While you’re preparing a recital, you have an idea. Why not sing a popular/jazz standard, or even a group of them, as an encore? After all, more and more classical artists are crossing over into popular and jazz repertoire. It all started with the late Eileen Farrell, whose vocal approach, phrasing and style set the stage for later crossover artists to follow.
When you start to search for printed music of songs to consider, you’re generally presented with these choices:
First, you could simply buy sheet music for some songs (or a book of popular songs with piano arrangements) that provides the vocal line and words over a fully realized piano accompaniment. It’s a format you know well from art songs and piano reductions of operatic scores. Such arrangements make it easy and convenient to learn a song, but they can lock you into someone else’s arrangement and interpretation.
Second, you could obtain a lead sheet (see explanation below) for a song that interests you, or a collection of lead sheets bound together in what is now commonly called a “real book,” or sometimes called a “fake book.” Lead sheets are the minimal “blueprints” that working pop/jazz vocalists and instrumentalists use to develop their own interpretations of popular and jazz songs.
As you’ve probably surmised, I’m strongly in favor of working from lead sheets. A hallmark of authentic popular/jazz singing is to develop your own, highly personal approach to the music and text. That means using a lead sheet as a jumping-off point.
What is a lead sheet?
As you will discover by looking at the musical example “Never Been In Love,” lead sheets provide the melody and underlying chord changes or symbols for a song—a musical blueprint. Beyond that, there can be variations from sheet to sheet.
Some are very minimalistic and intended mostly for instrumentalists. They contain only the chord changes (or symbols) for songs; some accompanists may prefer to read from just the chord symbols rather than the melody with chords.
Still others provide only the melody and chord symbols, without the words. That’s fine for an instrumentalist. In some “real books” of lead sheets, the words might even be printed on a separate page. As you select your lead sheet or “real book,” try to find one that provides the vocal line and as much information as possible.
The example below is an excerpt from the song “Never Been In Love.” This song can be performed as a ballad. There is a rubato section prior to letter A; however, for our purposes here, we’ll look at the first eight measures of this song (beginning at letter A), as originally written by Tadd Dameron and lyric by Irving Reid.
It is a significant point here to mention the importance of an accompanist who is familiar and comfortable with pop/jazz styles and harmonies. An experienced accompanist can provide an accompaniment that is stylistically appropriate. He or she will be able to provide a variety of harmonies and voicings within the chordal structures and know how to leave space, play fills, develop introductions and endings, and improvise within the song.
Learning your song from a lead sheet
Whether you are learning “Amarilli, mia bella” by Caccini, or a popular/jazz standard or any new song, the first steps of the process remain essentially the same. The best jazz singers, like the best classical singers, are diligent artists and good musicians. That means learning the material note-perfectly and time-perfectly before going on to make interpretive choices. This provides a solid framework and knowledge of the song as the composer wrote it. Let’s take a closer look at how the process can unfold.
As you learn the melody, apply essentially the same skills you use to learn a classical song, but with some subtle variations. I recommend singing the melody through softly on a neutral syllable like “doo … .” At this stage, I often advise classically trained singers to use as little vibrato as possible and to resist the tendency to sustain the sung tones from one note to the next. It may also be helpful to explore the use of the chest voice, particularly in songs that have been lowered to a key which can be more conversational in approach. There’s a good reason for this. Unlike classical singers, jazz singers may use a conversational approach, color words and even interrupt the legato line in the service of the text. If you, a classical artist, want to sound stylistically authentic in your jazz/popular song, this early stage is a good place to start thinking in new ways.
Spend some time learning and reciting the lyrics apart from the music. Saying or speaking the lyrics of a song separately from the rhythm of the melody can give you opportunities to explore and experiment with how you might “say” the lyrics in an actual conversation. Then, when you begin to sing the song, you’ll have new ideas and emotional responses as to how to phrase the lyrics while singing. Jazz and popular singing are highly personal mediums. When learning an opera, your task is to decide what the words mean to the character; in jazz singing (as in classical art song), your job is to discover what the words mean to you. You need to make some interpretive decisions based on the text. Who are you in the song? Why are you singing these words? Who is listening? What is the setting? Try to let such questions influence your approach to the text, again remembering that jazz offers much personal interpretation. You can use a conversational-spoken approach, a light whispery effect, and change the duration of notes for different effects. (If you read on, I’ll explore some of these options in more depth.) Sing the words and melody in exact time while playing the chords from the lead sheet.
