Episode 4. The 3 Keys to Creating Authentic Vocal Style In Any Genre

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Have you ever been working on a song and thought, “This doesn’t sound right?” 

Maybe you picked a rock song like “Out Tonight” from RENT, but it’s not rockin’ at all. Or you’re working on “In My Own Little Corner” from Cinderella, but it’s sounding too contemporary.

How do you make it sound more authentic to the genre?

There are really only three components you have to think about to make a song sound authentic to its genre: onset, sustain, and release. 

Put more simply, each genre of singing has certain ways of starting a note, sustaining a note, and releasing a note.  This episode looks into these elements in more detail and gives you a list of techniques, like a painter’s color palette, to choose from.

Once you learn the different options and use them appropriately, every song you sing will sound “right.”

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TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

  1. The 3 keys to singing any genre and sounding authentic are exactly the same as the keys to good storytelling: you must have a beginning, middle, and end.

  2. Each genre of singing has certain ways of starting a note, sustaining a note, and releasing a note.  Once you learn the different options and use them appropriately, every song you sing will sound “right.” 

  3. One of the biggest hurdles to singing different genres is the clean, balanced, beautiful tone you’ve achieved for musical theatre singing.   Your work is to let a variety of vocal colors and speech habits back into your voice so that you can sound more casual, street, and most importantly, rockin.’ 

  4. Sustaining notes and phrases deals with both a) the tone quality you’re singing with and b) how you handle the diction of your words (i.e. the vowels and consonants)

  5. Rock singing is NOT lazy singing or just sloppy diction.  There are very specific choices being made to soften or modify diction, and there are still a lot of very clear consonants and open vowels like traditional theatre singing!

  6. How you release your note is one of the most overlooked elements of style.  Decide whether you’ll fade your note or stick the landing; whether you’ll sing your voiced consonant or release it with a breathy exhale.  Once you make these decisions, you’ll be living more authentically in the vocal style of your choosing.

  7. The more you listen to a variety of genres, the more vocal style colors you’ll be able to emulate.

  8. Every singer has a go-to style that their voice is naturally suited to and that they love to sing in. That’s great!  But, if you want to work consistently, you should also develop a facility in a variety of genres. 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

ONSET:

  • 3 Most Common: Aspirate, Glottal, and Coordinated

  • Growl – Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter,” Jennifer Holliday singing “And I Am Telling You” from Dreamgirls,

  • Vocal Fry – Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” Meghan Trainor “All About That Bass,” Demi Lovato, Tori Kelly,

  • Scoop

  • Whine/Cry

SUSTAIN: TONE

  • Chest vs Head

  • Clean pure tone

  • Breathy/Airy

  • Vibrato vs Straight Tone – especially straight tone on Spring Awakening songs: “The Bitch of Living” and “Totally Fucked”

  • Twang or Bright

  • Nasal

  • Brassy – “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Gotta Get a Gimmick” from Gypsy

  • Rasp – Demi Lovato, Tori Kelly, Brandi Carlile, Janis Joplin, Bryan Adams, Richard Marx, Michael Bolton, Daphne Rubin-Vega the original Mimi in Rent

  • Distortion – Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter,” Janis Joplin, Ed Sheeran “Thinking Out Loud”

SUSTAIN: DICTION

  • Dipthongs – “Out Tonight” from Rent, “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” by Cutting Crew

  • Sliding/Portamento –  Julie Andrews singing “A Lovely Night” from Cinderella, “White Christmas”

  • Wider/Spread Vowels

RELEASE:

  • Will you fade the note or sustain to the end?

  • How will you handle a final voiced consonant?

  • How strongly will you hit your final unvoiced consonant?

  • Close Diphthong

  • Fall – Sara Bareilles “Brave,” “Defying Gravity” from Wicked,

  • Breathe release – the final note of “Who Am I” from Les Miserables,

Thank you so much for listening!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow me on Instagram @studyingthesong,

If you want to contact me directly, you can email me at studyingthesong@gmail.com.

xo,

Korrie

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