In order to build a creative vocal performance, you need to sing intelligently. Intelligent singing is the process of planning your song, interpreting the lyrics and melody, mapping out how you are going to express your ideas creatively. It's about taking responsibility for your ideas and making them work in your own unique way. No one has your voice or can say what you want to say better than you.
A great way to look at performing a song is imagining the song as a blank canvas, your voice is the paintbrush and the vocal nuances are the colours you use. Vocal nuances are the shades and textures of sounds you use to create your own version of a song. If you only have one colour or shade your painting will be one dimensional, why not paint in glorious Technicolor! Ultimately we sing to express ourselves, show an emotion and tell a story. It must be noted that every vocal nuance must come from a place of emotion and that using these nuances allows you to relay your individual emotional interpretation.
Here are just a few of the vocal nuances you can use; the list of creative ways we can use our voice is endless. Listen to your favourite artists and work out what it is that they do that makes them stand out to you.
Dynamics – Dynamics are vital to the expression of a song. Dynamics describe the volume of how you perform the piece. When preparing a song to think about each phrase and what you can do to bring it alive:
Could it be loud or soft? How does the difference in volume make you feel?
Could it crescendo (get gradually louder) or diminuendo (get gradually softer)?
These dynamic queues are very powerful in music, can really bring a piece to life and good performance will generally have a mix of different volumes throughout.
Articulation – Articulation refers to the pronunciation of words and formation of clear, coherent sounds. The way you enunciate the words can affect the style and emotion you are trying to express.
Could the music be sung Legato (smoothly) or staccato (short and sharp)?
Do you use the consonants in the words to make it sound percussive? Michael Jackson is an artist who is great at using percussive sound in the performance of his song.
Melodic Modification – Within most musical theatre, choral music and classical music you are you are mostly required to sing what the sheet music asks. However, in solo singing particularly working within the pop, jazz, and modern musical theatre styles improvisation and playing around the melody can be encouraged. When working within a choir, setting any modifications have to be worked out together as a team because what each member is singing affects how another member sings their part.
Check out how the Civil Wars change this version of Billy Jean to make it their own both melodically and rhythmically. As you can hear a small change can make a huge difference.
Tone – When you sing you have your natural tone caused by the shape of the resonant spaces in your body but you can also use these spaces in a variety of ways to produce different tones. Here are some examples:
Nasal – Kristin Chenoweth and Nina Simone often use nasal tone.
2. Breathy – Birdie uses a breathy tone to express her music.
3. Full/warm tone – Adele uses a warm chesty resonance and round vowels a lot in her music
Vowel Modification – Playing with the shape of vowels not only makes it easier for you to sing certain notes but also can affect how you portray a song.
Listen to Felicia Ricci’s modification of Silent Night. The first version uses rounder open vowels to produce a musical theatre style version and the shows rolling open to closed diphthongs that make it more poppy.
Adele has a very specific way of rounding her vowels that make everything she sings truly her own whereas Katy Perry tends to close on the end of her vowels.
Diction – Diction is a very important feature of musical theatre singing. If you are telling a story it is vital that the audience know what you are saying.
Having said that many pop singers like Sia use little diction and this again defines her style.
Vibrato – Vibrato is that wobble that you often hear with singers at the end of a note. Vibrato can really define a voice. The track below shows you some different examples: Amanda Seyfried who has light and fast vibrato singing “A Heart Full of Love” from Les Mis, Ella Fitzgerald with a slower jazz style vibrato singing “Summertime”, RAYE with a modern style pop vibrato singing “By Your Side”, Dominic Cooper singing with no vibrato in “Lay All Your Love On Me” from Mamma Mia and last of all Maria Callas Opera style vibrato in “Madame Butterfly.”
Flip – Flipping between head and chest voice is a technique that has been popular in recent years. An example is Ella Henderson, who regularly uses this technique.
Whistle – Whistle is a higher part of range used by singers demonstrated by Minnie Riperton.
Scoops - Scooping the notes is mostly used in Jazz singing. Frank Sinatra uses this to define his tone.
Growl – Growl is exactly what it sounds like. Think of Christina Aguilera
Creak/Vocal Fry – Make the sound of the grudge. Now use that to start a note. Britney uses this technique a lot.
Riffs and Runs – A riff in singing (unlike a guitar riff) is an often improvised quickly moving melodic modification. Jessie J is the perfect example of an artist who has mastered riffs and runs.
Belt – Often characterised by musical theatre singers which sounds as if the chest voice has been brought up above the passagio at a loud volume. This sound can be achieved technically in many different ways however most modern singers prefer using a strong, mixed register as it is a much healthier way of singing.
