What's My Style?

Jeannie Deva

Some singers seem to fall into it automatically, while others, like kids in a candy store, seem to have too many items from which to choose, and so are left in a perpetual state of indecision. Is there some way of selecting, of narrowing down the playing field and of being sure? Is it true that you have to do only one kind of music? To fully develop yourself as a singer, concentration on vocal technique is not enough. Communicating to your audience in a style that is natural for you is just as necessary.

Style is an important topic to fully explore. No matter what the musical genre, it is essential for you to be able to express and communicate your own individuality through your voice and performance. Your musical and performance choices will ultimately depend on your understanding of what you want to create as a performer. As with most everything, there are a lot of people who have a lot of “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” on this subject. In this several part series, we will examine the choices and the development of personal style as a singer. It’s my aim to supply you with food for thought, guidelines, and techniques to help make this process easier and faster.

Imitator versus Innovator

There is a fine line that separates studying other singer’s licks and becoming a clone, versus synthesizing those sounds for your own use and interpretation. It's fine to study what other singers do in order to enhance your sound vocabulary, but that’s different than trying to be like them. Singing the blues sounding like an opera singer doesn’t work in my book. But singing the blues and consciously or unconsciously trying to sound like Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Bonnie Raitt or Robert Plant, is like jailing yourself behind someone else who already had their chance. Well, now it’s your turn! Being aware of the sounds that are currently selling in a certain musical genre is one thing. Trying to mold your own expression just to do what’s “in” is, to me, the antithesis of being an artist, especially in Rock n’ Roll, the music best known for its nonconformist spirit. The point is, artists create new ideas and herald the future. The more we try to imitate and fit within the “status quo” the more we undermine our own being and dreams.

As a singer, you are creating something. But if you are imitating, you are actually re-creating. You will always be compared to the original. The person who first created it was the one who did it best, so you would always be second-best. Not satisfying. While in a recording studio, I heard someone tell the singer to sing the line and pretend she was Whitney Houston. This is like telling someone to be someone else because who you are is inadequate.  If a person is having difficulty with the performance or execution of a song, they should be helped to work through any technical difficulties first, and then to get in touch with their own interpretation of the song.

Recently, I had the experience of working with a songwriter who never really considered himself a good singer. For fear his voice wasn’t good enough, he subconsciously tried to sound like certain singers he admired. His word pronunciation sounded pretentious (because it wasn’t him) and though his material was fabulous, his delivery muted the beauty and impact of every song. I spent time with him working on how he would say each line if he was just conversing with someone, or talking to himself. While doing so, I urged him to notice how he was naturally pronouncing the words.

Though sung articulation can be an exaggeration of spoken pronunciation, getting in touch with your natural pronunciation can be centering. It will also help you find “your voice” for a particular song and can be used as a remedy when having difficulty finding yourself within a song. As we continued to work in this manner, talking then singing each song, he began to recognize each artist he was attempting to mimic, and that he was trying to hide behind their identities. These realizations further freed him up and he found he could begin to deliver the songs from himself to his audience. The difference in audience response and the increased number of gigs he was asked to headline was the obvious payoff. But the other payoff was a rise of his self esteem, a sense of comfort, honesty and integrity as a performing artist.

Being yourself is your style!

Mick Jagger once sang “it’s the singer, not the song.” Knowing yourself, your strengths and your artistic goals, has a great deal to do with your style. No matter how much technique you have, or how large your repertoire is, neither can substitute for good, direct contact with your audience. The intention to establish communication with your audience is key to your success as a singer and performer. How you express yourself is unique because you are you, no one else. Here are a few techniques you can use to practice.

1) Choose a song that you know from memory. Speak the lyrics as though you were really talking to someone. Avoid sing‑songy or rhythmic chanting and really try to tell a story as if you were talking to a friend right at this moment. You can also employ a method used by actors and actresses: If these were my words, why would one phrase follow the next? Develop your own meaning or story line for the lyrics so that they make sense to you. Approaching the lyrics this way will also help you with memorization, and is essential for achieving your own interpretation of the song.

2) Now choose an object in your environment. Using the lyrics you just talked through, sing the song as though you were talking directly to this object. If your attention wavers from the object onto the pitch (thinking up or down), or any of the mechanics of vocal technique, repeat that part until you can sing the entire song with your attention directed straight to the object. Take note of any realizations and successes you have while doing this.

How you naturally express yourself, is the keystone to your style. The more flexible you are emotionally and the more versatile you are vocally, the broader your choices. For example; a shy person is not likely to give a convincing heavy metal performance. A singer with a one octave range would not be able to meet the demands of today's R&B. This is not to say people can’t change - they can. Range can be expanded with proper vocal development, and there are ways of opening up a person emotionally. Nonetheless, assessing yourself and your current attributes is a place to start from, and as you develop, so will your choices. Artists of conscience use as well, one other criteria in determining their style and material.

