Music
Meet Your Instructor: Mariah Carey
Lesson time 05:46 min
With 19 No. 1 records and five Grammy Awards, your new instructor is Billboard’s “Greatest Female Artist of All Time.” Mariah welcomes you to her class and gives you a first look at her newest project, the Butterfly Lounge.
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Topics include: Mariah Carey Teaches the Voice as an Instrument
Teaches the Voice as an Instrument
Mariah Carey invites you into her studio to share her process. Learn how she uses her iconic voice to create, collaborate, and express a vision.
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[RUSTLING, CHEERING] [PENCIL ON PAPER] [MUSIC PLAYING] [RAIN FALLING] MARIAH CAREY: I was in a car in New York, driving back up to upstate New York, where I was living at the time, not very happily. And "Shook Ones, Part II" came on the radio. (RAPPING) Yeah. To all the killers and the $100 billers-- MARIAH CAREY: In that moment, I started thinking like, wow, I really need to write a song over this beat. And that's how it started to happen. (SINGING) It wasn't raining yet. Yeah. But it was definitely-- - Mariah Carey, you made it cool for rappers to jump on R&B tracks. Music was trying to figure out how to blend hip hop with pop and R&B and couldn't do it. You had a vision. JENNIFER HUDSON: She's a trailblazing hitmaker, an instantly recognizable voice, and she is truly one of a kind. As the decades go by, Mariah remains on the top. MARIAH CAREY: (SINGING) Prayed through the nights, prayed through the nights, so faithfully so faithfully-- When we talk about the power of your voice, there can be power in anything from a whisper to a scream literally. And then there's the power of self-expression, and I want to do this because this is what I'm feeling in my heart. I love songwriting. For me, that's my talent. Having melodies run through me, that's a gift. [SHE HOLDS LONG NOTE] I've grown up loving music since the day I can remember hearing music. I used to steal a little radio and bring it into my room and listen and learn. I would listen to Al Green and Gladys Knight. Like for me, music saved my life. I knew this is what I was going to do. When I was a little girl, my mother introduced me to the world of sitting in with musicians, improvising, vibing, and singing. Learning and listening to live jazz helped train my ear and shape my creative writing. I was learning how to feel, when to modulate, when to scat. My mother was a vocal coach. She was an opera singer. One thing I can say that I'm very thankful to her for, she didn't force me to do classical, and I think that helped me become my own person. If I did know the rules, some of these songs wouldn't exist. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" would not exist 'cause that was just me doing whatever. "Vision of Love" wouldn't exist. I didn't know the rules. What are you supposed to do? I just did whatever I wanted. (SINGING) To the one that was waiting for me-- In the beginning with my first album, I didn't know that I was producing, and mind you, like, I'm a teenage girl at this point. And I'm sitting there with grown men going can you raise the strings here. I want to do just an a cappella moment right here, and then we'll bring the beat back in. That is production. There's power in that. I love being in a studio. I really love creating music. You know and I've been able to whip the Butterfly Lounge take my time, wr...
About the Instructor
With a five-octave range and soaring whistle tones, Mariah Carey reigns as the “Songbird Supreme.” Now, for the first time, she’s opening up her studio to show you her creative process. Learn how she uses her iconic voice to write songs, collaborate, and produce—and discover how some of her biggest hits were made. Draw inspiration from Mariah’s journey and connect with the power of your own voice and vision.
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Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey invites you into her studio to share her process. Learn how she uses her iconic voice to create, collaborate, and express a vision.
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