Transcripts
1. Introduction!: Makayla and I've been studying vocal performance for around 10 years now. Attn. Beginning of my journey I waas really intimidated by jazz music and the idea of scouting or vocal improvisation. But I love jazz so much so I pushed through and really kind of found nice little group. So I want to share some tips and tricks that I've learned over the past few years with you to begin your scatting journey. We're gonna break this down into five steps. The first is to become familiar with the melody of the song. The second is to get comfortable. The court progression. The third is picking a scatting language. Fourth is adding a little bit of variety and flair to the existing malady, and then 50 is selling it. So I can't wait to share this journey with you, and I'll see you in the next video.
2. Lesson #1-the melody: Welcome back. I'm so glad you decided to join me on this journey to scatting. So for this, um, Westen, we are going Teoh focus on pretty familiar jazz standard. I think it's originally by Frank Sinatra, and it's called Flying to the Moon. You've probably heard of it, even if you don't know it. You probably heard it before. So, um, I'm gonna play just the section that we're gonna focus on and then will do it a few more times. You go from a So I'm playing this in e minor because that's what's most comfortable for my voice. However, they are hundreds of recordings on line of this song. So if you don't like this key, there are plenty to choose from. All right, here we go. Me, Teoh, Then spring his life. Sorry to end on that court, but that's already big for this class. That's just the first verse. I think it's the most familiar verse, and I think it will be a great starting point for scouting. So the first really important part, beginning to stat, is knowing the song like you can't You can't like a mess around and just saying whatever notes you want. I mean, you can, but you have to know the song. You have to have, like, a starting point. So that is where we're going to start. Um, your assignment, I guess, is Teoh, Just listen to this song. You can just listen to being singing this little part or you can find it which ever recording you like of it, Frank Sinatra. Wana is classic. It's great. It's in a different key if you don't like this one. So, yeah, become comfortable enough to be able to sing the melody back to me. So I'm gonna do it one more time just so we can hear it again. And then I'm gonna let you go ahead and play around with it and get comfortable singing it . So here we go. Me, Teoh. That means then me like awesome. Once you have that melody down, go out and start on the next video where we will be talking about the chord progression of that First I'll see you then
3. Lesson #2- the progression: all right. Now that you are comfortable with the melody of the song, we are going to move on to the court progression. So I'm going to take that melody that you work so hard to learn. We're gonna put it to the side for this video. But don't worry, We're gonna come back to it in the next video. Um, support progressions. What are they? Court progression has just chords. Who used to play the song? For example, in this, um, you know, it's any minor. He's Thank you. Minor. A minor 70 c test first line. And the really nice thing about jazz or blues music is that once you have learned a couple of standards and you're comfortable with those court progressions, you can apply that to hundreds of other songs because luckily, they all have very similar structure. Inform stars, cords go. So I'm going to be talking about chords in Roman numerals as well. Is there harmonic name was anyways, if you, um I don't know about Roman numerals, plant accords don't worry, it's not necessary. You don't have to know music theory to be able to scat, but it is a helpful tool. So I'm gonna throw it in there, just in case. There are people watching who do know music theory because it can help out. But again, it's not necessary. You can totally ignore it and just focus on getting that progression in your ear, because that's really what's important. So this one is an E minor, like I've said before, so we start with surprise the matter one e minor chord. So it goes manor minor seven, which is the matter for ah Dee seven, which I think is a secondary dominant chord. Don't you? Don't have to know. That means either, but if you do, it's helpful. Um G major three C major six a minor seven again for goto 57 Let me get this major 17 which is really because it gives you a super clear indicator of one. We're gonna either start the chord progression over or move on to something new. In this case, we're just going to start the chord progression over. So you hear this, you matter way. We're about to go back to the beginning. Where goes for me too, right? So that's really awesome. Um, now I'm going Teoh, just play through that chord progression like three or four times so that you have a tool toe listen to and get comfortable with. Um, I think I mentioned this before, but it's super important to understand and know what's coming next in the court progression to you Be able to scrap. Um, yeah, if you don't. No, the song. How are you going, Teoh? Manipulate the body or the notes in order to produce an awesome improv? The answer is, it's really hard to do that. So we're going to get comfortable This court progression. Yeah, So I'm just gonna play a couple of times. There's a turnaround for indicator that we're about to start way. Yes, so there it is. So for this assignment, I want you to get comfortable with this chord progression that can be in different things for different people. For me, it's just listening to it over and over and over again. You can sing the melody along with it, but sometimes its helpful Just to hear that chord progression because when you're scouting , you're not gonna be singing the melody and scouting at the same time. That's pretty impressive if you could do that, but um So you just listen to it, get comfortable that give familiar with that Know what's coming next? You can listen, Teoh chord progressions waited in dishes while you're driving anything to get it in your ear is gonna be super helpful and doesn't even have to be the specific court progression for the purpose of this class. I think it would be most helpful, but you can listen to literally any jazz standard chord progression or blue standard A 12 bar blues is great to start. Anything to get those core changes in your ear is gonna be a great tool. So once you feel comfortable with that coming back to the next video, where we are going to be picking a scouting language and so yeah, I'll see you then.
