How do they do it? I mean, take Whitney’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton. She does some amazing vocal acrobatics. And Stevie Wonder–I was at a concert of his recently where he showed off some melismatic stuff by playing a “Can you match this vocal run?” with his backup singers. So my question is, how do they do it? I often hear these melismas based on pentatonic scales, or blues, or Mixolydian modes. How are these singers able to think that fast what notes they want to sing in a run? Is it something that comes with practice? Or do they just open their mouths and the “right notes” come out? It’s incredible how accurate they can be, but my question revolves around if it is something learned or natural. Is there thought involved in that or are they just really lucky to find the right notes?
Thanks,
Dave
Like everything else . . . practice, practice, practice. I doubt much of it is spontaneous.
While there may be some natural vocal talent to begin with (tone deaf people need not apply, yanno), people who make a career out of music spend hours of every day of their lives practicing. Whether the instrument is a piano, violin, or vocal cords. Vocals, especially, get out of shape when not exercised constantly. Even in her darkest drug addled moments, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that Whitney was at least running scales every day.
You can do a YouTube search for “training riffs and runs” or “vocal warm ups” and see what vocalists do just to get started for the day.
Hours, of every day, of their entire lives. That’s a lot of practice!
Always a combo of nature and nurture. I have every confidence that they put thousands of hours into their craft.
But some folks have a bigger spark to work with. I have a mediocre voice; when I sing with someone who has a naturally-gorgeous timbre (i.e., tone profile/basic sound), or can lock into harmonies easily, or toss in a melisma at the right spot, it just floors me.
Folks like Stevie and Whitney were born with Nature talent, and steeped in a Gospel tradition from the cradle. When they started singing, it’s no surprise that they focused on that technique over others, adding Nurture.
As for “rules” - I am sure growing up in a Gospel tradition tunes a person’s ear towards the harmony intervals favored there. I am sure they go there first when dropping a melisma in.
To be sure there’s a lot of practice involved, but there’s no reason why those runs can’t be spontaneous. When jazz singers scat it is spontaneous (by definition), but it can’t be done well without practice/experience.