Dan & Phil Part 88: orbit of uranus

Our two favourite full time internet nerds who never go outside!
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flarequake
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Oh, Phil, what a photo to see first thing in the morning. I’ve had Dan singing “Phil like big butts and he cannot lie! Woop!” in my head a few times today.
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onemoresock
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alittledizzy wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 12:31 am Fission made animations of Dan and Phil's coming out videos and I'm just...

:rainbowtears: :rainbowtears: :rainbowtears:



just got around to watching these and they’re so wonderful, wow :rainbowtears:
*blows kiss* for dop and pop
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kavat wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:30 am Now we got to hear him talk about his comedy influences (sidenote, i laughed at how he couldn't think of a person he looked up to. Come on, just say Phil, we all know it) and goals for the future.
During that point I was thinking PHIL (!!!) or Natalie Tran - who clearly had a MASSIVE influence on his early sketch style - (and now Natalie Wynn but this is pre-BIG.)
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Another spotting from last night.
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Also - not a picture but another sighting.
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Amiaw wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 3:25 pm Also - not a picture but another sighting.
That's so cute, those two tall tree lads
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plinthofmylife
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Surprised they look sober! I know they're not big drinkers but considering they're in vegas and Phil is posting butt rocks at 2AM, felt like maybe they'd have glassier eyes lol.
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alien wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:45 pm
noodlebum wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:37 pm His voice is SO LOW I didn't realise it was him when he first said hello! Anyway going to listen to some more
i thought they had made a mistake at first and had someone else on because i couldn't recognize his voice until he properly started talking lol
I literally played that part like 4 times, his voice was so deep and mumbly.

I enjoyed the podcast, it was stuff we'd all heard from him before but I really love hearing him talk, and the person hosting seemed to do a good job too. One thing that stood out to me was Dan's acknowledgement of his and Phil's stage dynamic. He mentioned that during II he could be put on the spot at any moment but he felt there was security there because Phil could jump in but also he felt comfortable with us, the audience.
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I thought everyone was taking the piss with Dans voice being unrecognisable at the start of the podcast.

I'm currently on 2x antibiotics and codeine, which are interacting with the antihistamines and betablockers I take normally to be a functioning person and are making me a little spacey. I listened to it at 5.30am because I woke up and couldn't sleep.

I thought I was having a reaction to the drugs I'm on - I'm being completely serious. It's SO different?! What the hell happened there. Has his voice broken? I thought I was hallucinating.

Apart from that I really enjoyed it. It was very nice listening to Dan just chat with a purpose.

I really want him/him and Phil to do more long form chatty stuff. I love listening to Dan talk, and I of course love them talking together, I could listen to them all day.

I miss the radio show so much. Like it was sometimes the highlight of my week listening to them on a Sunday and I'd love for them to do a podcast so they could be more in control of it. Especially if they did solo stuff occasionally.
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sparkle wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:02 pm
I thought I was having a reaction to the drugs I'm on - I'm being completely serious. It's SO different?! What the hell happened there. Has his voice broken? I thought I was hallucinating.
Oh poor you thinking it was the drugs :lol: I thought maybe he had a sore throat? It was still a lot lower in the rest of the conversation, but I haven't got a clue what happened with that first sentence :?
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sparkle wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:02 pm I thought everyone was taking the piss with Dans voice being unrecognisable at the start of the podcast.

I'm currently on 2x antibiotics and codeine, which are interacting with the antihistamines and betablockers I take normally to be a functioning person and are making me a little spacey. I listened to it at 5.30am because I woke up and couldn't sleep.

I thought I was having a reaction to the drugs I'm on - I'm being completely serious. It's SO different?! What the hell happened there. Has his voice broken? I thought I was hallucinating.

Apart from that I really enjoyed it. It was very nice listening to Dan just chat with a purpose.

I really want him/him and Phil to do more long form chatty stuff. I love listening to Dan talk, and I of course love them talking together, I could listen to them all day.

