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Getting help to learn new styles
By Jeremy Fisher
One idea behind
learning a new style is: if you can hear it, you can learn it, and
once you have learned it, you can play with it, mould it, modify it,
and use it in your own way.
The first thing to
do is to separate out the various components of style.
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Voice quality – what
is the “default” vocal sound that your singer performs in? Does the
basic sound have twang, breath, cry? |
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Does the singer use
particular vowel sounds or have a particular accent? |
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If female, does the
singer spend most time in “head” or “chest” voice? |
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How does the
singer’s voice move around – fast riffs (coloratura in classical
music), slow sustained phrases, or slow phrases with flurries of
notes in? |
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How does the
singer’s voice move between the notes – sliding, clean breaks,
jumps? |
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Is there vibrato –
present all the time, most of the time, only on long notes, not at
all? |
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How does the singer
start and end notes (onset and offset) – glottal, glide, creak,
flip, breath push?
As you can see from the list, there are a lot of things to recognise
in someone else’s performance and to find in your own. |
You might be one of
the lucky singers who can imitate someone on your first hearing, and
get the style, intonation, vocal patterns and riffs right
immediately. This is a talent of its own, although it does have
drawbacks, including a possible difficulty in finding your own voice
and vocal identity. Often it can be difficult to tune your ear into
how someone else uses their voice, because they move so fast.
So I am going to add
to the sentence at the top of the opening paragraph: If you can hear
it and slow it down, you can learn it accurately.
If you are internet
savvy, I have just discovered one very useful tool that can help you
discover exactly what happens in a fast riff, and what types of
vibrato people use. It has a free trial version, and it’s called The
Amazing SlowDowner. It does exactly what it says in the title. If
you load up a sound file (including .wav and Mp3), you can play it
out through the Amazing SlowDowner at the correct speed, or slow it
down (without changing the pitch). The programme can slow the
recording down enough that you can hear individual notes in a fast
run, or play it in superslow motion to hear the individual movements
in a singer’s vibrato. If there is a particularly difficult riff
that you need to hear repeatedly, you can play it as a loop, for as
long as you need.
Now you can start to
tune your ears into the patterns of your chosen singer. You can hear
how they start notes – on, above or below the pitch – and what type
of onset they use. You can hear whether their vibrato moves
underneath, above or around the note (see the YQA on vibrato for
more details). You can hear whether they slide between certain notes
or move quickly and cleanly. You can also hear the individual notes
of a riff or vocal pattern and learn them more easily.
If you are
interested in using the Amazing Slow Downer, you can download it at
http://www.ronimusic.com. The free version is limited to the
first two tracks of a CD or the first quarter of a sound file, and
to unlock the programme costs $45 (approximately £25).
Further to
Gill Main's YQA answer on singing
in different styles, I believe that, once you have discovered what
other singers do, you can use the riff patterns and vocal style
elements in other songs. You might practise singing a song that your
chosen recording artist hasn’t recorded, but sing it in their style.
This is a very useful exercise as it helps you identify what style
elements that artist would use, without copying one particular
performance or song slavishly.
As a performer you
can quickly build up a mental and musical catalogue of vocal styles,
and use whichever style is most appropriate for that job or that
song. The more you work in a particular style, the more ingrained it
becomes, and the more “natural” it sounds.
©
2005 Jeremy Fisher for Vocal Process
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Giving the student broader knowledge about the structures of the
larynx can be effective on many levels of their training and
understanding. The 'moveable larynx' has long been the starting
point of Vocal Process courses including Singing and the Actor Training.
Download:
build_your_own_
tilting_larynx.pdf
[2-page PDF, 294kb]
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connections.
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download and save the file direct to your computer.
WINDOWS USERS: Right click on the download link > save target as.
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Link opens in a new window |
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