Description:
Demonstration Song: “Someone to Watch Over Me”
Crooning is an intimate and often romantic jazz singing style that emerged in the 1920s and grew in popularity over the following decades. The style features a softer, more conversational tone made possible by microphone use.
Notable crooners include Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.
The influence of crooning continues in modern artists such as Michael Bublé, Kurt Elling, Norah Jones, Lana Del Rey, and Ed Sheeran.
This tutorial is divided into three parts:
Part 1: Tone and technique for building a warm crooner foundation
Part 2: Stylization details including glides, scoops, falls, and vibrato
Part 3: Full song application of “Someone to Watch Over Me”
Short Daily Warmup
Ha x3, Hey x3, Hee x3 (Single Note Staccato)
Mah Meh Me Moh Mo (54321)
Why O Why (13531)
Use this warmup throughout the tutorial as needed.
Crooning is an intimate and often romantic jazz singing style that emerged in the 1920s and grew in popularity over the following decades. The style features a softer, more conversational tone made possible by microphone use.
Notable crooners include Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.
The influence of crooning continues in modern artists such as Michael Bublé, Kurt Elling, Norah Jones, Lana Del Rey, and Ed Sheeran.
This tutorial is divided into three parts:
Part 1: Tone and technique for building a warm crooner foundation
Part 2: Stylization details including glides, scoops, falls, and vibrato
Part 3: Full song application of “Someone to Watch Over Me”
Short Daily Warmup
Ha x3, Hey x3, Hee x3 (Single Note Staccato)
Mah Meh Me Moh Mo (54321)
Why O Why (13531)
Use this warmup throughout the tutorial as needed.
Lessons:
- 1: Welcome
-
2:
Tone and Technique
-
3:
Stylization
-
4:
Songwork
-
5:
Conclusion: Performance
Instructor: Abram Poliakoff
Abram Poliakoff is a singer, guitarist, pianist, teacher, conductor, and composer. He received a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts from USC’s Thornton School of Music and has been teaching music for 8 years. He is currently both the Associate Artistic Director and a tenor in the L.A. Choral Lab, which recently released its first studio album Sonic Visions in the fall of 2019. Abram teaches and performs a wide range of genres including Classical, Jazz, Folk and Popular music in the Los Angeles area. He has also sung with the San Francisco Opera and Pocket Opera in the Bay Area. His teaching mission is to help his students utilize vocal technique to find their authentic and healthy voice while maximizing genre flexibility and a naturalness of expression.