I miss the radio show so much. Like it was sometimes the highlight of my week listening to them on a Sunday and I'd love for them to do a podcast so they could be more in control of it. Especially if they did solo stuff occasionally.
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Dan just lowered his larynx for the first words he said. He is really skilled at modulating his voice, and I think a better singer than he would consider himself to be. He has a massive vocal range.
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I feel bad for them, they seem to have gotten spotted a few times last night and I'm guessing it could be even worse today if people know where to find them (seems obvious in Vegas). I think they wanted to take this trip for themselves, so it kinda sucks that there are fans wanting pictures everywhere. Not blaming the fans, just feeling bad for Deppy.

I guess they must have expected this though? So maybe I'm just projecting and they're not bothered by it at all.
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sapienveneficus
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Ablissa wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:53 pm I feel bad for them, they seem to have gotten spotted a few times last night and I'm guessing it could be even worse today if people know where to find them (seems obvious in Vegas). I think they wanted to take this trip for themselves, so it kinda sucks that there are fans wanting pictures everywhere. Not blaming the fans, just feeling bad for Deppy.

I guess they must have expected this though? So maybe I'm just projecting and they're not bothered by it at all.
It is a bummer, but I reckon they expected it. Starting their trip in the desert was wise as their chances of running into a fan were very low.
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Ah I’ve just been consuming d&p content this morning, laughing @ twitter reactions to the car pushing video.
Just rewatched this gaming video as well- truly peak content imo- also the type of video that makes me feel somewhat shippy
Last edited by alittledizzy on Thu Jul 18, 2019 5:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: fixed youtube embed
phandemonium
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I'm joining the "I didn't recognize Dan's voice st the beginning of the interview" crowd.

I hope they are enjoying their adventure despite all the fan sightings. I feel like Vegas is one of those places where they can't really hide from people unless they want to avoid the things they are actually there for (unless it's for that secret wedding :phangoggles2: jkjk).
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iNabber was complimentary of Dan and Phil and the fanbase a couple of days ago on his livestream. He said that the majority of the fanbase is lovely and that D&P are some of the nicest guys on YouTube. Pretty cool!
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GalaxyDarling wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:40 pm Dan just lowered his larynx for the first words he said. He is really skilled at modulating his voice, and I think a better singer than he would consider himself to be. He has a massive vocal range.
This is my chance to bring back one of my favorite posts on this forum--from the discussion right after "The Internet is Here" came out. It agrees with the above with loads of interesting detail!
dezzawintz wrote: Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:52 pm
I went off on one yesterday and did a whole musical analysis of their song and BiShoe said I should put my thoughts here so they're under the spoiler! I study music and have been training in various styles of singing for 12 years, so them releasing a song gave me an indescribable amount of joy. Honestly, I was having the time of my life; musical analysis and deppy at the same time makes my nerdy heart soar.
OKAY, buckle in friends; this is going to be a long one. First thing's first, I want to say that I'm incredibly impressed. I made a post about their singing last year on the website that shall not be named; I watched about a million videos of them singing for it and I have to say, they've come on LEAPS AND BOUNDS in a very short space of time and they should really be proud of themselves. Can't think who mentioned it now (sorry friend), but the Phantom of the Opera video is a great comparison point. It still sounds good but you can hear the improvement:



Dan has previously relied on his highest register in most of the available examples of them singing (known as falsetto). The only time I can think of where he didn't is this video:



He once said in a liveshow that he sings in his falsetto because he isn't a great singer, so I think he uses it as a coping mechanism. You can hear his lack of confidence in the banana clip, and he goes up to his falsetto at the end anyway. He's done really well to get out of the habit of doing it.

