Diana Ankudinova – Dernière Danse

How To Sing Like Diana Ankudinova Dernière Danse – Voice Teacher & Opera Director Reacts and Teaches

English Transcript of Video

Hi, I’m Dr. Marc Reynolds and I’m going to teach you how to sing and perform more like the top artists around the world.

Today we are gonna learn from Ms. Diana Ankudinova, singing Dernière Danse.

Here we go.

(clapping)

(crowd cheering)

(upbeat music)

• Okay, I know she
  hasn’t made a sound yet,

but wanna point out this
series of events here.

She’s ready before she goes on stage,

she’s getting to position,
she’s getting relaxed,

she’s getting to that
moment, she walks on stage

with a big smile greeting the audience.

Before the song starts, she’s
already getting in character

and before she has even sung a first note,

you’re look at her face, she’s there.

She’s in this character,

that’s a really important
sequence of events.

If any one of those pieces
are missing when you’re

in a concert when you’re
presenting a song all by itself,

or in a concert with a
bunch of other people

it just doesn’t feel
right, it doesn’t work.

So, excellent.

(singing in a different language)

(Judges speaking in a different language)

(crowd cheers)

• Okay, love how clean, pure,

authentic this sound is.

It sounds like a real person singing,

its got so much nuance and
expressiveness in it though.

So much vulnerability.

And her head is down,
usually that’s a big no-no,

in that we don’t want
to cut our audience off,

but this is the character and
I get that from performers

all the time, “Well, I thought
you said I wasn’t supposed to

do that” well.

Or they’ll hear “Well, I had
someone tell me not to do that”

well it’s all comes down to
what is the person saying this

song doing, what would a real
person saying this song do?

And that’s really the question
here and I think this fits

so gorgeously, love it.

The reason the smile at the
beginning is so important

is because then when she
does something like this,

we don’t think its a nervous performer.

We know that she as a real
person is okay, comfortable and

happy doing this performance.

So that when it becomes song
time, we know that everything

that we see is part of
what belongs to the song.

The words, the character, that moment.

(singing in a different language)

(crowd cheers)

(crowd cheers)

• So what’s going through
  the minds of these judges?

I don’t know.

But, I can imagine at least
one of the things that I can

imagine going through their
mind is this is a great sound.

It’s easy, it’s consistent.

I can see this sound being sustainable.

The second thing that I could
imagine going through their

mind is it’s unique.

This is a unique sound.

If I heard this sound anywhere,
I was walking down a street.

If I knew her voice, I would
recognize it immediately,

and if I didn’t, I would
stop and think who’s that?

That’s huge.

In a society where we are
putting so much music out,

there’s so many artists.

The idea of having a unique
voice and a unique sound

is really important.

It’s important because listeners
are looking for someone

who’s unique, who’s going
to make them think and feel

different, who’s. We’re
novelty junkies as humans.

So this is also really important.

Then, the other big thing
that I think is going on in

their minds here that I think
got this last button pushed,

was she’s communicating.

She’s not performing, she’s not singing.

That is not their
primary objective of this

person in front of us.

Those are all tools that she’s
using to communicate with us,

and to tell us a story.

That mindset of going from
singing just being a tool,

just being a means to an
end and not the end itself.

Acting, performing, all
these things that we work on,

they’re just tools, just
things that we need to work on,

be proficient at, explore
with, be creative with,

but ultimately if we’re not
trying to communicate something,

not trying to tell a story,
not trying to convince someone,

not trying to share
something with someone,

then it’s like trying to
build a piece of furniture

that has no function.

That you don’t even know
what you’re planning

on doing with it, you’re
just swinging with a hammer

and nails and wood, hoping
something turns out.

You might be really good
at swinging that hammer,

with those nails with that
wood, but if you don’t

have a purpose behind it,

if there isn’t that ultimate
goal to produce something

of value, then yeah it
could be just beauty.

That’s valuable, true,
but there’s something more

there’s something more here
that she has in spades.

And I think that is her
ability to communicate

and to tell a story and
to reach the audience

in a really potent,
dramatic and authentic way.

(singing in a different language)

• Okay, the other thing here is,

yes to hear a girl of
this age have such a rich,

low, full, easy sound,

whew it’s gorgeous.

It’s something exceptional there.

Yes, there’s all kinds of arguments online

both with Dimash and with deyona is

can anyone learn to do
this or can anyone not?

That’s fine, argue all you want.

My experience tells me that
no, not anyone can make

this sound, not anyone
can sing like Dimash.

There are lots of things we can learn,

and techniques we can
learn that will help us

sound more like them, help
us perform more like them,

but these are some pretty unique sounds.

You’re watching these judges
react and often they’ve

heard a lot of different singers.

And they’re hearing something
really unique there,

and if it’s something
that everyone could do.

I don’t wanna suggest that
not everyone can learn

to sing beautifully, I
believe everyone can learn

to sing beautifully.

