Be a Star By Serving The Music, Sing Backup
To sing backup, you must learn to serve the music, not yourself. The meaning of singing backup is to sing behind someone, not compete with them. Backup singing is for those who can be content playing a support role to the idol of the show.
This is a difficult skill to learn and is not much understood or appreciated. The ability to listen and be responsive is paramount is this style of singing. You have to begin and end the phrase exactly as the main singer does, you must breathe as they do. It may well be good to think of yourself as the singers shadow, never noticed but always present.
Hopefully you have some input or control over where you sit or stand on stage. See to it that you can see the singer at all times. If you cannot see the face of the singer your job will be difficult indeed. You must watch the main singer always. If you are watching the singer you can see when they make a mistake or intentionally take another repeat etc. Watch the singer intently and always be on the lookout for a simple nod of the head or gesture that may indicate a repeat or change of course.
Learn to blend your phrasing to the will of the singer. You can start your line just behind the singers melody if you want to blend properly. Sometimes you are not sure of how loud the singer will be so start quietly and gradually come up to the proper level after the line develops. Be very aware of consonants at the beginning of a line and try to not emphasize them. Two consonants sung slightly after each other will sound disagreeable and is largely avoidable.
The end of melodies are just as necessary as the beginning. You can avoid embarrassment to yourself if you only will ease off your phrase as the singer comes to the end of theirs. So learn to blend phrases, listen and watch the main singer and you can be a backup singer every band wants to hire.


11. Oct, 2009 




Vocal harmony is simply two or more voices singing together, usually in a pleasing way but not necessarily. The harmony parts are most often the third, fifth or seventh of the chord. Most common today is two or three part harmonies. To be the best harmony singer you can it is helpful if you learn a little about chord structure. You have to learn to hear the other parts in the song, to separate them. Music theory may also be learned by taking a college course if you like.
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