He also said in that liveshow that his voice was very "gappy", and that some areas of it sounded horrible. THAT'S TOTALLY A THING, everyone has that, even professional singers. It's known as the passaggio, and it's just a few notes in between each register that don't sound as nice as the rest of the voice. If you've ever heard people talk about head voice (high) and chest voice (low) the passaggio is the gaps inbetween those sections of the voice, so like: lowest voice --> few dodgy notes --> middle voice --> few dodgy notes --> high voice --> few dodgy notes --> falsetto.

It takes YEARS to fix it. It's been 12 years and mine is still hanging around. The range of the melody in 'The Internet Is Here' is actually quite big, so it would have been impossible to not have parts where their singing is weaker. It's almost 2 octaves, here's an audio representation of what that means:



I think Phil is the main victim of that here. Phil has a low voice type (baritone or bass) and the song is written for a high voice type (tenor). The order goes, from high to low:

Counter Tenor (sings falsetto)
Tenor (most low-voiced pop music, except Hozier lol)
Baritone
Bass
Contra-bass (very low and rare)

The song is bam smack in the tenor range, with Phil's solo at the beginning starting right at the bottom of it:

Image
(he starts on the second yellow piano key on the left, and ends on the second black piano key to the right of the dot in the middle)

The song starts in a different key to the majority of it, because Phil's voice is lower than Dan's and it's his solo. (For anyone who cares, it starts in G major, Phil's solo finishes on V/the dominant, "sing it with a friend" (0:36), and then there's a small jazzy section on the dominant before they move up a semitone into Eb major; a move that I will ALWAYS associate with Westlife when they get up of their stools and the key changes. Anyone know what I'm talking about?)

#spon but I worked out the chords for the first half of the song on the piano and there's some really fun jazzy ones in there!Also #spon2themax but you should totally follow me and also go 2 my youtube because I sing there and I don't know if you can tell but I love everything about singing :P

But yeah, Phil is the passaggio victim of it being put in a tenor range. Most musical theatre numbers for low voices are in a tenor range so it might have been a thematic decision, or perhaps Dan might have struggled with his lower register? It's a strange choice but I think they would have had the same struggles in any key because of the song having a fairly wide range and them not having a lot of time to polish it (like I said, it takes years to hone!). Now let's go on a journey where we listen to Phil's passaggio!



He goes flat where he struggles. Some examples: (0:15) "brighten up my day" - day is flat, (0:27) "how the show should end" - how is flat, (0:36) "sing it with a friend - friend is flat.

On "day"; can you hear that the sound is a bit strangled because he's stuck between his chest voice (low) and his head voice (high). What he should do is imagine he has to sit on the note from above rather than attack it from below, but I can literally hear his brain thinking "now is when I go high!" To be fair it is a run upwards so that's natural unless you do a lot of practice to kill the instinct; you can hear how much his voice wants to resonate in his forehead but he panics.

A noticeable one is when both he and Dan sing "when you've got lots of followers" - the fol in followers is FLAT (1:44), and it's especially noticeable because Dan isn't. He does it again the second time, and the third time but it's a lot better, and then his whole end run is a bit dodgy. NO SHAME though, he still sounds great and lord knows I'm pitchy af too after 12 years hahaha. I do want to reiterate that they've done an amazing job, but that doesn't stop my songstress ass analysing their voices. I quite like that it's a bit off tbh, and someone was going to have to sing some notes that they struggled with. Phil took one for the team.

They could both do with work on their support and breath control (same). Support is supporting the sound with mainly your diaphragm/stomach and various other body parts, and breath control is how long you can sustain a note/melody. The better your support, the better your breath control (breath control also includes how to breathe properly/when to breathe). That being said, Dan definitely has a cold affecting his singing; he takes a breath before "me" (1:15) and he didn't do that in the show.

I thought that having Dan sing the lower part and Phil sing the higher part at the end was an interesting choice and a stroke of genius tbh (now a Jimmy Jewell stan), because Dan's voice is higher than Phil's, but I suspect that Phil would be nervous about the harmony/more confident singing the tune. A good example of Dan naturally gravitating higher is this (1:15) (oh hey, Dan's falsetto):



(OT, but I find that singing moment so fascinating because they lose confidence but they didn't even make a mistake!)