I’ve worked with tone deaf
singers who when they first

walk in the studio, I think are hopeless

and after weeks and weeks
of work, years or work,

they sing gorgeously and do
really well in competitions

and auditioning for colleges
and getting scholarships

and getting professional roles,

this happens.

But, there is something to physiology,

there is something towards
natural inclination

and personality and

all kinds of other
factors that go into this.

Where, if we had millions of
years, if we had a hundred

years, two hundred years, maybe
we could work on all those

elements and get them together
and maybe we could rival

some of the people who seem
to get it at such a young age

and get it so quickly and
have all these just amazing

things coming out with so few years.

But, we don’t.

So, is there kind of this
really magical mix sometimes

of personality, physiology, aptitude,

interest, ability,

work ethic, and emotional health,

vivid imagination.

All these different characteristics
that kind of go together

and find themselves in one
person that made for an amazing

performer, yes.

Do I think she seems to have them all?

Yeah, I think she’s
pretty exceptional here.

(singing in a different language)

• Woo hoo!

(crowd cheering)

• Final thing I want to point out here,

just like the beginning, the
ending is also really crucial.

The audience all applauded,
she got 4 buzzers,

she’s ready to rock and roll.

Does she break character? No.

Does she all of the sudden
at the very end of the song

break character? No.

She actually holds it for a little bit.

The rule I give my singers is,

count a full measure
after the music is stopped

to then release your character.

If you’ll do that, then it
is so much more powerful

for the audience, they
get so much more excited.

They are able to process
it, think about it.

They are able to really believe
that you had this moment.

Where if you snap out
of it like that it just

kind of ruins it and it doesn’t feel as

genuine and authentic.

What I love is watching these judges faces

and they’re just blown away.

They don’t even know what
to make of this voice.

I don’t know what to make of
this voice when I hear it.

And this is my second
reaction video on watching her

and I mentioned before that I wasn’t sure

how much was being
added by the mic or not.

I don’t mean to say that
they are heavily editing

what’s going on.

I don’t mean to say
that she’s lip syncing,

that’s not it at all.

I realized that she’s singing
live here in this performance,

but even if we’re listening
to a video of a performance

where there’s no mic, there’s
still a mic in the camera

that’s picking up that sound
and modifying it somehow.

It’s not the same as live sound.

So, without hearing a
voice live with no mic,

it can be difficult to
know 100% what’s going on

with that voice.

And with a voice so unique like this,

it is so fascinating it
makes me want so much

to be able to hear this
voice without a mic,

without anything in between
just live person live person

without any mic to see
what’s going on there,

because it is such a fascinating voice.

So many really cool sounds going on here.

You’ll notice is she doing
these things that I’m

talking about through all my videos?

Yeah! You’re seem the opportune smile,

you’re seeing that jaw release.

I would suspect that if we
could tell what’s going on

with her breath it’s
really nice and suspended.

The air flow is really consistent.

Really really exceptional.

Even if you ignore her
age, even is she was

a really exceptional performer
here that we’re seeing.

But, at her age, unbelievable.

Really really exceptional.

Absolutely gorgeous.

And again, not just because of her voice,

because her performing.

Watching how nuanced and
engaging her performance is.

Ah it’s just so stunning.

It is absolutely amazing.

There are so many things to
talk about with this voice.

I’ll be doing more of them,
because I wanna keep exploring

and listening to and
determining what’s going on with

this voice.

But I want you to try to think,

if she’s doing these things
that all these other singers

are doing, why do they sound so different?

How can we identify them?

How can we hear them
on the radio and know,

“Oh, that’s so-and-so
or this is so-and-so”?

What is it that makes each
voice unique and distinctive?

What’s interesting to me
is as we get the voice

working efficiently, as
we get the balance of

air coming through the
vocal fold in balance

with the pressure of the
vocal folds coming together,

we get that space open,
we release tension.

We figure out how to get
all these different colors

and sounds and get the
voice working with the least

amount of tension possible and
have everything in balance.

We actually do get a unique
sound from each voice.

And to me, that is what is
so amazing and so fantastic.

And what’s so exciting as a teacher,

to be able to go in and
uncover someone’s voice

and figure out what is the sound
that this voice makes best.

So, I hope today you’ll
keep working towards that.

Keeping it to making the
easiest sound you can here,

while making your sound.

Not the sound that you
think you should sound like,

not like someone else’s sound,
not trying to contrive it.

Just what happens when
you let that voice loose,

sing easily, what is that
sound that your voice makes?

Especially as you’re trying
these things we’re talking

about, trying to keep it
easy, relaxed and comfortable.

If you want a voice lesson,
want a performance coach or

you want me to work
with you or your group,

to help you sing easier
or perform at consistently

higher level, book a time with me at

Mrperformingartsstudio.com.

I look forward to working with you online!