Emile

Showing Tag: "vocal percussion" (Show all posts)

DailySing - 152 (7.1.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, July 2, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Percussion is a part of the array of rhythmic sounds that we relegate to instruments, yet these sounds can be imitated and new ones created as part of a larger vocal vocabulary.

Instead of using vocal percussion to merely keep the beat imitating a drummer, this vocal array of percussive sounds can be incorporated with tonal sounds to enrich a solo, bass line, or main melody.

To listen to DailySing - 152, wait until after 7/9/2012, then click here.

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DailySing - 147 (6.26.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
The drone idea was there with much more syncopation than the other night.

I did a good job of keeping it together as far as the exploration was concerned. The section where just the vocal percussion takes over and we follow some cross cultural rhythms was exhilirating.

Toward the end I fell into a jazzy swing-feel bridge which dropped into the main melodic groove.

To listen to DailySing - 147, click here.

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DailySing - 142 (6.21.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, June 22, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's DailySing felt like a jam straight through. Departing from and returning to the main melodic groove riff was fun, but I know that at some point early on, I came back to a slight variation and wasn't able to shake it to find the true original.

Oh well, I worked with that and it was all good.

The next sonic region I explored was VP-land. I went from straight beatboxing to different forms of stylized VP. I call stylized VP, any vocal percussion where the varied drum and percussive sounds...
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DailySing - 133 (6.12.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, June 13, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I tried to stay open tonight, but nothing was working at first. I couldn't keep the main melody in my mind to save my neck. 

About a third of the way through, I felt better, and even went into the first of two vp solos of the evening.

Once I was able to establish a groove that I could remember, it was easier to go off exploring. My second vp solo of the evening had a North African flavor, as I was channeling a Middle - Eastern frame drum and laid down a thick pad against my chest whilst singing...
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DailySing - 132 (6.11.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, June 12, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
It took a little effort to find "it" tonight. I had different riffs in mind before I even started, and wanted to remain open with no preconceived ideas. At first, I changed ideas every time something came out of my mouth, until I settled on something that was in the moment.

Once I found a groove, Itried to stay fresh by changing rhythms, having multiple solos each based on differing parameters, a couple of vocal percussion moments and I was down to 3 minutes.

I let go even further and lost trac...
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DailySing - 116 (5.26.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, May 27, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
This session had a playful quality for me. After establishing the melodic phrase, for my first exploration, I went all VP on it.

My second exploration centered around the upper range of my voice, the precision and clarity of my tone when I jump from one octave to another.

My third exploration used lyrics on the fly, which wasn't as difficult as I expected, but I kept it short anyway. I then followed that up with different forays into the extremes of my range. Jumping from a bass groove to the s...
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DailySing - 115 (5.25.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Saturday, May 26, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's DailySing had humor in it. While listening to the playback, I was pleased with the way I was building the jam around the main melody, then breaking everything up with two vp interludes followed by a solo exploration, into a rhythmic approach to the next solo exploration. And that's just the first third of the whole improv.

I seem to be breaking the longer jams into sections in my mind. This one started with a theme that I kept throughout the singing. It essentially has a beginning mi...
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DailySing - 114 (5.24.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, May 25, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Distant... is how I felt while singing tonight's DailySing. I was in a standard jazz headspace for the longest time, and explored all kinds of permutations for solos. 

I then felt the need to change everything and got into a quick highlife beat which devolved into a funk default that I often use. I followed that with a reggae groove which slid into a ballad-like solo. I wound up at another funky default that uses some vocal percussion then back to ballad-like solo, to funky groove, to Afro fun...
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DailySing - 113 (5.23.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, May 24, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I was struck by the disparity between what we "perform" and what we glean from the playback.

While I was singing, I felt on top of the world. When I listened to the playback, my perceptions were different and I could hear the flaws that had not been evident until after the adrenaline wore off. 

Many brilliant ideas remain, and when I started tonight's DailySing, I was inpired.
There are rhythmic grooves, long strains of solo voice, vocal percussion and a lot more in this session.

To listen to Dai...
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DailySing - 111 (5.21.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
What struck me first about tonight's DailySing was the smoothness of the transitions from one idea to another. I always expect them to be tight, but tonight they felt inspired.