ALSO a thing that's really making me laugh is how they pronounce their t's! They're so heavy; I reckon they learned it like that because it had to be audible in a theatre (someone said something a few pages ago about having to over-exaggerate your movements to make them visible to the audience and you also have to do it with speaking and singing). It's not right for a studio recording, but it's cute. Their pronunciation in general is really good, I didn't miss a single word! I find Phil's sliding issue interesting because his solution is to almost bite the sound away and shorten it, if that makes sense? It's noticeable at points but he did a great job of not going to either extreme the majority of the time.

I said it in the post on the website that shall not be named and I'll say it again: they both have really lovely, colourful, warm voices. Dan also has a MASSIVE range, which is probably why he notices so many gaps (not sure what it is, but it's big). If they wanted to, I'm sure they could be really skilled singers. I want Phil to be a bass in a choir, because his bass section is delicious. Imagine him singing this, I think I'd melt:



Dan could be anything from a counter tenor to a baritone, but he should be a counter tenor because there aren't many about. Example of a counter tenor here:



Goddd, It sends tingles all through my body, such a haunting voice type. Mmm.

Both of those dreams of mine would mean they'd have to train classically (there are a few classical styles, but the only one I know about is bel canto, meaning beautiful song in Italian. I think it's the most common classical type?? but I'm unsure so don't quote me on that). Deppy are doing a thing called belt singing which is a really common musical theatre style (think Carrie Hope Fletcher). The main difference between the two, other than the style, is that belt singing is about trying to sing all through the range in your chest voice, whereas bel canto is about changing technique in different sections of the voice (chest voice = low, head voice = high) and learning to do it smoothly. They're both hard techniques to master; singing is a lot harder than it looks.

ANYWAY, that's my analysis, woo! If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot them my way! I never know the balance between under and over explaining things so I'm sorry if this either made no sense to you or was super obvious information. I've gone over everything to check it but I might be wrong in places, so apologies for any inconsistencies!! I hope y'all have a gr8 day.
(Post and surrounding discussion can be found here.)
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Cornelia standing with a massive pizza box is my new favorite photo of her. She looks so happy lol.
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That pizza box is almost as big as Cornelia, amazing. Also, pizza :drool:

I loved reading that singing post again. Finding the phantom of the opera song from the old live show was one of the best surprises, it was one of those I found after I thought I’d seen all their videos (Phil’s radio 1 music video as Jack Skellington was another amazing find) and to hear them doing a show tune was lovely. I didn’t realise Dan has such a range, I assumed he didn’t go so low, but it’s all very interesting. I’d love it if they sang more, especially if Phil broke out the full baritone.
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lefthandedism wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 6:48 pm
GalaxyDarling wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:40 pm Dan just lowered his larynx for the first words he said. He is really skilled at modulating his voice, and I think a better singer than he would consider himself to be. He has a massive vocal range.
This is my chance to bring back one of my favorite posts on this forum--from the discussion right after "The Internet is Here" came out. It agrees with the above with loads of interesting detail!
dezzawintz wrote: Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:52 pm
I went off on one yesterday and did a whole musical analysis of their song and BiShoe said I should put my thoughts here so they're under the spoiler! I study music and have been training in various styles of singing for 12 years, so them releasing a song gave me an indescribable amount of joy. Honestly, I was having the time of my life; musical analysis and deppy at the same time makes my nerdy heart soar.
OKAY, buckle in friends; this is going to be a long one. First thing's first, I want to say that I'm incredibly impressed. I made a post about their singing last year on the website that shall not be named; I watched about a million videos of them singing for it and I have to say, they've come on LEAPS AND BOUNDS in a very short space of time and they should really be proud of themselves. Can't think who mentioned it now (sorry friend), but the Phantom of the Opera video is a great comparison point. It still sounds good but you can hear the improvement:



Dan has previously relied on his highest register in most of the available examples of them singing (known as falsetto). The only time I can think of where he didn't is this video:



He once said in a liveshow that he sings in his falsetto because he isn't a great singer, so I think he uses it as a coping mechanism. You can hear his lack of confidence in the banana clip, and he goes up to his falsetto at the end anyway. He's done really well to get out of the habit of doing it.

