone that's already incredibly successful at what they're doing, that they need to do something differently, because they they have all this feedback saying that's not the case. And it's not it's not saying that I don't know how to work with celebrities or anything like that. It's just you have to take what they're already doing the trains already going and you have to kind of hop on and try to just steer things just slightly to hell. Have you out. When you're working with really high profile people, it's usually about helping them do what they do but better. So it's like, for instance, like Cory Taylor, for instance, I didn't work with Cory, but like, he's already a very good singer. But he really strains a lot when he sings. So it's not necessarily about saying, hey, Cory, you need to start seeing like an opera singer. You know, or anything like that, that's going to totally destroy his career. Instead, it's more about helping Corey sing in that really strangely powerful, cool way, but without destroying his voice. Does that make sense?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, no, absolutely. So when you have the adult beginners, these are just people that have started in their 30s and 40s, or 50s? or older, whatever? Why? Are they taking vocal lessons just as a hobby? Or are they trying to start a music career? Or are they what are they? Or is it maybe sometimes? Is it maybe an actor or somebody that wants to sing in a musical or something?

Matt Ramsey:

Dude, it's, it's all three of those. It could be any, it could be any situation, I would say a pretty common one is that when you get in your I don't know this personally, because I'm not in my 40s yet, but what I've heard, don't do it. When I try not to, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna stay right here. Um, I've heard that, you know, you just don't care as much about what people think. And so that's true. It's one benefit. Yes. And that kind of allows people to be like, you know, what, this guy is telling me that you can learn to sing, and that you can write your own songs. Screw it, let's try it. Let's just see what let's see what happens. And maybe I'll be surprised. And it's amazing when I get people like that, that are really open. Because amazing things really can happen. I mean, I teach this one guy, this as an extreme example, I'm actually teaching him later today. His name is Bill, and he's a, I believe he's 69 or 70. I called him 70. A few weeks ago, he's like, um, don't age me, I'm not there yet. But he's like seven years old ish. And he has been able to find what we call a mixed voice, which is the blend between the bottom and the top parts of your voice, which is incredibly difficult. Even Even, even younger singers than that, it's really, really hard to find that mix voice between the bottom and the top. So rather than going, Ah, having that big break, ah being able to swing back and forth between those two places, without a big break, he's been able to find that and dude, 70. So it's like, I mean, there's not really an age limit on this, obviously, our voice does change as we age. But um, for him, he was just kind of like, this is something I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to be able to sing my songs better. I've learned learning how to play guitar, I want to learn how to be able to sing along with it. And then I've also had people that are like, they're like, you know, in their maybe, let's say their 40s. And now they have a lot of money. And they're like, I want to finally record this album that I've always dreamed of recording. I've got all these songs. I've been working on these songs for 10 years. Can you help me sing them better? And that's all that's such a pleasure to because it's like when people have like a really clear goal. That is just so so powerful about what what they want to do, and they'll practice. Yeah, and and then there are people in like their 30s and 40s that are like, I've got, I've got money. I've got time. I'm, you know, I'm doing this job that pays me well. And but it's not leaving me totally creatively satisfied. And so they see they they want to have, you know, a creative hobby on the side, too.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So you talk about singers. As they get older, their voice is changing. I know. Like, obviously, like a guy like Steven Tyler. I mean, that guy I feel like is amazing. And that's an anomaly. He can still sing. I mean, I wouldn't I don't know if he's at the top of his game, but he's pretty damn close. He doesn't sound that much different. Whereas other singers. I don't know if I should name names, like they don't sound the same. And they're struggling in concert Jovi. I just saw a video about that. And they were saying him in that era, especially the 80s. Because I think that that era of music is so it was such a hard way to sing anyways. And so now as those guys get older, I mean, is there anything? Can you? Is there anything you can do about that? Or is that just kind of life and there's not much that can be done?

