Vocalise: Scale plus 9th

[This is actually a repost of the first “Vocalise of the Week”. I decided that rather than go back and redo all of the vocalises to work with Scorch, I would repost several of them.]

So by request, I am going to post a vocalise every week. Some will be hard, and some will be easy, but I hope this will provide an accessible source of information on those funny exercises that we singers do. I also hope that it will force me to make some new ones because I tend to use the same few over and over again.

So this is the “major scale plus 9th” vocalise. I learned this from Prof. Charles Roe at the University of Arizona, though it is very common for singers and instrumentalists.

Difficulty: Moderate

I practice this vocalise about 20 times a day so it makes sense for me to post this one first. The challenges include:

Maintaining your pitch center while moving quickly.
Modifying vowels quickly and precisely.
Navigating passaggi. Don’t over weight your chest voice because that will make your shifts more difficult.
Keeping your breath steady. I tend to breathe after [a], but if you are working on breath control you can breathe after [u].
As you can see the export cut this off half-way. Be sure to change keys regularly. Also, the chords underneath are a I V7 pattern. Pretty easy, and any spelling is allowed. Enjoy!

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(Users who follow in RSS readers will need to visit the site to hear and see the vocalise in Scorch)