He also said in that liveshow that his voice was very "gappy", and that some areas of it sounded horrible. THAT'S TOTALLY A THING, everyone has that, even professional singers. It's known as the passaggio, and it's just a few notes in between each register that don't sound as nice as the rest of the voice. If you've ever heard people talk about head voice (high) and chest voice (low) the passaggio is the gaps inbetween those sections of the voice, so like: lowest voice --> few dodgy notes --> middle voice --> few dodgy notes --> high voice --> few dodgy notes --> falsetto.

It takes YEARS to fix it. It's been 12 years and mine is still hanging around. The range of the melody in 'The Internet Is Here' is actually quite big, so it would have been impossible to not have parts where their singing is weaker. It's almost 2 octaves, here's an audio representation of what that means:



I think Phil is the main victim of that here. Phil has a low voice type (baritone or bass) and the song is written for a high voice type (tenor). The order goes, from high to low:

Counter Tenor (sings falsetto)
Tenor (most low-voiced pop music, except Hozier lol)
Baritone
Bass
Contra-bass (very low and rare)

The song is bam smack in the tenor range, with Phil's solo at the beginning starting right at the bottom of it:

Image
(he starts on the second yellow piano key on the left, and ends on the second black piano key to the right of the dot in the middle)

The song starts in a different key to the majority of it, because Phil's voice is lower than Dan's and it's his solo. (For anyone who cares, it starts in G major, Phil's solo finishes on V/the dominant, "sing it with a friend" (0:36), and then there's a small jazzy section on the dominant before they move up a semitone into Eb major; a move that I will ALWAYS associate with Westlife when they get up of their stools and the key changes. Anyone know what I'm talking about?)

#spon but I worked out the chords for the first half of the song on the piano and there's some really fun jazzy ones in there!Also #spon2themax but you should totally follow me and also go 2 my youtube because I sing there and I don't know if you can tell but I love everything about singing :P

But yeah, Phil is the passaggio victim of it being put in a tenor range. Most musical theatre numbers for low voices are in a tenor range so it might have been a thematic decision, or perhaps Dan might have struggled with his lower register? It's a strange choice but I think they would have had the same struggles in any key because of the song having a fairly wide range and them not having a lot of time to polish it (like I said, it takes years to hone!). Now let's go on a journey where we listen to Phil's passaggio!



He goes flat where he struggles. Some examples: (0:15) "brighten up my day" - day is flat, (0:27) "how the show should end" - how is flat, (0:36) "sing it with a friend - friend is flat.

On "day"; can you hear that the sound is a bit strangled because he's stuck between his chest voice (low) and his head voice (high). What he should do is imagine he has to sit on the note from above rather than attack it from below, but I can literally hear his brain thinking "now is when I go high!" To be fair it is a run upwards so that's natural unless you do a lot of practice to kill the instinct; you can hear how much his voice wants to resonate in his forehead but he panics.

A noticeable one is when both he and Dan sing "when you've got lots of followers" - the fol in followers is FLAT (1:44), and it's especially noticeable because Dan isn't. He does it again the second time, and the third time but it's a lot better, and then his whole end run is a bit dodgy. NO SHAME though, he still sounds great and lord knows I'm pitchy af too after 12 years hahaha. I do want to reiterate that they've done an amazing job, but that doesn't stop my songstress ass analysing their voices. I quite like that it's a bit off tbh, and someone was going to have to sing some notes that they struggled with. Phil took one for the team.

