Vocal Technique

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Recording Great Vocals – Top Tips


Benefiting from years of experience in the recording studio, top UK session singer Kim Chandler outlines her five top tips for recording great vocals.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the only place you could record your vocals was in a large, expensive studio.

These days, however, it’s never been more affordable and easy to record yourself!

This means that more vocalists than ever before are recording themselves and getting their music heard in ways that weren’t imaginable even five years ago.

When you’re ready to record, it’s advisable that you > read more

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The Look of Silence


Catch the interest of your audience and take you and your band to the next level. Joey Elkins tells you how.

Last week, we noted how having a sense of “space” in your singing requires just as much artistry as singing itself.

Let’s make this idea come alive by watching some gifted vocalists working with silence.

What you will notice in some of the following YouTube clips is that we are talking about much more than simply shortening notes for dramatic purposes.

Silence is about reacting both to the pauses that suggest themselves within your lyrics as well as reacting to what is happening around you musically.

Leaving space is not so much about the length of a note; it’s realizing that sometimes the choice to not sing at all IS a choice—an important choice.

It’s about taste; it’s about being in tune with the natural ebb and flow of what’s happening. It’s about having a sense of where the musical “breaths” want to be.

Listen to how Rachelle Ferrell uses > read more

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Stop Singing.

Your next step into vocal excellence may be to do nothing. Joey Elkins explains why.

“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” (Dizzy Gillespie)

Those words always stop me in my tracks; our vocal art lies as much between the notes we sing as it does in our singing themselves.

Having a sense of “space” in your singing – no matter what your vocal genre – requires just as much artistry as singing itself.

In fact, experimenting with vocal silence in one of your pieces could be the next step for you to catch > read more

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The Singer Who Dares to Listen


Greater vocal confidence can come through your ears as well as your throat—Joey Elkins explains how.

Imagine confidently finding your starting note every time, no matter how complex the instrumental background.

Sound good? It gets better:

Your band goes off into an unscripted chord progression and you’re suddenly able to pick out notes to sing that make this unexpected interlude seem eloquently planned.

Maybe this is the best one:

You come to a practice session and you’re able to pinpoint some instrumental arrangements that aren’t optimal for supporting the vocal element; your band is > read more

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TAKING COMMAND OF YOUR VOCAL PERFORMANCE


How can you get audiences more emotionally involved with your performance? Celebrity Voice and Performance Coach Jeannie Deva shows us how–complete with YouTube favorites…

How do you measure a great performance?

A great performance is not measured simply by how you feel at the end of it; more to the point is the response of your audience and how they feel when they leave your gig at the end of the night.

Let’s look at it from the perspective of you throwing a party. The success of the party is based upon how your guests feel about the time that they had. You may have spilled a drink or even had to run out to buy more food, but > read more

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Singing Naked II – Try It.


Try adding a cappella instrumentation to your vocal performance – Mister Tim of moosebutter shows you how*.

Last week we looked at the phenomenon of a cappella music and began to apply this to any vocal work.

This week, let’s explore how a cappella music can co-exist with contemporary forms of singing and point to some interesting alternatives that vocalists might want to try.

New School vs. Old School

Contemporary a cappella is distinguished from traditional a cappella by the use of vocal percussion as well as > read more

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Singing Naked


Mister Tim of moosebutter shares what every vocalist wants to know about a cappella but may be too afraid to ask…

Over the next two weeks, I’m going to be urging vocalists to consider adding an a cappella dimension to their performances—whatever their style of music.*

This is because a cappella is not a style of music; it’s an instrumentation.

Rather than associating a cappella with a specific genre such as barbershop or classical, it should really be seen as a means of conveying your musical message within > read more

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Practicing Performance

vocal practice and performance
Many singers consider practice and performance to be distinct activities. Gerald Klickstein, author of the new book The Musician’s Way, shows how they can be combined into an inclusive creative process.

Suppose that you’re preparing for a concert. How do you bridge the gulf between personal practice and public performance?

I’ve observed that many singers under-perform because they omit a crucial element from their preparatory routines: practice performances.

Here are three ways that any musician can practice performing and thereby become masterful on stage.

1. Assemble a performance-development group

The skills required to perform soulfully in public have to be practiced.

All of us, therefore, need opportunities to try out our material, learn how to manage our nerves, and hone our stage presence; I find that the ideal setting for doing so is within a performance-development group.

To form such a group, you need two or more soloists or ensembles of comparable ability, a defined space such as a classroom, and a mutually supportive attitude.

> read more

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Singing AND Screaming


Hello once again everyone!

As I said in my first blog, my major fear about being on the road was that I would blow out my voice and that would be the end of it all.

But no such thing happened. In fact, after several nights of singing and screaming over and over, making sure to be on top of doing all my vocal exercises, it got to the point that I didn’t want to stop.

So the ride back home was definitely a bummer— I really wanted to be singing at the next gig!

I think I came into this tour fully armed with all the necessary tools to have a successful time with my voice; however, I’m now a little wiser in the sense that I am better experienced with the tools that I possess.

I’m committed to warming-up correctly every day; about a half hour to forty-five minutes of practice time, with whatever rep one chooses, is definitely enough to stay on top of your game and then some.

Basically any vocalist needs to > read more

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I’m Not Frying My Voice This Time

Greetings Earthlings!

My name is Chris Barretto and I’m the singer for the progressive metal band PERIPHERY.

We’re just about to set off on our first major tour throughout the U.S. and Canada. This is my first vocal tour (I’ve only toured playing saxophone before) and I’m determined to avoid some of the classic major vocal challenges associated with the demands of touring.

The music we’re performing is far from simple and each piece that we play is both physically and mentally demanding. In addition to wanting to give 1000% of my heart and soul to every show, I have to be smart about my performance, which means that I need to remain passionate, whilst keeping myself under tight control.

I’ve “fried” my voice > read more

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