John Grant Quotes

Over the years, I was lucky; right from the beginning, I studied with a lady who had a lot of... she was a classical singer, and of course, they're a little bit more into, you know, preserving the voice, making sure your instrument is ready to perform.

I don't have the slightest idea of how to do vocal exercises or scales or anything like that, but I did always know to breath properly from the stomach. I'm a pop singer and never really felt I needed more.

When I first started singing - before 'Treat Me Like Fire' when I was working with a vocal coach - I realized that I wasn't even breathing when I was singing.

I work on my voice through what I have to sing.

I took some voice lessons here and there as a teenager but nothing too serious. I started taking it more seriously when I was in Miss Saigon. I needed to improve my technique in order to survive doing that show as many time a week as I was doing it. It's not an easy show to sing, so I needed all the help I could get.

I can't hold a note. I tried a singing lesson, but my vocal coach kept giving me the stink eye.

I'm trying to get better at singing. I just want to be great vocally on stage so I can give fans a real show, like Jazmine Sullivan does.

Thousands of kids and parents come up to us and say, How do we get better as a singer?

You have to get to know your voice and its strengths and play on those. It took me quite a long time.

The better voice doesn't mean being a better singer.

You know, your speaking voice comes back, but your singing voice you use in a different way.

Singing is incredibly physical.

I never took any vocal training.

When I was 12 and started to take singing lessons from a woman, she told me that I would probably spend the rest of my life taking care of my voice.

And I've had vocal training on and off for years.

It's very much like opera singers. They do the same thing. The first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, the thing they think about is their voice and how to take care of it.

Singing for stage, if you don't hear yourself, that's when you push, and that's when you can hurt your voice sometimes. So if I can hear myself in my ear, it really helps me to find that balance of how loud I needed to be singing.

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.

I was taking singing lessons, and they'd say, 'Your voice is too hoarse. You have to do more exercises.'

I have never been too concerned about things you're supposed to be concerned about as a singer. Pitch is important, and so is sounding good. But I think there's something underneath all that.

For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice.

I do a lot of vocal warmups, which are the same warmups I did when I was a kid, because I had a few classical singing lessons and stuff like that, so I know pretty much how I'm gonna be once I get on stage.

I don't push my voice; I try to keep a good technique, a natural way of singing, to sing from the breath, which is the main thing.

I've never done any vocal warm ups, ever. As a matter of fact, I learned to sing playing three sets a night in smoky clubs.

It's important to me to be able to hit the notes and just be able to fly when I sing.