Matt Ramsey:

Yeah. Well, first of all, let me just say like, I know I'm joking about Bon Jovi and naming names there but like his, I'm actually putting together a video about kind of what's going on with him because there's a lot of people that as you get older, the consensus kind of is that it's not even necessarily just getting older. It's kind of more of like the come pounding effects of of getting sick over the course of your lifetime kind of really weighs on your throat really weighs on your voice and what you're capable of doing. So it's like the there was a lot of there were a lot of rumors that with Bon Jovi was that he had COVID. And because he had COVID, you know, there was some like kind of weakness that was kind of, you know, affecting his vocal cords. And I can definitely attest to that I had COVID twice in the space of, I think four months, which is kind of crazy, I got two completely different variants. And my voice was not able to do nearly what it should have been for, like a couple of months after that. And so obviously, I'm not a super older guy or anything like that. But even just something like that can really, really take a singer down a peg. Steven Tyler's an interesting case, in that, like, he would, he would get seen a whole lot of times when he was like, even in his 40s and 50s. And doctors would see him and there'd be like, there's no way that you should be able to sing like this, this, this is crazy, like, your vocal cords should not be able to do what they're doing. And then a couple years later, he had all these vocal problems. And so yeah, and but now he's like, he got you know, surgery to correct those and stuff like that. And now he's back on his game. But you're bringing up a really good point about like, some styles of music way more punishing than others. Like, you know, you can you could sing Frank Sinatra I mean, Frank Sinatra was on a on his at the highest that Sinatra every saying he was singing like a g4, which is like this, no rear Mama Mama. That note right there, that's another words. In other words, I mean, that's like, that's the highest that he ever went. And he basically just didn't adjust voice, then compare that to what Steven Tyler and Bon Jovi are doing. Like, you know, a fifth higher than that a sixth higher than that an octave higher than that. And it's just, I mean, that's hard. That's hard on your voice, no matter how old you are. So it's one of those weird things of like, when they were 20, and 30. And they were writing the songs in these ranges, they probably didn't think I'm gonna have to be singing this for the next 50 years. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

well, and then talk about this, because I think I'm not positive on this. But I, I think it was Mariah for Miko who I had on the show. And if you're not familiar with the BAM plush, they're kind of up and coming. But she's younger, she's also singing with Trans Siberian Orchestra. And she's an amazing singer. And she was saying, I think it was her that was saying this about how it's related. Also to your apps, like she says, If I do a lot of ab workouts and my abs are in really good shape, I can really it's easier to belt things out. Whereas if if my abs are struggling, or my abs will be sore after I sing so Is that Is that related to it?

Matt Ramsey:

Well, I don't want to take anything away from what works for anyone. So if you know if I had a singer that came in to me and said, Hey, Matt, the secret to me being able to hit those high notes is that I do 100 Sit ups every day, I'd be like, yeah, man, keep doing it. Um, my understanding of the way that the voice works, it's a lot more about different factors coming together really well. So the breath, which is kind of what she's talking about, like, you know, like the diaphragm. Yeah, and having strong abdominal support, that's kind of one piece. I've definitely worked with a lot of singers that they have great support for their breath. But the vocal cords aren't actually really doing what they need to be doing. So there's basically three different parts, there's like the breath, there's what the vocal cords are doing. And then there's the resonance, everything, like above your vocal cords, what's going on inside your mouth, and all that stuff. And so those three different systems kind of have to work together in in concert, in order to really sing well. So if that breath support is really strong with her, but you know, maybe the the vocal cords aren't doing their job, then it's still not gonna sound right. And you could also have these first two, you could have the breath support and you can your vocal cords can be doing what they're supposed to be doing. But if the resonance isn't working, maybe your sound like super nasal or super sweet and are super super operatic.

Chuck Shute:

So then what's going on like with Vince Neil, of Motley Crue, like I mean, I love Vince, I'm a huge crew fan. It does seem like as he's gotten older, he's he's struggling is that no, he's gained some weight. And I don't want to fat shame anybody. But is that is that part of him struggling with his voice because it sounds like he, he runs he can't like finish the song and then he'll he'll give it to the crowd because it's almost like he's out of breath or so like, he's okay. You guys sing it. Okay, let me sing. And then he asked like, take like a minute to like, catch his breath. Is that what's going on with him? Have you seen him live?

Matt Ramsey:

I haven't seen him live. But I mean, I can tell you that like you should do

Chuck Shute:

it. That's what you should do. Vince Neil live reactionary video. That's your next.

