Ever wish you could sing complex and difficult-sounding trills like your favorite pop and R&B stars, but can’t because your voice doesn’t go as far as you’d like? Or maybe the notes are sliding together, preventing you from getting that crisp, defined sound on every note? Or can you just not make your voice do it at all?
Many singers have this gift naturally, but if you’re not one of them, don’t worry! You can learn how! This article will show you exactly how you can train your voice to sing these beautiful trills and sound like your favorite stars in almost an instant!
First of all, what exactly is a trill?
A trill is a stylistic technique that a singer sings as part of a word or phrase in a song. Technically speaking, it is a series of notes sung together in rapid succession. Trills can be small, just a few notes at the end of a phrase or word, or they can be large, expanding several notes, very quickly over many beats. (Think Christina Aguilera or Usher)
Trills are usually complementary to the clef the song is in, but they don’t necessarily follow the signature of the clef exactly. For example, if a song is in the key of C major, that key signature has no sharps or flats. So a trill sung in that song will contain notes that sound complementary to that key signature, but may still contain sharps or flats for the sake of dynamics. There really is no exact formula for singing trills, but they are complementary to signing the key. (That means they have to “work” with the song without making it sound bad or too different)
Listen to any song by Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, or an R&B song as examples. Listen to the rapid succession of notes the singers sing … these are trills.
There are some components to being able to sing good, defined trills in a song. The first is delimitation. In musical terms, delineation is the ability to make each note sound crisp and defined, without dragging itself to the next, and at the same time without disconnecting it from the next note. Your voice shouldn’t stop while jumping from note to note, and if you’re delineating correctly, each note will sound crisp, defined, and obviously different than the next.
If you can’t delineate very well now, you may notice that your voice is having a hard time switching to different notes very quickly, or it sounds like you are dragging the notes together. If you are experiencing these problems, you can practice certain scales to train your voice to be able to delineate better.
Two examples are shown below. The first is a triplet scale and the second is a note curve with a “decay” note. Click on the link below to go to a special page where you can listen to the scale and practice with the notes you hear playing the piano. Practice them a few times a week and after a while you will notice that they become easier to sing and the notes will have that crisp, defined sound. This is the basic technique you need to be able to put those trills together.
The second component of good trills is imitation! The style is based on imitation. When you hear a certain trill or bent note, and you want to be able to sing it, imitate it until you can do it on your own. Listen closely and find out exactly what the singer does with his voice to produce that particular sound. Then master it and add your own personal touch to make it your own.
Trills are learned by imitating other trills and techniques and through trial and error. Try singing it one way and if it doesn’t work, keep trying different ways until you find something that works. Also, for longer trills, if you can’t seem to get it right, try breaking it up into smaller sections first. Master each section separately, then put them all together.
The last and VERY important component to singing a great trill is attitude outright. You have to really feel the song for it to come out right and have that special “oomph” to make it fabulous. This is something that really has to come from within you; it is not something that is taught. You have to really feel it.
So to sum it all up, practice scales to improve your delineation, learn the trills you want to learn by mimicking the ones you already know and constructing them to make them your own, and try to feel the music as much as you can. If you do all of this, you’ll be singing along with your favorite stars, nailing all the notes before you know it!
www.sing-like-a-pro.com/articlescales.htm