The second thing that struck about tonight's session was the arc of the improv. There was a beginning, middle, and end with several bridges and side trips into various modes of improvisation.

The rhythmic application of non percussive vocal sounds, the beat established by the use of my hands drumming on my chest even whi...
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DailySing - 106 (5.16.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, May 17, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
When I opened my mouth tonight, rhythms came out, and I went with it. I tried layering different parts until I couldn't handle singing so many parts at once. I came back to a simple groove.

The next phase was adding a bass line to the groove along with some body percussion. From there, it was time to add a little solo in my upper range, boucing back and forth between that and the bass line.

After exploring various permutations of the groove line, I went into Nantucket Sleighride by the band Mou...
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DailySing - 103 (5.13.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, May 14, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I didn't have an easy time of it this evening. I started with a melody that just wouldn't stick in my brain, so I kept doing variations whenever I tried to get back to the head (top of a song).
 
I finally just started playing a djembe rhythm on my chest which helped cement the melodic phase I had in mind at the time.
I was able to flesh out different ideas that came to mind. Melody with rhythm, unacompanied melody, vocal percussion as a verse, vp as a bridge, drastic juxtapositions in rhythm, a...
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DailySing - 100 (5.10.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, May 11, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I was tired and sleepy when I started tonight's DailySing. As groggy and grumpy as I was, I've now been energized!

I began with an exploration of my voice in its middle range, then ventured into falsetto solo territory. I explored different avenues, but eventually found myself playing with a riff from Deep Purple's Sweet Child In Time. This allowed me to play with various rhythms on my chest while exploring how to sing best with fists and hands slapping my sternum.

Vocal percussion came to the ...
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DailySing - 99 (5.9.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, May 10, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Dynamic...! That's the best way to describe today's DailySing. I've been listening to Carlinhos Brown and Kurt Elling lately and I could feel the bits and pieces I've been picking up, start to gel and make sense inside me.

I started with a rhythm which I then layered (a la Carlinhos Brown) into polyrhythms using my hands and mouth. I then added my actual voice, played with made up language, and rhythmic counterpoint. Later on in the improv, I explore how I use my voice to solo with my falsetto...
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DailySing - 95 (5.5.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, May 6, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I literally started this DailySing with 14 minutes left in the day. I explored that jumping back and forth  between holding down the groove then singing in my extreme upper range, as I imitate different solo instruments, guitar, piano, trumpet...

After a while it's no longer about the kind of instrument or the different melodic choices made because of the nature of the instrument, but the examination of my extreme upper range and that dead space that comes after my highest note.

When that's ove...

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DailySing - 80 (4.20.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Saturday, April 21, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
So much for getting to my DailySing in the morning on the balcony. Maybe tomorrow...

Tonight's session was based on a riff I came up with many years ago in college, before I considered this a cappella thang. I revisited whistling the melody and its variations, as well as a vocal percussion interlude, and finally juxtaposed wildly constrasting rhythms to help me launch explorations I might not ordinarily gravitate towards.

Unexpectedly, I felt trapped by this riff. It was ingrained so deeply tha...
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DailySing - 76 (4.16.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Feeling run down and not like singing at all, but it' s turned out to be invigorating!

I do remember that at one point I fell asleep, but that comes later in the playback. So far I sound inspired. I'd listen to this if it were on a CD. That should be my project, to create a CD from all improvized pieces, then go back, overdub and flesh them all out. 

The way I'm singing tonight, it could work... Inspired creativity in the moment. I start with a riff and explore it, move away from it, come back ...
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DailySing - 75 (4.15.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, April 16, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I found tonight that one of the reasons I like doing the DailySing in the car is that I can really let go. Maybe one of these days I'll explore c-r-a-z-y and "go off", encased in my relatively soundproof silver box on wheels.

Again, I started with one basic riff, stayed with it, played with it, went away on multiple solos and came back to it each time, explored inserting vocal percussion into the melody and other parts of the jam. At one point, I adapted the Happy Birthday song to it and sang ...
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DailySing - 68 (4.8.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, April 9, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Wow, my first DailySing in a couple of days! I'm still shaky but over whatever it was, for the most part.