Matt Ramsey:

Okay. All right. write it down, hold

Unknown:

on. Yeah, no, I'm telling you, that would be a good one,

Matt Ramsey:

I'm gonna write it down, I'll do it. Because, um, you know, there's a lot of different things that could be going on there, you know, first of all, weight gain, in itself won't necessarily limit your ability to breathe. But, you know, if you're, if you're like staying fit, and other other things like that, but you know, you could potentially be looking at something, you know, in his case, I'm just guessing here, you know, maybe some acid reflux or something like that is like affecting the vocal folds, that you know, the body is one holistic package, and so are the vocal cords are a part of that it's the only instrument that you really have inside of your body. And so what happens to your body is also going to affect your vocal cords. So yeah, weight gain could definitely apply to that. He's also a lot older than when he recorded those songs, too. And those songs were hard to sing when he was young. So like adding, you know, more, you know, adding age and all these other different factors to that, too, could also be contributing to that. I also remember him as being a very athletic performer, like he'd be running around the stage, like doing a lot of stuff that's gonna make you out of breath, too, if you're not in shape. So yeah, that it's definitely one of those things to go back to the the other singer that you mentioned, it's like, you know, staying in good physical shape is really, really integral to being a great singer as well. Because it's not even necessarily going to make your vocal cords themselves work better. But if the rest of your body is working well, and you're not dealing with the same inflammation, and stuff like that, then other things are going to work well, too.

Chuck Shute:

So then how do people like Aretha Franklin, I mean, she is not a thin woman. And she said, like Adele, when she was a little bit bigger, I mean, those people could hit those notes and belted out and sounded amazing. How is that different? How is it? Why is it different for them?

Matt Ramsey:

Well, I would say that it just kind of goes back to those three systems that I was talking about. It's like, you know, those other two singers that you mentioned, Adele, and Aretha, they, they had all of it figured out, they had great breath support, they had their vocal cords working correctly, they had all the resonance that they needed. And so you know, just having been in bigger bodies doesn't necessarily diminish any of that. You know, it's just like when you add on all the external factors, that that can really start to derail things, you know,

Chuck Shute:

how much of singing you think of good singers, how much you think of it as just natural born innate talent, versus like, hard work and using these techniques and warm ups and practicing and all that stuff?

Matt Ramsey:

Man, that's such a good question. And it's, it's one of those things that it's very difficult to answer in like a numerical way. But basically, you're not going to find any great, great, great singer, like I'm talking about, like, top grossing singer or whatever, that doesn't work with a vocal coach. They're gonna, they may act like they're not working with somebody, but they work with somebody in order to prevent injuries. They've worked with someone it just like, uh, you know, just like an athlete would. It's like, you know, they may not say, oh, yeah, I work with this team over here to, you know, cool me down or to, to help me warm up my muscles or to help train me or whatever. But they definitely have a lot of people helping them behind the scenes. So you're not going to find any top grossing singer that isn't working with somebody they're all working with somebody don't know how often but a lot of them bring vocal coaches on tour with them in order to help warm them up and cool them down before and after shows. Michael Jackson had Seth Riggs that his vocal coach warm him up three times a day, an hour from 10 to 11 in the morning, of 45 minutes or 30 minutes, like from one to 130 and then for 15 minutes right before he went on stage. Wow, you Yeah, he always wanted to be like, right at the top of his game and his work ethic was just crazy. Good. So a lot of people here like someone like Michael Jackson, and they're like, oh, yeah, he's been singing since he was six years old. He was great then he's even better now. Well, there was a lot of work that went into all of that too.

Chuck Shute:

So you could potentially help some of these guys like Bon Jovi maybe get back to I mean, again maybe Bon Jovi was just sick that one time we don't know but yeah, I mean you can improve some of this stuff even as they get older.

