Classical or Jazz?
As much as I enjoy singing both these genres, there are important aspects in each that are very different from each other. It is a good idea to practise certain excersises to improve your voice!
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Classical / /
• Languages are a vital part of classical singing, and only practise of many pieces in different languages will improve your pronounciation.
♪ My particular favourite language to sing to French, and especially Fauré. There are many silent
letters and vowel pronounciations that are not as obvious as the words make out.
♪ German song, or lieder, is quite self explanatory when you see the words on the page. It can be a
mouthful to sing, therefore speaking the rhythm and pronounciation before adding then notes
would be a good idea. A vowel not found in English is the umlaut, literally meaning 'altered sound'.
This is where an a, o, au, or u has two dots on top like so: ä, ö. Another differentiation from English is
the ß, which is called the esszett letter. This is simply pronounced S.
♪ So far my experience with the Italian pieces is that it is the easiest. You sing the phenetic of the
words on the page,
Jazz / /
• Improvisation is key to any jazz standard, and practise of Jazz scales can help improve your improvisation skills.
♪ Begin by soloing during the instrumental parts of a Jazz standard piece, such as Summertime, or Straighten up and Fly Right.
♪ Learn your Jazz scales and blues notes. Improvisation is meant to be natural and can require an element of chance, however by practising improvisation with many different keys will improve your ear. You can sing any sounds or words, most commonly you would sing a combination of doo, ba bee, mm da etc.