Tonight, I went on a travelog to stretch a little, switching from blues to jazz to Afro-Cuban to spoken word, and finally to vocal percussion. My wife listened to me and suggested that I sing standing up instead of sitting at a desk or on the couch. The dynamics would be different, she says. She's right. In fact, I should try doing my DailySing practice at different times of the day, to ri...
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DailySing - 43 (3.14.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, March 15, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
What a gift we humans have in our capacity for creativity and imagination. I've been listening to tonight's playback and feel humbled and amazed at the continuous flow. A balance was struck tonight, as far as keeping a listener's ear is concerned. In spite of a few rough spots, where I started to think too much and was immediately rewarded with pitch issues, my attention never wandered  and I found myself engaged "as listener" for the entire 15 mns. This means, I'M NOT BORING!!!

There's a cert...
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DailySing - 39 (3.10.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, March 11, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Once again it was late when I finally sang. I thought to change things up and energize myself by starting with made up language, but that didn't work. Not only did I not feel as energized as I wanted to be, I left the made up language behind and started singing. I occasionally threw in words, but that only lasted a few bars before I started reading words out loud randomly as accents to what I was singing. Words on the TV screen, words on the fridge, words on a letter, words on business cards,...
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DailySing - 25 (2.25.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, February 26, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
A lullaby from Zimbabwe was my launching place tonight. I don't know why, but it's the first thing that came out of my mouth. I've been training myself to go with whatever comes out at any given time, whether I like it or not. When I went blank and sang, the song Si, Si Si came out. Once that was explored, I kept myself blank and open. It's always educational and entertaining to listen to the playback. Some of the coolest stuff, I don't even remember singing, which is a little trippy. Listeni...
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DailySing - 13 (2.13.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, February 14, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Started out with a plan... First mistake! If you're going to improvise, then improvise, don't plan! Planning is the opposite of improvisation!!!
Thought I'd begin with some vocal percussion (vp), and explore how to develop those ideas for the full 15 minutes... Hah!!!
First of all as soon as I had that great idea, I could no longer come up with any vp parts. My brain shut down and I had already begun the 15 mns of improv. I tried desperately to come up with parts in a vacuum, where there were a...
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If you can talk, you can sing


Emile Hassan Dyer I believe that singing is our birthright, and that it is good for our brains, bodies, and spirit. Singing releases oxytocin in the brain, and many studies have shown a correlation of oxytocin with human bonding, increases in trust, feelings of calmness and security, as well as reductions in anxiety. In other words, SINGING IS GOOD FOR YOU! I get high making up music on the spot. I get high(er) when I can do it with several people at once. There's nothing like riding the crest of a creative wave, linked harmonically and rhythmically, supporting, leading, following, creating, coaxing, cajoling, p-l-a-y-i-n-g... THAT'S MY BLISS! Singing for 15 minutes a day means trusting yourself. It means clearing your mind, opening up and discovering what sounds can come out through you, if you allow it. To listen to each of my daily sings, click on the "songs" link on the left in the grey field above the most recent post or on the link at the end of each post.

Categories

My DailySing practice is inspired by Will Hewett's Sing15 practice.

You can learn more about Sing15 at www.willhewett.com.

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"creative wave"percussive lyrical vocal solos melody "richard bona "sing out loud 'vp guy" riffs sounds patterns 4/4 4/4 feel 4/4 time 6/8 6/8 bell 6/8 feel 6/8 time a cappella a cappella thang abandon accented beat accents act of singing actors adaptability addendums aeolian african vocal delivery afro blue afro funk afro-cuban air flow alive ambient apex approach arc arc of the improv architecture arrange arrangements arranging art artless aspect of music atmosphere attacked the singing audience backbeat background hum balance ballad ballad-like bass bass line bass lines bass llne be the sound beat beatbox beatboxing beats berimbaus berzerker bird song birthday birthing the melodies blog blues bluesy body percussion body rhythms bp brain brassy bre bridge bridges burst carlinhos brown catchy tune cd channel chant chants choices choir chops chorus clapping claps clarity classical clave climactic crescendo codification of play cohesion color compose compositions concert conduit 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