Ever wish you could sing complex, difficult trills like your favorite pop and R&B stars, but find you can’t because your voice doesn’t carry as far as you’d like? Or maybe the notes slide together, preventing you from getting that crisp, defined sound for every note? Or just can’t get your voice to do it at all?
Many singers naturally have this gift, 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 so you can sing these beautiful trills and sound like your favorite stars in no time!
First of all, what exactly is a trine?
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, spanning several notes, very quickly over many beats. (Think Christina Aguilera, or Usher)
Trills are usually complementary to the key the song is in, but they don’t necessarily follow the key signature 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 isn’t an exact formula for singing trills, but they are complementary to the key signature. (That means they have to “work” with the song without it sounding bad or too different)
Listen to any Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, or R&B song for examples. Listen to the rapid succession of notes that the singers sing… they are trills.
There are a few components to being able to sing nice, 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 moving on to the next, while also not being disconnected from the next note. Your voice shouldn’t stop as you jump from note to note, and if you’re outlining correctly, each note will sound crisp, defined, and obviously different from the next.
If you can’t outline very well now, you may notice that your voice is having a hard time changing notes very quickly, or sounds like you’re mixing up the notes. If you are experiencing these problems, you can practice certain scales to train your voice to be able to outline better.
Here are two examples. The first is a triplet scale and the second is a note bend with a “drop” 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 played on the piano. Practice them a few times a week, and after a while you’ll 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 together those trills.
The second component of good trills is imitation! The style is based on imitation. When you hear a certain trill or note bend, and you want to be able to sing it, mimic it until you can do it on your own. Listen carefully and find out exactly what the singer is doing with his voice to produce that particular sound. Then master it and add your own personal touch to make it yours.
Trills are learned by imitating other trills and techniques and by trial and error. Try singing it one way, and if it doesn’t work, keep trying different ways until you find something that does. 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 component and a VERY important one to singing a great trill is the simple and raw attitude. You have to be really feeling the song for it to come out right and have that special “oomph” to make it great. This is something that really has to come out of 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 imitating the ones you already know and building on 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-professional.com/articlescales.htm
