3.5 Vocables: easy vocal improvisation activities  (Page 2/3)

Vocable singing

This exercise emphasizes a style of singing that often accompanies mbira playing in Zimbabwe. The mbira provides a complex music featuring intertwining lines that suggest both counterpoint and harmony . (Please see Mbira for more about this.) The singer uses vocables to emphasize pieces of the mbira melodies. This requires the singer to listen carefully to the instrumental music, to select parts of it that make an interesting melody, and to reproduce those parts of it with the voice. In this exercise, the students will follow these steps, using instrumental accompaniments from a more familiar musical tradition.

Objectives and assessment

• Objectives - The students will listen carefully to the instrumental accompaniment provided and will sing, as a group and with the instrumental accompaniment, parts of the accompaniment or harmony. Then each student will improvise appropriate melodies using the same or similar melodic fragments.
• Evaluation - Evaluate students on participation and success in following directions. If musical competence in singing or improvising is a reasonable class goal, evaluate individual success in producing a pleasing melody that is appropriate to the accompaniment.
• Adaptations - For young students or those unaccustomed to singing, keep this exercise very simple. It's better to allow the student to successfully explore a single chord than to be unsuccessful at following a complex progression. Make sure that accompaniment parts are within the student's vocal range, which may be quite small.
• Extensions - Advanced or gifted students may want to try a more challenging accompaniment, such as the chord progression to a well-known song, or may want to compose accompaniments for class vocalizations.

Materials and preparation

• Gather any audio or video recordings you will share with the class as an introduction to the activity, as well as the equipment you will need to play them in class. See below for suggestions.
• Decide on the instrumental accompaniments you will use. Some Western common practice-style accompaniments that can be played on a piano are provided below , or you may find or work out your own. The accompaniment should be simple, featuring either a single chord or a simple, common chord progression (such as V7-I). The accompaniment should also be completely arpeggiated , with no block chords at all, but moving quickly enough that the chord can easily be perceived, so that the students can hear how the individual notes fit into the harmony. It should also cover a wide range of notes that the students might be able to sing easily.
• Either make or obtain a recording of many continuous repetitions of your accompaniment patterns, or be sure that you will be able to play them well while demonstrating and accompanying the class.

Procedure

1. GIve the class a short introduction to vocables, sharing some of the information in the introduction above . Share any appropriate audio or video recordings you have, to demonstrate. If it is appropriate to your class goals, discuss mbira music and the singing that accompanies it, including a video or audio recording if at all possible.
2. Explain the activity. Tell them you will be playing the same pattern of notes many times, to give them a chance to learn the pattern and sing along with it. Play through a pattern several times, to demonstrate. Explain that they will make up ( improvise ) melodies by singing just some of the notes in the pattern, along with the instrument. Demonstrate by playing your pattern again, while singing along with just two or three or the notes.
3. Ask the students for suggestions for syllables. Do they want to sing "sha-na-na", "la-di-da", "bibbity", "hey-oh"? Write some of the suggestions down for the students to refer to while they are singing. Have the students vote on a two-syllable and three-syllable set of vocables to sing together as a class, but explain that they can use any of the suggestions, or make up their own, when they are singing alone.
4. Have the students warm up their voices by trying to sing the pitches used in the pattern. Play each pitch separately, holding the note while asking the students to sing it. This will also help young or inexperienced students to identify which notes are comfortably within their range .
5. Demonstrate by singing their two-syllable vocable with the accompaniment. Choose pitches that were easy for the students to sing. Repeat the pattern several times, singing the same thing each time. Sing the vocable only once or twice during the pattern, to make a very simple, repetitive melody. Have the students sing your demonstration melody with you, as a group, repeating until they seem comfortable with it.
6. Now take their three-syllable vocable and use it to outline a different part of the accompaniment. Have the students sing this together as a group.
7. Ask the students if they still remember the first melody. Ask those that do to go back to singing that one, while the rest of the students continue on the second melody.
8. Stop singing to explain that you would next like the students to add their own ideas. They will have to listen carefully to the instrumental pattern and hear another note that they think they can add to what they are singing. They can keep singing your ideas, and experiment by adding one syllable to what they are already singing, or they can come up with something completely different, as long as it is based on the pattern. If they add a new note, they can sing it using whatever syllable they like. The basic rule is: try to find something new that you like, that is based on the notes being played, and repeat it several times. They can switch parts, or, if they hear someone else singing something they like, they are allowed to sing along with that new part, or add that part to what they are doing, so that new blocks of parts appear and disappear as people try new things, but they should not try to do a new part every time. You may want to include rules such as: sing each new thing you try at least 2 times to test it, at least 3 more times if you like it and it fits, but after singing something 10 times you must change or add something.
9. Start playing the pattern again and get the students started singing both parts again. Wait to see if they begin to experiment on their own. If not, try emphasizing different notes in the accompaniment so they can hear them clearly, or "suggest" some new ideas by singing them once or twice and letting the students pick them up (or not). Play the pattern plenty of times, to give the students time to experiment. If the activity is going well, the overall sound of the voices accompanying the pattern should gradually change and evolve from one repetition to the next.
10. If there is time, try the same exercise with different accompaniment patterns.
11. If the students are very successful at the exercise, you can ask them to add more complex, improvisatory melodies. Have them do this one at a time, while other students continue with the simpler accompaniment-based parts, so that the complex melodies don't clash with each other.
12. You can wind up the exercise by asking for feedback from the students. Which vocal part did they like? Which accompaniment pattern? Why? Do some vocables seem to work better for high notes? Low notes? Short or long notes? Why?
13. If the students have trouble with this exercise, introduce it again periodically throughout the school year to allow it to become more familiar. Try different patterns (but not on the same day) to see if some are easier for them than others. If they enjoy it, do the activity occasionally as a warm-up vocal exercise. Let the students take turns coming up with the syllables that everyone sings together.