scat singing
1
8.5
- noun
- /skæt ˈsɪŋɪŋ/
- Specialized
:
scat
- The musician showcased his talent by performing a captivating piece of scat singing that left the audience in awe.
Examples
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The number of resources for teaching scat singing is rapidly expanding, and middle school choral teachers should consider using methods that employ high-quality recordings with fine vocal models that are pitched appropriately for changing adolescent voices.
Academic text (2009) -
His accompaniment to Peggy Lee evolved into some sort of weird scat singing of his own improvisation.
Fiction book (1993) -
And of course, our own culture includes flamboyant scat singing that is consummately musical and breathtakingly technical.
Academic text (1992) -
[scat singing]
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Since vocal improvisation is most clearly identified with jazz, encouraging student vocal exploration can involve instruction in scat singing.
Academic text (2009) -
What we get is a kind of post symbolist scat singing that seems to overwhelm the the the poems epic and narrative intentions.
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(remixed scat singing)
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It has five wordless stanzas, each one featuring one or more instruments: trumpet, trombone, scat-singing, clarinet, piano, and trumpet.
Academic text (2005) -
Many jazz artists incorporate scat singing into their performances to add a playful texture to their music.
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During the workshop, the instructor taught the students how to express themselves through scat singing improvisation.
Synonyms
3
9.8
A style of jazz singing using nonsense syllables instead of words
How Wordless
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'scat' denotes vocal jazz improvisation with nonsense syllables and 'singing' is producing musical sounds, so 'scat singing' straightforwardly means singing that uses scat. This is a regular noun + noun modification pattern (not idiomatic or metaphorical), so a learner who knows both constituent words can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Scat singing comes from jazz singers who used playful, made-up sounds instead of real words, often to copy the sound of an instrument. One popular story says a 1920s singer began using nonsense syllables by accident and the idea caught on, so today scat singing means 'making up melodies and rhythms with nonsense syllables'.