On Dimash’s Hand Movements, Mental Imagery, and LipSyncing

Full Transcript of Analysis

Hello Dears and Readers! Let me introduce to you our analyst. This is Fil Henley of the band Wings of Pegasus. This is a very interesting analysis of Dimash’s application of ‘mental imagery’ and how it relates to his extraordinary singing technique. Fil also discusses how this mental imagery coordinates with Dimash’s hand movements, something that Dears have constantly discussed as well, but of course, not with Fil’s technical viewpoints!  The actual analysis starts at [00:06:44]. Before this point, Fil talks about the practical aspects of ‘lip syncing’ AKA ‘miming,’ a technique and topic surrounded by controversy and angst among Dears. Enjoy, and thank you Fil, for contributing to our education.

ANALYSIS STARTS HERE

[00:06:44]  Video

[00:09:12] I’m just going to jump in here and the link to this video is going to be in the description below if you guys to watch it without me interrupting it. But with Dimash’s voice, if he wants to sing live, just let him sing live all the time. He automatically throws in expression of being just behind the beat intentionally with his vocal delivery.

[00:09:34] Another thing to look out for in this performance, we’ve actually got it here, an insight into how Dimash sees his voice, and sees his notes. When you’re singing, mental imagery is a massive part of learning to sing and where the notes are, how to access those notes, and where to bounce them off in terms of your resonance chamber that you’ve got up here in your head, where to bounce those notes in your head in order to get them consistently.

[00:10:03] And this is actually a great still of the video that we’ve got here, because the way that Dimash hold his hands. Look at, he’s imagining either the place that he’s focusing that note in his head or he’s imagining his vocal chords, and it’s something to look out for when he’s singing live.

[00:10:23] Obviously the video last night, there was none of this because he isn’t imagining singing it, because he wasn’t. Whereas with this live performance, watch his hand movements because there is so much in there, to  how he is seeing his vocal chords and the way that he’s getting them to react to the thoughts that he’s having.

[00:10:42] Another thing you’ll see Dimash doing is, he’ll go from an open hand where he’s got a fuller sound with a lot of resonance, and when he gets higher up, he starts to do this with his hand. It’s something that you’ll see from a lot of singers where they want to get a really light connection in head voice or chest voice, and they just lightly press their thumb with their first finger

[00:11:05] to replicate the lightness of those vocal cords coming together. So throughout this performance, look at Dimash’s hands and the way they change with the notes, because it’s a fascinating insight into his mental imagery when he sings. I mentioned yesterday about the way that Dimash can have a little bit more air going through his vocal chords to get that expression at 2:48 is a great example of that way.

[00:11:31] He is singing that note in head voice. And it sounds like it’s on a cushion of air, but the air isn’t really affecting the note. It’s still a really nice, clean note, but just the hint of consistent air underneath there is such a difficult thing to do, but Dimash throws this kind of thing in just on a whim, just naturally live.

[00:11:55] And it’s so amazing to hear the different textures that he can produce with his voice in a live setting. They are just off the cuff and he’ll just do it for how he’s feeling at the time. Another thing to look out for — in terms of this mental imagery is the way that Dimash later on, in this composition,

[00:12:13] he connects and disconnects his vocal chords. And he just hits the same note with that gap in between and at that point in the performance, he always in every performance that I’ve seen, and thank you, everybody for sending me so many performances today. He shakes his hand in time with the connection and the lack of connection, breaking apart those vocal chords, and he’s doing it perfectly in time is something that I haven’t seen him not do.

[00:12:43] So it’s one of those things that he is doing. It also works as the showmanship aspects of the performance — another thing that Dimash just throws in there seamlessly. But having that mental imagery of the chords connecting and disconnecting, and having the timing of the hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is another mental image that he’s got of those chords connecting and disconnecting in time. And it’s almost like he’s controlling it with the movement of his hand.

[00:13:11] But let’s get back into the performance.

[00:14:13] And then we get into this little instrumental section and who now is watching his hands when he goes to that really fully supported chest voice sound, and he really leans into it. He’s got that open palm down low as if giving himself that support mentally. And then when he gets even higher, and he starts pushing into that sound, he’s now on his chest,

[00:14:35] trying to feel that resonance —  again, it’s that mental imagery. And when he sings a little trill with his voice getting such impressive vocal chord flexibility, if you watch his right hand — by the way, Dimash is a multi-instrumentalist, he plays piano — and it’s really interesting to watch. On those trills and a trill is —

[00:14:56] more than one note consecutively sung or played, and you can have a trill between two notes. And while that’s happening, Dimash is doing that with his fingers as if he’s playing the piano. So he’s literally imagining playing piano with his vocal chords. And that same sound is produced in terms of the flexibility.

[00:15:17] He’s got the ability to jump from one note to the next. As if he’s playing a piano. I’m not going to be getting into all the stuff that I spoke about on last night’s video in terms of hitting pitches, and the pitches that we have in this particular song, the range, the journey, and the techniques with air and support, and everything that I mentioned last night, but there are so many interesting things here that I can add to this live performance that we won’t necessarily have time to get into everything that I mentioned last night as well.

