Vocal Jazz style lessons:
Back Phrasing
In this lesson, Rachel discusses how to style a jazz standard utilizing back-phrasing. Back-phrasing is a way for singers to create musical tension by delaying the delivery of the expected melody/lyrics. In this video, Rachel uses the song Summertime to demonstrate how to back-phrase while keeping a good swing feel, tone and confidence.
Steps:
Learn a jazz standard, such as “Summertime.” The attached lead sheets in C and G will help you with this. As you sing, notice where the rhythm of the melody is originally written to be sung.
Then, practice changing the phrasing so that it happens later than you would expect. In order to back-phrase, you must always keep the pulse/time in your body. Then, as you sing the melody try to begin phrases later than originally would. Once you’ve accomplished this, see if you can back-phrase in the middle of phrases, such as Rachel did with the phrase “and the cotton is high.”
Tips:
In order to back-phrase, first identify where the phrases of a song naturally occur (usually every 4-8 measures.) We recommend writing out the lyrics as sentences so you can speak and sing through them as they naturally flow.
Make sure you have fully learned the original melody before back-phrasing!
Try to switch between normal phrasing and back-phrasing. Can you transition in and out of back-phrasing smoothly? This is an important skill to build, as it’s important to go back to the melody sometimes.
Listen to the vocalists on the attached playlist to give you more ideas on how to back-phrase! (PLAYLIST?)
Want to send this video to your students? Use this link: https://youtu.be/65ojHJ7BnBE