How to Sing About Love Like Sara Bareilles

Sara Bareilles, a California native, sings about life and about love, but not always in a typical way. Armed with her words and her piano keys, many critics and fans compare her to Norah Jones, Rachel Yamagata and Fiona Apple in terms of style and lyrical cleverness.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Listen to Sara Bareilles songs and pay close attention to the lyrics and style. In her website bio, Sara says of her songs, "They chronicle my life, my relationships, my basket-case-ness, and my utter devotion to trying to write honest stuff down and share it."
2. Write about love in interesting ways. Sara wrote "Love Song" in response to her record label wanting radio-friendly poppy love songs. The song seems at face value to be about romantic love but in reality it's about a much larger struggle in staying true to yourself.
3. Sing with a sweet voice--be playful and flirty with your music. Mix predominantly low to mid range notes with bouts of highs and creative melodies to create dramatic emphasis and a unique sound.
4. Make your love songs about reality. Use sweet melodies with strong lyrics like Sara Bareilles does with "Fairytale." Sing about finding your own love, not someone else's idea of what love should be.
5. Focus on music centered about love in terms of pain and not quite getting it right. Write lyrics about trying to make love work but don't get too caught up in writing romantic ballads.

Tips & Warnings

• Visit the official Sara Bareilles MySpace page and website to hear the latest music and read news about the singer. Participate in community discussions to learn more about singing like Sara Bareilles.