Singing Guide: Burton Cummings
Vocal technique, exercises, tips and relevant resources
Burton Cummings is a Canadian singer and songwriter who's best known as the lead vocalist and keyboardist for the Guess Who. Cummings has an incredibly versatile voice with a signature sound, and he's noted for his impressive range and dynamic vocal control.
To learn to sing like Burton Cummings, you should focus on vocal range expansion exercises and work on your breathing and phrasing techniques. You should also practice singing with passion and soul, as Cummings is known for his emotive delivery and ability to inject depth and feeling into his performances.
One of Burton Cummings' signature techniques is his use of vibrato, which is a rapid variation of pitch that creates a trembling effect. To practice vibrato, you can use the Singing Carrots vibrato exercise. Start by singing a basic melody and then add vibrato to the sustained notes. Keep your breath support steady and your jaw and throat relaxed.
Another key element to Cummings' vocal style is his use of vocal slides and bends. These techniques involve gliding up or down the scale while singing a sustained note, which creates a bend in the pitch. You can practice these techniques using the comfort zone exercise, which will help you learn how to move smoothly between your different vocal registers.
To achieve Cummings' signature sound, you should also listen to some of his most iconic songs, such as "These Eyes," "American Woman," and "No Time." These tracks showcase Cummings' impressive vocal range and emotive delivery, and studying them will help you understand the nuances of his vocal style.
To further develop your singing skills, you can explore Singing Carrots' range of resources and tools, including the vocal range test, the pitch accuracy test, the pitch monitor, and the pitch training exercises. You can also search for songs that match your vocal range and genre preferences with the song search feature, or explore the vocal ranges of over 5000 famous singers with the artist vocal ranges feature.
Incorporating these resources and techniques into your singing practice will help you develop a versatile and dynamic vocal style like Burton Cummings, and bring your performances to the next level.