Learning to Riff

Learning to embellish on a melody, frequently called riffing, can be an intimidating thing to try but it’s not as difficult as you might think. Riffing has increasingly become a skill that is needed by the musical theatre performer as more and more shows are in a pop/rock style. This chapter will help you with the basics of riffing. It is important that you begin slowly and resist the temptation to try to have a finished product too quickly. Riffing is a style of vocal embellishment that came out of African American work songs from the early 19th century as well as early Blues and black Gospel singers in the early part of the 20th century. It was further developed by R&B and Soul singers in the 50s and 60s. Elvis Presley famously took “Hound Dog,” first recorded by “Big Mama” Thornton, an African American Rhythm and Blues singer, and made it his own. The influence of an African American singing style was then employed by Pop and Rock singers in the 60s and 70s to today. It is crucial that the serious students listens to early great Blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, and Ma Rainey. Some of the great Gospel singers to listen to are Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, Bertha Houston and others. Soul singers to listen to are Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Eta James, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Fats Domino and James Brown. More recent Soul-inspired singers are Prince, Sade, Eryhah Badu, Macy Gray, India.Arie, Alicia Keys, Bettye LaVette, Maria Carey, Beyonce and Lauryn Hill. In the late 80s and 90s, a new kind of riffing occurs in pop music characterized by very fast vocal melismas done to the extreme. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys are examples. While this kind of riffing can be exciting, it can feel dated. Riffing should come from a need to express the text more fully. In Musical Theatre, most of the time you need to have a strong reason and need to embellish the melody. This isn’t always the case in purely pop music where riffing can sometimes be simply what is expected. The first step is to sing the melody softly, simply and accurately, without embellishments. It is only then will you know what to embellish on. Knowing what the actual melody is can sometimes be difficult because sheet music is often published today with the riffs written out. If you have learned a song by listening to a recording first, you must use your intuition and musical judgement to decide what the unadorned melody is. Try to simplify and smooth out the melody. For this chapter, we will begin with the Gospel song, “His Eye is On the Sparrow” (Fig. 1) because the melody is published and because so many singers have found ways to make their performance unique. As you sing, have a pianist play simple chords. Sing slowly and notice which tones are chord tones and which are non-chord tones. The non-chord tones are labeled in the given example. Learn the three primary types of non-chord tones as they will be useful to you as you create your version of the melody. A basic understanding of harmony and chords will be very helpful as you do this.

•Neighbor tone - a non-chord tone which steps away from a chord tone and back to a chord tone•Passing tone - a non-chord tone which steps between two chord tones•Appoggiatura - a skip from one chord tone that resolves by step to a chord tone

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Fig. 1

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Once you have mastered the basic song, it is time to begin looking at some ways to change the melody. The most fundamental embellishments are found in Fig. 2.

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After you have mastered these six techniques, you can begin experimenting with free composition–a recomposition of the melody using the above techniques with additional liberties. Be careful that the new melody agrees with the harmony. Sing slowly and listen carefully. (Fig. 3) Notice that many of the original pitches are present at the same moments and that the shape of the melody stays largely the same.

In example 1, “eye is on the” is treated with simple neighboring tones, above and below, then “sparrow” moves downward like the original melody, but not as far. In example 2, “why should I feel” is recomposed by moving in the opposite direction. “Discouraged” is also recomposed. “Why should the shadows come” is first embellished by moving upward more quickly, and then reversing direction before moving up to C. “Come” is treated with a simple neighbor tone.

Blue Notes The flat 3rd, flat 5th (or sharp 4) and the flat 7th are pitches which give the Blues its flavor. In the key of “His Eye is On the Sparrow”, C major, the flat 3rd is E-flat, the flat 5th is F-sharp (or enharmonically G-flat) and the flat 7th is B-flat. You should always know the key you are singing in and know what the blue notes are as they are especially expressive. Theoretically, Blue Notes may be sung closer to a semitone away from their closest neighbor note. For example, the E-flats in Fig. 4 may be closer to the D neighbor tone than they would be in other situations. This alteration from standard tuning systems evokes the “pain” that is inherent in Blues.

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Figure 5 shows one possible “riff” melody created from the various techniques. Try to identify each of them. Notice that there are several places where a word or two has been added. Also notice the places where the melody stays the same but the rhythm has been changed slightly.

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Now it is your turn to create your own version of “His Eye is On the Sparrow.” Again, don’t try to go too quickly. Have a copy of Fig. 2 close by so that you can recall and incorporate each of the six techniques. Combining techniques will yield interesting and fresh results. Let your imagination and voice be free and don’t try to be too complex at first. Once you have done this, listen to the recordings of the song by Marvin Gaye, Mahalia Jackson, The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and Lauryn Hill. After doing this work, feel free to move on to these Musical Theatre songs. For women – “Whatever Happened To My Part?” (Spamalot), “Find Your Grail” (Spamalot), “I Am Changing” (Dreamgirls), “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” (Dreamgirls), “Too Beautiful For Words” (The Color Purple), “Raven” (Brooklyn: The Musical), “Once Upon a Time” (Brooklyn: The Musical), “Small Town Girl” (Debbie Does Dallas), “Feels Like Home” (Randy Newman’s Faust), “I Got Love” (Purlie), “I'm Just Movin'” (Working) and “I’m Not Alone” (Carrie). For men – “All Good Gifts” (Godspell), “Go the Distance” (Hercules), “Beethoven Day” (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown Revival), “Let Me Drown” (Wild Party), “Heaven on their Minds” (Jesus Christ Superstar), “Boy with Dreams” (Edges), “Lost in the Wilderness” (Children of Eden), “Memphis Lives in Me” (Memphis) and “Someone Else’s Life” (Tales From the Bad Years). Some pop songs that are especially good to explore riffing are Hero (Maria Carey), (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin), If I Were a Boy (Beyoncé). I Believe I Can Fly (R. Kelly), Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) (Stevie Wonder), You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder) and I’ll Be There (Jackson 5)

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