Calling all riffers, Mariah’s lambs and adventurers! Vocal agility is a question/topic I get asked to talk about quite often, so I decided to share some insights with you all.
Runs and riffs (patterns of notes usually performed in a quick succession and/or repetition) have been in music since the dawn of time. However they became a somewhat remarkable feature of music genres like R&B and Soul in the 19060s with the birth of the OG divas we all grew to love and appreciate. Nowadays, vocal agility is featured quite a lot in Pop music (to different degrees obviously) hence why it is a topic of interest.
From Aretha, Patty LaBelle, Donna Summer, Whitney and Chaka Khan to name a few… all the way to Mariah, Ariana Grande, Jessie J, Sam Smith, Alicia Keys, Xtina, Leona Lewis, Beyoncé… (list goes on as you can imagine); so the question I get the most is: HOW DO I DO IT? You can do it 5 simple steps.
– Isolate the riff/run you want to learn
– Slow down the song on YouTube through the speed tool so you can hear exactly what notes you should be singing
– Learn and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. It needs to be drilled in there!
– Once you get confident with it, speed it back up a little bit and see if you can still hit all the notes. Do not slide! Feel all the steps!
– Practice it day and night. It’s the usual muscle memory deal, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Now I know this process sounds quite tedious and boring, but fear not as I am leaving you in the super capable hands of Natalie Weiss. Natalie is a world-known singer, performer and vocal coach. She’s done A LOT, but one of her most amazing works is right on her YouTube channel where she started a whole series of videos called ‘Breaking down the riffs’. Every episode features a specific riff which she breaks down and teaches you the way to tackle it. I had the pleasure to meet and chat with Natalie and I assure you she is going to put some fun factor back in the mix. Enjoy! 😀
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS NATALIE’S YOUTUBE SERIES ‘BREAKING DOWN THE RIFFS’