Singing Guide: Roberta Flack
Vocal technique, exercises, tips and relevant resources
Learn to sing like a pro with Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is an American singer known for her soulful, emotive voice, and her range spanning multiple octaves. Her unique style and technique have made her an icon of the American music scene, and studying her singing can be an excellent way to improve your own skills.
Vocal technique
Roberta Flack's style is characterized by her smooth, sultry voice, and her soulful phrasing. She has a wide range, with the ability to sing in a vibrato style while maintaining perfect pitch. One of the keys to Flack's vocal technique is her focus on breathing; she prioritizes taking deep, clean breaths, which allows her to stay in pitch and maintain her phrasing. Through her balanced breathing technique, Flack manages to keep her voice consistent for long periods without losing quality.
Songs that showcase her unique style
One of the most famous songs by Roberta Flack is "Killing Me Softly With His Song," an emotional, sentimental ballad that showcases Flack's ability to emphasize both the lyrics and her own singing style. Additionally, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" epitomizes her range, with sustained notes, pitch, and tone shifts. Other classics include "Feel Like Making Love" and "Where Is the Love," a duet with Donny Hathaway that brings together their two legendary voices perfectly.
How to learn like Roberta Flack
If you want to improve your singing skills and learn to sing like Roberta Flack, Singing Carrots has made a few fantastic resources available. We recommend some of the following exercises:
- Learn to breathe properly for singing with our breathing basics guide.
- Master your voice registers with our vocal registers and the vocal break guide.
- Improve your posture and resonance with good singing posture lessons.
- Check your vocal register with the vocal range test.
- Do our pitch accuracy test to see where you stand.
- Watch videos and learn exercises for practicing Twang, Growling, Vibrato, Mixed Voice, Onsets-offsets, Sustain Vocal, Chest Voice Explained, Good Singing Posture, Humming, and Soft palate.
- Discover custom songbook by searching songs by vocal range and browsing over 5000 famous singer vocal ranges and Song-book, have linked lyrics, sheet music, chords, karaoke, and audio for performance.
- Check out our Singing Beginners course.
Conclusion
Roberta Flack is a legendary singer, and her style and technique remain relevant even today. By learning the fundamentals of breathing, mastering pitch accuracy, and taking advantage of the great tools available from Singing Carrots, anyone can impove their own singing skills and emulate Flack's uniquely soulful voice.