Voice Care For Worship Leaders: What Makes A Good Back Up Singer? by Rebecca Dennison

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.  In this series for worship team vocalists and singers of all stripes, Rebecca focuses on principles and techniques for taking care of your voice.  This week: what makes for a good backup singer:

I asked a few friends (all vocalists) what they think makes a good back-up singer and whether they think there are any unique considerations when singing for the church.  Here are their replies:

Amber Estes (Sandpaper Dolls, Liberation Prophecy): A good back-up singer is a good listener.  In a lot of ways, back-up singers have a more difficult job than lead singers!  I don’t think it’s different when singing for the church.

Jamie Barnes (Indie Folk musician, Sojourn worship leader): Harmonies are there to support the melody and add color.  They are not there to be dominant. A good backup singer knows this and tries to do all he/she can to blend. This would include trying to shape one’s voice to be like the singer that takes the melody. Mimicking vowel shapes and syllables. The harmony vocal also always need to be below the melody in terms of volume.

Neil Robins (Dirt Poor Robins, Sojourn worship leader):

Good Background Vocalists…
1. Match Intonation: (some singers sing in-tune but favor the bottom or topside of the pitch…match this)
2. Observe Timing: (Matching where someone sits in the groove – laid back, pushed or right on)
3. Mimic Diction: (Matching consonant length and inflection…long consonants to match a drugged style etc…)
4. Blend Dynamically: (Matching volumes and intensity)
5. Alter Tone: (Thinning our thickening or lengthening, adding air…to your vocal tamber to blend or to hide)
6. Participate Creatively: (Musically adding interest with diminishing the vibe of the song)
7: Have Stage Presence: (Looking and acting the part to enhance the lead singers performance)
8: Hear What the Audience Hears: (It’s not how it feels to sing, but how the audience hears it…)
9. Use Good Sensibilities: (What to add, when and where with all of the above)

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I’ll add one example to Neil’s #2 – stop singing when the lead stops singing.  End your words together.  If the word ends with a “t” or “s”, etc. and I don’t have time to practice until my t’s and s’s match up with the lead, I just don’t sing the t or s.  They congregation will still hear it from the song leader.

Lorie King (Sojourn worship leader):

Good backup singing, in general:

• beautifully accents the melody and provides texture to a song

uses intentional placement to serve as text “painting” and emphasize lyrics and mood of a song

• complements and does not compete with the original melody

Good backup singing for congregational leadership in the church:

• All of the above, with the following stipulations:

When looking at congregational worship, I think it is less helpful to think of those singing parts in addition to the melody as “backup” singers and more helpful to think of them as harmony singers that add alternate parts with which people can sing along.  All backup singing is harmonization of some sort. Many times it is actually necessary to congregational singing because not everyone can sing along with and in the range of the melody.

Alternate parts (the “backup,” or harmony) gives everyone (or multiple people) something to sing so that the congregation, as a whole, can participate.

• That being the case, in congregational worship there is more room for using harmony more consistently throughout a song, because your purpose should be both pragmatic and aesthetic. Harmonies are not just to sound beautiful, but also to facilitate congregational participation.

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I have led worship with a few different worship leaders.  Some worship leaders want you to harmonize throughout the song to encourage the congregation to sing.  Some worship leaders want you to use your harmonies to build dynamics in the song.  Be flexible.  You are part of a team and you are probably not the leader of that team.  If you aren’t sure what the worship leader you’re serving under wants from a back-up singer, don’t be afraid to ask.  If they haven’t thought about it before, pray about it and talk about what will best serve your community.

When I lead worship at Sojourn I usually use my harmonies dynamically.  I frequently sit out through the first verse and add harmonies bit by bit as the song develops.  I typically sing more during the choruses than during the verses.  We frequently do a “down” verse at the end of the song and I will pull back a bit or maybe sit out altogether.   I figure out when and what I will sing during rehearsal and I like to make notes on the lead sheets so I can remember what I decided.

When you aren’t harmonizing you can step back from the mic and sing along.  It is important to stay engaged even when you aren’t on the mic.  After all you are still leading even though you aren’t the lead singer.

Listen to how different back-up singers approach songs and watch what they do.  Listen for what enhances the song and what doesn’t.  Look for what enhances the song and what distracts you.