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A Clinic in Song Interpretation


giskardsb

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giskardsb

Gaga's Carole King tribute performance of "I've got a friend" is one of many examples of what makes Gaga such a special vocalist.

Gaga is a first class interpreter of song.  This is what Carole herself meant when she said of Gaga "The music flows through her."  You can see it all over the place in the C2C performances, but especially with Lush Life and La Vie en Rose.   Gaga embodies songs, she lives them, she performs them.  She treats songs as a method actor treats their role, or not surprisingly, as a Broadway performer would perform them as part of a story.  Gaga tells stories when she sings.

Far too many vocalists are not good vocal performers.  Too many sing the notes but not the emotion.  Especially true of pop singers who often times are not much better at performing their songs than Karaoke singers, assuming they are actually singing at all.

Listen to this performance.  Gaga's dynamics go from nearly silent through strong belting.  She changes the tone of her voice from thin to heavy, bright to dark, chest to head, and other variations of tone.  She'll use different resonant placement through her body on the same notes.  She changes melody and dynamics from the recorded versions.  Gaga has not just learned how to sing the notes of this song, she has embodied the lyrics and lets us know how the song affects her by the way she sings various portions of it.

This is a lost art with the majority of pop vocalists these days who can barely be counted on to sing the correct notes much less give any meaning to them.

 

 

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Bad Bromance

Beautiful post @giskardsb!!!  I couldn't have said it better myself.  That is why I call Gaga the Queen of Music!

:gaga:

I don't care what you think about unless it is about me.
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Katie14

Wonderful post. I absolutely agree.  Her ability to emote is extremely powerful and makes her special as a vocalist. She doesn’t just try to sound as pretty as possible all the time (eg: Dope vocals). I think expression of emotions is more important to her than trying to sound as good as she can sound. This is similar to her appearance as well. She prefers to look interesting and different than just conventionally pretty. This is a huge risk to take because some people will not get it.  I also noticed that when I watch the same acoustic performances at different times, sometimes I enjoy her singing a lot more than other times. I think this is because of the emotion that comes through her voice. Sometimes I’m not in the right mindset to fully enjoy her performances.

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CannaeDrive

Agree completely, this is why I can't stop listening to Gaga singing. A you say, she is not only singing a song, she literally sings a story, brings to life these notes, brings out and embodies the emotion those notes carry. She is a first class musical performer. That Carole King tribute performance of "I've got a friend" is one  of my top 5 from her.

"Fame Is A Boomerang" - Maria Callas
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djBuffoon

Yes. Many pop singers, if they're even singing live to begin with, are content with hitting the notes and making it through the song without cracking. But because Gaga is in full control of her instrument, she has the luxury of playing with dynamics, improvising bits of melody, giving the song the mood and emotion it needs.

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