What’s the proper term used to describe the parts of songs that go for e.g, la la la, doo wop doo wop, etc…?
If it’s Jazz, then the term is “scat,”
No, it’s not scat. I think that’s a genre more than a technical term.
Scat is improvised singing, basically like a vocal solo.
Your thinking more like "la la la"s that are structured like:
Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye
That sort of thing?
Or,
There she was just-a walking down the street singing
Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo.
If it’s the names of the notes, it’s solfege. I may not have spelled it right.
Yesh, solfege. Also: solmization.
Nonsense syllables.
Solfege refers to Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do, etc. where each syllable is assigned to either[ul][li]a number of the scale (1=Do, 2=Re, whether or not 1 is pitch C), or[*]a fixed note set like Do=pitch C, Re=pitch D, etc.[/ul]The first kind is called “movable Do,” the second, “fixed Do.”[/li]
Scat singing is when a vocalist ad libs nonsense syllables in a jazz improvising manner, sort of like a sax player might do, but having the added possibilities voice provides. I would not call “fa la la” scat or solfege.
Tommy Smothers once claimed that Fa la la’s were invented because the medieval madrigal singers didn’t know the words or were covering up dirty ones, but I have a feeling he was doing a comedy bit.
I don’t really understand the difference in your examples but I don’t think structure plays a part in the use of the term.
The one and only time I heard the use of this term was by Paul McCartney on the radio when asked by the DJ if those la la la’s, or na na na’s, etc used in Beatles somgs had a proper word for it.
There wasn’t meant to be a difference between the examples. They were both supposed to be examples where the nonsense syllables were carefully written into the song as opposed to scat which is improvised and may be different each time the song is played.
I’ve only heard it referred to (as Musicat writes) as nonsense syllables or scat singing (if it is of an improvisatory nature). The nonsense parts of “Minnie the Moocher” would be a popular, if not completely archetypal, example of scat singing. Scat singing need not be only in a jazz context–it may exist in other musical forms as well. It’s also popular to “scat” a melody during an improvised instrumental solo, but I’m starting to veer outside of the OP’s question.
You might be thinking about Doo Wop. Shang a lang, shang a lang a ding dong; Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom; Ba ba ba, ba babra Ann; Shing, shang, shing a ling a ding dong; Doo be doo be doo; Doo be doo wop; Ba da, ba dada da; Tutti frutti, oh rooti…
There’s more to Doo Wop than just syllables. It is typically a simple chord progression as well.
Doo Wop is not typically improvised in a performance, but scat is.
Filler: a thing or substance used to fill a gap, cavity, or the like.
There’s a (primarily) jazz variant called vocalese.
Or, as I like to put it, the songwriter was too lazy to think of an actual lyric, so he wrote “la la la la …”
I remember attending church when I was a kid, and instead of hymns we sang these little “praise choruses”. Many of these were simple little ditties with only four or five lines of lyrics. Because they were so short, we’d repeat them over and over and over. After the seventh repetition, the songleader would realize he was getting tired of singing the same thing over and over, but the song was still too short, so he’d say, “Sing la’s”, and then we’d repeat it again, replacing each syllable with “la”. Then for the next repetition we’d hum the tune, and then finally repeat the lyrics one last time.
This was a big part of why, when I was finally old enough to pick my own church, I started attending a traditional church that sang hymns.
I’d go on, but I’m probably off-topic enough as it is.
I knew this once. The Smothers Brothers explained it once in relation to the Chrstimas song Deck The Halls. Sorry, I can’t pull it into memory.
How about those alternating lines in old madrigal songs like “Cruel Sister?” They are the same set of lines repeated over and over in each verse, and move the plot along not at all. Any special term for those?