How to Sing Vocal Runs with Ease🥇(Apr 2024)

In this article, we’re going to be talking about how you can sing vocal runs!

However, before we dive into exactly how to go about learning how to implement them within your vocal performances, let’s firstly touch on what they are and why exactly you’d want to use them.

What are vocal runs and why do singers use them?

Vocal runs at their core are simply a series of notes/pitches that are sung in succession during a vocal phrase.

These are not random notes, but notes that are within the same vocal key as the song, or in a similar key which complements the present key.

Singers will use vocal runs to add interest to a vocal phrase. These runs are more commonly used in genres such as pop and R&B, with famous artists such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Chris Brown, Neyo, etc.

How to Sing Vocal Runs

As this is a subject which requires demonstration, we’ve included a fantastic video demonstration, explanation and tutorial on how to exactly how to sing vocal runs.

However, we’ve also documented all of the points within the article below, for those who don’t want to watch the video.

Study and replicate

The first step to learning any new skill in singing is to find other singers who have developed that skill set already. This way, you can begin to study their studio and live performances, as well as any ‘studio session’ videos, which usually show them practicing and using different routines/techniques to prepare their voice.

We recommend studying singers who have a similar voice, range, and tonality to you, as these factors will ultimately determine your capacity and stamina for singing vocal runs.

Once you’ve chosen a few singers, you can simply immerse yourself within their performances. Try looking at videos on YouTube for this. Then move onto the next step.

Slow and steady

Once you’ve found a few singers that you’re looking to emulate, it’s time to begin breaking down and replicating the vocal runs they are singing.

One way that you can do this is to simply slow the YouTube videos down to 1/2 or even 1/4 of the original speed, so that you can clearly hear the notes that he/she is singing within their vocal run.

Additionally, we recommend downloading some of these YT videos as WAV/MP3 files, and then clipping the vocal runs, so that you can save a selection of your favourite vocal runs on your desktop, for easy reference.

You may even want to take online singing lessons to build up your vocal cords and create muscle memory.

Try not to strain

Ask any singing teacher, and they’ll tell you almost immediately, straining is one of the worst things that you can do for your voice. Not only does it give you a thin, forced sound, but it eventually damages your vocal cords, leading to physical defects like nodules and horseness… Not what you want.

With that being said, every singer is different, and it’s important to realize that whilst you’re looking at emulating your chosen artist’s vocal runs, you’re both at different stages vocally, and we say this to make you realize that you should sing within your current limits, and do your best to minimize vocal strain.

With enough practice (and patience) you’ll be able to close the gap between your current singing ability and your singing potential.

Conclusion

We hope that this article has been extremely useful for you, and if you have any questions or comments, then please leave them below.

Additionally, for those singers who haven’t had vocal training, you may want to look at taking an online singing program, and one in particular which we recommend to beginner and intermediate singers is 30-Day Singer, who has a 14-Day Free Trial of their program and even provide a 30-day money-back guarantee for those who decide to buy it after the trial is over.

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None-the-less, with there being no risk involved, we wanted to at least mention it to you aspiring singers wanting to speed up your learning.