Even the most bland chorus melody, skillfully performed by a vocalist, can become a hit.
Example: Sum 41’s “Fatlip” 3:00
“I don’t want to waste my time
Become another casualty of society
I’ll never fall in line
Become another victim of your conformity and back down”
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The repetition of the melody doesn’t allow for much melody, but the multi-toned voice gives this simple melody strength and punch. Furthermore, the band positions itself as punk, so it would be strange to hear anything else. Combined with a musically logical selection of instruments, this turns into a powerful hit.
BUT (there’s always a “but” if the vocalist sings the lyrics, not the notes).
How can that be?!
Simple. An amateur vocalist sings the notes. Specifically, the notes, not the lyrics, which should blend in with the notes.
Singing words, phrases, and phrases is singing on a completely different level.
You know the melody, and then you frame those notes with your vocal style. That’s why I ask vocalists to memorize the melody and find their own singing style so that the melody isn’t audible over their voice.
There are two approaches to practicing singing words.
- When there’s one phrase but several melodies. A phrase like “the sun is shining brightly” will sound different when set to different melodies. Here, it’s easy to control the image. Melodies help create a specific mood.
- When there’s one melody but several phrases, it’s difficult to control the image. You have to sing several phrases to the same melody. This is where the singer’s creativity begins to shine.
To make the same melody sound professional with different lyrics, skill is required. Practical exercise:
— Try taking one phrase from any poem and choosing a melody for it, using the syllable-note relationship, without melismas or chanting (this will be enough for the first level).
— Sing this phrase to the melody you’ve come up with.
— Feel how the mood changes each time the melody changes.
— Now, on the contrary, apply one melody—any melody—to the phrase (remember the syllable-note relationship; there are as many notes as there are syllables).
— It’s a different effect, right?!
When I was a kid, I had a collection of songs at home (you know, those drinking songs, folk songs), and I used to borrow it all the time, but since I couldn’t write lyrics back then, I only used it to come up with a melody on my homemade guitar. It really helped me.
What was I doing?!
I’d open the collection to the first page I came across, and since I didn’t know how to sing many of the songs, I’d start making up different melodies to go with the lyrics, humming quietly, just enough so the neighbors wouldn’t hear. I’d strum my guitar with its strings.
Then, after weeks of practice, I noticed I could now easily come up with a melody to any text.
When I got older, I bought my first guitar (a black acoustic for $60). Then, after a ton of broken strings, shiny blue fingers, and a puddle of shed tears, I learned to play single-part guitars. But I got bored, and with the same melody, I started picking up completely stupid and awkward lyrics at first.
And just like in the first case, I trained myself well. I’m not a professional singer and never wanted to be, but while studying vocals at the institute, I realized that the connection between words and notes is very strong.
You should understand this too. A vocalist who can sing a melody with words is on a different level than a vocalist who sings vocalisms.
Sing not with your voice, but with your heart!
