How to Sing Well in Different Vocal Styles

MUSICAL THEATRE STYLE

Musical theatre singing today runs the gamut from the classical or legit style required for The Phantom of the Opera, to the rock style of Rent, to the more traditional vocal styles in musicals such as Oklahoma and Carousel. The two main delineations in musical theatre are legit and belt singing styles.

Belt Musical Theatre Style: This style of singing is brighter, chestier and more forward; belt has been termed a skillful yell.

For healthy singing, don’t belt higher than the first bridge; developing a robust mix can make you sound like you are belting, but without the vocal trauma associated with a high belt. To discover your belt voice, vocalize on hey and yeah.

In belt, the larynx is higher than the neutral, speech level position. The tone quality is bright and brassy, with lots of twang. Singers feel a sympathetic vibration in the mask or front of the face, with a  balance of chiaro (bright) and oscuro (dark) tones, leaning toward a brighter timbre. Belters often smile to activate higher first formant frequencies. The tongue is usually flat and vowels are modified to open vowels.

The quintessential belter of today’s theater world is Idina Menzel.

Legit Musical Theatre Style: This is basically the same as classical singing but less dramatic than opera. It requires a lower larynx position than belt, a more raised velum or soft palate, more consistent vibrato, a darker tone quality, and a wider pharynx or throat space.

Avoid nasality in the tone by maintaining a raised soft palate (but don’t tense the soft palate). The feeling is of creating a large space in the mouth and throat, like you are about to yawn. The lips are slightly forward and the jaw is dropped, opening more for the higher pitches.

For women, classical or legit singing bridging occurs much earlier than it does in mixing or belting styles. The vowels are shaded darker, and the lip space tends to be smaller and more round.

For men, the sound is more virile and robust than most pop singing; a wider pharynx and lifted soft palate contribute to this quality. Male tenors also tend to employ more of the ring of the singer’s formant, F₃-F₅.

The use of constant vibrato is one of this style’s most prominent features. Constant vibrato does not work for the rock-musical style, but is absolutely appropriate in legit theatre singing style.

To develop the legit timbre, men vocalize on the Step Two Easy Call w[o]! exercise, and women  vocalize on the Step Three High Call w[u]-[i]!

Listen to Julie Andrews and John Raitt for good examples of legit theatre singers.

JAZZ STYLE

Jazz singers use many different kinds of vocal sounds, including the gravelly voice of Louis Armstrong, the bright trumpet-like vocal quality and scat singing of Ella Fitzgerald, the almost classical sounds of Sarah Vaughan, the nasal and iconic quality of Billie Holiday, the R&B influenced riffing of George Benson, and the more contemporary vocal quality of Diana Krall and Harry Connick Jr.

Improvisational ability is important, particularly in scat singing where the voice is meant to sound like an instrument while vocalizing on various syllables.

Vibrato is often delayed, employing a straight tone followed by a release into vibrato.

Some jazz is soft and intimate, sung with a small combo, and other jazz is brassy and bright and uses large big band orchestrations for accompaniment.

Most jazz singers (other than Sarah Vaughan) use a very conversational vocal tone and model vibrato styles to imitate instruments such as the trumpet. Frank Sinatra is an example of a jazz singer who used a very conversational vocal sound.

Breathy singing for intimate jazz songs creates a mood; Marilyn Monroe, though not a great singer, was very adept at the breathy and intimate quality of a jazz ballad. Flora Purim’s breathy vocal sound was effective in the Brazilian styles of Jobim such as The Girl from Ipanema.

The most important elements in jazz are phrasing and rhythm. Jazz singers seldom sing on the downbeat as rock singers tend to do; instead, they back-phrase (start the phrase late), incorporating rubato (robbing the time) and syncopated rhythms.

Individualism and interpretation make renditions of the standards of jazz singing (the songs that everyone knows and sings) unique. Changing rhythmic phrasing patterns, melody, adding riffs, runs, and scatting are jazz conventions.

Jazz is one vocal idiom where vocalists often sustain pitches on consonants; for example:  I llllllllllllovvvvvvvvvvve the mannnnnnnnnnnnnn too mmmmmmuch.

The Great American Songbook and the Vocal Real Book are collections of jazz standards for singers.

POP STYLE

Pop, short for popular, is the style of music that most of the general public tend to listen to and enjoy. It is very conversational on the lower pitches. However, the great pop singers of today also can sing high, loud, and hard with a strong upper register mix. Pop singers can be very soulful; riffing, a cross-over from gospel and R&B is becoming standard in pop singing.