[00:15:45] The other thing is with a live performance, the amount of variation you get from a vocalist when they just throw in those lines that you’re not expecting from the studio version, it just embellishes the songs so much more to hear something slightly different, but sung with that live expression and feeling that you can really tap into with a live performance and a fantastic singer.

[00:16:10] They communicate to you through the performance at that very second that you’re watching them. And this is why life performances can’t be beaten when you’re watching a guy of this quality and this vocal ability. Approaching that point of miming and lip syncing, and singing live the whole time.

[00:16:29] Sometimes you will have a singer who either has to cancel a show for their vocal health, or they have to mime. And this is something that certainly Dimash his vocal cord integrity is the most important thing in the world. So if Dimash is feeling ill, and he feels like he can’t hit the notes, and in order to hit those notes, he would have to strain,

[00:16:52] the wise choice for his career and his vocal chords is to mime or cancel a show. Sometimes if you are under contract, he will have to mine. So it’s another thing to take into consideration. Again, looking at it objectively, these are the things that happen, but let’s get back into the performance.

[00:17:11 [Video]

][00:19:02] And there we have it! Who noticed at the end, the final note of the song, the way the Dimash holds his hand and gets that mental imagery of that light chord coordination in head voice. There is so much going on here. And this video is so impressive on a vocal level, but also there is so much that you can see in Dimash’s performance in terms of his mental approach to singing that you’d never get with a mimed performance or pre-recorded performance

[00:19:36] because here Dimash is not only artistically singing in such an impressive way — the expression that he’s got in his voice — but he’s painting a picture literally with his hands in terms of the connection that he’s got with his voice. And you can see the way that he’s moving his hands around, depending on

[00:19:58] the place vocally that he is in terms of his range, but also the body of the sound. And he’ll turn his hand out towards the audience when he’s adding a little bit more into the sound in terms of body. When he’s getting a lighter connection with his vocal chords, he brings his fingers together. The other thing that people might see this as

[00:20:19] it’s showmanship. They might think that all of these movements are just putting on a show — and they certainly make it more entertaining — but once you’ve done a little bit of vocal training and worked with imagery in terms of trying to imagine those vocal chords doing different things, immediately I went to this shape,

[00:20:36] because that is a light configuration with your vocal chords. And a lot of singers out there will know exactly what I’m talking about. Everybody’s different in terms of what they do with their hands. Some people, when they sing, they raise their hand up and down in this kind of fashion in order to hit pitches.

[00:20:56] It is like you’ve got a vertical piano almost. Some people have a horizontal piano that they imagine hitting pitches higher that are further away from them, so their arm stretches out and if they’re hitting a high note with a light coordination, their hand will come out and they’ll make that light connection, hands gesture.

[00:21:17] but it will be far away from them because they are high up in their range. And when they bring it back down, they bring it towards them. Some people go up with their hands, some people go down. It’s different for everybody. But it’s amazing to see Dimash in a live setting showing us his artistry and how he paints his picture mentally of his vocal chords.

[00:21:36] I’ve just queued up another video because this one was sent to me today as well. Again, thank you guys for sending me all of these videos, but this is Dimash just singing whilst singing on a sofa and there’s also another part afterwards where he’s singing with his head voice. He goes up really high in his range, but you get such an appreciation of his resonance.

[00:21:57] But let’s get into this video and appreciate Dimash just singing acapella, but also so many singers would never do this because it is so revealing about somebody’s voice. But let’s get into it.

[00:22:10] Video

[00:23:09] And there we have it. So, first of all, sitting on the sofa, having that support that he’s got. By the way, everybody that sings will have heard vocal teachers talking about your support mechanism and to stand up, keep your back straight, and you lose 30% of your support around there when you’re seated.

[00:23:31] So Dimash is just sitting down. So he’s losing a lot of support there with his diaphragm. But he’s still able to lean into that sound. He’s got such control. The other thing you’ll notice is his application of that really wide vibrato that you always get in classical singing, but also the way that he tones it down.

[00:23:50] It’s more prevalent in that second video when he goes really high in his range and the resonance that he is getting out of his head, it’s crazy to the point where the microphone is starting to clip because those sound waves are just bouncing off his natural amphitheater in his head. And they are coming out of his mouth

[00:24:13] It’s such a volume and everywhere else that the resonance is such an impressive thing to hear with really low tech mics because this hasn’t been set up to try and make him sound good. It gives you a true appreciation of his vocal ability, his vocal technique, but also the resonance, he is able to achieve these techniques.

[00:24:34] That you can just sit back and appreciate the level to which Dimash has got these down, and not in an overproduced setting. So feel free to go back. So feel free to go back to last night’s video and skip that first quarter because there is a lot of vocal analysis going on. In terms of talking about air flow and how Dimash gets these notes in the first place and how he achieves his sound.

[00:25:00] Thank you guys so much for suggesting so many videos today and for your feedback in the comments section, this is one of those nights where I have handpicked a couple of videos to look at, just because I thought it was important after last night’s video, but keep those suggestions coming in the comments below.

[00:25:17] Let me know what you guys think, and if you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe and I’ll see you guys at the next one.

They have two wings
Clouds in the sky and love is the essence of heart
My Blood freezes without you
My guest is a dream
She has your eyes …

Know
My feelings are beating the alarm
I have a burning look
It’s impossible for you
My words to describe it