Sergei Rachmaninoff’s (1873-1943) Vocalise, a song without words, is possibly the most well-known song by the composer, though nowadays it is most often played by instrumentalists. In this thesis I will, with a focus on Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, explore whether interpretation methods differ in the presence of versus the absence of text, and whether one can develop one’s expression through working on the latter. To do this, I read the book Singing & Imagination by Thomas Hemsley to gain insight into the art of singing as a whole and then applied it to my work, as well as interviewing a total of nine people—both singers and instrumentalists—about their views on the topic to acquire a broader mass of data from which to find common themes. Through this thesis, I discovered that, though the essence of interpretation stays the same even in the absence of text, one must use their imagination to a larger extent—or, perhaps, a better choice of words: in a different way—to compensate for the lack of words that usually give the singer clear guidelines about the meaning of, for example, a certain chord. I also learned to expand my understanding of the possible expressive means of the human voice—not limiting myself to the traditional ideal of a beautiful singing voice—as singing without words forces you to find other alternatives to verbal communication. Through this work, I feel like I have gained a larger toolbox for my artistry and freed myself from the limits I so easily put myself into when trying to do everything “right”.