J.I.D Quotes

Anything that I can do with my voice that's good, I'll try to do.

There are some sounds that English singers find quite difficult to manipulate.

I thought everybody had falsetto. And since I wasn't a schooled singer who studied with anybody, I just thought anybody who had a voice could do anything they wanted with their voice.

I focus a lot on my voice because I want it to be an instrument as well. I want my voice to add color.

That's one thing you hear in my voice today. I could yodel from one octave to another octave. It always fascinated me.

It takes a big voice a long time to develop properly; the bigger it is, the harder it is to develop the technique.

I've always been obsessed with the grain of the human voice. It's the ultimate instrument, there's this whole level of virtuosity and poetry, a sort of athleticism, of controlling your voice.

I've always said that I use my voice as an instrument. It was something I created myself, and I said, 'Have voice, will travel.'

Vocally, I have learned to find my strength, and my voice has developed a lot since 'Be Here.' I learned to sing with all of my body.

I've been lucky in my life to work with people who I consider master singers.

The greatest musical instrument given to a human being is the voice.

I don't think I'm a singer that likes to flex my vocals. I'll do some runs and a bunch of high notes, but that's it. I really pride myself and I really work on just trying to sing. Like emotions. Just using my voice, not doing anything extra.

I use my voice as an instrument.

I am still working on developing my voice. I am, I know, better as a coloratura singer than I was. It's a matter of strong breath control and yet making it sound as though it is the easiest thing in the world.

There is nothing more boring than doing singing exercises.

For singers, our singing voice is our natural voice, not the speaking.

My voice has many dynamics in it. Like my little body.

I treat my vocals as an instrument.

I can sing as low as Toni Braxton and as high as Mariah Carey.

Everything I'd taught myself about screaming is basically a big no-no for singing. Your posture, your airflow - you're just pushing all the air out. When you start out, you're fast, heavy and loud but you're hiding behind it in a way. When you stop screaming, that's when it gets hard.

I think I've learned a lot on the vocal side of things.

The biggest thing is to just keep your voice in shape so that when the emotion hits, it's there to have the colors to paint those pictures with the lyrics as well as the sound.

As singers, we're always taught to sing forward and place everything in the front of our resonating chambers. Donna Summer always sang in that space and had it naturally. Her muscle memory, the way she was built - she was a natural singer.

I was blown away by Steve Perry's voice - you know, his amazing ability to change from a lambing voice to rock.

Classical singing - everything had to be homogenous, and it had to just feel like one continuous flow from top to bottom, bottom to top. And in jazz, I felt like, oh, well, I can sing these deep, husky lows if I want and then sing these really, like, tiny, laser highs if I want, as well. And I have - I have no obligation to make it sound like it's just one continuous flow.