They could both do with work on their support and breath control (same). Support is supporting the sound with mainly your diaphragm/stomach and various other body parts, and breath control is how long you can sustain a note/melody. The better your support, the better your breath control (breath control also includes how to breathe properly/when to breathe). That being said, Dan definitely has a cold affecting his singing; he takes a breath before "me" (1:15) and he didn't do that in the show.

I thought that having Dan sing the lower part and Phil sing the higher part at the end was an interesting choice and a stroke of genius tbh (now a Jimmy Jewell stan), because Dan's voice is higher than Phil's, but I suspect that Phil would be nervous about the harmony/more confident singing the tune. A good example of Dan naturally gravitating higher is this (1:15) (oh hey, Dan's falsetto):



(OT, but I find that singing moment so fascinating because they lose confidence but they didn't even make a mistake!)

ALSO a thing that's really making me laugh is how they pronounce their t's! They're so heavy; I reckon they learned it like that because it had to be audible in a theatre (someone said something a few pages ago about having to over-exaggerate your movements to make them visible to the audience and you also have to do it with speaking and singing). It's not right for a studio recording, but it's cute. Their pronunciation in general is really good, I didn't miss a single word! I find Phil's sliding issue interesting because his solution is to almost bite the sound away and shorten it, if that makes sense? It's noticeable at points but he did a great job of not going to either extreme the majority of the time.

I said it in the post on the website that shall not be named and I'll say it again: they both have really lovely, colourful, warm voices. Dan also has a MASSIVE range, which is probably why he notices so many gaps (not sure what it is, but it's big). If they wanted to, I'm sure they could be really skilled singers. I want Phil to be a bass in a choir, because his bass section is delicious. Imagine him singing this, I think I'd melt:



Dan could be anything from a counter tenor to a baritone, but he should be a counter tenor because there aren't many about. Example of a counter tenor here:



Goddd, It sends tingles all through my body, such a haunting voice type. Mmm.

Both of those dreams of mine would mean they'd have to train classically (there are a few classical styles, but the only one I know about is bel canto, meaning beautiful song in Italian. I think it's the most common classical type?? but I'm unsure so don't quote me on that). Deppy are doing a thing called belt singing which is a really common musical theatre style (think Carrie Hope Fletcher). The main difference between the two, other than the style, is that belt singing is about trying to sing all through the range in your chest voice, whereas bel canto is about changing technique in different sections of the voice (chest voice = low, head voice = high) and learning to do it smoothly. They're both hard techniques to master; singing is a lot harder than it looks.

ANYWAY, that's my analysis, woo! If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot them my way! I never know the balance between under and over explaining things so I'm sorry if this either made no sense to you or was super obvious information. I've gone over everything to check it but I might be wrong in places, so apologies for any inconsistencies!! I hope y'all have a gr8 day.
(Post and surrounding discussion can be found here.)
As a classically trained musical theatre student I loved this post! I've always wanted to make an analysis of their vocal ranges but I am just too lazy.

I have definitely fantasised about Phil singing arias meant for baritones. His deep voice is a gift and it's a bit unfair he doesn't share it with the world. The first time I heard him sing Phantom I was so shook. With support and collocation he'd be killing us with two lines.

Dan's high voice is so natural as well, he's got to be a tenor for sure. With just a bit more of vocal coaching they'd snatch our wigs off.

Also Cornelia is so pretty
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lefthandedism wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 6:48 pm
GalaxyDarling wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:40 pm Dan just lowered his larynx for the first words he said. He is really skilled at modulating his voice, and I think a better singer than he would consider himself to be. He has a massive vocal range.
This is my chance to bring back one of my favorite posts on this forum--from the discussion right after "The Internet is Here" came out. It agrees with the above with loads of interesting detail!
dezzawintz wrote: Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:52 pm
I went off on one yesterday and did a whole musical analysis of their song and BiShoe said I should put my thoughts here so they're under the spoiler! I study music and have been training in various styles of singing for 12 years, so them releasing a song gave me an indescribable amount of joy. Honestly, I was having the time of my life; musical analysis and deppy at the same time makes my nerdy heart soar.
OKAY, buckle in friends; this is going to be a long one. First thing's first, I want to say that I'm incredibly impressed. I made a post about their singing last year on the website that shall not be named; I watched about a million videos of them singing for it and I have to say, they've come on LEAPS AND BOUNDS in a very short space of time and they should really be proud of themselves. Can't think who mentioned it now (sorry friend), but the Phantom of the Opera video is a great comparison point. It still sounds good but you can hear the improvement:



