How to Include More History + Soul in Jazz Singing
Are you a musician interested in adding more history and soul to your jazz singing?
Follow Joie’s simple tips and steps to learn how.
Including more history + soul to your singing
In this video, Joie, a local jazz musician, walks through a few tips and simple steps that’ll help you learn how to add more soul to your jazz singing.
JAZZ DOESN’T HAVE MANY RULES
In jazz, we use all of our voice. Unlike classical music and other genres, that might only use a specific register or style, jazz offers a sense of creative freedom and expression that is simply unmatched. With this freedom, you can take your singing to the next level.
Jazz vocalists to use as inspiration
Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan are some incredible jazz vocalists that we can look up to when learning how to add more soul to jazz singing. Sarah is a great example of someone who uses nontraditional parts of voice like predominantly using head voice whereas Ella uses her head voice in a different way, but bridges that to create that traditional jazz sound we all love and know. Vocalists like these use their entire range and really break free from what’s on the page. Other than the register vocalists use, there is great variation in the way jazz singers add their own flair to a particular song. That’s where swing comes into play.
What is swing?
Swing is a way to add rhythm and flair to jazz singing. You create motion in the song by anticipating, or delaying notes and singing in a way that strays off of what’s on the paper, but it’s important to first learn the song as written before you make any changes to notes and more.
Learn the music as written
Before you experiment with your piece, it’s important to learn it as written to make sure your foundation is strong. Sing it straight and swung, and then you can change the rhythms and play around with syncopation (aka front and back phrasing). When you feel comfortable with the piece and can sing it with ease, this is your chance to make it your own.
emphasizing different song components
After you’ve learned the piece as written, go ahead and start playing around with how you sing the song. Go through the piece a few times by emphasizing both upbeats and downbeats. Mix them up and have fun with it. You can also emphasize different words based on the emotions you want to evoke and the story behind the lyrics. Playing around with the word emphasis works super well with ballads!
listen, transcribe, practice!
Learning the language of jazz takes practice and experience which is why it’s recommended to listen to as many jazz pieces as possible (both vocalists and instrumentalists). Practice transcribing the pieces orally by singing what you hear, or by writing it down and dictating what you’re hearing. Once you got that down, practice and practice some more! Use different vocal ranges, timbres, and rhythms. There aren’t too many rules, so take that and fly with it.
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