Vibrato is less prevalent in pop music; however, there are some types of vibrato in pop that would not be acceptable in other idioms (such as tremolo). Delayed vibrato is common, as are straight tones.

Pop music incorporates many genres, from R&B to rock to country. If you want to be a great pop singer, start by listening to and imitating the artists from previous eras.

Etta James, Sam Cooke, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Linda Ronstadt, Eva Cassidy, Aretha Franklin, Eva Cassidy, and Whitney Houston were all wonderful singers who influenced today’s artists such as Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, and Celine Dion.

Pop music also includes some artists who are less gifted vocally but are great songwriters, such as Bob Dylan. These artists are singer-songwriters. If their songs are loved, the singer is accepted and loved.

ROCK STYLE

To be a rock singer you need power, stamina, angst, and energy. The band is loud and usually guitar-driven. This style can be very challenging for vocalists because of the constantly high stage volumes as well as the lifestyle.

You can replace a guitar string, but you can’t replace your fragile vocal folds! You cannot out-sing electricity (sing louder than the band can play with amplification), and it is foolish to try to do so.

Maintaining moderate volume and air pressure, even when you are acting as if you are really “working it”, is the key to longevity in rock.

Rock singing often includes distortion such as screams and growls. Again, the key here is to not push the air; a smart singer will be very moderate about volume and air pressure levels. Make good use of the microphone and amplification and employ a great sound engineer who will mix the voice and instruments well, both out front and in the stage monitors. A good stage mix is essential.

In rock, vibrato is often non-existent or minimal. However, there are great rock singers, like Freddie Mercury of Queen, who use vibrato mindfully.  Pat Benatar, Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, and Heart led the way for female singers in hard rock singing. These artists all had wonderful vibrato.

Rock singing is very vocally demanding (I know; I used to sing in rock bands 5 or 6 nights a week for 5 hours a night in LA. And those places were smoke-filled dens of iniquity!).

A rock singer needs to have a really good foundation in vocal technique, do a good warm-up every day, and stay away from smoking, drugs, and alcohol if they want their voice to last. They need a powerful mix and bright, ringing, powerful vocal tone.

For harder rock singing, the abdominal muscles might be more active, to provide support or appoggio. The 360-Degree Singer’s Breath and Appoggio are discussed in Step One of the Eight Steps of Vocal Development

A tickle in the throat indicates too much air-blow. Back off the air pressure to get a better balance between the vocal folds and air.

Keep the throat and neck muscles relaxed and maintain good posture; avoid jutting the head forward toward the mic when playing guitar or keyboards while singing. A boom stand is helpful. Thrusting the head forward prevents the larynx from functioning efficiently.

Staying hydrated is vitally important; drink at least 100 oz of water a day.

A great way to get the feel of singing rock styles is to vocalize on a siren (upward slide) on ny[æ] from the lowest to highest note in the range without letting the voice crack or break.

Try it on [ae] with the tongue out of the mouth, resting on the lower lip. Practice this until it is smooth! The Power exercises in Step Seven are great for rock singers.

R&B STYLE

R&B means Rhythm and Blues. This style evolved from the blues, gospel, and spirituals. A good R&B stylist will do their homework by listening to and imitating the great blues singers such as B.B King, Muddy Waters, Son House, Willie Dixon, Ma Rainey, and the more recent Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bobby Blue Bland, and Victoria Spivey.

Gospel singers to listen to and imitate are Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Yolanda Adams, The Staple Singers, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Oleta Adams, Billy Preston, Patti Labelle (who had huge success in pop), Mary Mary, and Donny Hathaway.

Listen to R&B greats such as Etta James, Mary J Blige, Mariah Carey, Usher, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Luther Vandross, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, Sam Cooke, Percy Sledge, Brian McKnight, and Otis Redding.

These artists are masters of phrasing, soul, and style.

A good R&B or gospel singer can execute riffs and runs rapidly and with good intonation. Riffs and runs are based on the pentatonic and blues scales. R&B is a style where “feel” is paramount. Singers absorb feel by listening, listening, listening, and then imitating what the great singers do.

Sometimes we encounter singers who are reluctant to imitate other singers because they are afraid they will sound like someone else.  Don’t worry, you will never sound exactly like anyone else, but your own style will develop out of listening to and imitating other great singers.

That’s what those singers did to become great!

