1. Stylized pop box: quickening voice/ staying in the pocket
2. Punchy style
Stylized pop box: quickening voice/ staying in the pocket
Today we worked on applying our style technique of keeping our words punchy to a mid-tempo, bluesy - style song. The difference between using this technique of emphasizing the consonants and shortening our words in a song like this, versus a regular up tempo pop box song is - with this song, we're hitting the beginning of our word (the consonants) hard, altering the pronunciation of the middle of our words (like "reh-deyy") by widening the vowel (as we do in pop ballads) - and then shortening the word by trailing it off in a quick self fade-like cut off - instead of keeping it more staccato and taking all the bass out, forcing it to an almost squeaky forward place, like we do in our pop songs (like "good girl"). By doing these 3 things, we are able to get a swing/ bluesy feel while remaining in the pocket of the song (or keeping up with the timing).
We also worked on making sure we're aiming this bluesy style forward so that it is a healthy place for our cords, it sounds more commercial and brighter, and that it more easily transitions into the big Adele scats - where we need total vocal agility (or the ability to sing a lot of notes in a short amount of time). We want to make sure that all the bass from the back of our throat is taken out and that the depth of the song is found forward and sideways (with our wide vowels and singing through our teeth), instead of scooping back into our throat making it sound dark.
This is such an awesome song for Ella's voice!!! We are putting as much style into it as we can to show off the versatility of her voice (and brain!). We are vocally producing this song to be different than her pop ballad (Lay me Down) - in that, this one will be funkier, hit harder, and cater more to an almost British vowel with the pronunciation of our words.