Music

Producing With Your Voice

Lesson time 09:27 min

Learn how Mariah makes music: by using her voice, communicating with melody, and collaborating with other musicians. Mariah begins to reimagine “The Roof” with a string quartet.

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Topics include: Communicating With Melody

Mariah Carey

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.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - We'll do it. To me melody is the greatest gift. Yes. To receive a melody when there's silence and then suddenly you're hearing a melody in your head and you're able to then articulate that or you're able to sing that, even if I didn't write lyrics, having melodies run through me is, like, an incredible feeling. [MUSIC PLAYING] Let's say I'm working with a very talented piano player. Or we could-- yeah, that's nice. I'll sing and show the person I'm working with what I'm actually hearing in my head, which is difficult when you don't know how to say, you know, oh, just go from the A minor to like-- so I feel like, you know, I do use my voice as an instrument because I don't play an instrument. I have the ability to like semi play instruments if I need to, but it's an honor and a privilege to be able to sing to somebody you know here's what I'm thinking in my head and then have them articulate that. Can you go ? Yeah. Yes. And we're not always on the same page, but we get there. [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh, come on, girl. Yes. In this working session, I'm going to guide the quartet to replace the original synth strings from "The Roof" and experiment with a new intro for the song. Yes. Wow, that could be a beautiful intro though. - Yeah, that's amazing. MARIAH CAREY: We could do something really pretty with that. That's really nice 'cause I was thinking-- yes. We were taking something that Daniel and I had already been working on, some ideas that I was singing into his phone. When we were first starting to work on, like, what we were going to do differently with "The Roof" this time around, and we had been talking about a string quartet for a while. And so working with the quartet, I really, really was just-- it was, like, everything to me. Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING] Yeah. - G flat. Yeah. MARIAH CAREY: People have no idea how amazing it is to be able to sing something to somebody and have them play it back to you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Yes. - A flat, B flat. MARIAH CAREY: See that's what he do that I can't do. - And D flat C. MARIAH CAREY: But not everybody here's what I'm hearing, so it really depends on who I'm collaborating with, what it is. Beat. [MUSIC PLAYING] What if it went ? When you know that Daniel Moore is there and he can play exactly what I'm hearing, when he knows I'm doing something slightly different than the string players are playing, he plays it, and then we go back and forth. - Can we sing it together? DANIEL MOORE: Uh huh. - Sing it. Sing, sing, sing. Oh, that's beau...

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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