| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 9 |
| Interest | 9 |
| Melody | 9 |
| Performance | 10 |
| Lyrics | 9 |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
| Recording Quality | 9 |
| Commercial Appeal | 9 |
| Overall | 9.1 |
Ready to Fly (Free falling) by
A quick check of Mary’s page and profile reveal two very interesting… (no, that’s the wrong word), …awesome facts.
Mary joined
Now 363 days equates to 8688 hours which means that twice an hour, every hour, since Mary joined this site, someone has listened to one of her songs. As a reviewer I need to understand that figure because it would tend to indicate that there is something about Mary (ooh, that would be a good title for a film). And the something about Mary is clearly her voice. This is not just any old voice we’re talking about here, this one DELIVERS. Which led me to thinking about what is it that makes a really good voice so I did a bit of research.
Mark Wildman, who teaches at the Royal Academy of Music here in
"First of all you need a voice that is fit to be trained. Before learning to sing, you have to develop the range of notes by dint of good stance, good posture. Then comes the business of singing, developing the breathing. Singing teachers have a variety of methods to help their students identify the muscle groups used to breathe properly. One method I frequently use involves a straight-backed chair. If you sit well back, you can practise breathing down into the back, feeling the lateral rib expansion and the back rib expansion against the back of the chair. When practising breathing exercises I tell students, ‘When you have a full breath, go on breathing in. Then when you think you are full, go on further, stretch the muscles a bit more now."
Listen to Mary sing with this in the back of your mind and you will soon realise that breathing and control of the breath is one of the most significant factors in her ability to deliver lines with strength and emotion. I’m willing to bet that it’s an area that Mary practices constantly.
Norma Winstone (who teaches Jazz singing) agrees:
"I had lessons when I was 17, about the diaphragm and breathing. Later, I discovered people who had a break in their voice talking about ‘head voice’ and ‘chest voice’. I only realised that this occurred when pupils brought me their own problems. Most problems come down to bad breathing.’
Mark Wildman says that the typical female voice has three registers. He goes on to say:
"Each register is a part of the voice in which notes can be produced with the vocal chords in their same state. For sopranos, the low register normally goes up to the Eb above middle C. The upper limit of the middle register is the Eb an octave higher and the upper register from E, F, F# and upwards. The secret is to make the registers sound smooth all the way up and down. ‘An audible break shouldn’t be there. Aim to have a perfectly even range of two octaves plus. I tend to avoid the term ‘voice’ in relation to ‘head’ or ‘chest’. The voice comes from the larynx, and these terms can be confusing to the student. I prefer ‘top register’, ‘middle register’ and ‘bottom register’. ‘Head and chest I do find useful when talking about the resonance of the voice. One can talk in terms of sensation in the chest, in the face, in the head, in the back or the back of the neck even… it’s how it feels."
And this is the next thing you’ve got to say about Mary’s songs and her vocal style; she know’s the register that suits her voice and ensures that she writes to her strengths.
There is, for me, one last element I want to look at before talking about the particular song in question and that is vibrato (or warble as it is sometimes rather disparagingly called). Back to Mark Wildman. Mark doesn’t positively encourage a vibrato from his pupils, but takes a natural approach to its development.
"What I do when I’m training a voice is to think in terms of upper and lower partials. This in itself will have the effect of producing a note that is dead centre but not dead. Ten or fifteen years ago, in the performance of Baroque music, there was a move to get an absolutely dead straight sound. I think those days have gone."
Mary definitiely does use vibrato in her singing (which is wholly appropriate to this type of song) but, mercifully doesn’t overdo it, so that it adds to, rather than detracts from, the interest.
Mark Wildman often talks to his pupils about the need to develop their own ‘in-built’ microphone.
"By that I mean that the natural resonance of the voice, the natural quality of the voice, without the aid of the microphone, has to reach the back of the biggest opera house without forcing the voice. Before you can learn to sing, you have to develop the instrument."
And I would hazard a guess that when Mary is recording the microphone is set back a bit so she can really release her voice.
OK, so that’s my take on Mary, what about the song. Well, anyone who prowls the message boards at night (UK time) will have met Mary who is an avid contributor to the social scene here at MP3U (over 1000 posts to date) and therefore could not have failed but notice the particular characteristics that she brings with her.
Always sensitive to other peoples feelings, always looking to make peace rather than to be confrontational, Mary is probably the closest thing we’ve got to an MP3U Agony Aunt (bless her).
So we would not be surprised to see a set of sensitive lyrics written by a sensistive and caring lady. And you would not be disappointed. Here is a song written in a glorious tradition of equating falling (or being) in love with flying. Think “Wind beneath my wings”, “I believe I can fly” and “Flying without Wings” (which has a curious synchronicity about it given that Mary has just had a song put up as a potential Westlife recording).
These are lyrics written on the grand scale. They have a sweep and grandeur about them that says this is something that Mary wants the world to know about. Which is interesting because sometimes you listen to a song and feel like you are being allowed a sort of vicarious view of someone’s private life (like in Xanthe’s song “Transition” recently reviewed) but here you feel like an honoured guest and that Mary is delighted to be sharing these feelings with you.
As you would expect from all that I have written, the song is delivered with power and emotion, backed by drums, piano and bass. Alongside paying attention to her voice and how she uses it, Mary has also learned how to construct a song. This is, unashamedly, a commerical song, structured for the commercial market (albeit with a set of very personal and heartfelt lyrics).
So if you couldn’t imagine a funeral without Celine Dion singing “My heart will go on” or a wedding without Whitney Houston singing “Saving all my love for you” then you will, without a doubt, enjoy Mary singing “Ready to Fly (Free falling)”.
To listen to the track Click Here