4. Lesson #3- Scat Language: Hey, everyone. Um so now they know the chord progression we are ready to start finding are scattered language for this song. Um, and the scouting language basically is just the syllables that you're going to be using. So, for example, this song it's called The Laundromat Swing by Rachel in Bill Rae. It's super upbeat, and I'm just gonna play a little clip Booth, But but so in that clip, you heard a lot of the but I would have it have it up, like, upbeat up due up those sort of syllables, right? Um, and for different feels or different, Kind of like branches of jazz, we're going to use different syllables. This is a very upbeat swing tune. And so the bop topped etops do ups fit awesome, and they sound great. Um, if we were doing like a lot in style, we wouldn't really want to do that as much. Um, what I like to do on their own styles is more like something with the B sound. So about that just putting of the in front of the sound really works for fly me to the moon . It's a classic. And so there's lots of different ways that we could go with this, and it's really gonna be up to you to decide what syllables you feel like it best for me. Um, what? This tune. It is a classic, but I don't feel like it's so about up. But he not like the laundromat swing that I showed you, um, those air syllables that I I feel really comfortable and really solid and singing impairing with this tune. So I stuck with a lot of like, there's a couple of boss, but a lot of the data that Dawes data and you can like throw in different things. And really, the easiest way to find different vocabulary in different syllables to use is listening to other people. So there's I'm sure that if you were watching this video, you've listened to someone's gap before. And so, yeah, just listening to other people in finding what you like in what feels comfortable in your voice and then also what is going to make sense to you. I want a fight to the song. So for this one, I'm going to be doing mostly the bottom have done that. So just like kind of playing off the dog. So, um but I want you to explore and find syllables that you like. Um And so for this, we're gonna be combining the two previous videos. We're gonna be combining the melody that we learned with the chord progressions But we're not going to be just singing the song. We're not going to be singing lyrics. We're gonna be singing scat syllables. Um, the other thing is is that we're not chained down by the melody, so we don't have to sing. Um, the exact notes that are the melody, right? For this we're using it more is like a marker. So I'm gonna play through this chord progression and kind of show you what I mean by that. - So if you noticed what I did was I played the court progression just how it is. You can use the quote progression for my last video to sing along with. I think that's a really helpful tool. Or you could even scatter along with another recording of it. Um, because it gives you that melody structure. If it's, ah, cigarettes, who's singing it? But I find this really helpful because it's important, Teoh, when you're scouting, it's important to know where you are in terms of the melody. So, for example, if I scattered over this, I want to know where let me know. That's like this is because it's kind of hard to explain. But when you know where the melodies in the chord progression away at, even if you're not singing the melody, having an idea of what the melody is and where it's at while you're scouting can really be used was a nice grounding tool. And just make that scouting is easier for you and more fluid. Yeah, that's good. So what we're gonna do is pick a scatting vocabulary that you like. You can mess around with all kinds of different ones, Um, and then I want you to apply it to the melody so as engrossed with mine. I didn't sing exactly the same melody as I saw in previous videos. I varied a little bit in it, and that's exactly what we want to do. We wouldn't want to be singing exactly the melody. We want to kind of just like you feeling it, see what we feel. So I want to play around with that. I think this concept is one of the more difficult concepts to really like grass to get comfortable with in this series. So it's going to take some practice. Yeah, you'll get the hang of it. And once you played around with that, come back to the next video and we're gonna be talking about what to do with that variety added. And how toe add flair to your scatting and yeah, I can put it all together, So I'm excited and I'll see you in the next one.
