 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
 |
|
||
Recent Entries from Our Blog
Delivery for Singer Songwriters
Delivery for Singer Songwriters
Style and delivery for a songwriting singer.
You may hire a professional singer, but what happens when you want to perform your songs live?
As a songwriter you may not consider yourself to be a singer. You hire a demo singer to record your material, but then run into trouble when you want to perform your music. Good quality delivery is absolutely dependent on the energy you put out to the audience. With strong breath support and vocal technique a singer can deliver their songs with the intensity appropriate for the message you are trying to convey. Your message should flow through you and to the listener. You want your notes to connect. Often, without good support the voice wobbles or is choppy and can distract the listener from the message. This smooth flow is called “legato”. Start by thinking about it. You will start delivering your message like a great singer.
Song delivery Critiques
My experience is that the key of the song is the biggest culprit for limiting the potential of its delivery. A common mistake with songwriters is to sing every song in the same key, or sing in low range because they think it is the most comfortable. I believe this is due in part to the writer not knowing their own vocal potential. Because they are not a singer, yet. For example, a slow song that’s melodic and intimate throughout is going to sound better in the low to mid range of the voice. The melody of a power ballad is usually written so that the chorus is anywhere from a third, to an octave higher than the verses. In this case, the singer should determine the key by the strongest notes/ words in the chorus. High-energy songs are great with the choruses in the mid to upper-mid range throughout or with the verses in the mid range only. Start thinking about this concept and you will start becoming a better singer AND songwriter.
Good Vocal Coach, Good Recording
Good Vocal Coach, Good Recording
An experienced vocal coach will ensure that you don’t waste your time in the studio.
Working with your vocal coach ahead of time will ensure an excellent vocal performance.
Rehearse with your band or accompanist as well as on your own time and with your vocal coach. Perform the song live before recording it if you have the opportunity. That way you can get used to putting the feeling into the song and take it with you to the studio. Memorizing the words can be very helpful in allowing you to put more feel into the performance too. Don’t bring your lyrics sheet with you when you work with your vocal coach.
When you work on your material with your vocal coach bring instrumental tracks of the song you will be recording to your voice lessons so your teacher can record you singing your song over and over and you both listen back to it. This a great learning tool. You can bring a rough studio track, or an acoustic track that was recorded in your bathroom. An experienced vocal coach can even go through the pre production with you. This can be extremely beneficial to you and your band because you will solidify the key of the song and improve the phrasing and delivery.
Once you have done all of this bring two versions of your song to your vocal coach; the finished instrumental track with and without a scratch vocal. Use the track without vocal for continuing to practice your lead. Don’t be concerned with the background vocals while practicing your lead. Your experienced vocal coach can help you with any extra vocal parts like ad-libs and harmonies. Go back into the studio to record your final vocal after all this preparation. You may even want to bring your vocal coach with you.
Putting the time and preparation into your material means you will not be disappointed afterward and wanting to re record. It also means less time and money spent in the studio with a much better result. The more prep time, the better the vocal. The more time spent with a good vocal coach the more likely to guarantee a good recording.
23 Recording Studio Terms
23 Recording Studio Terms That a Singer Should Know
…and some advice for a good vocal performance
In the studio:
Be sure never to touch the mic or mic stand in the recording studio. Let the engineer handle it. Just tell them what you need. When the engineer adjusts the mic stand for you in the vocal booth, make sure the mic is as low as your chin so you sing down to it. This helps to prevent lifting the chin and possibly straining.
If you have the opportunity to practice with headphones take advantage of it. HINT: I find that hearing myself in the headphones and in the room at the same time ensures better pitch. I put both headphones on and then move one of them back slightly, about halfway off my ear.
You may want to pump the volume of the music into your head to “get into it” more however, be careful when doing this because it can really mess up your pitch.
