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| Vocals |
Date Posted:
5/1/2000
Author:
Stuart Townend
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Of course there may be other considerations. For example, the worship leader’s solo voice may not be of a sufficient standard to feature so prominently, and so may need to be ‘ghosted’ by another voice in the same range. In order to keep the sound clearer, therefore, it might help for the weaker voice to back a few inches off the microphone for the body of the song, coming close only to give directions to the congregation.
Blending
The subject of blending has been covered previously in this magazine, but it may be worth reiterating a few points. Blending is the sound of two or more voices combining to create a single, bigger sound. The key to good blending is in two areas - phrasing and timbre.
Phrasing involves making sure you sing each part of each word in the same way, at the same time. Pronunciation is obviously a part of it, where accents can have play a significant part. But equally crucial is ending words together, especially at the end of lines; and placing consonant sounds that occur in the middle of lines in the same place (especially difficult when the notes are long). It pays off to rehearse these well.
I have always disciplined myself and the singers I work with to end lines on a predetermined beat of the bar. It tends to keep things neat, and you are more likely to get it right!
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I recently saw a rescreening of the film “Sister Act”, in which Whoopi Goldberg, in the space of a few days, transforms an appalling-sounding handful of nuns into the most happening gospel choir in town. Ah, if only it were that simple. We would probably all agree that vocals are crucial to the sound of the worship team. Unfortunately, they are probably the most difficult thing to get right, and probably give us the most grief as team leaders!
Singers are something of a breed apart. They may well be the only part of your team who have never had any training on their ‘instrument’. They may well never have considered practising with vocal exercises during the week. But they are probably the most sensitive to criticism. Tell a bass player he’s out of tune, and he’ll get out his tuner and sort out the problem. Tell a singer they’re out of tune, and you could be looking at weeks of counselling.
Maybe that’s unfair. The human voice is a not only a very sensitive and temperamental instrument. It’s also very personal to the one who is using it. But as team leader there are ways, both musical and psychological, to bring out the best from your worship team’s vocal group.
How many?
Last time we looked at our rhythm section, and how clarity of sound was achieved in part by ensuring that each instrument performed a distinct role, thus avoiding the ‘muddy’ sound that comes from unintentional doubling. Vocals are slightly different, in that the kind of sound you are wanting to achieve in congregational worship is the sound of lots of voices! Therefore the idea is to ‘front’ that congregational sound, rather than ‘perform’ for the listener.
Having said that, some worship teams fall between two stools. They have three or four singers all singing in unison, which, if they are well-rehearsed and blend together, can sound good. But a lot of the time that number isn’t big enough to create the rich sound of a choir, yet lacks the clarity of one or two voices. The ideal ‘fronting’ sound for me is a male-female “duet”, with other voices singing harmonies in the appropriate places. It is fairly clear-sounding, and although the two voices still need to work at getting a good blend (see below), it’s easier to do that with two voices an octave apart than with several.
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