As you sit with your lead sheet at this point, you may well be wondering, “What do those chord symbols mean?” The notation of popular/jazz chords (which are often familiar triadic chords that add sevenths, and sometimes, additional ninths that appear as sharps or flats) may be unfamiliar to some singers. These harmonies may appear different from Mozart or Strauss, yet jazz notation is really not so unfamiliar after all, since the root of the chord is supplied. A C7+9 is still built on C. If you are unfamiliar with jazz harmonies, you can simply play simple triadic chords beneath your vocal line, observing the flats and sharps within the key signature, using the roots of the chords supplied on the lead sheet as a guide. Another option is to visit a popular coach and ask him or her to fully write out the indicated chords for you.
Using the lead sheet to develop your personal interpretation
You have now completed the groundwork for singing your song convincingly. I find that the next, most important step is to begin to understand the concept of space, or phrasing, as applied to the jazz approach to singing. “Space” means that the written note on the page will probably not be sung exactly as written. Try to envision an orb of space around each note. Within this space is where the “time” is, and many options are available:
• A note can even be eliminated entirely or treated as a ghost note, leaving a pause for dramatic effect.
• A note can be moved up or down, as long as it fits within the underlying harmony.
• A note can be started either earlier or later in the phrase.
• A note can be lengthened or shortened
.
• A note can be changed into repeated notes, arpeggios, etc.
You are free to exercise all these alterations when singing popular or jazz music because an artist needs to feel free to demonstrate his or her skills by exploring the many interpretive options that lie beyond the written notes. If you listen to recordings of jazz singers performing, you’re sure to notice them applying some of these interpretive subtleties:
Freely improvising around the words with nonsense syllables like “doo-wah,” etc. This is called “scat singing,” which is “running the changes,” or improvising on the chord changes/symbols and bass line. This is a very special skill.
• Approaching the song in a conversational manner, utilizing different phrasings.
• Extending notes across bar lines, if that seems natural, to accentuate the meaning of the text.
Please refer to the two variations for “Never Been In Love shown below. These musical alterations and choices relate to the term “phrasing,” or the manner in which the melody and lyrics are expressed within the framework of the song. Phrasing is essential in terms of developing a personal and individual interpretation of songs.
Notice the differences in rhythm and phrasing between variation #1 and #2 as you compare it with the original melody to “Never Been In Love.”
Pick the best key for your performance
Most lead sheets are intended to provide the basic musical elements of a song, not necessarily to position the song in a key that is friendly to all singers. For this reason, be sure to select a comfortable key for performing your song. In my experience, many lead sheets, in their original keys, present songs in keys that may need to be lowered slightly for most female singers (by a whole step or a third or fourth, but without moving into a key that is too low, where the words will sound muffled). Remember, idiomatic jazz interpretation hinges on your ability to color and shape your words flexibly. That freedom is easier to achieve in a “speaking” range where your challenges are interpretive rather than vocal. Experiment until you find a key that feels comfortable. The services of a coach who transposes readily will again prove invaluable here.
Understanding “swing” feel
With an outline of some of the freedoms that are available to you, it’s now important to understand style and how to use various musical choices, including a “musical speech” approach. A good place to start is to understand that idiomatic jazz interpretation is firmly built upon a strong sense of inner rhythm and time. This is the essential element of jazz called “swing.” If you listen to jazz singers and follow along with lead sheets, you will notice that swing may be hard to define, but it is very present. Many times, notes are not sung exactly as they appear on the printed page. Some inner rhythm is at work, a rhythm that is difficult to notate exactly on the page. When swing is not there, its absence is immediately felt.