COUNTRY STYLE

There are many variations of country singers, from traditional singers like Loretta Lynn to the pop crossover singers like Carrie Underwood, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Taylor Swift. Country songs usually are about telling great stories, so the singing style is very conversational.

Female artists with a more traditional country sound include Dolly Parton, a great songwriter, who has a lighter voice with tremolo, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn.

Allison Kraus sings with a very breathy, light tone that works well on songs like When You Say Nothing At All.

Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Tanya Tucker, and Wynona Judd are female country singers who can also sing a more aggressive rock sound.

Patsy Cline had one of the great voices of all time, similar to early Judy Garland. K.D. Lang is another Garland-like country singer with perhaps another of the greatest voices of all time.

Many of the male singers in the country genre, like Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, and Rascal Flats have great high ranges, singing well in their upper register mix. Others, like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard (both traditional country singers), sing only in the low ranges.

Normally when we sustain vowels on a pitch, we try to avoid diphthong travesties, but for authentic country singing, diphthong travesties abound. Traditional country singers use more nasality in their sound, emphasize secondary diphthong vowels (whyeeeee-ohoooooo-whyeeeee), and never pronounce final G’s (singin’ instead of singing).

Vowels are usually pronounced very open and wide.  The word I’m, for example, becomes am.

The retroflex R is also emphasized in country singing. A country singer would sing My hearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt while an opera singer would delay the retroflex R as long as possible: My haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (rt).

Many country singers write their own songs; when visiting Nashville (the songwriter’s mecca), you will constantly hear the phrase It’s all about the song.

Becoming a great songwriter can often be a singer/songwriter’s ticket to fame, as it was for Taylor Swift, who was not a great singer when she started but had a great gift for writing songs that young girls (and their moms) could relate to.

DEVELOPING A UNIQUE STYLE THROUGH IMITATION

Every vocal style has its language of inflections, melismas or riffs, mannerisms, and traditions acquired by imitation.  Spend lots of time listening to and imitating artists of all eras, not just the current stars, to build and develop a unique vocal style of your own.

Singers with solid and developed vocal technique- a strong lower register, a strong upper register mix, a good connection between the registers, the ability to sustain pitch with vibrato, power, vocal flexibility, and good pitch-can imitate any artist.

Develop these skills by working through the Eight Steps of Vocal Development, including the Basic Riffs and Runs in Step Eight, and then listen to other artists, trying to imitate exactly what those artists are doing.

When the voice is developed and working well, you will be able to execute the same stylistic devices, high notes, runs, emotion, and authenticity that successful artists have at their disposal. After that, it’s a matter of immersing yourself in a particular style so much that it becomes who you are, like an actor who immerses him or herself in character.

Style is like a spoken language. Babies and children imitate sounds they hear when learning to speak- that’s how they acquire language. But every adult has a unique way of putting those sounds and words and phrases together to express and communicate in their own way.

Similarly, as musicians and singers, we acquire the language of the music we are drawn toward. No two singers ever sound exactly alike; every singer uses the building blocks of riffs, runs, scales, and other style conventions in their own unique way to express emotion and to communicate with an audience.

You can develop your own vocal style by:

• Developing your vocal instrument to its full potential. Vocalize every day and make vocalizing on exercises a priority.
• Listen, listen, listen to all kinds of music. Try to learn something from music that is not your current favorite.
• Imitate the greats. Imitate the phrasing, tone quality, dynamic control, riffs and runs, and consistency of the best singers. While singing along with them, record the practice session, and then analyze. This is how singers learn the tools of the trade.
• Experiment with many different styles, from jazz to R&B to country. You may not consider yourself an R&B singer, and you may not want to become one; however, picking up some of the nuances and idioms of the style will add immensely to your singing. Most music today is crossover, borrowing elements of other styles.
• Make your own choices. Once you have imitated and absorbed the conventions and style choices of other singers, it’s time to begin to make some interpretational choices of your own. Begin by identifying the emotion of the song. What feeling does the music inspire? Be specific. Then, make choices about how to portray that feeling. Does the emotion require want a brassy sound, a breathy quality? More intensity or more laid back in approach? What words should be highlighted? What about phrasing and feel? Where do you want to insert riffs, and why do you want to riff there?
• Create a mood with the voice, shading with vocal colors, dynamic contrasts. Experiment, using the texture and improvisational skills from Step Eight to make the song one of a kind.
• Don’t be afraid to sound bad. Think of it as a process of elimination. My favorite musical tenet is It’s better to be strong and wrong than light and right!