Sharp Practise
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12/23/2008 9:21:12 AM
Making the vocals work for the song
Hi,
I promised some more on making vocals work to show a lyric off to its best advantage.
Last time I talked about having a plan, and this is the basis of my delivery. However, unlike the performance of the music, where the plan is like a route map, the vocal plan can be delivered more flexibly. For example, the music plan might call for a suspended chord at a particular point, so if anyone deviates off and plays the wrong note the suspension is lost and the whole thing sounds wrong.
Not so for vocals – especially where the singer is acting as the story-teller, or the link if you like between music (the making of which can be foreign to some people) and words (which everyone can use).
So, while I might have it in mind that a given line of lyric is being sung to one person and needs the emphasis on a certain word, if I feel at the time an alternative approach works better I won’t feel constrained to stick to the original plan.
It’s by this mixture of planning and spontaneity that I hope to make a good performance to capture in the recording. If the words are merely recited it can sound inhuman and unexciting; if there’s too much vibe then the musicality of the phrases can get lost in the bad tuning!
So, in the end, it’s a balancing act to make things sound right and as if what is being sung is truly meant. Once I’ve captured a performance with those criteria properly met then I’m one happy singer.
I’ll be doing backing vocals next and will turn my attention to them next time.
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