Up and running!

Well at the moment the piano goes from E major to B minor for the merging which isn't a very nice cadence, but in South Africa he did Underneath in C♯ minor, E major to C♯ minor would work much better especially since the vocal would land on a seventh and bitches love sevenths

CTMBTM has always been my absolute favorite song of Adam's because of how beautiful and pure and floating the voice is.  However, it just might be replaced by last night's Stay/Underneath.  I don't want to even breath while I am listening.  The voice is ethereal, with such delicacy and purity.  The nuances and shaping of the tone are so deft and subtle.  There is also a richness, roundness and depth in his voice these days that is even more sonorous than CTMBTM.  Angelic!

As to why he lowered the key to Underneath, my guess is that it fits his voice better.  From what I have heard of Adam's voice, his passaggio, or the normal break between chest and head voice, is around G, G#, sometimes A (depending on how warmed up he is, how his voice is doing, humidity, etc.).  Anything above the passaggio he either has to put some power behind in chest/mixed voice, or flip to head voice.    The F# he can consistently sing with predominent chest voice, either strongly or softly and intimately, which is what I hear in this recording.  By pitching Underneath in this key, he can be sure to be able to sing all the F#s freely and lightly every night without needing to flip to head voice.  

What do you all think ? 

Thanks Cassie for saying so much better and expanding on exactly what I was thinking! 

Yes CTMBTM has been my favourite too along with GN Soaked.  But your comment about the delicacy and purity of his tone is so true.  Four years on, and he can still astound me with his voice and interpretation of a song.

And thank you to the wonderful Asian audiences who sit quietly throughout so we get glorious sound that, although not studio quality, is just stunning to listen to.

And your explanation re the lower key for Underneath makes a lot of sense. 

Yeah, I am not familiar with this particular method of teaching voice.  Sorry.  I think it is popular these days, tho'.  

There are many different methods to teach someone to sing correctly.  The goals are basically the same: to produce a clear, resonant, consistent tone throughout the singer's range; to smoothly transition through the different parts of that range (chest, mixed, head), and to produce the notes without tension to the cords and throat which cause a constricted, even strangled sound, limit the singer's range and resonance, and seriously damage the cords over time.  SLS approaches teaching with a focus on the anatomy and operation of the throat, the larynx and the cords.  At least, that is how I understand it from w hat I have read.

Of course, there are many other components to learning how to sing correctly and effectively.  How to breathe correctly and support the voice, how to bend and shape the sound (adding grit, ping, twang, and other colorings), how to articulate consonants and vowels to produce the words/notes clearly and intelligibly without losing tone or resonance, how to shade the voice for interpretive and emotional intent.  The trick to all of this is for the teacher to explain how one produces the sounds when he/she cannot demonstrate precisely HOW it is done.  The student cannot see the teacher's vocal cords, muscles, diaphragm, tongue positions, soft palate, abdominal muscles, etc.  They can HEAR the result, but cannot see the mechanisms.  Teachers use a variety of explanations, analogies, kinesthetic exercises, etc to try to get the student to produce the correct sound and technique.  Once they produce it and feel in their own body what they are doing, they can practice in order to do it consistently and accurately.  

I don't think that answers your question about SLS, but maybe it helps to understand why singing correctly and beautifully, as Adam does, is very difficult and takes a great deal of training, practice and maintenance.