What Makes A Soulful Singer?

When you hear jazz/rnb singers from the 80’s, some may categorize their singing as very soulful.

The most important thing about singing with soul is empathy, tonality control, and muscle placement.

Mastering these things can help you fill your voice with more variety, making your voice sound more complex.

There are other elements to singing soulful depending on the genre of music, so we will touch on those concepts briefly.

Empathy

When hearing a singer, the element that attracts you to their voice is the feelings you are able to hear.

If they are singing a sad song, you can hear the soft breaks, or cracks in the voice that sound like they just finished crying before singing.

You have to be able to take yourself to a place that may be dark. In order for your diaphragm muscles to correspond, giving you a specific tone.

This is not limited to just sad music, but the more the feeling, the more likely your voice is to do those things that give it that hook.

The audience follows you, if you are able to make the connection, then the audience will feel it too.

Tonality has to do with where your tongue is being placed while you sing.

Nasally sounds are created when you push your tongue up in the back of your mouth.

This is because the air has to squeeze out of your mouth changing the way the sound/vibrations come out.

A great example is Amy Winehouse, the way she pronounces her words, and the location of her tongue allows her to have a very unique sound.

Your background can affect the way you sound, if you have an accent, it will show in the way you sing.

In some cases, this works by giving you a sound that is different from what you may hear on the radio.

A lot of what you hear as soul is considered tongue placement, and how the words sound as they come out.

Experiment by lightly pressing the back of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, listen to how your tones sound different.

This isn’t something you want to overuse, but rather correctly place as the song desires.

Muscle placement has to do with all 8 of your muscles. Ask yourself how you’re using them and if you’re using them.

You can use your cheeks to help include brightness into your voice. Your jaw can help with fullness and the use of your vibrato.

Vibrato is very important, as this adds a wavering cadence to your voice, slower vibrato is often seen as more soulful.

The nose placement can help you open up your nasally sounds slightly giving more room for the notes to come out with a strong tone.

Using these muscles in conjunction and comfortably is what will make singing soulfully an easier and more calculated experience.