50 Tips – Backing Vocals

Hi Andy,

Thanks for a very informative list of tips. However, as a comprehensive set of tips for worship vocalists, they’re very presciptive.  Rather than being a general rule of thumb, or cardinal sins, I’d suggest they’re suitable suggestions for today’s contemporary ‘folk-rock’ based worship style.  

By insisting that the lead singer alone carry the meoldy, with vocalists not confusing the congregation by singing in unison (think you underestimate the musical ability in many congregations.  I bet they manage to hum along to far more complex stuff in the pop charts alone!)  Such rules thwart creativity in both the ‘backing vocalists’ and the ‘lead’ singer. ‘Backing vocals’ end up providing a token harmony to emphasise certain phrases and are otherwise redundant.  

I’ve only come across this treatment of backing vocals in worship in the last 10 years at my current church.  Prior to that, leading worship with a more expressive musical style demanded the vocals to carry melody, harmony, and texture allowing the lead vocalist to ad lib, musical expression, engage with the congregation, focus on the verses – it was certainly a team effort, whether you had a couple of vocalists or an entire choir.  Each vocalist carried equal weight, the entire song would be severely lacking without the consistent backbone to the melody or the richness of harmony provided by all the vocalists. No fear of upstaging anyone, it’s a team effort.

Your tips are very helpful.  Teamwork requires good discipline and clear, simple boundaries.  Maybe this reflects where your extensive expertise lies, but they’re not exhaustive and perhaps they’re a little limited as guidelines for several other musical worship styles.

Bless ya!!

Hi Andy!

Thanks for your response. I confess – I suspected you’d be up for a fairly ‘meaty discussion’ on your blog, so I was a little less lenient than normal. That said – you’re right and Musicademy does a brilliant job meeting the needs of a wide sector of the UK church. All credit for bridging the gap to bring something inspired yet practical into the lives of today’s worshippers of varying abilities.

My comments were probably more a reflection of my experience taking an active role in singing/worship since the bonny age of 10 (I’ll leave you to do the maths…lol) Until recently I took for granted the ‘cultural musicality’ of our humble little congregation of less than 30 in the back-waters of Aylesbury – ocassionally we ‘shared’ musicians with other local churches as we had none of our own. Had to make do with voices and work with what we had – thus the need for creativity. Admittedly, I moved on to a much larger London based church with a good supply of home-grown musicians and where everybody from toddlers to pensioners sang, so I’ve always appreciated that it’s something to be very grateful for. The worship team was there to lead everybody into worship – when they said, “sing the song…” that’s what they meant. They were there to start each song confidently, yet sensitively and inspire everyone to join in. Wow…Does it sound like I really miss those days? lol

I was watching Got to Dance on Sky last night and it was incredible to see the impact ‘street-dance’ has had across the ages and classes. For worship, Redman/Hughes/Tomlin paved the way for a worship revolution bringing a contemporary style into a mainstream, accepted format. I wonder when we’ll see a new chapter of worship music which reflects what people listen/dance to now, just like rock/folk/pop style moved things away from more traditional styles? It’s a shame there’s no place for middle-class black gals like me to share a bit of our passion for worship without it being perceived as ‘just for the pentecostal musical cultural types. Even though we’re raising a generation who are more inspired by Black Eyed Peas than U2.

I long for a Musicademy equivalent willing to meet the needs of worshippers like me who are a little ‘bored’ with today’s mainstream worship style. I love my church community (and know that behind closed doors, they love and listen to some of the same music I do) but when it comes to worship I have to sneak off after dark for something a little more inspiring.

My longing is for more freedom and musical expression, not just a particular ‘cultural’ style. Your delivery of tips, musical theory, skills and technique are 2nd to none Andy. Just wish it didn’t come across as one style being the ‘norm’ and everything else being lovely, but just a little bit radical.

N