Matt Ramsey:

Absolutely. Yeah, you can you can help people get some of some of their juice back. Now not not always all of it like are you gonna make I don't know how old Bon Jovi is now, but let's say like he's 50 something or 60 something, you're not going to make him sound like the 20 year old version of himself again, but you can make him sound like the best 50 or 60 year old version of him that he is right now you can't turn back the clock. Right? You can definitely get people some functionality back in one one place that you see that a lot and I see that a lot as a vocal coach is working with people I've had vocal pathologies, they've had like a vocal hemorrhage, which is like a bruise of the of the, of the tissues and the vocal cords, or they've had vocal nodules or something like that, which is kind of like a callus that forms in between the vocal cords in your throat from overuse. And you work with those people. And it's like, it kind of sounds like they have a big hole in their voice from where, where that part where the vocal cords aren't touching anymore. That's a really simplistic way of looking at it. By the way, that's not exactly what's going on. But that's kind of what it sounds like. It's like they've got like this hole in the middle of their voice. And then you help them get that back, you help decompress their voice, you help the vocal cords start vibrating together in a healthy way again, and then you give them their voice back. And that is like one of the coolest things.

Chuck Shute:

Now that's really cool. Yeah, I saw you did a video about, you know, singers that lost their voice. And I think Steven Tyler was even on that list, but a lot of them have had surgery, and then they can get back and they can regain it. But the sad one was, was a Julie Andrews that she found a music and she had some surgery and they botched her voice. So it's completely gone. And she could never see it again. That's so sad.

Matt Ramsey:

Yeah, yeah. So back in those days were kind of in the dark ages of like vocal surgeries, like they, they would literally get in there with like a scalpel and stuff like that. In order to try to fix what was going on. These days, a lot of it's done with lasers, and it's much more precise. And people they just know a lot more about how deep and stuff not to gross any of your listeners out, but how deep into the vocal cords they can go in order to repair something. And that's kind of what happened with Julie Andrews is they they accidentally cut just a little too deep. And they nicked the muscle underneath the cover of the vocal folds. And when you when you do that, unfortunately, you kind of like really hurt the muscle so that the vocal cords can't come together and vibrate in a healthy way, sometimes ever again. And she's She sued the hospital that did and and she won, rightly so. But another interesting example is like Freddie Mercury had nodules had had those calluses on his vocal cords that I was just talking about. And he didn't do anything about them because he was like, you're not getting you're not getting close to this thing. It's also why he didn't fix his teeth. He's like, he went and he was dead, right? Because back in those days, you know, who knows what could have happened, it could have turned out very, very badly, or it might have turned out well. But the truth is, if they had done anything with his teeth, his entire, his whole sound would have changed. A huge part a huge part of the reason the way that I sound, the way that I sound is because of the way the the composition of my mouth is made up and the same for you. And that's why no two voices are exactly the same. So that's really cool. Yeah, it's super cool stuff.

Chuck Shute:

It's interesting stuff. I love your channel. It's great stuff. Question on this though. songs that you know, you go to like karaoke and stuff. You watch other people sing and you sing songs. Are you sick of certain Karaoke Songs? Like I get so sick of you if I have to your picture again? Or don't Stop Believin? Or do people come to you and ask you Hey, can you teach me how to sing? Don't stop believing? Are you like? No, I won't teach you that. Are there certain songs you will not teach? Or is it just like, well,

Matt Ramsey:

this is it's on my no list? No, I wouldn't say there's there's no song that I wouldn't work on. There's no song that I can imagine that I wouldn't work on with a with a singer maybe maybe some rapper hip hop songs if they don't have any singing to them. Okay, maybe I might say no one knows. Because I think that my, my talents are better used elsewhere with actually helping people sing. But you know, that's not to say that I can't help rappers do what they do but better. But there are definitely some songs that I've worked on a whole lot. And the interesting thing about it to me is that I don't really get to stick with it long because there's some there's, there's comfort in knowing where all the landmines are buried. And I actually like knowing you know, what's coming up with a song, there's gonna like, okay, they're doing fine now. But wait until you get until like, a minute and 15 seconds in, that's when stuff starts to get real. Because it's gonna be like, okay, so how can I help this singer? In my mind, I'm thinking like, How can I help this singer fix this issue that I know is going to be a problem for them? So I actually kind of enjoy that part of it. That's cool.

Chuck Shute:

With heavy metal there's so many different I mean, there's the screamo but like the thing that I don't know when this was really invented maybe the 80s or the 90s It was like they started this death metal like, I guess I've heard it called like the Cookie Monster voice like what is your take on that? Do you do you would you work with somebody that wanted to do that? Or is that just like no, this I don't do this.

