With the steps described in this post, you can sing ANY song you want! Rock, Pop, MPB, Sertanejo, Musical Theater, Lyrics etc
Sometimes we receive contacts from grooms or brides who want to surprise their partner and sing at their wedding. Then they ask us: I’m going to sing (1) one song only at my wedding, how long will it take to learn to sing a single song?
And our answer is always: it depends! It depends on the facilities and difficulties that the person already has and also on the difficulty of the music. But we emphasize that our goal here is to solve the vocal difficulties of the person as a whole so that he can sing ANY song and not just the ones he is practicing in class.
We usually work on repertoire from the second class onwards. For this, we test your voice in the first class, in addition to asking about your goals, references, preferred style and availability to study outside of class hours. We also asked for an initial list of about 5 songs. We took all this information and chose (together – vocal coach and student) the first song.
Well, has the class finally arrived where you’ll be working on music? Great! Let’s go to the steps:
- Musical Aspects
- Technical Aspects
- Aspects of Style and Interpretation
What do we mean by musical aspects? Simply pitch (notes) and rhythms. The question you should ask yourself here is: am I singing all the notes and rhythms in the song coherently? Original music should always be a guide here. No: “Ah, but I sing like that!” Or else: “This is my version”. Choices of this type will be made in item 3 and, if you allow me, they should be reserved for more experienced singers.
Here comes the question: but how will I know if I’m singing the right notes and rhythms? Well, here I will leave another post that talks about the importance of ear training. Login here .
There’s even a musicians joke about it! There is a legend that one of Bach’s assistants, after listening to his teacher (Johann Sebastian himself) play a piece of music well and repeatedly failing to do so, asked: “How do you manage to play so well?” and he replied, “Play the right notes at the right time!”
Sounds silly, but by doing this, you’re pretty close to singing the song well. We need to put aside a little in the first two items that phrase that everyone said one day, but few know the meaning: “Music is emotion!”. I say that to hit the notes, the rhythms and the technical aspects there is none of that!
Well then what are the technical aspects?
Basically (mostly for popular music): if you’re reaching the lows and highs of the music with a certain amount of comfort. For this, vocal technique exercises play a fundamental role in increasing both your range and your comfort zone in singing. Note that an adjustment here can help with tuning (notes that are too high or too low). So these first two items are not necessarily linear.
For your health and vocal longevity, it’s not yet time to think: the original singer is doing it with distortion (torn/drive). Or anything of that sort. Worry about being comfortable when performing that or those songs in your repertoire.
Finally, comes what everyone likes: interpretation and style. Once the notes, rhythms and technical aspects have been resolved, try to relate them to the song’s lyrics and also incorporate some specific traits of the style to which the song belongs.
“Style is more caught than thaught”, as my master Brett Manning says, “style is more “caught” (absorbed) than taught. Here, then, the main recommendation is to listen a lot and try to “take” (yes, this is not just for instrumentalists, especially in styles that have great complexity of phrases and melismas) many songs of the style(s) that interest you most. ) you.
After following these 3 steps, I guarantee that you will impress a lot of people with the songs you sing!