Dan has previously relied on his highest register in most of the available examples of them singing (known as falsetto). The only time I can think of where he didn't is this video:



He once said in a liveshow that he sings in his falsetto because he isn't a great singer, so I think he uses it as a coping mechanism. You can hear his lack of confidence in the banana clip, and he goes up to his falsetto at the end anyway. He's done really well to get out of the habit of doing it.

He also said in that liveshow that his voice was very "gappy", and that some areas of it sounded horrible. THAT'S TOTALLY A THING, everyone has that, even professional singers. It's known as the passaggio, and it's just a few notes in between each register that don't sound as nice as the rest of the voice. If you've ever heard people talk about head voice (high) and chest voice (low) the passaggio is the gaps inbetween those sections of the voice, so like: lowest voice --> few dodgy notes --> middle voice --> few dodgy notes --> high voice --> few dodgy notes --> falsetto.

It takes YEARS to fix it. It's been 12 years and mine is still hanging around. The range of the melody in 'The Internet Is Here' is actually quite big, so it would have been impossible to not have parts where their singing is weaker. It's almost 2 octaves, here's an audio representation of what that means:



I think Phil is the main victim of that here. Phil has a low voice type (baritone or bass) and the song is written for a high voice type (tenor). The order goes, from high to low:

Counter Tenor (sings falsetto)
Tenor (most low-voiced pop music, except Hozier lol)
Baritone
Bass
Contra-bass (very low and rare)

The song is bam smack in the tenor range, with Phil's solo at the beginning starting right at the bottom of it:

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(he starts on the second yellow piano key on the left, and ends on the second black piano key to the right of the dot in the middle)

The song starts in a different key to the majority of it, because Phil's voice is lower than Dan's and it's his solo. (For anyone who cares, it starts in G major, Phil's solo finishes on V/the dominant, "sing it with a friend" (0:36), and then there's a small jazzy section on the dominant before they move up a semitone into Eb major; a move that I will ALWAYS associate with Westlife when they get up of their stools and the key changes. Anyone know what I'm talking about?)

#spon but I worked out the chords for the first half of the song on the piano and there's some really fun jazzy ones in there!Also #spon2themax but you should totally follow me and also go 2 my youtube because I sing there and I don't know if you can tell but I love everything about singing :P

But yeah, Phil is the passaggio victim of it being put in a tenor range. Most musical theatre numbers for low voices are in a tenor range so it might have been a thematic decision, or perhaps Dan might have struggled with his lower register? It's a strange choice but I think they would have had the same struggles in any key because of the song having a fairly wide range and them not having a lot of time to polish it (like I said, it takes years to hone!). Now let's go on a journey where we listen to Phil's passaggio!



He goes flat where he struggles. Some examples: (0:15) "brighten up my day" - day is flat, (0:27) "how the show should end" - how is flat, (0:36) "sing it with a friend - friend is flat.

On "day"; can you hear that the sound is a bit strangled because he's stuck between his chest voice (low) and his head voice (high). What he should do is imagine he has to sit on the note from above rather than attack it from below, but I can literally hear his brain thinking "now is when I go high!" To be fair it is a run upwards so that's natural unless you do a lot of practice to kill the instinct; you can hear how much his voice wants to resonate in his forehead but he panics.

