Leaders, Singers, Vocal Team, Voice, Worship Leading
The Miracle of Singing In Time (Show #86)
#Miracles
4 min read
Can your singer keep a beat?
We are not talking about hand-clapping in time, but rather, singing in time. As a worship leader and singer, singing great notes is not enough. They need to be on time, as well as in-tune. How do you help your singers keep the beat? Never underestimate the power of time.As singers, we can learn a lot from other members in the band. Everyone has to keep time in order to keep up. How does this work or you? The art of keeping time, is not found in the music, as much as it is finding it in your inner-pulse. Most singers don’t think about singing in time.
The primary focus is singing the right note and/or word. While this is true, we can never underestimate the power of the inner pulse. What good is a well sung note, if it is completely out of time with the rest of the team, as well as, out of sync with the band.
WATCH SHOW #86!
What to do… Befriend yourself to the click or metronome. Always, always, always, both the metronome and the piano are your best friends! Not just that, they are your best teachers. Embrace the click.
Let the fear of the Lord be the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7) – not the metronome. “but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” 1 Cor 13.10 Since the old has gone and the new has come, we must put away old thinking.
Thoughts like: ‘This will never work,’ ‘I’m not good enough,’ ‘But I don’t have time to practice…’ will always hold you back and prevent you from growing. Failing is good – provided you learn from it. It teaches you the areas that are weak in order to make them strong. If you don’t have anything to improve, then you are not being productive.
1. Go over the melodic notes… Before I cover the rhythm of the words and their syllables, I need to understand the pitches. Move to a piano, listen the notes in your music. Try matching what you hear to what you can play.
Steps to Identify the Vocal Melody – Find the range and explore the low and high registers. – Find the melodic center of the voice for the verse, chorus and bridge. – Determine the number of times the melody goes up and down. – Highlight the highest or lowest trouble spot of the melody. – Next identify the simplicity or complexity of the syllables. – Are the word-rhythms fast or slow – and where in the song? – Break the text and Slow it down… As in our song example “Miracles” by Jesus Culture, we are first looking at the verse to understand the rhythms. As with any song, use the steps above to identify the vocal melody. Now let’s look at the word-rhythms. Syllable: a pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word; ‘e.g., there are two syllables in ‘water’ and three in ‘inferno.’ As you can see each word possess it’s own rhythm, tempo and shape; hence the term I used: “word rhythm.” If you strip the vocal melody down to just the rhythmic notes, you will find nothing but syllables.
The challenge here is singing/speaking all the syllables in time at the start, middle and ending of the phrase. The other challenge is to keep everything in one sense of time, in which the phrase sounds fluid, unbroken and connected. The best way to calculate your speed is by the help of the click. Look at the words alone:
VERSE 1 The One who made the blind to see Is moving here in front of me moving here in front of me The One who made the deaf to hear Is silencing my ev’ry fear silencing my ev’ry fear The tempo is very slow, but the way the syllables are sung, the verse has a very rhythmic a metric feel. Instead of moving at the song’s original tempo, knock it down by 10-20 bpms. This time, instead of singing the text, just speak it. Listen to how the words fall on tempo and how they also feel in the mouth. Usually, this second sensation is what throws a lot of singers off. They feel too many words in the mouth and this persuades them to slur all the words together, or just skip over the critical words and miss the entire line. Practice speaking the text at slower tempos with the metronome. As you get this down a few times, then increase the tempo gradually. During this process, not only your skill improves, but also your confidence.
“May the sounds of your voice and the rhythms of your heart be pleasing to Him.” @BranonDempsey
2. Bring that beat back... When you’re done speaking the text and matching it spot on to the tempo, now you are ready to put the melodic notes back together. Try the verse again. Again, try this at a slower tempo and gradually increase. Slowly adapt the rhythm to the melody.
You can try half and half (speak text over melody or sing the melody) to increase your aptitude. Now move to the Chorus. If you notice about the verse, there is a pattern. Each phrase of rhythms is similar to the next. They are short rhythms with long phrases and occur in repetition. Most songs have the same quality of patterns and phrases that repeat.
This is what makes songs easy to remember and fun to sing. If you notice in the Chorus section, we have a contrast from the Verse. Before we had these short rhythms, now in the verse we have a combination of short and long rhythmic phrases. The entrance of each word on the chorus forms very quick notes together (16ths). To get these write in the voice, they must be in time.
Especially when putting this together as a vocal team. If one person is off, the entire line can sound muddy.
Reminder: as you sing, the words in the mouth need to feel good. This will help with executing the rhythms at ease. Work the Chorus the same as you did in the Verse – slow then increase the tempo. You will find that this exercise is not limited to just this particular tune. This method can be applied to virtually every song.
You will that each song possess its own quality and character. This also makes practicing more fun as you discover the many differences.
It’s one thing to have a great song; it’s another to have a song that people can sing.
3. Featured Song: “Miracles” Our theme this week through our posts and content is #Miracles. We will also look at the new song “Miracles” by Jesus Culture, written by Chris Quilala, Dustin Smith, Joshua Silverberg, and Stuart Garrard.
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Tempo – 72 | Time – 4/4 In The Key of A (1 step down from the original)
VERSE 1 Am7 Em The One who made the blind to see F2 Is moving here in front of me moving here in front of me Am7 Em The One who made the deaf to hear F2 Is silencing my ev’ry fear silencing my ev’ry fear CHORUS Am F I believe in You I believe in You C G You’re the God of miracles Am F I believe in You I believe in You C G You’re the God of miracles INSTRUMENTAL 1 | Am7 | Em | F2 | G | VERSE 2 Am7 Em The One who does impossible F2 Is reaching out to make me whole reaching out to make me whole Am7 Em The One who put death in its place F2 His life is flowing through my veins His life is flowing through my veins INSTRUMENTAL 2 | F | G | C/E | Am | BRIDGE F G The God who was and is to come C/E Am The power of the Risen One F G The God who brings the dead to life C You’re the God of miracles You’re the God of miracles
Repeat the Beat
Songs like “Miracles” are not only fun to worship and sing, but they also serve as great new ways to develop skill. Firstly, choose songs that your church can sing.Secondly, find some way of practice that you can incorporate to up-the-level of your musicianship. Remember what Psalms 33.3 encourages us as singers, worship leaders and musicians… “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”
@BranonDempsey @worshiptt
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