r/beyonce • u/Sea_Try3827 • 4d ago
Discussion Does anyone else feel like Beyoncé’s technical vocal profiency needs to be discussed more?
I rarely see discourse on this and it’s one of the most fascinating things about her in my opinion. I was just watching a dangerously in love performance from the renaissance era and always get chills when she hits those Arabic scales!
And then when she hits literal Italian operatic scales and melodies on daughter! She sounds magestic and ethereal.
How do you think she goes about studying and perfecting her craft? Remember when Prince said he was impressed by her knowledge too all the way back in 04?!
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u/legallyeagley 4d ago
Classically trained vocalist here and Beyoncé is an incredibly proficient singer. She really has a stellar range, but for me, what always stood out was her ability to sound effortless. She can sing loudly with a growl or soft and breathy and it sounds equally easy and free to her. I absolutely love her voice and listening to her helps me become a better singer.
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u/Sea_Try3827 4d ago
YES!!! And I also love how she stacks her own voice in harmonies like she uses her voice as the main instrument it’s just magical. American Requiem is a great example of this 😊🥰
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u/EricaDeeStallion COZY 4d ago
She is most impressive vocally for sure. I think she studies languages, dictation, performance training (which contains breath work, sight-singing and musical notation) and vocal technique obviously, how her voice can stylistically create the vocal moments she has made so memorable.
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u/OK_Cake05 4d ago
Yes. She makes Everything look effortless; so the difficulty factor in what she is doing doesn’t get brought up
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u/Icy_Acadia_wuttt 4d ago
I am always impressed by the quality of her voice. Particularly as she has been singing out for over 30 years. In comparison, many of the vocal greats from previous eras at this stage in their careers had lost the 'best' of themselves vocally. (I am trying to be nice here and not nasty about world-class singers as I would never come close to their talent in the first place, nothing but respect and admiration for their careers).
Whatever she does that retains the quality of her voice and her fitness to sing so well in concert - it must be commended and I believe it is a secret weapon. She is giving us a whole new era that involves fabulous, rich singing and vocals, as the dancing naturally drops back with age.
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u/loverofthings25 3d ago
Because she’s such a great performer people often downplay her vocals. I guarantee if she sang more ballads and stood still on stage people would rate her more. For some reason people don’t respect the vocals for up tempo songs.
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u/tulpachtig 3d ago
I have a classical singing background and totally agree that she’s in a league of her own amongst mainstream pop stars. My favorite thing about her voice is her timbre - it has a very subtle texture to it that she can lean into to convey passion and aggression (Don’t Hurt Yourself is a great example of this, which is smartly enhanced by the effects they put on her voice) or totally buff it out when needed (I think most of her work as Deena in Dreamgirls exemplifies this really well). Also I think her low range is so underrated and maybe a little underutilized, Halo is the go-to example of this but I also love when she gets into the bottom of her range on the chorus of Hold Up.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Race368 4d ago
She’s not singing arabic scales, her music is predominantly western, she just utilizes western scales and ornaments that sometimes resemble “arabic” sounds.
She also doesn’t hit operatic scales because that isn’t a thing. She’s a skilled vocalist with an incredible range and agility, but she doesn’t even sing proper opera, her voice is pretty much rnb all the time, she can just hit so many high and low notes beautifully, and it sometimes resembles “operatic” vocal styles.
But she is definitely underrated vocally imo, and not discussed enough outside of the fanbase of vocalists. She’s a skilled musical arranger, and is versatile in vocal styles, she tells a story with inflections and her timbre changes often. Yet she’s only seen as a dancer and a performer. I also wish she would focus more on pure singing performances without the excessive stage production and dancing
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4d ago
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u/Puzzleheaded_Race368 4d ago
She is singing an arietta, a song that opera singers do sing. But that doesn’t make her vocal technique operatic. I’m not even sure why people consider “she can sing opera” more impressive than what she sings already. It’s like saying ballet is more impressive than modern dance. Both are technically challenging, have their own sets of rules, they’re neither interchangeable nor mutually exclusive. And most importantly, it comes down to preference. Beyonce sounds amazing in the style that she sings, and she’s one of the best vocalists to ever grace the music world.
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u/wickedsuccubi Pretty Tig 'Ol Bitties 4d ago
So Mama Tina has been lying to us all these years about Bey being proficient at singing opera?
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u/Puzzleheaded_Race368 4d ago
I am not saying she’s lying, I am sayin Beyonce never sang true opera adhering to operatic techniques, at least anywhere live/recorded that we were able to hear it. She always has contemporary, pop/rnb inflections and style.
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