How To Sing Jazz

Hi, I'm Sonia Jones. I'm a professional singing teacher and I'm going to give you tips and advice on how to sing. Now, jazz.

Well, that covers a lot of music that – there's jazz blues, there's traditional jazz, but the jazz I tend to teach is the ballad jazz standards. And I did have this young girl that came to me about a year ago and she'd been trained before. She thought she was an awkward singer and we had a few lessons and I found this amazing tone in her voice which really lends itself towards jazz and I'm going to play for you an example of that now.

Now, jazz singing. It's not something that you can really be taught. It's such a feel thing and so individual.

Most people are brought up with jazz and, you know, start singing the jazz standard, practice with a pianist, and just improvising. It's all about improvising. So, for jazz, if you haven't really got the natural improvisation or feel for it, then pursue definitely another area of singing.

And with jazz, I mean, the best way to learn apart from singing live is to listen to the greats and listen to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and listen to them scat singing, and Louis Armstrong, you know, they are so brilliant. But just for practice just at home, jazz is all about the tone. So, if you're doing something like Misty, it would be – you would pout as much as possible.

It's all about getting that tone. So, remember that to sing jazz, remember to pout, listen to the greats, practice, and that's it. .