Vocalists - The Weakest Part Of Most Bands

Danny1969

AlexC said:

@Danny1969  I’m a huge Kate Bush fan, love to hear some of that. Do you have a link?

These snippets were recorded live at rehearsal and then we put some more backing vocals on the takes in  my dining room ... there's a promo video coming out in a couple of weeks so will post that on here 

Babooshka        http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/bab2.mp3

Them Heavy People     http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/them.mp3

Wuthering Heights  http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/Wuth2.mp3

digitalscream

Interestingly, my experience is that the only major difference (in a non-musical sense) between male and female vocalists is that female vocalists have limited us in the choice of who else we can have in the band.

I've been in four bands with female vocalists, and three of them refused to even consider the idea of a female guitarist or bassist joining the band. I still can't figure that one out in any way that makes sense to me.

AlexC

digitalscream said:

Interestingly, my experience is that the only major difference (in a non-musical sense) between male and female vocalists is that female vocalists have limited us in the choice of who else we can have in the band.

I've been in four bands with female vocalists, and three of them refused to even consider the idea of a female guitarist or bassist joining the band. I still can't figure that one out in any way that makes sense to me.

Jealousy? 

AlexC

@Danny1969 Thanks for posting. Brilliant! Totally recreates the original songs, but with some decent arrangement twists. All the band are terrific and the bass player, in particular, has really nailed the sound. And she’s singing that material brilliantly. I’m impressed. 

octatonic

Usually it is drummers.

Danny1969

AlexC said:

@Danny1969 Thanks for posting. Brilliant! Totally recreates the original songs, but with some decent arrangement twists. All the band are terrific and the bass player, in particular, has really nailed the sound. And she’s singing that material brilliantly. I’m impressed. 

Thanks man appreciate it 

TTony

darthed1981 said:

Certainly the weakest part of performances where im on vocals...

But - and I'm guessing here @darthed1981 - you don't actually attempt vocals in a live band in front of paying punters!

Your vocals are "enthusiastic".  Anyone could pick up a guitar and make a load of noises if they had a bit of enthusiasm.  Lessons or ability are optional.    But you'd be unlikely to get anywhere near a guitarist slot in  a band if you only had enthusiasm, given the level of competition for guitaring slots.  There's less competition for being the vocalist.

I might be generalising - indeed, I most definitely am generalising - but I've always thought of "singing lessons" as something you needed if you wanted to sing in the choir (going back to schooldays there).  Singing in the choir was never something that the cool kids did.  Whereas playing guitar - even if only with enthusiasm - was always a few notches up the cool scale.

I'm sitting here today having had more singing lessons in the last 3 months than I've had guitar lessons, ever.  The improvement has been ridiculous - just from learning a few basic concepts and doing some relatively simple exercises.  Clearly, I'm no longer cool, but that's got little to do with the singing lessons.

I wonder how many other many male "vocalists" have similarly swerved the singing lessons and taken the cool points and hence are now relying on their enthusiasm to get by?  


(Ironically - given how they  turned out - it was the jam sessions that prompted me to take up the singing lessons - so that I could make some voice noises that didn't let down the rest of the band.  But I decided to carry on with the lessons anyway!).

PolarityMan

There are tons of pub covers bands around with diabolical female singers, I reckon there's prob a similar number of good men and women about but aging rockers tend to have a delusional streak when it comes to women willing to where short skirts on stage.

FWIW Our singer kicks ass and is a bloke.

Mark1960

Many many years ago i was in a band and we were looking for a vocalist (it shows how long ago it was as we just assumed the replys would be from males) and amongst the replys was a young lady with a very good voice. Anyway we went for a male and at the time i felt we should have been brave and gone for the lady. Anyway when I got back into playing in bands again we advertised, and amongst the usual men, was a very good female vocalist whom we took on, and gigged with for 4 years or so, and ever since I have always gone for a female vocalist.