5. Skillshare: all right. Now that we have the melody, the court progression and a scouting language, we are ready to do what we all came here for, Which is that so This a little lesson? We're just gonna combine what we've learned and put it together. So that you, actually Yeah, I can kind of see house Kevin. Process works. Um, So since we were in the melody last time and you picked your language, we're gonna playoff that And we are going to very and get away from the melody even more than we did last time. So when you're practicing, if you found a line in the song that really resonated with you that you really like the sound of we're gonna use that in this video. So let's say you've picked your language. Whichever scatting language you want to use for this. So on. So again, that just means what syllables do you want to sing on? Um, so you've picked your language. Now we're gonna pick a line or a little. Do you need, uh, few notes, Um, from the psalm that we're going to then incorporate it into a full step. So to start, we're just gonna do fly me to the moon. So the line that goes flat me to the moon, Right. Um, we're going to take that line. We're gonna add a scout language to it. So for this one, um, yeah, that it be. That's what I picked. I feels nice, right? That's what we're gonna do. So but but about the And I'm just gonna play through the court progression and see where I could fit that, um, throughout the progression, and you can modify it. But where does that little line kind of like? Want to sit where we're gonna go? Really? What? We're exploring so here. Way. Okay, So I took that line, and there are some things I liked about that's kept some things I felt okay about, but the concept is you take that line and I didn't see where you can apply it and where it fits in where it can take you. Um, let's try one more line. Um, let's see if I need to let may. Seeing moments, stars let me know what springing zakone do better on Mars. That that That that's what We're gonna pick that down it. Uh So it seemed out a few times. That, uh, that, uh I wanted to know. I have not picked this specific line on the specific some to improv before. So this is, like, completely organic, natural process. Here we go. But that All right, we're gonna add it to the court progression and see what happens that cool. I kind of like that one better in the 1st 1 I think it has, like, kind of more of a rhythmic vibe. Um, so, yeah, basically, I hope those examples kind of conveyed the message of what I'm trying to say for this, which is, if we are variety and flair to little parts of melody and try to stick it in, Um, just use those little I kind of think of the malady is like little building blocks, right? So we can, like, take a building block from the chorus of the song. Here, we can take a building, walk from the first line and put it into the maybe like, the third line. I don't know. Uh, yeah. I want you for this one too. Use the scouting language that you felt most comfortable with. Pick a couple of different building blocks or lines and apply them to the court progression from earlier. And just practice scouting over it. I'm gonna play the chord progression for you one more time just so that you have it, and you don't have to go back to it. Maybe like this one better. I'm gonna play through it four times so that you really have a nice, long kind of I used to play with. Yeah, so here we go. I hope you have fun scouting over this and come back to the next video because we're going to talk about how to sew your stepped. Yeah.
6. Conclusion (You made it!): Welcome back. This is our last video, and I'm so glad that you have come along the scouting jury with me. So far, we have learned how to become familiar with the melody of a song. How to get comfortable off the court progression, how to pick a scatting language, how to add variety and flair to an existing melody. And in this last video, we're going to learn how to sell our scat. All right, here we go. So scatting. Um, it's interesting because I really like it's all about personal taste and, you know, like so a scab That sounds really cool to you. I might be like, Oh, I love that it's not my thing, but that doesn't matter. It's all about the artist and what they feel comfortable in what they like and what they want to betray. Any other cool thing about jazz, especially, is even if you sing what you think is a wrong note, go with it and call it a blue note. As the jazz people say, Um, so really, if you're confident, that's what's going to so your scouting abilities with that being said, you can't just get up and spout out nonsense and be respected As a scout artist, you have to put in the work. So something that I learned from a teacher that really kind of made it all quick for me is that those like, amazing jazz musicians that you listen to and look up to our improvising. They're not improvising, right? They have spent hours and hours and hours practicing those licks that they're doing and practicing in that key. And with that court progression, they know what they're gonna play. Even if they've never played it in that song with those people in that exact format, they've never played those exact clicks together. They have put in the work, they know what they're doing. So don't feel bad if you get up and you can't just, like, improvises Amazing melody, all these cool things because does people that you look up to they don't do that either, right? It takes work, you have to put in the work. But if you put in that work and you are confident and you practice those things that we went over, like if you get comfortable with court progressions, if you get comfortable in a scout language or a couple different scat language is if you get comfortable knowing where the melody is in the song and knowing how to very that melody like we talked about You practice those skills on your own If you're in a jam sesh or you're playing with the jazz band and they ask you to solo you will be ready And the final step is to really just believe in yourself. I know that sounds cheesy, but to scat if your scouting and you're like, not sure and you kind of her shy about it people are gonna notice and then they're not gonna be sure of your abilities either, right? You have to be the 1st 1 to be confident in it. And when you're confident and you're showing that you are in this amazing musician and you worked hard at these skills, everyone else will be able to see it too. So I hope they like this little Siri's. I am going to be adding so many more music related classes. And I would love for you to be a part of that with me, So yeah, thank you so much. Please post the scats that you come up with. I would love to hear them and we can talk about it below, so yeah, Thanks so much. See you guys.
Michaela G., singer-songwriter