A noticeable one is when both he and Dan sing "when you've got lots of followers" - the fol in followers is FLAT (1:44), and it's especially noticeable because Dan isn't. He does it again the second time, and the third time but it's a lot better, and then his whole end run is a bit dodgy. NO SHAME though, he still sounds great and lord knows I'm pitchy af too after 12 years hahaha. I do want to reiterate that they've done an amazing job, but that doesn't stop my songstress ass analysing their voices. I quite like that it's a bit off tbh, and someone was going to have to sing some notes that they struggled with. Phil took one for the team.

They could both do with work on their support and breath control (same). Support is supporting the sound with mainly your diaphragm/stomach and various other body parts, and breath control is how long you can sustain a note/melody. The better your support, the better your breath control (breath control also includes how to breathe properly/when to breathe). That being said, Dan definitely has a cold affecting his singing; he takes a breath before "me" (1:15) and he didn't do that in the show.

I thought that having Dan sing the lower part and Phil sing the higher part at the end was an interesting choice and a stroke of genius tbh (now a Jimmy Jewell stan), because Dan's voice is higher than Phil's, but I suspect that Phil would be nervous about the harmony/more confident singing the tune. A good example of Dan naturally gravitating higher is this (1:15) (oh hey, Dan's falsetto):



(OT, but I find that singing moment so fascinating because they lose confidence but they didn't even make a mistake!)

ALSO a thing that's really making me laugh is how they pronounce their t's! They're so heavy; I reckon they learned it like that because it had to be audible in a theatre (someone said something a few pages ago about having to over-exaggerate your movements to make them visible to the audience and you also have to do it with speaking and singing). It's not right for a studio recording, but it's cute. Their pronunciation in general is really good, I didn't miss a single word! I find Phil's sliding issue interesting because his solution is to almost bite the sound away and shorten it, if that makes sense? It's noticeable at points but he did a great job of not going to either extreme the majority of the time.

I said it in the post on the website that shall not be named and I'll say it again: they both have really lovely, colourful, warm voices. Dan also has a MASSIVE range, which is probably why he notices so many gaps (not sure what it is, but it's big). If they wanted to, I'm sure they could be really skilled singers. I want Phil to be a bass in a choir, because his bass section is delicious. Imagine him singing this, I think I'd melt:



Dan could be anything from a counter tenor to a baritone, but he should be a counter tenor because there aren't many about. Example of a counter tenor here:



Goddd, It sends tingles all through my body, such a haunting voice type. Mmm.

Both of those dreams of mine would mean they'd have to train classically (there are a few classical styles, but the only one I know about is bel canto, meaning beautiful song in Italian. I think it's the most common classical type?? but I'm unsure so don't quote me on that). Deppy are doing a thing called belt singing which is a really common musical theatre style (think Carrie Hope Fletcher). The main difference between the two, other than the style, is that belt singing is about trying to sing all through the range in your chest voice, whereas bel canto is about changing technique in different sections of the voice (chest voice = low, head voice = high) and learning to do it smoothly. They're both hard techniques to master; singing is a lot harder than it looks.

ANYWAY, that's my analysis, woo! If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot them my way! I never know the balance between under and over explaining things so I'm sorry if this either made no sense to you or was super obvious information. I've gone over everything to check it but I might be wrong in places, so apologies for any inconsistencies!! I hope y'all have a gr8 day.
(Post and surrounding discussion can be found here.)
Thanks so much for this! I especially love it bc Dan always gets upset when people say he’s good at piano and says that anyone who plays piano knows he’s not very good. I like that someone who is a trained singer is giving an honest review of their song. Wish someone would update with thoughts on the II song.
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hintatty
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Hadn't watched this through until tonight... it's so sweet and hilarious (Dan's reactions to Phil screaming are sooo good), but also there's a point at about 6.25 where Dan just tells Phil to be less loud and you get they've had that conversation many times before, lol.
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@hintatty how had you not seen that until today? It's proper gold, the one video of theirs guaranteed to make me cackle every time!
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