PolarityMan

On the subject of strong female vocals though...checkout this

Mark1960

PolarityMan said:

On the subject of strong female vocals though...checkout this

Excellent!

vasselmeyer

If we're sharing our female vocalists, here's a quick clip from a pub gig a few weeks ago. It's filmed by an audience member so the balance is out, but it gives a good idea of how she can belt it out.

darthed1981

Danny1969 said:

AlexC said:

@Danny1969  I’m a huge Kate Bush fan, love to hear some of that. Do you have a link?

These snippets were recorded live at rehearsal and then we put some more backing vocals on the takes in  my dining room ... there's a promo video coming out in a couple of weeks so will post that on here 

Babooshka        http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/bab2.mp3

Them Heavy People     http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/them.mp3

Wuthering Heights  http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/Wuth2.mp3

Oh she's a bit good isn't she!!

Easy on the eye as well.

darthed1981

TTony said:

darthed1981 said:

Certainly the weakest part of performances where im on vocals...

But - and I'm guessing here @darthed1981 - you don't actually attempt vocals in a live band in front of paying punters!

(Ironically - given how they  turned out - it was the jam sessions that prompted me to take up the singing lessons - so that I could make some voice noises that didn't let down the rest of the band.  But I decided to carry on with the lessons anyway!).

Vocals are still really important to the way we do the jams, in all honestly if they turned into a 20-guitarists-12-bar-blues-circle-jerk I'd probably stop coming.

It's great that we actually do songs, gives it structure and also easier for people to practise.  It's much easier for a beginner or someone new to playing with others to go learn a song than go do some pentatonic noodling and hope to turn up and do anything other than get blown off the stage by the regular-gigging chaps.  We have some members with serious chops and its great to be part of playing with them even as an "enthusiastic" vocalist. 

A good old-fashioned jam with everyone doing a solo etc. is a lot of fun but it wouldnt work with 20 of us.

The fact we now reject certain choices that are damn-near impossible for a normal person to sing (like "Beat It") is a bonus. 

Always room for another vocalist Tony ...

AlexC

For me @TTony has hit the nail on the head. People who play instruments and then build up the confidence to go out and play in public have put the hours in. Many vocalists (either sex, but let’s be honest - many guys) just think they can turn up and ‘do it.’ Some are gifted with a decent voice and then it can be trained - as with learning any instrument.
I can’t sing for shit btw and I really admire those that can.

TTony

AlexC said:

Many vocalists (either sex, but let’s be honest - many guys) just think they can turn up and ‘do it.’ .

You need balls - ie a lot of self-confidence/belief - to get on a stage and be the front man (or woman) in front of an audience.  And sometimes the confidence to get on the stage in the first place can extend a little too far, particularly when it's not based on either a natural ability or some trained/learned skills.

I think it is more of a male thing than a female thing too.  Not exclusively male/female, but there seem to be fewer women around who feel the need to be the biggest/loudest/flashiest animal in the pack.

Iamnobody

If I look at my album collection it contains very few female vocalists.
I’m a fan of the male voice - I could just about tolerate a female fronted pub band for a night but with some notable exceptions like PJ Harvey and Nadine Shah I rarely listen to female artists.

PolarityMan

Iamnobody said:

If I look at my album collection it contains very few female vocalists.
I’m a fan of the male voice - I could just about tolerate a female fronted pub band for a night but with some notable exceptions like PJ Harvey and Nadine Shah I rarely listen to female artists.

I think there's too many "belty" women singers who try to do rock. Like the female equivilent of Bruce Dickenson.  You know the whole shit loads of breath support, lower registers just as loud as you possibly can kinda thing.

Iamnobody

PolarityMan said:

Iamnobody said:

If I look at my album collection it contains very few female vocalists.
I’m a fan of the male voice - I could just about tolerate a female fronted pub band for a night but with some notable exceptions like PJ Harvey and Nadine Shah I rarely listen to female artists.

I think there's too many "belty" women singers who try to do rock. Like the female equivilent of Bruce Dickenson.  You know the whole shit loads of breath support, lower registers just as loud as you possibly can kinda thing.

Yes I can visualise ‘her’ now - usually in slightly inappropriate clothing for her age!