- Backgrounds (BGVs) – background vocals
- Call and response – part of a song where a line is sung and there is an answer line
- Comp (comp track) – includes all the best takes from all the lead vocal parts recorded and wrapped into one final compilation track that is ready to be mixed by the engineer
- Control room – where the engineer sits; where all the buttons and sliders are; where the lava lamp is
- Demos – a compilation of songs used to demonstrate a person’s talent or songs or both
- Engineer – person who records and mixes all the music; the tech person; often the producer as well
- Filter/ Pop Screen – the mesh screen in front of the mic that you are singing into; it helps to dampen harsh or noisy consonants, such as ‘P’, ‘B’, and ‘S’
- Harmony – complementary vocal part that is not in unison with the melody
- Headphone amp – small box in the vocal booth used to adjust overall headphone volume
- Headphones (cans) – how you hear the recorded music AND your voice in the vocal booth
- Hot – voice is too loud and the engineer may have to make adjustments; you may have to step back a little from the mic as well
- Levels – Volume levels get checked by the engineer to make sure everything has a good balance and that nothing is too hot. (see Headphone amp).
- Melody – a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying; the “main part” in a song
- Music stand – place to rest lyrics and sheet music
- Producer – often also the engineer; specifically, the producer decides what instruments get played where and how and puts everything together; a producer works hand in hand with the artist and the engineer.
- Punch (Punch In/ Out) – when you want to keep a recording on a track, but want to redo something on that same track, you will “punch” that part i.e. “Let’s punch in on the first line in the second chorus.”
- Roughs – comped tracks without mixing
- Scratch track – (vocal) recording that is only for reference
- Stack – recording the exact same vocal part on a second track to match the first track
- Take – a take is a recording on a track i.e.: That was a good take. Save that!
- Track (noun) – A (digital) signal that represents a single channel of audio. Usually one track contains a performance of one musical instrument. By the time a singer is finished recording vocals for one song they could easily have ten tracks of just their voice. A breakdown of what 10 vocal tracks might look like: lead vocal 3 times (3 tracks), pick one lead and stack the choruses (1 track), 2 different background vocal parts, stacked (4 tracks), vocal comp (1 track) = 10. Tracking (verb) – the act of recording
- Unison – more than one person singing the same vocal part at the same time
- Vocal booth – isolation area where the vocals are recorded
How to Sing Without Strain
How to Sing Without Strain
Let yourself sing.
Don’t make yourself sing.
Often students will strain to sing notes that they believe are too high. That is part of the problem. You think the note is high so you reach for it. Then you might even “hit” it or… you might not. And if you do “hit” the note, how attractive is it if it’s been “hit”? If you are straining when singing then you are in fact doing something wrong. You are going to have to try to sing differently if you want a different result.
Higher (not high) notes demand more breath pressure than notes that are lower. That’s how the body works. It is more breath pressure that you need instead of straining in order to execute that note. Think about this. If you can sing a note while straining, it makes sense that you could sing the same note without straining. The problem is the strain NOT the note. All the energy you put into tensing, reaching, pushing and tightening is interference. If you think a note is (too) high then you prepare your mind and body to reach for it. Do the opposite. Relax your mind and body, plant your feet and let the sound move through you. Let your body sing. Let it all go and let your diaphragm take care of carrying your notes for you. If your diaphragm is not strong enough, you’ll have to adjust, i.e. change the key of the song, use your falsetto, or sing it later when you are stronger. Of course, all of this is much easier to learn and accomplish with a good vocal coach and proper voice lessons.
Another way to think about this is to imagine that ALL the notes you own and can sing are right in front of you. You do not need to go looking for high notes or low notes. You own them all. I believe that we innately never choose to sing anything that we are incapable of singing.
Copyright Complaint
Copyright Pet Peeve
Songwriters please stop talking about getting your songs copywritten. There is no such thing as getting a song COPYWRITTEN! Why? Because after you WRITE a song, you get a copyright for it. This gives you the RIGHTS to the material you WROTE.
Technically, copyrighting your material or having it COPYRIGHTEd does not exist either, because “copyright” is a noun, not a verb, which means it has no action.
Thank you for obliging this rant. 
Now go practice singing… anything, and don’t forget to copyright your material.
Social Bling
Other Interesting Items
