Musicademy Vocals Masterclass Notes

Musicademy Vocals
Masterclass
• This presentation is composed of the
detailed class notes that Vocals Coach
Jennifer Moore presented.

You can listen to an audio recording here:

© www.musicademy.co.uk

About Musicademy
• Musicademy

DVDs
Guitar, Vocals, Keys
Drums, Bass, Orchestral

BACKING TRACKS
• Worship Backing Band

5 Top Technique Tips
1. A basic that we often forget: breathe!!! Any phrase sounds SO much
better if you have enough breath in your lungs!
2. Another back-to-basic to remember is to MOVE your mouth! If you
allow space and annunciation then your tone will sound a lot more
open and full!
3. Another basic: practice!!!! If you want to get better at singing, then
work at it and make time to practice!
4. Make sure you are using both your chest voice and your head
voice and making the most out of all of your voice that way. Work on
blending the two.
5. Resonating in your cheek bones; lifting the tone into your nose and
cheek bones to help with reaching high notes with ease


The Musicademy
Worship Vocals Course
• Transform your singing with this step-by-step programme
• Realise your vocals potential with professional techniques for breathing,
projection and control, harmony skills and spontaneous singing all built
around well known worship songs.
• Hear your voice change day-by-day with exercises to extend the range,
tone and power of your voice.
• Each DVD contains approximately two hours of
vocal coaching from professional singing teachers,
warm-up, breathing and vocalisation exercises as
well as advice from worship leaders Brenton Brown, Vicky Beeching,
Tim Neufeld (Starfield), Tommy Walker, Leeland Mooring, Lloyd Wade
and Noel Richards.
Click through for more information about the
Musicademy Worship Vocals Course


5 Backing Vocals Tips
1. If there are 2 of you then STICK TO YOUR PART. Learn that discipline
if you haven’t already. Talk to the other singer and decide together
whether you will go for the 3rd or the 5th (the higher or lower backing
vocal line).

2. Space is just important as filling it- sometimes more important! Just
because you have a beautiful voice, does not mean you have to sing
BVs all through the song. Especially if you are singing sections of the
song in 3 part harmony; think about just allowing the other BV to sing
alone so that the song only uses one harmony part where appropriate
or even having no BVs at times if the song asks for space. Put the song
first and think musically about what the overall sound needs, not just
what you fancy singing ;). I find just asking God what and where to sing
helps and being connected to him throughout. Again, kind of an
obvious one but it is surprisingly easy to over-think and disengage the
spirit! © www.musicademy.co.uk

5 Backing Vocals Tips
3 Consider varying between a harmony and improvisational licks
(according to how connected you are with the song and what you
therefore naturally hear in the wider arrangement).

4 If you are a lone BVer then do the opposite of top tip 1: Be
adventurous! Jump between high & low harmonies as you feel the
music expresses.

5 Try 'Inverting' as a harmony tool for effect. For example, if you are the
only BV then you could start on the lower harmony and invert up to the
higher harmony later in the song to lift the chorus and bring more
'umph' and dynamic into the song. If there are two of you, you could
both invert. Don't be afraid to try stuff out in the rehearsal and go for it-
you are as much part of the band as keys or guitar so if you need a
minute to work something out then ask for it!

Harmony & Backing Vocals
DVDs
• Learn to sing harmonies and discover the art of backing vocals
A total of 5 hours instruction on two DVDs designed for both male and
female singers at any level who'd like to learn how to harmonize or
improve their backing vocals skills. Together the DVDs contains high
quality backing tracks to 20 worship songs with:
– 20 instructional video lessons covering
harmony and BV technique
– 2 separate harmony parts for each song
to copy and learn
– on screen words
– and a full version of every song to practice to

Click through for more information about the
Harmony & Backing Vocals DVDs


Be Encouraged!
Just be you, and enjoy the gifts God has made
you to have. He doesn’t make mistakes!!
You are here for a reason and you can sing for a
reason!


5 Tips for the Worship Leader

1. In your practice:
PLAY with your voice. Every sound that you possibly CAN make (no
matter how 'awful' you THINK it sounds) can be used and incorporated
as a colour into your singing palette when good technique is applied.