Matt Ramsey:

That's probably not my forte. I'd be happy to give it a shot but there Are there like entire their vocal coaches that spend? Melissa Krause comes to mind? Who that's their entire brand is that they work with, with these singers that do this. And what's interesting about Melissa Krause is that a lot of the things that she teaches are very similar to what I teach. Like she also teaches, like, you know how to sing from the diaphragm and how to, you know how to not like Strain your voice and raise your larynx when you're singing high notes. But because she has so much experience, working with these singers that are really good at these kind of really crazy sounds, she's helped. She's helping them do what they do, but better. So I would say that she and I have a very kind of similar mission. But my specific kind of, I would say my niche is more like pop rock, r&b country folk, like some of the more mainstream kind of song styles of music.

Chuck Shute:

And are you working with you work with people all over the country of the world via zoom and Skype? Or do you work with a lot of people in Austin, though, are you? Are you plugged into the Austin music scene at all?

Matt Ramsey:

You know, it's great. So before COVID, I was definitely way more plugged into the Austin scene. And then COVID Definitely I was I was still teaching online before I was still teaching over zoom and Skype to people all over the world back then. But because of COVID, everything went online went virtual. And it's a blessing really, in that, like my reach also grew simultaneously at the same time, because my youtube channel really started taking off. And so I was doing like all these virtual conferences. And so nowadays, I'm surprised when I get a student that's from Austin, like, oh, it because that's one of my first questions like, Hey, where are you calling me from? And they're like, Oh, I live in Austin. It's like, cool. All right, moving on. Yeah, just like, it's one of those kind of weird things where it's like, Huh, that's interesting, I guess, I'm guessing still got juice here. Technically, I'm the highest rated vocal coach in all of Texas with I think I've got like 90, or something five star reviews, which is more than like any other privately owned studio in Texas. So I think that that still draws a lot of people locally. But I also know that like a lot of people internationally see that stuff, too, because they want to make sure they're going to take voice lessons with someone that it's not just some rando from YouTube that talks good. Fight some guy that actually knows how to teach now that's

Chuck Shute:

really cool. Is there any any singers that are up and coming that we should look out for that you're plugged into, like, either that you've just seen or you worked with? Or?

Matt Ramsey:

Let me think about that for a second. And come back to that.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, cuz I, I'm always I'm always looking for the next up and coming thing, because some of the bigger names, you know, I can't get on my podcast. But if somebody's small right now, I could maybe get that on the show, and then show up and hopefully they'll remember me. That's kind of my strategy with that.

Matt Ramsey:

You know, I will say this I, I really, really love. This is the this is just one example. And it's a very unique voice. David Ramirez, are you familiar with him? Hmm, I don't think so. He's an he's an Austin guy. Okay. And he just does some really, really beautiful kind of country mixed with Indian mixed with folk. And he's got a beautiful baritone voice. And it's just one of those interesting things that it's, you know, you can tell that he writes everything on an acoustic guitar or a piano, but when he produces it, it sounds like it sounds like now as well. Okay. And I really, really love that about him. He's got a song called watching from a distance that I think people should check out.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, I will definitely check all that out. Anything else that you want to promote? Yeah, absolutely.

Matt Ramsey:

I think, you know, we talked earlier about like finding your vocal range. And that's one of the that's one of the most important things that a singer can do. Yeah, to start learning about their voice. So I'd recommend people check out my rangefinder app it Yeah, I did it. It's cool. Yeah, I'm rangefinder dot Ramsey. voice.com. Okay, cool.

Chuck Shute:

Check that out. And then I always end up promoting a charity. Is there a charity that I know you've promoted mental health stuff before? If there's something else that you want to give a shout out to here?

Matt Ramsey:

Absolutely. Let's keep it local. I'd love to. I'd love to talk just a little bit about the Health Alliance for Austin musicians. It's a really really cool charity because a lot of the working musicians in Austin so first of all, Austin is known as like the live music capital of the world. A lot of people don't know that. But we have like, I think per capita like more stages than almost any other city.

