Playing what you hear in your head - how to practice?

[derek]

Mimi Fox sings when she solos.
I love what John Pizz does. He must have worked like hell to get that down. Just making the decision as to what verbalization to use is a pain; do you use 'da', 'ba', 'da-ba', 'la-la-la'? What?
Herb Ellis (RIP) recommended it. K. Jarrett would probably stop if he could.
When I do it, crazily enough, it's out of key! Go figure!
Very likely, if we did it into a mike so it could be heard, we'd sing on key.

Pavarotti (not)

To my knowledge Herb is not dead, but he is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

[BillyC]

To me, it is not too difficult to sing along to changes that are diatonic, where the melody you sing is diatonic as well. However, when I hear a bit of chromaticism over a diatonic progression, I can't really hear the exact notes I want, I just know chromaticism would sound nice at a particular point, and even if I could hear the exact notes, I find it very difficult to hit those chromatic notes while singing, since my ear wants my voice to stay inside the key. The same applies to altered dominant chords. I know I want a tense super locrian or harmonic minor-derived line, yet I can't really hear the exact notes I want, and I couldn't sing such dissonant notes from the diatonic key center. All I could do is define the range I want the line to fall in. How do you guys approach these situations?

[TommyD]

To my knowledge Herb is not dead, but he is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

I did not know that! God, that's awful. It's even worse than death. What a way to go - being a total burden on those around you in every aspect of your daily life. Bottom line? You're better off (as are those who love you) if you die.

Tommy/