Fifth Harmony and their lesser known British counter-parts Little Mix were quite popular for good reason. Besides singing harmonies very well, looking fantastic, enamouring young men and making young women envious, they use riffs, runs and embellishments well to enhance their vocal performance.
Jeannie Deva has written about vocal embellishments and created a unique vocal workout CD entitled Riffs, Runs and Embellishments which is available as a single Digital Download right on this site.
Read the earlier blog posts about singing vocal embellishments using these links:
Embellishments – Singing Riffs Part 1
Embellishments – Singing Riffs Part 2
Listen to examples of riffs from the CD using these links:
The Riff, Runs, and Embellishments download is an exciting tool for achieving outstanding vocal skill while having a lot of fun. Musical accompaniment is a band playing grooves in the various styles of the riff exercises. The groove loops so that you practice the embellishment four times in each key before it modulates (moves to the next key). Each exercise is a thorough work out moving up and down your range.
I think I asked for this comment to be deleted a while back, but couldn’t remember where it was posted – update on that being I am now happy with the P.A. speaker mentioned, after simply plugging the mic straight in (prior to that, plugging in via the Zoom RFX1000).
But now produces a great sound !
I hope this isn’t too drastic of a change of subject, but comments to all previous blogs are closed. In any case, it relates to singer gear and acoustic resonance.
As, in April earlier this year purchased P.A. speaker via online means [Kam RZ12A]; and (apart from some initial audio recordings, when initially trying out): had only just recently got round to filming a proper performance using – end of September. However it seems that the audio at least now has to be scrapped, due to nowhere near comparing to my usual sound.
(I usually sing through a big professional bass amp, which has plenty of low end. Tho aware of singing thru amps being a big ‘No No’, according to Jeannie – however use work-around of first routing through Zoom RFX-1000 mic box: as advised when purchasing that and my Sure SM58 mic, over fifteen years ago).
There was No way I could try the speaker out beforehand [and one thing I am yet to try is that COMBINED with bass amp, via line out]; however my question which relates to acoustic resonance is “can design, thickness and material of the speaker CASING have an effect ?”
For example, the speaker mentioned above has rounded corners and very thin plastic casing – and that’s what it sounded like during the performance (causing me to have to keep making all these tiny adjustments, such as when using someone else’s microphone).
While another one in catalogue recently seen: Alto Uber FX [a P.A. SYSTEM, as opposed to Speaker – Not sure if there’s a difference]; has proper square corners and what seems to be much thicker casing – making it seem that better sound will be produced as a direct result, despite the lower peak wattage. Am I correct in assuming this ?
I think I asked for this comment to be deleted a while back, but couldn’t remember where it was posted – update on that being I am now happy with the P.A. speaker mentioned, after simply plugging the mic straight in (prior to that, plugging in via the Zoom RFX1000).
But now produces a great sound !
wow, thanks for this amazing article!