Nick Jonas and Kelly Clarkson Answer Singing Questions from Twitter

Hey, what up y'all?

This is Nick Jonas.

And, this is Kelly Clarkson.

And, this is...

Singing Support. Singing Support.

[upbeat music]

Okay, @t_decastro, how to increase vocal range.

I would say scales, right?

Like just going up and down scales nonstop.

I mean, that's, I grew up singing opera, so.

I mean, I think that's where mine came from.

But, I don't know.

Maybe God, I don't know.

Probably God. Probably God.

Yeah. I'm gonna go with God

on this one.

I'm gonna go with God on that one.

And opera. Yeah.

How would you say vocal range?

I don't know.

It depends on how old you are, to be honest.

I think as, you know, I got older my vocal range expanded,

it got limited at times and grew.

But, I think, through all that just

not putting stain on your voice when you're sick,

when you're tired, 'cause that limits your range.

@faded moon, I just wanna ask how TF,

I assume that means...

[laughing] So, you would assume correctly.

Do people sing and play an instrument at the same time?

I cannot for the...

I love this person, yes.

Life of me.

If y'all can, and have, advice please pass on.

I would say the thing that helped me

was to watch something on TV and play at the same time

so that your left/right brain starts to split up.

So, you're doing something else and you're doing

a physical motion, playing a guitar, or piano,

whatever it is, as you're doing it.

And then, you work in the singing.

@itsjackiefoster, oh my god, I know Jackie.

She's from The Voice, she was on my team.

Oh, how great.

Kelly Clarkson, how the do you sing

Since You Been Gone live?

I'm performing it on Sunday, and I've just decided

you're a madwoman for ever singing those notes.

I will say this Jackie, I actually lower

a lot of the keys in my songs when I tour

because people fight and they have pride, Jackie,

and they're not willing to do this

'cause they're like, I can do it.

It's not that you can't do it,

it's that you can't do it continuously.

Have the endurance three nights in a row,

plus doing stuff, you know, other jobs during the week.

And so, I lower like, you know, half step, whole step,

or whatever with my songs whenever I go live.

And, nobody knows.

And, if you care, whatever.

That's weird, 'cause when I sing Since You Been Gone live

I don't lower the key.

I don't lower the key, I just nail it.

That's just me. I execute it with precision.

@oonatoona. Oonatoona.

How do I write a song?

Help please.

You have to kinda go on

your own artistic journey in songwriting.

The best place to start, I think,

is by listening to a lot of great songs.

Carole King, Barry Gibb wrote some incredible songs,

they're kind of a good way to get

your songwriting capabilities intact.

And then, just take some big swings.

Sometimes the song's not gonna turn out right

but maybe that bad song gets you to a great song.

Oh, there'll be so many bad songs

before there's a good one.

There's gonna be a lot, I mean, you're gonna write

so many bad songs. Yeah.

And, you're gonna think it's stellar in the moment,

and then you're gonna wake up the next day and go, what?

Yeah, but you'll get there.

@CJG_TT, I need Nick Jonas to teach me

how to sing a perfect falsetto.

He gets it right every time.

Wow. He would be

the perfect person for this.

Yes. Ah, that's very kind.

I had an A&R person tell me at my old label,

that I'm no longer with.

I played them some demos, this was years ago,

and I was going through like a vocal change

'cause I was at the time 15, 16 years old.

Played some demos.

And, in that I was doing some falsetto stuff.

And, they said to me, in the room,

some people are really good with their falsetto.

I don't know if you're one of those people.

Oh dang!

[laughing]

And so, I was like...

Awesome.

So, I spent a lot of time with a coach

and other people trying to work on that part of my voice.

I wouldn't say it's great, or that I could be

the authority on falsetto, but certainly

put in some work to get it to a better place,

after someone said that it wasn't there.

The other thing is, again, listening to great music.

Listen to people with falsetto.

Like you know what I'm saying?

Like listen to Prince. Listen to Prince.

Listen to Nick.

Then you start kind of placing it in your,

with yourself, and singing along.

Or, sometimes you just maybe,

you know, singing's not your thing.

I don't know.

Maybe you should quit.

That's what you're saying?

Maybe you should quit.

I just mean that like not all of us will have falsetto.

Not all of us will, like you can work on it, but.

It worked for you, but like I'm just saying,

not everybody can do that, so.

It's true, some people are belters.

I'm so my mom, I just keep it real.

@ackertae, I wanna learn how to do

the whistle register so bad.

I can't even whistle, so this is

not even for me to help answer.

[whistling] You can't whistle?

I literally can't whistle.

And, the irony is that my brothers and I

have a song with a very prominent whistle part in it.

That, obviously, you're not holding down.

I'm not doing it, that's not me.

I would say the whistle register though,

that's like the same things as like

developing a bigger range.

You just have to keep practicing that,

and going up and down on a scale on a piano.

It's like working out, like a muscle too.

You have to keep at it.

Get those vocal gains, with your chords.

I don't work out.

@nishadnaik12345, when singing do you work

on technique or feeling?

Mine's all feeling.

I think 'cause I grew up with technique

and then it took me a while to lose technique

and actually just go into passion.

So, mine is feeling.

I feel feeling is super important.

For me, I feel like so much of the music that I sing

is music that I've written

and it connects to my life in some way.

And now, going back and playing some of these songs

that I wrote when I was really young, 13, 14 years old.

As an adult it feels strange to kinda sing that,

to find a new way to tell that story.

So, it's technique, but also with, what I hope,

is a storytellers aspect.

So, I think if you're a songwriter and a singer,

as we are, you know, that that's an important

piece of the puzzle as well.

So, you gotta find kinda what version you wanna tell.

And then maybe is a combination of technique and feeling.

@valentinetunes, dammit, this is so frustrating.

When I sing acapella I sound great,

but as soon as I press the record button

it goes to [bleeping].

[laughing]

I have some tough advice for you on this one.

Is that, someone told me early on, tape doesn't lie, right.

Which, I'm just saying, is maybe a thing

that you should use this as an opportunity

to say, okay, what I'm hearing is actually what's happening.

And, in my head maybe it's something different.

So, listen to the recording, think about how you can grow.

Find a great teacher, or do it on your own.

But, the tape doesn't lie.

And, also you might have your music too loud.

If you don't have the mix right, like when you're recording,

you'll start pushing yourself vocally

and you'll sound different.

Pro tip.

It's like you gotta have the mix right in your ears.

There's a lot of possibilities with this one.

I think you're great though, Valentinetunes.

Keep it up.

Oh, this is for me.

Kelly Clarkson, my daughter loves to sing,

and is so good, but she won't perform due to self esteem.

Can you share some advice that I can pass on,

from one Texas mom to another.

Here's the thing, being a mom and also being an artist

in the limelight, gotta figure out that self esteem issue

before you jump in this industry.

Because you have to come in with a thick skin,

and you gotta know who you are,

and you gotta be confident.

And, you gotta tell her to keep getting onstage

and build up, not just the talent part of it,

but the awareness of how hard people

can be on you in a spotlight.

So, I would just say, keep having her do

things to get her comfortable in her skin.

You have to be comfortable with yourself

before anybody else is even gonna buy into you.

You have to buy into yourself.

You said you never got embarrassed.

I also said though, I probably should.

Well.

[laughing]

My husband would be like, oh,

that should've been one of those moments.

I think you should be embarrassed.

But, I don't.

You never need to be embarrassed, I think.

Agreed.

But, I could be wrong, about all this.

So, don't trust a word I'm saying.

Yes, we don't sing, we actually just,

we're Milli Vanilli, somebody else is singing

when our mouths are moving.