Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
How do rock and pop vocalists sing differently from your average joe singers? There must be something different they do, otherwise fans wouldn’t pay millions of dollars to buy their merchandise. Read more to learn how to sing in tune like a rock star.
Sing in Tune Like a Rock Star: It Can Be Learned
So, you want to sing in tune like a rock star? Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a rock vocalist’s success relies on luck.
Many pop vocalists put in hours of practice to perfect their craft. Vocal coach Linda Septian comments, “Everybody said Jessica [Simpson] was a Texas girl who’d been singing in her church choir. That’s ridiculous – that girl worked to become the singer she was.
“They said [American Idol winner] Kelly Clarkson was a waitress, like she never sang before. Waitress? Excuse me? Kelly Clarkson was a singer – we all knew Kelly Clarkson. She had training, and she worked her tail off like anybody else does. She didn’t come from nowhere anymore than Jessica came from nowhere. It’s not magic, you know” (Daniel Coyle 183).
Part of a vocalist’s success comes from showmanship and knowing how to connect with the audience. However, star vocalists also use critical listening skills to help them learn from other vocalists. We will talk about these listening skills in today’s post.
For many vocalists, these skills have been acquired intuitively. They sing with “gut instinct.” However, these skills can be taught. We’ll use a classic rock ‘n roll song to show what you need to pay attention to when listening to pop and rock songs. Then, we’ll talk about how these skills can transfer into learning how to sing in tune using the Intonation Flight Simulator.
Sing in Tune Like a Rock Star: Melodic vs Harmonic Vocal Tuning
A lot of current ear training methods have the same problem: they use solfege. Solfege can be a good option for working on melodic intonation. However, it does nothing to help you learn how to harmonize in tune.
Gerald Eskelin sums this up well. “Somewhere is my music training, I got the impression that a scale was like a row of eggs on a shelf… we could sing them as do, re, mi, and so on” (15).
A few pages later, he describes the type of listening that has to happen when harmonizing. “Play a pitch in your medium-low singing range on a sustaining instrument, like an organ or a synthesizer. Choose a sound having a simple tone quality, like a flute or string sound and without vibrato. Now, match your voice to this pitch and then slide your voice very slowly, like a lazy siren, and listen to what happens. If you do it slowly and steadily, you will hear the relationships between the two sounds changing as your voice slides up.
“It’s a bit like tuning a station on a radio dial (the old fashioned ones that had a knob to turn, not buttons to push). As you arrive at each ‘local station’ it gradually comes into focus and then fades out of focus as you go past it. What you are experiencing is consonance and dissonance” (19).
We have three main tuning cues for harmonic intonation: beating, the buzz (or roughness) from consonance and dissonance, and note fusion.
So, what does this have to do with singing in tune like a rock star?
Buddy Holly and Singing in Tune Like a Rock Star
What to Listen For
When you tune harmonically, you don’t focus on the distance between the notes. (However, noticing the distance between the notes remains an important skill when working on melodic intonation.) When harmonizing or making you melody work with the accompaniment, you need to focus on how a note sounds.
Buzz, beats, and fusion remain important things to listen for, but may seem kind of academic to some singers. I called the post Sing in Tune Like a Rock Star, so what do vocalists actually listen for in rock songs?
In some ways, you can compare it to trying to imitate how somebody sounds, like actors do when they imitate a regional accent. As a kid, being a total Star Wars geek, and I used to love imitating C3PO’s voice. (I also did R2D2 by whistling and employing whistled multiphonics.) I spent hours listening to the first Star War radio drama.
C3PO Video
Buddy Holly
You must develop the ability to imitate vocal tone and inflection. This lies at the heart of singing in tune like a rock star (or even just getting a good vocal tone). For today’s example, we have the song That’ll be the Day by Buddy Holly.
If you listen closely to the video below, you can hear him doing a lot of vocal inflections. Generally, on the song as a whole, he sings with a hyper extended soft pallet. This gives the song that early rock ‘n roll sound.
In the chorus, on the words “yes” and “cry” he does a little vocal ornament. He augments this by dropping his jaw and bringing it up very quickly twice.
In the first verse, he sings very lightly, but still with his throat wide open in the back. Also, he has his voice catch on words and phrases: “turtle doving,” “all your hugs and kisses,” “well,” and “still.”
Now your turn – listen to the rest of That’ll be the Day and try to absorb how Holly sings the song. When you think you’ve got it, record yourself performing the song. When your recording sounds like Holly’s, you’ve mastered it.
Listen to artists like Axel Rose, Elvis, Michael Jackson and his sister Janet, they all do these sorts of things. When you listen to singers, ask yourself questions about their tone and vibrato. Do they use any special inflections or breath effects? How do they phrase the song, i.e., where do they take breaths? Think about how they sing the vowels and consonants. Drink in the entirety of the sound.
Buddy Holly Video
Concluding Thoughts on Singing in Tune Like a Rock Star
You may ask, “What does this have to do with singing in tune like a rock star?” The ability to focus on sound in this way is what the best singers do. They pay attention to the little details of what they’re singing. Some of the things, like in the Buddy Holly song, have more to do with the interpretation. However, these same skills will be important for tuning as you focus on buzz, beats, and note fusion.
Therefore, working with the song tracks in the Intonation Flight Simulator helps work on your harmonizing skills, (even if the tracks don’t particularly sound like rock). The sing-along soundtracks have been geared toward singers, but violin, woodwind, and brass players who struggle with intonation will find them helpful as well.
The sing-along soundtracks in the Intonation Flight Simulator create sound models that balance harmonic and melodic intonation. Once you understand what to listen for and have diligently practiced with the soundtracks, you’ll be able to sing in tune. Have fun singing!
© 2022 Geoffrey Keith
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