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Liner Notes
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Bringing the Background Vocals
to the Foreground:
A roundtable with vocalists Gabrielle Goodman, Kudison Kai,
and Darcie-Nicole Wicknick
Chaired By Darcie-Nicole Wicknick
Special to MusicBizAdvice.com
Qualities That Make a Good Background
Singer
MBADC:
Not every excellent singer also makes an excellent background singer.
What qualities identify a solid background singer?
GG: This is very
true. The thing that makes for good background singing is the ability to
blend with other singers or yourself. This means staying in tune, and
producing specific vowel sounds or tone colors for the sound that are needed
for the engagement, be it live or in the studio. A good background vocalist
has to be a chameleon of sorts; having the ability to sing with breathiness,
or belting when needed, or somewhere in between.
Being able to
riff and move your voice is also a component that is
important. And control of one's vibrato is crucial to background
singing. You also have to be willing to take direction and compromise.
For instance, if
you are a singer who always belts you have to be
willing to sing softly at times. If you do not and belting is not what the
date calls for and you continuously belt, you will be fired or not called
for the certain dates. And the same holds true for singing softly. You have
to be flexible enough to do it all.
DW: That is
where excellent, correct vocal study comes in.
GG: Also, an
amiable personality always helps. Nobody wants to work with a jerk.
Remember that there are tons of really good singers in the world and
producers or bandleaders would much rather work with someone else who can
sing and is a nice person.
KK: A great
background singer is someone who has mastered several different styles of
music, and can sing then at any given time or place. They catch on easy and
have great ears and memory for their parts and lyrics. They can hear what voicings or inversions are needed given the style of music they are singing
and can guesstimate what the part is sometimes without being taught a part.
They can also change parts at will or if there is a part missing or
someone is hoarse and can’t sing their part, they can go in and sing it
without rehearsal. It basically comes down to having the ears to do the
job.
More...
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