Vocal Tips for Recording and Performing

I have been listening to a bunch of CD’s that friends and acquaintances gave to me of varying degrees of expertise and natural ability.

One recording in particular stands out because the singer has such a great voice. So resonant and so rich, it’s like a cello. As the music began, I was truly taken with the singer’s ability, but as I listened to the songs I noticed two things that I believe would have made it an even greater recording.

First off, the singer goes for the bel canto sound every time it can be done. Rather than serve the song and hit those notes when they would deliver some kind of emotional payoff to the lyric or the cadence or half cadence, the singer hit those notes every time.

I realized that what was happening was the singer was lessening the impact of that vocal gift by using it all the time. So very often, that it became no big deal that another note was being hit and held with such effortless beauty.

This is a misuse of the gift that many new singers are guilty of. You devalue the special thing in your gift if you use it all the time. Imagine if Eric Clapton found one lick that he particularly liked and played that one over and over again in every song. No matter how hot the lick was, it would become something that you actually were disappointed in hearing when it showed up again.

I don’t mean to imply this singer sang the same lick, just that the same resonant approach was employed on every whole note or chance of a whole note in every song.

You have to serve the lyric and decide when you are going to hit those notes so that they really have impact. If you bel canto every whole note, then there is nothing special about any particular one and you haven’t made the emotional connection that you would if you served the lyric and communicated the lyric in more than just the singing of it. The delivery will not have the impact that it could.

The delivery has to include enough variety to keep you involved, engaged, listening to the song. If, as a listener, you start to drift then you know that you have lost the connection.

The other thing that I noticed, and I noticed this about most of the singing was that they didn’t pay attention to the rhythm groove as much as they could. I am referring to one specific technique that I learned from a Miles Davis interview.

He was talking about reverb and how so many white musicians use a reverb on the snare that carries over into the next snare hit, thereby diminishing the attack of the snare and consequently the groove. Since then I have tried to make the notes of whatever instrument I am playing acknowledge at least the second snare hit in a 4/4 tempo, by stopping the note before that fourth beat is hit.

It makes a remarkable difference in the track and the groove of the track. Today, I realized that it also applies to the vocal. Specifically as this singer held notes out past the last beat of a measure and then let it die, I realized that if the fourth beat had been acknowledged by the singer then the song would have grooved more.

I tried singing to the track myself and paying attention to that and yes, it’s true. Experiment. Sometimes what you want to do is to break that up by holding the note over the fourth beat, but first make certain that not only the track but the vocal sits in that pocket. It makes all the difference in the world.

Comments

[Bobby Brogan]

James,
My take is this...If you are singing Bel Canto all the time...then it isnt Bel Canto...becos as you noted it becomes uninpressive...so the beauty is lost...so it is no longer Bel Canto

Pax
Namaste

[Cynthia Paap]

I came across this site through a search engine while I was looking for recording tips... I found it really helpful! I am trying to record today in my house... I use a digital piano hooked into my computer and an audio technica condensor mic. I record my wav tracks with Nero wave editor and mix the tracks using Cakewalk. Do you have any advice for people like me - how to get the best sound out of your makeshift home studio? You can hear some of my stuff on myspace www.myspace.com/writtenbycynthia or my website www.writtenbycynthia.com I would love any vocal or recording tips you can give me.