Remember that the purpose of Worship is to connect with God and use
the supernatural qualities music added to powerful lyrics to
COMMUNICATE and reach people’s soul’s what a privilege!!! Seek to
use your full voice to achieve this- don’t be satisfied living in only a
corner of your voice.



2. In the band:
Don't neglect the backing vocalists! -If you are a worship leader, I know
you have the whole band to think about and a lot going on, but though
it's tempting (especially when juggling the whole arrangement) try not
to ignore the backing vocals- they tend to get the least comment,
feedback and direction and they can really make or break the worship!

The human voice is immensely powerful in communicating the
message. Make time to experiment with harmonies and using backing
vocals as another instrument to add dynamic and colour. Also try
varying from time to time; sometimes use just one BV, sometimes use
two or even three for different effects. When organizing the rota try to
figure out which voices blend best together and who is great at singing
alone etc. If you are booking two BVs then pick one who has a higher
range and one with a lower range etc..

3. For your nerves:
If you suffer with nerves don't worry that's normal!! We seem to think
that just because it’s worship that we should be immune to nerves: not
true. Hold on to this thought: that singing is COMMUNICATING in a
much more powerful deep and spiritual way then speaking ever could.
If you are in the worship band in your church then that’s because you
can sing (no matter what ‘level’ you place yourself at with that gift-
that’s irrelevant). If you can sing, then that means that you have a
wonderful gift to pour powerful messages into people’s souls (nerves or
not) and deliver the message in the song. Part of what makes us so
good at communicating a spiritual message through music is that
creative people tend to feel the emotions and be passionate about the
message strongly ourselves. This makes us ‘sensitive’ to emotions and
sometimes therefore naturally more prone to nerves! Nerves can work
in your favour as they make you more humble and reliant on God on
stage. Sometimes it helps to keep all these things in perspective.

4. In your singing:
Use adlibs powerfully but intentionally. People need to be lead in the
MELODY otherwise they can get lost. (Aside from singing in the spirit
obviously!) Try to stick to the melody in the first half of the song. As the
song develops you can make a few expressive developments but don't
veer off the main melody more then a note or two here or there. Only fill
the gaps intentionally for the purpose of expressing the meaning of the
song the and not just because you can or think you should! (again may
seem obvious but sometimes we need to reinstate the obvious!). Just
apply your own objective taste! Don’t be afraid to be you though!
Sometimes we can be so worried about fitting in to a box that we don’t
leave room for God to make us into the type of leader that he wants-
we are each different from each other after all.

Lots of guidance and practice on adlibbing on the
Musicademy Advanced Vocals Workout CD

5. In your musicianship and general leading skills:
Practice!! When we practice something then we get better at it. Simple!
If your leading worship that week or not, links between songs,
transposing them to your key, practice singing and playing them,
practice connecting your spirit –actually worshipping God in your heart
with the lyrics of the song your singing! (kind of an important one!),
practice learning how to get from the last note of one song to the first
note of the next song in your head without needing an instrument to
help you (whether or not the song is in the same key or not), practice
leading the band in your mind and listen to the arrangements of other
recordings of bands in order to expand your understanding of how all
the instruments work together and what each instrument can do.


For example keys and guitar need to be working together; not doubling
up or overplaying and clashing (which often happens as they are both
harmony instruments and both read the same chords.). Play with
DYNAMICS for example you can start stripped down and play with
building up and stripping down in order to express the meaning of the
songs. You could try adding guitar later, not bringing the drums in till
the chorus or 2nd verses etc

The Musicademy Worship Vocals Course
contains loads of advice for worship leaders.
And plenty of opportunities for practice!


For Further Information
• www.musicademy.com
• Sign up for free resources and to receive our
weekly e-newsletter packed with useful
articles and special offers


Musicademy Vocals Masterclass Notes

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (12)

Similar to Musicademy Vocals Masterclass Notes

Similar to Musicademy Vocals Masterclass Notes (20)

More from Musicademy

More from Musicademy (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Musicademy Vocals Masterclass Notes