Gabrielle Goodman landed a gig with Roberta Flack after learning an entire set overnight. She\u2019s written for (and sang with) Chaka Khan, and she had a very strange interaction with Miles Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The veteran vocalist and educator brings those stories\u2014and her three-and-a-half-octave range\u2014to Berklee Online, where she teaches R&B Vocals<\/a><\/em> and Improvisation Techniques for Singing Pop and R&B<\/a><\/em>. Here, she shares insights on karaoke go-tos, pre-show rituals, and the art of winning over an audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabrielle Goodman:<\/strong> Fantasia Barrino. Because she sings so well. I would just love to hear her sing my songs. That would be just amazing. The gospel songs that have been in my life, my own compositions, all of it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Gabrielle Goodman:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m Every Woman\u201d by Chaka Khan or \u201cRespect\u201d by Aretha Franklin, because they\u2019re so fun. They\u2019re such fun songs!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Gabrielle Goodman:<\/strong> One of the people, and I miss him dearly, who used to tell me was Jeff Ramsey<\/a> [co-author of R&B Vocals<\/a>]<\/em>. He would say, \u201cWell, this is a great new singer and you should listen to her!\u201d or \u201cThis is a great new song!\u201d And I don\u2019t have that right now, so I just sort of go on YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Gabrielle Goodman:<\/strong> Before or after I put my eyelashes on \u2026 [Laughs] Generally, it\u2019s after I put my eyelashes on, I like to get the band together to say a prayer over the event. I pray for perfect musicianship and that the audience will accept us because, sometimes everything can be perfect onstage, but the audience can look at you like, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d So I pray for all of those things. And then we just go. I always warm up before I sing, so many times in the dressing room, I\u2019ll warm up. So it\u2019s sort of make-up, warm-up, and prayer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Gabrielle Goodman:<\/strong> I have a sort of a vivacious spirit, so if someone is sitting in front of me, I\u2019ll just walk right up to them and maybe grab someone\u2019s hand. And if I\u2019m close enough to them I just start singing to them. Or if it\u2019s a large audience, I\u2019ll just say \u201cHey, come on, everybody, put your hands together!\u201d and just get them involved. I find that getting people involved, depending on what kind of crowd it is, with an uptempo song, is really important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Gabrielle Goodman:<\/strong> I did a lot of local projects in Baltimore when I was growing up, because the very first gig that I did was with my oldest brother, and I sang in church for a long time. When I think about it, I was 14 to 16 before I started gigging. And my oldest brother would come to the church and I started gigging with his group. Then internationally, I was in school at the Peabody Conservatory and a friend of mine called from New York and asked me if I could come to New York the next day and sing background for Roberta Flack.<\/p> Now, there was a conversation that we had about this, like probably six months to a year prior, where I said, \u201cWell, if you know anybody in New York who needs a background singer, please pass my name along. I would love to do this kind of work.\u201d And then I just forgot about it and I focused on my studies.<\/p> Anyway, flash-forward, Howard King calls me and says, \u201cCan you be in New York tomorrow?\u201d It\u2019s the end of the spring semester and I have final exams coming up, so it was quite the decision to make! So what I decided to do is talk to my professors and say, \u201cWell, listen, I have this amazing opportunity. Do you mind if I take my exams next week? Because I\u2019d like to go to New York tomorrow to sing with Roberta Flack.\u201d And then the other part of that was that I had to learn her show overnight. [Laughs] So there were several things going on!<\/p> But the great thing about college\u2014and I see it with my students here at Berklee\u2014is that it prepares you to take in a lot of information all at once. It also prepares you to multitask. And so I found that because I was working on so many things already, I said, \u201cWell, okay!\u201d I had listened to Roberta Flack\u2019s music so much when I was growing up as well, so I was really familiar with it. I was shaking in my boots because Roberta Flack is an amazing musician and so I thought, \u201cI can\u2019t sing a wrong note.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nWho would you want to play you in a movie about your life?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
I know a lot of professional singers don\u2019t normally do karaoke, but if you get roped into it, what are you going to sing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Who is your most reliable source for music?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What kind of rituals or routines do you have when you\u2019re about to perform?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What do you do to win over an audience if they\u2019re not on your side right away?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What was your first professional gig?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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