Choose Your Vocal Genre Strategically! (Vocal Style Matters)

hi I'm Judy Rodman with all things vocal in this video I'm going to help you choose your vocal genre strategically I'm not going to talk about classical voice which has pretty strict categories having to do with the physical aspects of your vocal apparatus and your resonance Chambers instead I'm going to help you with popular genre choices it can be complicated it's possible that you can do several well or that there's one you really want to do but don't know how so let's dig in be sure and stic

k around till the end of the video we'll actually give you some successful case studies of strategically choosing your vocal genre [Music] choosing the vocal style you should sing can be difficult if you're a new singer and have no idea what genre you should try it's also difficult though if you're a veteran singer who can sing just about any style that you want in either case here's what I suggest you do first consider your vocal goals meaning what do you want to do with your voice do you want

to gain vocal skill or to snap out of vocal boredom try singing songs in genres that are new to you when you get out of the comfort zone of singing styles that you're familiar with you can expand your Voice's skill set in several ways such as wider vocal range new vocal licks and embellishments more precision and control different tone colors phrasing choices and rhythmic feel all kinds of things exploring Styles you've never sung can help you see if you're just missing out on another type of mu

sic that you would love and actually could do well or you may find some vocal styling that you could integrate with the genre you normally sing breathing more life nuance and uniqueness into your singing or do you want to perform in situations that require you to sing multiple genres well choose to get very good at singing all the ones that you'll need if you want to get work as a studio session singer or road tour singer you don't want to limit yourself to one choice of genre a nickname for thi

s kind of local career is stunt singer you could be hired to sing on many different styles of music and with radically different kinds of singers if this is your goal the more genres you can sing well the better in this case you might want to get some training and or spend quality time listening to the masters of each genre that you want to Ace it can help to be able to cross genres if you want to compete in these big Talent Awards shows they want you to show extreme vocal ability often requirin

g a lot more showy technique than would be authentic for the normal genre of the song or a contestant could Excel by beginning their performances in one genre and ending in quite another such as when Christina Ramos began a stunning performance of a classical song and suddenly morphed into the Rock classic Highway to Hell and she got awarded the golden buzzer for Spain's Got Talent in another scenario you might want to be able to sing formal genres such as choir music or classical art songs and

then be able to change musical languages and do popular genre songs which by the way is anything but classical you might just want to sing some great karaoke where you can jump in all kinds of styles and have a lot of fun impressing your audience I'd still recommend that you learn to sing each genre skillfully authentically and without strain and this is a serious reason to need to figure out how to choose your vocal genre do you need to zero in on your artistic definition for the best chance of

success a music artist should launch their public career with a clearly defined musical style this is a major part of what's known as artist branding so if you're an artist choosing a genre that defines you becomes vitally important yes an established artist can change or explore other genres including musical theater and reinvent themselves successfully but for new artists it's best to choose one main genre almost always in which to create perform market and promote music why well though music

is not sold in nearly as many brick and mortar physical stores the digital stores and award shows are still sorted into separate categories of music so in a practical sense settling on one genre helps you find and develop a fan base that will discover and support you with tickets streams and votes when you're ready to drill down again don't rush the process it may not take you long or you could experiment with singing several styles of music for a couple of years then when you do feel ready sit

in a quiet space where you can focus and ask yourself the following questions you also might consider running these questions by a trusted advisor or coach who knows you well and knows what you want to do all right number one what does my voice love two what does my heart love three what do I want to learn for what's commercial okay let's dig into each one of these what style of music does your voice love well what style of music does your voice feel best singing this includes style factors suc

h as vocalyx runs Scoops rhythmic phrasing pockets typical melodic complexity and vocal ranges of songs in the genre consider what's the most natural for your vocal ability which includes nature the size and density and other characteristics of your physical instrument and nurture the current level of vocal technique and stamina that you've developed next what does my heart love when you sing or hear music that moves you what genre or style does it typically end up in when something genuinely mo

ves you you can make a safe bet that it's going to have a passionate audience who it will also move and who could comprise your fan base next what do I want to learn what do I want to do with my voice that I don't know how to do right now do I want to really skip over and learn to sing classical music that's great for popular genre singers because it can help them develop certain vocal strengths especially in head voice do you want to learn to authentically deliver folk or country genres to deve

lop some r b ribs to find a vocal control to sing jazz or bluegrass do you want to learn to articulate differently or or from musical theater or gospel do you want to strengthen your voice for rock or wide range pop country songs or experiment with the rhythmic pocket and Rhymes of hip-hop next thing you need to ask yourself what's commercial what genres of music are selling what is successful on radio and in the venues that you'd like to play where can music purchasing and ticket buying audienc

