Melisma: How much is too much?
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note. [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisma ]
In current music, we hear a lot of melisma in the vocal styles of artists like Christina Aguilera and Beyonce. For example:
- Beyonce, Fever: The first 30 seconds especially, but also around the 1 minute mark, and throughout the entire song generally.
- Christina Aguilera, Beautiful: First 20 seconds, around 1:52, and at 2:08-2:10, 2:20-2:23, 2:35-2:40, 3:02-3:04, and 3:14-3:16... for example.
The vocal acrobatics are so impressive that I see a lot of younger singers attempting to sing this way... I suppose because they want to sound accomplished. Some can do these vocal acrobatics well, but most cannot.
This is one skill that I believe some people are simply better at than others. You can improve, but I believe your natural starting ability determines a lot about whether you will end up being able to execute the most complicated moves cleanly.
What does it mean to do these moves cleanly?
Every note in the run must be on pitch, and the notes must be cleanly delineated from each other - no slipping and sliding around to approximate the run.
This means you need to know exactly which notes you intend to sing throughout the whole run!
If you can't do a lick, trill, or run perfectly cleanly and accurately, you have three options:
1) Practice.
If you can do an embellishment pretty well and just a couple notes are not exactly on pitch, then slow it down and clean it up. Gradually speed it back up until you can consistently do it cleanly at real tempo.
2) Simplify.
If you're imitating a very complex run, simplify it. Take out some of the notes so that you have fewer distinct pitches to hit accurately in the same time frame. If the run moves both up and down in pitch, consider modifying it to run in only one direction to eliminate pitch "bounce."
3) Don't do it.
You don't have to sing embellishments to be good. Excessive use of melisma is a relatively new development in the whole history of music. Plenty of artists do NOT use lots of embellishment. Even Christina has songs that do not use much at all, such as Hurt and Fighter.
It is much more important to communicate with your audience than to impress them!
So how much melisma is too much? It's too much when you are worrying more about executing the run cleanly than communicating emotion to your audience.
(c) 2011 Adrienne Osborn
Adrienne Osborn is a vocalist and performance coach based in Colorado. For more free articles and tips, visit http://PerformanceHigh.net.
Adrienne Osborn
Reader Comments (9)
Very well written Adrienne. And to make one thing clear: don't be fooled that this applies only to singers. All of this applies to instrumentalists too. Unclean notes in guitar while playing trills or other embellishments, not hitting the correct tones on violins and other fretless instruments. Even in instruments like the piano; besides that there are many wrong keys to hit between the correct ones when you do embellishments, even then you need to be clear in your phrasing, loudness, (the embellishment shouldn't be louder than the main notes) and of course your timing. If it doesn't sound good, it's not good.
And don't forget: The melody is is the core, the melisma is the decoration, the amount of it depends on style and personal preferences.
Search for "neume" too. A very old form of vocal virtuosity...
(Why the hell does everyone think everything was created during their lifetime?)
Melismas are a real joke comparing to what Monteverdi and Haendel wrote for singers...
Ok, back to the article. Due bootlicking: I don't know how you do it, but you're always a pleasure to read.
I just need to say that an audience doesn't care about fluff. They care about what they can relate to. Real, gut-catching, deeply human stories.
Melismas are no real-life stories.
Sorry if I was a bit rude. It reminds me bitter stuff, back to my stage engineer days...
May the Force be with you.
@panos: thank you for the additions.
@jbcollinet: Neume as in a previous version of musical notation? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neume - no, I did not know before I looked it up) Thanks again for the comment. And that's ok with the rudeness... over-use of melisma gets pretty frustrating to hear because it's rarely done really well! :)
My only criticism of this article is that it wasn't longer! So enjoy your writing. When I first started taking vocal lessons, I too, wanted to do runs, runs, runs, since it was what the top vocalists in my genre, Gospel, did. My vocal teacher wisely ignored my repeated requests, instead emphasizing pitch, breath control, phrasing, pacing, all the basics. Today I thank her for it, and because I can sing the notes, I can actually do a few runs, but this seems to come unintentionally, when I'm feeling a song, which is a lot more authentic than imitating, wrongly, my favorite recording artist.
Free Vocal Wisdom (from one of my former teachers):
"Never want to sound LIKE anything or LIKE anyone. It won't sound good if you are imitating anything. The reason that you love the singers you do is because they are the most themselves that they can be.
The journey for you is to be YOU. And that means understanding your vocal instrument intuitively, like you will understand your guitar and drums the more you play them!"
I agree about the drums... :)
Jean I sooo agree with what you just said. One of the first things my coach drilled into me was singing in my own comfortable key, and convincing me that I am NOT Luther, Michael, Peabo or any other of my favorite singers. It takes beginners so long to learn this, and it speaks to a very subtle fact.
WE ARE AFRAID AND ASHAMED TO BE OURSELVES.
Beyond sounds good, so I'll sound like Her!! because no one would pay to hear ME sing! You must have a certain self confidence to even open your mouth wide enough to sing old and correctly! And the sound ain't pretty at first.
Sorry bout the spell check. I meant, BEYONCE not beyond! LOL!
@subwaysurfer: WELL SAID. All of it. Thanks!
I often say about many things... singing, guitar playing, yo-yo trickery, Mariah Carrey..... just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it all the time. But that is another story about taste.