Justin Bieber may be one of the biggest music stars in the universe at the moment, but his life is not without challenges. He is constantly on the road, works long hours and is constantly taking care of his voice. But the latter has been made difficult by the natural progression of puberty. Anybody who has heard Bieber recently knows that he sounds quite a bit different than he did a year ago, and that's because he has been growing up.
Of course, Bieber has a crack team on his side, and his mentor happens to be a star who successfully made the transition from child phenom to adult star. In a recent conversation with MTV Canada's Aliya-Jasmine Sovani, Usher — who scored his first big exposure on "Star Search" at 13 years old and put out his first album at 15 — discussed how his team has approached Bieber's naturally evolving voice.
"Puberty is something that a young man will go through. Having one of the greatest vocal coaches and vocal trainers in the business is definitely making that process sooner," Usher explained to Sovani over lunch. "I can remember singing really high and then dropping down. But his octave is obviously going to drop. I think a lot of it is him — him wanting to drop his register."
Bieber has had to adjust many of his songs in a live setting, pitching the tunes down a few keys to keep a lid on those now-out-of-reach high notes. But he hasn't completely abandoned his upper register, and clearly Usher is serious about helping Bieber through the transition with the help of some professionals.