Achieving Audience Response

You are probably aware of the fact that, as a singer and performer, you elicit response from your audience. But is your show creating the kinds of responses you feel good about? If your answer is yes, I hope you have determined what it is you do that creates the effect(s) you want. This assessment will not only point out aspects of your style, but it is important to know what you are doing right so as not to abandon it. You may find that you change certain aspects of your performance to suit your audience and size of venue. In your assessment, this could be noted as “able to be appropriate and sensitive to audience differences.”

Music and performers have emotional effects on audiences. If the effect is appreciated, the audiences will buy your CDs and frequent your shows. If the effect is one that you like being responsible for, you will have high moral, and feel good about yourself. The development of style, just as that of a career, does not have to be haphazard, mindless, or dependent entirely upon luck. Nor does it have to be synthetic or dis-passionately calculated.

Phrasing And Style

Style is intimately intertwined with phrasing. This in turn, is intimately connected to your interpretation of the song. Take the time to make decisions regarding the kinds of feelings you want to emote, and the experience you want to create for your audience. What do you want to say to them? What effect do you want to have on them? Let's examine some of the musical details that go into this.

To create your own unique style of phrasing, there are a number of aspects you need to be aware of and make choices about: the words you emphasize; where you pause; the rhythm you give your words; your choice of dynamics across each line or on a given word; the way you articulate your words; which words and syllables you choose to embellish and the manner in which you embellish them; how you do or don’t use vibrato; and how you use different tonal qualities.

A word can be given emphasis through singing it higher, louder, accenting it rhythmically, sustaining it, embellishing it, or slowly adding vibrato. For instance, when you stress a syllable, word, or phrase by accenting it with volume, or by sustaining a word or syllable, you can create a completely different mood. Say each of the following examples aloud, placing the stress on each underlined word, to hear the difference. You make me feel brand new. You make me feel brand new. You make me feel brand new. Which way seems most appropriate to you? Continue experimenting with this phrase by saying it several more times, changing the accented word. Now try singing the phrase while adding melodic embellishments to some of the words. Try inserting some pauses between words. It can be useful to listen to other artists for ideas you can then add to your own vocabulary of sounds and phrasing approaches.

Phrasing Guidelines

Unless you are being hired to sing cover-songs exactly the way the original artist recorded them, you can, and should, find your own interpretation of each song you perform. There are no rules other than basic musical guidelines like singing in tune, and keeping your melody suitable to the chordal harmonies played in the accompaniment. Other than that, use whatever conveys your message.

Rhythm

Rhythmic precision is an important part of vocal control and will influence style. For example, choices of which word or words you sustain or sing quickly, execute smoothly or haltingly, should spring from your interpretation and emotion.

Embellishments

Embellishments must be practiced so that they are executed exactly. To accomplish this, certainty about the melodic notes and which vowel to sing is essential. The vowel pronunciation can remain the same through an embellishment or change as the notes do. But if you make the mistake of singing an embellishment on a consonant instead of a vowel, the embellishment will not sound as good as it could, and will not be as comfortable to execute. To enhance your embellishment ideas, listen to other singers as well as embellishments used by instrumentalists such as guitarists, horn players, and blues or jazz violinists and harmonica players.

Dynamics

Staying at one volume without change can tend to make a song boring, emotionally monotone and less believable. Music at its best, is a universal language that can convey energy and emotion. Sometimes you can create quite an impact if, as the song hits its melodic or dynamic peak, you pull back on your volume. Aretha Franklin used this approach on some of her early albums.

Vibrato Versus Straight Tone

Vibrato can be used on the last half of a sustained note at the end of a phrase. This technique can enhance the emotion of the song. You can even reverse this by moving from a full vibrato into a pure or straight tone. (This is the sound of your voice without vibrato.) If you aren't certain how to create a straight tone, sing the word ‘send’ on any pitch, and sustain the note on the ‘eh’ vowel. Think the vowel forward just a bit, adding a touch of tension on the vocal folds, without straining. Then try going back and forth between straight tone and vibrato. Once you’ve mastered this, experiment with other vowels and areas of your vocal range. By varying the width and speed of your vibrato, you can create many different textures and effects.

Objectivity

Staying objective is of utmost importance when working on the creation of style. If you have a particularly difficult time with this, you may find working with a good voice teacher your saving grace. As a tool for objectivity, record yourself whenever you can. Use the recordings to better analyze your strengths and weaknesses. This helps you determine what aspects of your vocal technique and song delivery need work. If your recording equipment is not excellent, you will not be hearing a true representation of your voice. But you can still use the recordings to help yourself with phrasing, embellishment, and interpretation decisions. Listen, take notes, and keep recording yourself, until you are satisfied with how you are performing each song.