Introduction à l'ornementation

Lesson 2: Exploring Vocal Ornamentation

So welcome to our second lesson! We've been talking about vocal style, and we're going to amp that up now by discussing ornamentation.

What is Ornamentation?

I always like to think about ornamentation from the root word ornament, because we put an ornament on our mantelpiece to decorate it.

I don't have a mantelpiece, but if I had one, I'd put an ornament on it.

Similarly, we decorate our vocal phrasing with these things called ornaments. There are loads of them, some a little more specific to classical music and others more aligned with musical theatre. In this lesson, we're going to focus on things that are a bit more pop-based.

Types of Ornaments

The three different types of ornaments that we'll be looking at in this lesson are:

• Grace Notes
• Turns
• Trills

All of these are just like little embellishments that you're adding to a basic phrase, extra notes that give it a bit of lift.

Technical Tips for Learning Ornaments

Now, there are a few technical tips that I want you to keep in mind when you're trying to learn ornaments:

1. Don't make them too fast, too early.

   • It's important that you keep them accurate. Slow practice is the best way to achieve that. Make sure you really know that you're getting those notes right before you move into any kind of fast tempo.

2. Know the difference between a semitone and a tone.

   • You might have heard of this as a half step or a whole step. These are basically the intervals between notes on the keyboard.
   • A semitone might be just a little half step up, whereas a tone is going up two steps.
   • As you can hear, there is a difference in interval, and it actually affects ornamentation in a really big way.

Practical Example: Grace Notes

Let's start with the grace note, because that's the first ornament we're looking at in this lesson.

For example, if I sing "I love you" (three notes), and then I add a grace note to "love," I can do it as a semitone:

I love you.

Now, let's do that a little bit faster:

I love you.

Now, if I make the grace note a tone, you get a bit more of a country or folky kind of sound:

I love you.

You can hear it's a bigger interval, a full whole tone:

I love you rather than I love you.

Experimentation

So, experiment with these:

• Semitones tend to work better for more pop or R&B styles.
• In contrast, a whole tone might suit a folkier or more country style.

For example:

• I love you (semitone)
• I love you (full tone or whole tone)

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Feel free to practice these concepts and enjoy the exploration of ornamentation in your vocal style!