Chuck Shute:

It's more than Nashville. I feel like Nashville has got you beat on

Matt Ramsey:

that. So that's a that's a good question. And we could love Austin though. Don't get me wrong. No, no, I want somebody to fact check this okay. Is it changes over time, but I feel like Nashville is really really the stages are kind of isolated to Broadway. Not not obviously not completely to Broadway. But in Austin it's like their stages like all over like every like Restaurant and Bar, of course, I'm exaggerating. But like, all all over town, their stages and went longer.

Chuck Shute:

I love both places. I need to go back to Austin. That's cool when you

Matt Ramsey:

have you been for South by Southwest?

Chuck Shute:

No, I don't think I can afford that. It's always like isn't like $1,000 ticket or something crazy like

Matt Ramsey:

that? Well, so you don't you don't have to have a wristband in order to like, take advantage of a lot of the stuff because there's like, you know, those same acts that are

Chuck Shute:

even getting the hotel is like, yes, yes, that's what I think I looked at. I looked at the hotel prices one time for South by Southwest. And I was like, what? It was like ridiculous

Matt Ramsey:

shock. You're gonna stay with me? I've got a blow up mattress.

Unknown:

Let's do it, man, dude.

Matt Ramsey:

We'll record it. There's the fist bump. Yeah, it was a little late on that. We'll do. We'll do. We'll do another interview from here like live. It'll be great. So let me just talk real quick about the health line.

Unknown:

Let's help people instead of ourselves. Well,

Matt Ramsey:

I've been talking about talking about ourselves is fun, too. But, yeah, so helpful lines for Austin musicians. Basically, they provide affordable health care for Austin's low income working musicians. So basically, you know, a lot of musicians here are technically self employed. And they don't have any real access to health insurance or basic health care. And, you know, a lot of them are struggling working multiple jobs in order to you know, just get their basic needs met. And so the Health Alliance for Austin musicians is a really, really cool organization where they provide a lot of prevention, health care, and a lot of wellness, health care stuff to to the low income musicians here in Austin. I don't qualify myself because I make too much money, which is awesome. But I'm very, very happy. I know it's a it's a good problem to have. But

Chuck Shute:

weird about the like the and I don't want to get political on my high horse about this. But it's just so weird how. Okay, so if you make less than this, like, I don't know how Texas has but Arizona, it's like, if you make less than 17,000. They will give you a free health insurance which Okay, that's great. But if you make more than 17,000 No, you you can afford your own health insurance. And $17,000. Nobody can afford health insurance that makes $17,000 a year. I mean, even if you made like 25 or 30, or probably even like 35 or 40. I don't think you can afford health insurance. So that's that's this one. Is there some sort of requirement is that they punish you if you make too much, or

Matt Ramsey:

Yeah, I wouldn't say I wouldn't say they punish you. But it's just one of those things of like they're really in the bracket for this one is much higher than that, if I recall correctly, but it is one of those. Like, honestly, dude, like, I think that when I hear about people that are making even like 40k in Austin, that that pretty much yeah, that was inflationary. Yes.

Chuck Shute:

Like literally nothing. Yeah. You're making like 80 grand. Yeah, you can afford your own health insurance or whatever you need. You don't need our help. But yeah, if you're making like 20s and 30s, you're struggling. You're struggling. So yeah, I don't know. But that's great. I love organizations like that. And there's a there's a few of them. So this one is called what is it called? Again?

Matt Ramsey:

The helpful ones for Austin musicians.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. Awesome. Very cool. Yeah. I love local stuff, local charities. I love learning about new charities. That's what's so fun about this doing the show and so very, very cool. Thank you so much for doing this man. Very educational. Very interesting stuff. People check out your channel. I will put it in the show notes. Awesome, dude. Pleasure to be here. Thanks. All right. Thanks so much, Matt. See later. I hope you enjoyed today's episode with vocal coach Matt Ramsey. Matt shared some valuable insights and tips on how to improve your singing and how you can sing at your best. So be sure to check out his website and social media accounts for more information and resources on vocal training. And my thanks again to Matt and all of you for listening. Please make sure you subscribe to both mine and Matt's YouTube channels that appreciate that have a great day and shoot for the moon.