If you’re familiar with Sojourn recordings or worship services, you’ve no doubt heard the vocals of Rebecca Dennison. Rebecca is an amazing singer, featured on Before The Throne (check out the “My Maker And My King” mp3 on our Before The Throne page), These Things I Remember (listen to “Faithful” and “Of Psalm 51” from that page) and our upcoming Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One. Now, Rebecca begins a series for worship team vocalists and singers of all stripes, focusing on principles and techniques for taking care of your voice. This week, Rebecca teaches how to prepare for live singing or the recording studio:
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Here are a few things we should all do before coming to rehearsal or a recording session. I’ve been guilty of violating all of these at one time or another, but it’s a matter of consideration to try and do these things.
Warm up - Your pitch and control will be better once you have warmed up. This is especially important if you’re going straight into a service, performance or recording session. You don’t want to wait until an hour into the event before you can finally hit that note or sustain that phrase.
Know the material - Don’t be the one everyone else has to wait one - learn the song. This is tougher if you know the style of the song on the recording may be nothing like the style the band decides to use. And if you are one of multiple backing vocalists, it’s tougher still. But you can at least become familiar with the melody.
Practice - Practice vocal technique (pitch, intonation, breathing, etc.) and practice the songs. If you know a song is difficult for you, record yourself singing it and see if your phrasing and intonation work for the song.
Study - Train your ears by listening to the styles your band likes to play or that you would like to sing. Listen to the phrasing and intonation of the lead vocalists. Listen to the style and harmonic “shapes” of the backing vocalists. Listen for what complements the arrangement. This will help you become a more flexible, tasteful singer.
Don’t eat a big meal before singing - It doesn’t affect your vocal chords, etc., but being bloated or gassy affects your breathing which affects your phrasing and stamina.
Get Rest - Don’t stay out until 4AM and then expect to be amazing at a 7AM rehearsal. Go to sleep.
Come with a good attitude - This can be tough with early morning rehearsals, working with musicians who like to “change things up”, working out 4 part harmonies for 6 songs in two hours, when you don’t feel well, etc., but remember to be considerate of your bandmates. Be happy to be there. And if you aren’t happy to be there, remember why you’re doing what you’re doing - for the glory of God. Stop and rejoice in Him and thank Him that though our best efforts are as filthy rags, Christ has perfected our offerings.
Pray - Pray ahead of time - for your attitude, for your bandmates, for the congregation (if you’re preparing for a service), for the people who will listen (if you’re preparing to record), etc. And pray as you sing - in rehearsal, during the event, and when recording. Sometimes praying is all that keeps me upright.
A note on home recording: If you have a computer, you can record yourself at home. My personal setup is extremely low-fi. I have a PC and I use a freeware program called Audacity. I’ve bought mics for as little as $10 at Wal-Mart. This setup is sufficient for practicing and capturing melodic ideas. You can even make a pop-filter (to suppress those “P”s and “S”s) out of a coat hanger and pantyhose.
You can still capture melodic ideas on a cassette recorder or phone, but I’ve found that the sound quality is too poor for you to learn much about your performance.
Listening to myself has helped me hear what is and isn’t working in terms of pitch, intonation, and phrasing.
