To those who say Michael can't sing, tell them that Frank Sinatra begs to differ[/b]
Damn straight! You're point about belting is well taken too. It's actually an incorrect form of singing, usually done by vocalists who push their chest registers to the very outer limits to lend the same richness of that voice to higher notes. You're supposed to sing in your head voice for higher ranges, neglecting to do so can damage the vocal cords.
I know I've already said this somewhere in this thread, forgive my habit of being repetitive, lol, but Michael has been stated, by his voice coach Seth Riggs, to have a range of 4 octaves, all connected, meaning from his lowest range to his highest, not including falsetto. He sings well into low base and well passed high C in his upper range. Seth has also described doing vocal warm ups with Michael as the equivalent to fine tuning a Ferrari. Also, according to someone I've spoken too who is also a student of Seth's, Seth say's Michael is the most talented male vocalist he's ever heard, and Seth is Stevie Wonder's voice coach, he was Luther Vandross's voice coach, Barbra Striesand's voice coach, etc... and he said also that people have no idea just how gifted he is as he holds back to an incredible extent on his records. This same person told me that Michael will sing a song that is going to end up on his album for Seth to work out any kinks, do it incredibly, and then proceed to record, on purpose, a lesser version for the album. Seth supposedly has asked Michael
why he does this, and Michael doesn't have an answer for him. I've also been told by this person that they've heard some of Michael's vocal lessons, and his transition from register to register is the best, extremely clean, seamless and controlled, that he has an unbelievable capacity to hold notes, for people that think he has bad wind capacity. That's the mark of a good singer, someone who transitions between the registers without any detection of a change, without any indication of a break; it just flows together without you even hearing it. Michael does that unbelievably well. Michael's the best vocalist, he's a consummate professional beyond what most people can ever imagine, his natural gift is a phenomenon. The depth and dimension of his voice is more intricate then any other singer I think I've ever heard, it literally changes with each note. A lot of singer’s voices are one dimensional, they let through a solid, nice sound, but that's all they've got. Michael's got a range of colors and textures to his voice more vast then any other. Couple that with his genius in expressing emotion, and he can't be beat. He makes you
feel when he sings, he rips the core of a song out and shows it bare to you, he let's you hear the essence of it, he makes you unsure if he is the singer or the song. That's brilliance. Technically, he is the best, and emotionally, he is the best. He holds back, so we don't even know how good he is really.