The following exercise can help you get started. Deciding on a tempo and “feel” is an important first step. Pretend that you are just about to sing your song and a combo or accompanist will be backing you up. Sing the song to yourself while snapping your fingers on the off-beats (beats 2 and 4, in 4/4 time signature). Then, “count the song off” to bring in your instrumentalists by snapping your fingers and saying “1x,2x, 1-2x-3-4x” (x indicates a finger snap; try it a few times to get the feel for it). Note the emphasis and accents on beats 2 and 4. Once you have sensed the inner rhythm and tempo you feel in the text, start to speak your words over it. With some practice, you’ll notice that you’re reciting the text not exactly as written, but according to a highly personal inner “clock” or “metronome.” This is a first glimpse of swing that you can apply in your first attempts to sing your song in a “jazz” style.
Selecting repertoire
There’s a vast amount of classic popular music available from what has come to be called “The American Popular Songbook.” It’s actually a descriptive term applied to the body of repertoire written by some of America’s finest composers and lyricists, such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin, John Mercer, Sammy Cahn, and many more. Much of this music was originally written for the theater and performed within the context of a show; however, over the years, these same “standards” (as we call them) have become a foundation of repertoire utilized by many jazz singers and instrumentalists. These songs offer well constructed melodies, lyrics and harmonies which offer the performer numerous opportunities to interpret, phrase, arrange and style songs in an individual manner. Alongside these “standards,” jazz musicians, composers and lyricists have written much additional repertoire. Many of these songs were originally written as instrumental pieces. A number of them will soon be available with lyrics (as lead sheets) in a new book entitled Sing Jazz! from Second Floor Music.
It’s time to enter into the uncharted territory by learning to understand the lead-sheet format so you can use them as points of departure for your own interpretation
Making your arrangement your own
As you are beginning to see, singing pop/jazz is both a very disciplined and a very liberating experience. Yet the freedoms I’ve mentioned so far are only the beginning. Using your lead sheet, you can go on to make the following variations based on your own concept of how you wish to present a song.
· Structural changes. A very basic approach to starting a song is to let your pianist or back-up combo provide an introduction. Often, the last four bars of a lead sheet is utilized as an intro before you begin to sing. However, many other choices are available too. If a song is in an A-A-B-A structure or form, you can have your instrumentalist(s) play the A section and then join them at the B section. Or you can start your entire performance at the B section or perhaps another section that seems appealing. It’s important to respect the written indications of the composer and lyricist, but you can have a lot of fun making creative decisions of your own in terms of creating a unique arrangement of a song.
· You can change the rhythm, the “feel” and the genre. Listening to jazz recordings of vocalists and instrumentalists will give you many ideas about the options available to you. A ballad can be performed in a faster tempo and take on new meanings. Conversely, a somewhat up-tempo song can be slowed down dramatically and performed in an ultra-free rubato or ballad style that brings out new subtleties in the words and melody. With a basic rhythmic shift, a jazz ballad can be performed as a bossa nova. (Sing a song in moderate 4/4 time and swish the palms of your hands together on even 8th notes to sense a bossa feel.) Through such shifts, many songs can take on a whole new character and feel.
This “bossa” rhythm is a popular Latin/Brazilian rhythm, typically with an even eighth-note feel over a bossa bass line. An example of this rhythm is heard in the song “The Girl From Ipanema” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. A popular recording of this song was made by Astrud Gilberto (voice) and Stan Getz (tenor saxophone).
Listening to popular/jazz music by instrumentalists and vocalists is important in becoming aware of various styles and possibilities for interpretations within those styles. Here are suggestions of some singers to listen to: Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and Margaret Whiting. Instrumentalists include Louis Armstrong (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Miles Davis (trumpet), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone), Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Bud Powell (piano), and Art Tatum (piano). These are just a few suggestions from among a great many singers and instrumentalists. The important thing is to LISTEN in order to understand style and concept with regard to phrasing, interpretation, arrangements, improvisation, time, the development of one’s own sound, and the general approach to performing within popular/jazz styles.
In summary, we see that lead sheets represent a highly flexible and adaptable form of musical notation. I hope that the information presented in this article will encourage you to allow lead sheets to guide you to a new, rich, and highly rewarding area of song repertoire.
