Shoo-bee-do-whap doo-wah…bee bop ba baah…

No, we have not lost all ability to converse here at TakeLessons, we are trying out scat singing –and it’s tough! Check out an article one of our Berkeley voice teachers, Richard K., wrote on the Art of Scat Singing and see if you can whip up a scat solo up next time you hear your favorite song.

Richard K. writes…

Have you ever hear a band playing a familiar Rock & Roll or jazz standard and then the singer started singing a stream of new melodies that fit the music, yet was so different, that you strained to hear what they did to that old familiar standard?  And instead of singing the right words, which you know, he or she sang nonsense phrases like “da ba sheh-bop doo-wah” or “Doo-bee-bah-dip shwee-aah!!”  Chances are you just heard scat singing.  If you listen carefully, you might find it to be a real treat.

Scat singing is NOT what a vocalist does when they can’t remember the words to the song.  It is a singer’s act of creative expression; the time when he or she gets to “blow” out a solo just like all the instrumentalists do.  And this really is the point of scat singing: it is the singer’s way of showing artistry as a developed musician on a par with the instrumentalists.  Like instrumentalists, there are skills the scat singer must acquire. Practice time must be invested before the solo becomes really exciting and alive for other people to hear and enjoy.

Louis Armstrong

The moment a singer starts thinking of the voice as a vocal instrumentalist is when that singer begins to develop sensibility as a fully rounded musician.  This is when scat singing will begin to make sense as a part of your arsenal of musical soloing and group playing skills. And this is how singing as an art form for jazz singers developed.

Singers have taken lead lines throughout the history of both jazz and rhythm and blues.  The roots of scat are in the African-American traditions that gave birth to all of jazz; the field songs of early slavery days and the call and response patterns of African-American spiritual music.  Early on in the history of jazz singers, they knew that they would learn their music best by listening to what the instrumentalists—particularly the horn and woodwind players were playing.  Louis Armstrong was both a masterful scat singer and a great trumpet player, and he was scatting before the practice really took off as a popular form of vocal soloing.

During the big band era of the 1930’s and 1940’s, singers were generally limited to singing the lyrics at the start or “head” of a tune. Then, all the instrumentalists would take turns taking solos, and the tune would conclude with the singer coming back in and singing a repeated verse of the lyrics.  There were a few notable singers who broke the barrier and earned the right to take extended vocal solos: Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn were among the most accomplished early vocal soloists.

With the advent of Be-Bop music in the early 1940’s, singers were temporarily put out of business.  Pioneered by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Kenny Clarke, and other instrumental luminaries working in mid-Manhattan in the early 40’s, bebop was fast and hard instrumental music.  It was angular and jagged—made more for listening than for dancing and left little room for languorous melodies and lyrics.

Nevertheless, vocalists began adapting to its demanding style. Dizzie Gillespie was a pioneer of what came to be called the “scat” language making up syllables that captured the sound of what he and his colleagues were playing on their instruments. Vocalists like Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter, Anita O’Day, Eddie Jefferson, and Joe Williams began emulating instrumentalists; developing a vocal language of scat that used horn-like syllables to capture the tone and licks of the players like ‘Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Clifford Brown, Lester Young, and many others.

Sarah Vaughan

Eddie Jefferson, Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross, and King Pleasure pioneered “vocalese”, the setting of lyrics to previously recorded horn solos during the 1950’s.  As a result, scat singing became a firm part of the jazz scene. Singers delighted audiences with their clever and often hilarious emulations of musical instruments.  Jon Hendricks is a giant among scat singers.  He can vocalize stand-up bass with the best of the bass players.  He wrote exceptional lyrics to be-bop standards and can scat licks that leave the tongues of lesser singers flailing and twisting in the breeze.

Many outstanding jazz vocalists made their mark as scat monsters in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Al Jarreau and Bobby McFerrin pioneered adding vocal percussive imitation to the language of scat.  Bobby McFerrin also incorporated the act of breathing into the rhythm and fabric of his music in and arresting and powerful way.

So how does a novice go about learning to scat sing?  Many singers are terrified of scat—that vast unknown territory where you have to (or get to) make up your own melodies, phrases, or rhythmic licks.  They would rather stick to the safety of the memorized lyrics and melody of a song.  But there is real freedom and excitement in creating your own melodic phrases, and great joy when your friends and audience claps or roars in enjoyment of what you have created!!

Learning to scat comes from getting a “feeling” for the music, so many folks start with the blues.  If you’ve ever listened to a song, and had the melody spark an alternative musical idea in your mind that you’ve wanted to sing, you’ve started the process of learning to scat.  Or, if you hear another melody that fits the one that you’re listening to, and you try singing it, you are already scatting!!

If nothing else, the way to start learning about scat singing is to listen to some great scat artists on records or CD’s or You Tube. Try to learn their solos and phrasing, try to capture their timing, and emulate the tonal qualities they utilize.  Imitate them when they sound like a bell, or like a horn, or like they are growling or groaning.  Listen to your favorite instrumental players—a lot—and learn their solos.  You do this by listening to the solo you like repeatedly until you memorize it and can sing along while they are playing it.  Try to make your voice sound like an instrument—whether it is a horn, a guitar, a bass, drums or even a piano, if you can!

Scat singing is not created in a void.  You must still follow the form of a song and all songs have a structure.  Usually there is an “A” section where the lead melody is declared, followed by a “B” section which introduces a bridge or a different melody, and then this is followed by a repeat or variation of the “A” section.  In each section, there is a chord pattern.  Creating new melodies to a given chord pattern is what an instrumental soloist or a scat singers does to express his or her creativity.

Listen to the chord patterns until you hear some musical ideals that might go with them.  Often it helps to sing parts of the melody, and if a related ideal pops into your head, follow it to see if it works!  It also helps to find the roots of the chords being played, and just sing them to the song until you get some new melodic ideal.  Learn the individual notes of the chords by having someone play them for you on the piano.  Then, sing these notes in as many variations as you can think of—while following the song, until you are inspired by a new musical idea.  Play around with the rhythm of the phrasing; start a melodic idea sooner than it is supposed to start, or wait to start it longer than you are supposed to; then rush the notes to catch up with the band while keeping time!!

Check out Ms. Ella scatting…amazing, huh?