What Are The Chords To Classic Country Songs?

How has Paul McCartney not broken his vocal chords?

• Vocal chords are incredibly fragile and Paul McCartney seems to have immortal vocal chords. Though over the past couple years his voice has lowered a few notes, it's largely in tact, which is amazing. A great example of impossible vocal abilities regarding Paul McCartney is his incredible raw song "Monkberry Moon Delight" from Ram. He seemingly goes from soft but beautiful folky singing in "Heart of the Country" (The song directly before "Monkberry Moon Delight") to unbelievable screaming of perfected notes in "Monkberry Moon Delight". Another example is "Oh Darling" and of course countless amounts of other Beatles songs and Wings songs. I'm a singer, and I recently damaged my vocal chords just trying to sing "Mrs.Vanderbilt" in the same tune as McCartney, nearly irreversibly damaging my vocal chords. Does anyone have a reason for his unbelievable voice? I should note, Harry Nilsson had the same voice as McCartney and broke his vocal chords completely in a screaming match with John Lennon in 1974 causing him to never be able to sing again.

• Answer:

  Vocal chords are NOT incredibly fragile. I do not know where you heard this. They are extremely SENSITIVE, perhaps, but not fragile. Vocal chords will survive a massive pounding, if trained right, which, of course, Paul McCartney has likely done. There are a few exceptional people in this world with 'vocal chords of iron' that cannot hurt their voice even if they tried (eg: Brian Blessed, screamers, Mario del Monaco) but this is not what Paul is. It is impossible that you seriously damaged your voice trying to sing like Paul unless you were a basso profondo trying to scream out tenor notes for several hours on end. Even so, it would be reversible with a few DAYS of vocal rest. Opera singers sing extremely loudly and frequently for up to 70 years, the prime example being, of course, Hugues Cuenod who sung until he was 92. Tangent aside, you are either wrong in saying that you nearly "irreversibly damaged your vocal chords" from doing a task that is slightly stressful on the chords or you have serious genetic malformations which means you should stop singing permanently. Let us then assume you meant you just temporarily hurt your voice. Paul McCartney is able to sing for as long as he has because he has been trained in the art of singing, possessing a method by which he can sing whatever he needs to(within his vocal capacity, of course) without harm. Clearly, you are not trained or are not being trained well if you have attempted to sing something radically outside of your vocal range and/or have such weak and thin chords that you harmed yourself in doing such. PS: The bit about Harry Nilsson is manifestly untrue. He recovered a while later and returned to his singing. His final concert appearance was in 1992, and he died in early 1994. In response to your reply: Replying extremely rudely to me for a legitimate answer seems to indicate to me that you are very defensive. Perhaps it is because you worship those who are completely incapable of legitimate singing that you find such weakness in your own voice, hmm? Try your hand at listening to, oh, say, Lawrence Brownlee or Alfred Kraus and tell me that what they are doing is hurting them. It does not even have to be an opera singer, try Mario Lanza. It is called TECHNIQUE. Of course you can easily damage your vocal chords! I can very easily chop off my arm as well, and 16 doctors will all tell you it is very easy to do that as well; the point is to be not stupid enough to do it. What am I saying, you might wonder? I am saying, the key to vocal longevity and health is PERFECT TECHNIQUE. I am saying that Paul McCartney had some form of TECHNIQUE that allowed him to sing for extended periods of time in the manner in which he did. Otherwise, he would not be singing now. YOU clearly are NOT singing with some form of TECHNIQUE (read: legitimate, refined technique - not "I spend three hours a day every day singing and this is what I've come up with". Have you ever heard the word "appoggio" before?). You are arguing with a trained opera singer who has cited the number one go-to book for vocal studies, which includes diagrams of the vocal chords and biological information well beyond what your regular trip to the doctor will offer you. Do you really consider that to be "cynical bull"?