How to Break Down a Riff: Phantom of The Opera’s Think of Me
If you’ve ever tried to learn a vocal run or riff you know that it doesn’t just come out perfectly on the first try. Today’s Music Minute Monday is all about breaking down vocal runs and riffs using “Think of Me” from Phantom of The Opera (one of my personal favorites!)
You can break a riff down in 3 different ways.
Read the sheet music, and break it up in to manageable pieces.
If you don’t read sheet music, you can have someone who does (your voice teacher!) break it down for you, or you can break it down by ear using solfège.
If you typically lean better towards numbers, use numbers instead of solfège!
What do you mean by numbers and solfège, Erin? I am SO glad you asked, dear reader!
Solfège are the syllables assigned to notes in a scale. You may be more keen to recognize it from the song “Doe a Deer” from The Sound of Music. She is actually teaching the kids solfège! God bless ya, Maria/Julie Andrews.
So, say you’re in the key of C. How that would break down would go as follows:
C - Do
D - Re
E - Mi
F- Fa
G - So
A - La
B - Ti
C - Do (again, but higher!)
Solfege is commonly used to teach students how to sight sing.
Alternatively, if you were to use numbers, you’d replace the syllables with the numbers 1-8 since there are 8 notes in a major scale.
So, how does this help you learn a riff? You can assign the notes in the riff either their respective solfège syllables or, numbers and learn it that way!
At the end of “Think of Me,” Christine does her fabulous “ah” riff to end the song. With the riff being so quick it’s easy for notes to get lost or sloppy so, it’s important to slow it down, and know exactly what you’re supposed to be singing.
If you look at the picture below, you’ll see how I broke down the riff myself using both numbers and solfège. (For those of you who can’t read my writing, the typed out description is below the picture!)
Part 1: Re Mi Fa Re La Fa Do / 2 3 4 2 2 6 4 1
Part 2: Fa So La Fa Do La Re / 4 5 6 4 1 6 2
Part 3: Mi Fa So La Fa La Ti Do La Ti Do Re So / 3 4 5 6 5 6 7 1 6 7 1 2
Part 4: So - SO (Octave jump) Do / 5 - 5 - 1