Elliott Yamin - A Singularity of Voice

I belong to a Yahoo Group for Elliott Yamin and replied recently to a poster's query about why the "American Idol" judges heap praise on Elliott's voice, since he felt he failed to see, or hear, what they do. So I decided to address it as an expert and it set off a storm on the board. I have to admit it feels good to be taken seriously sometimes. Maybe the man himself will come across it! Here is the text of my reply:

This is my opinion of why the judges like Elliott's voice. I'm a trained singer, so I hope you don't mind the technicalities, which I'll try to spell out in layman's terms. Elliott's voice stands out for many reasons, and is highly deserving of the judges' praise, as well as deserving to win this competition. His tone, or sound - also called timbre, is very distinctive, and there's a lot of presence on the voice. It's very rich and warm in color and highly expressive with a lot of shading throughout, there's no stiffness to it. He also has a lot of power, thus no problem with volume. It's a very startling voice when paired with him visually as it almost belies his appearance, though the show has worked on tailoring him up to match his vocal quality. But in the early weeks of the show, at first glance, you could almost not imagine that voice coming out of him, and it hits you like a ton of bricks. Elliott's voice also sits perfectly in his middle register, which is the dominant part of a man's voice, it resonates in his chest, as opposed to a head voice or a falsetto, or a low bass voice, so it comes across as natural, and sounds like an extension of his speaking voice. He also has an effective blend into his upper register, as he moves into higher notes on the scale, where normally a man's voice would break into the falsetto, he resonates the voice into the mask of his face, keeping that "chest" sound, as well as retaining power and volume. In a woman's singing voice, this would be considered "belting" - where she continues to sing from her chest voice rather than break into her head voice, like a lyric soprano. In classical terms, Elliott would probably be considered a dramatic tenor - which I think is the best. He also brings a dark, slightly husky quality by allowing air to slip in on certain phrases, which fits well with his soul-ful, jazzy style. He is also gifted in tackling tricky rhythms, which stems from his ability to phrase a song effectively, and he has such a great musical sensibility. I remember on more than one occasion, the judges, I think Randy in particular, remarked that he had chosen the most difficult material in terms of rhythm. So he's to be admired for challenging himself.

He approaches the vocal with an attack by jumping right onto the pitch of the notes and living within them, as well as making each phrase (lyrics) a bold statement. Which leads to how a great singer is defined. It's not enough to simply hit notes perfectly, or smear melisma all over them - which is changing pitch on one syllable of text - like in blues or gospel singing, which unfortunately has became a trademark of American Idol singers over the past few seasons, due to the influence of trendy pop superstars. While most of these young singers have great instruments, they're not communicating a reason for moving all over those notes. You have to bring an emotional life to the song and connect the quality you're bringing to the notes to the lyrics of the song. What has brought the character in the song to the emotional state where spoken words are not enough? What are the stakes? A song has to be treated like a three-act play, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A great singer is an interpretive artist, and Elliott fits into all those parameters, because his potential is so potent. He's also grown in confidence, stature, and stage presence over the course of the show and that's what was so touching about his performance this past week.

The judges have been praising his vocal quality for the most part but they were waiting for that show-stopping moment, and Elliott delivered it on Tuesday with his stirring rendition of "A Song For You". He brought such a passionate, desperate connection to those lyrics, and I truly believe we were witnessing the birth of a star on national television.

He sings like he means it, that's why the judges love him - thus we must vote like "Yamin" it!

Rg