es for the particular style you're considering be found what groups of people are you already engaged with what interests sports or Hobbies do you have that connect you with the people who might be interested in your music or with organizations that hold events and sponsor entertainment that could include you then combine these questions what genre is selling and has good fan bases that my voice can confidently sing or that I want to learn to confidently sing and that satisfies and moves my hear

t and delivers the messages that I want to share this is the best way to pursue the business of Music your priority is on the music not the business to do this don't overthink it but don't limit yourself if all it would take to have the vocal ability for what your heart wants to sing and that people want to hear would be some training and experimentation take the time to do that okay as promised here are some case studies of genre Choice outliers first let's talk about rejecting genre limitation

s this case is the Eva Cassidy story Eva chose not to limit her genres when singing instead she decided to perform the music that satisfied her own heart in her case No Label would sign her because they couldn't Define her however Eva had passionate fans of her live performances and the way she sang every song her voice itself became her artist's brand by all accounts of all who knew her she was more than satisfied during her lifetime with the choice to keep her voice aligned with her heart then

after cancer took her life too soon she became a music legend her music lives on in demo and live performances that have been sold in over 4 million albums and have been placed in many movie soundtracks I would say she chose well for the next outlier let's talk about combining genres in this case the Julia lowen story you know if you look at the Wikipedia page for music genres you're going to see a virtual ton of categories and subcategories and you'll notice that many are genre combinations we

ll that's what ended up working for Julia lowen Julia is a classical music teacher from Eastern Canada whose CDs have been distributed more than 120 countries she shares a dramatic personal story of trauma and healing and many years ago she felt the need to expand her reach she enlisted Kayla Morrison and myself to help her with her dream we suggested this cross-genre approach combining her vocal skill her heart and her messaging into a style that we ended up calling Celtic Christian rock ER wro

te the songs with Kayla and Julia and was honored to produce the album in Nashville and we have incredible players including Sam Levine who played some authentic Celtic instruments on a huge Rock track so this intergenre project titled into the light successfully extended the audience for Julia and for the messages that she wanted to share which now includes a prison ministry the next outlier I want to cover is crossing genres songwriters love this if you're a songwriter your dream scenario is f

or one of your songs to be successful in wildly different genres for instance this song I Swear written by Frank Myers and Gary Baker was a huge hit for Country uh for country artist John Michael Montgomery and also a classic r b single for the band all for one the song written by Dolly Parton I Will Always Love You was of course a huge hit for her and a huge pop hit for Whitney Houston pop r b the genre of a song can be determined and changed by the artist vocal style and recording production v

alues like choices of instrumentation for an artist it can be a very successful strategy to take an old hit song and change the genre to fit your voice and your audience next outlier is mine this one is about shifting genres this is my story mastering vocal genres and changing them are definitely the music business model for me as a child I learned to sing country folk and gospel with my family so it was quite authentic as a teenager I gained a love of rock and roll and pop at 17 I started sessi

on work at a local studio in Jacksonville Florida and also took a course in classical music at Jacksonville University I learned some classical art songs which actually became instrumental in my vocal recovery which is another story altogether I'll link to that in the notes But continuing my studio singing in Memphis Tennessee I found myself immersed in r b music which to this day is part of my vocal DNA it's one of the biggest influences on my voice I also joined a top 40 cover band singing son

gs of such diverse artists as Carol King Grace Slick Tina Turner Brazil 66 The Fifth Dimension and many others I also sang background vocals for r b artists at high records country artists at linloo Studios and on a lot of black gospel music and finally I moved to Nashville continuing my session singing on records which included many traditional country stars so it was kind of Full Circle back to my childhood a few Rock sessions and with some International artists so it became really important t

hat I could sing just about any genre that you put before me but then came the record deal and I had to drill down my country artist career covered some songs that were considered Progressive country at the time flavored by all those other genres of my story and my career after that season ended I did another record this time with my husband that we categorized as Americana full circle that category allowed us to combine genres for the music that our hearts wanted to make so let me sum all this

up the bottom line for choosing genres as you can see choosing your vocal style to sing is both important and also something that may change over time my advice is to start by deciding what you want and need to do with your voice once you zero in on that then you can choose the musical genre or style that will help you reach your artistic goals when your vocal goals change your vocal genre can too all right if you need extra help getting your voice to do what your heart loves hit me up for a voc

al lesson or get a power path and performance vocal training course because I'd love to help you with that and if you enjoyed this and you feel like it helped you please hit like And subscribe and the little notification Bell see you next time for all things vocal ciao [Music] foreign [Music]