- Every Sunday morning
millions of singers step onto the stage
to lead their congregations in worship.
More often than not,
these avocational singers have little to no voice training,
and expose their voices to significant wear and tear
under the ever-increasing expectations
required by the contemporary worship space.
If you're a church singer,
then I know that the practical, research-based advice
I have for you in this video
will transform your voice and enhance the vocal leadership
of your congregation.
(guitars strum)
- [Female] Sound check, check one, check two.
(drum beats)
(upbeat guitar music)
- G'day, welcome to Voice Essentials, where everybody sings.
My name is Dr. Dan,
and I'm a contemporary singing voice specialist.
But I haven't always been a singing teacher.
In a former chapter of my life,
I was a worship pastor at a local church
leading a creative arts and worship team of over 100 people.
Blowing out of this experience
I became interested in the church singer,
and how I might better serve their development.
This in turn led me to do
both my master's and doctoral research
into the contemporary worship singer.
So I guess you could say I know a thing or two
about Christian worship singers.
But before we continue,
allow me to say to all of my regular subscribers,
if you do not hold to the Christian faith,
then I want to provide you with an opportunity
to stop watching this video now,
so as not to offend you with the following information.
While today's video will be educational for everyone,
I know that some people
do not find the subject of religion and faith an easy one,
so feel free to click away now
into another video of your choice,
hopefully another Voice Essentials video.
So, with that being said, let's continue.
During my research,
I discovered a lot about the Christian worship singer.
And here it is all in one volume (laughs).
It's quite a thick piece of reading.
In fact, I was able to identify nineteen distinctives
that set church singers apart
from their secular counterparts.
Now, don't worry, I'm not going to bore you
with the total 90,000 plus words
of my doctoral dissertation in this video,
but I do want to highlight
three critical findings that set us apart,
and in doing so,
I wanted to give you the all important practical advice
that I know will help to improve your singing
and vocal health.
If you are interested in this subject
and want a deep dive into my dissertation,
I've placed a link below so that you can download it,
and read it in your own time.
The first thing that makes the church singing unique
is their orientation towards performance.
Did you know that church singers are one of,
if not the only singer who,
while standing on stage to perform their vocal task,
must be intentional in not drawing attention to themselves?
Now, think about it.
In most church context,
the congregation is facing the singer,
yet the singer is faced with the challenging task
of not being too overt in their performance.
To do so would draw attention away
from the primary focus of Christian worship, God.
And as you might expect, this can lead to some dissonance
in the psyche of the singer.
In fact, in many church sub-cultures,
the word performance is taboo
and to be avoided at all costs.
The challenge here then,
is if we define the word performance
as the doing of any task
while being observed by another person,
then we cannot escape the fact
that every church singer is performing.
It's just that the church singer's performance
is a different kind of performance to that of a pub singer.
(crowd screams)
- [Female] Sound check.
(drums beat)
(guitars strum)
The first distinctive about performance orientation,
actually it's distinctive seven in my doctoral dissertation,
ties into distinctive 11.
The contemporary worship singer
seeks to enhance the worship experience of the congregant
by providing vocal leadership
that does not compete with the corporate voice
or the acoustic space.
Church singers have a peculiar responsibility
built into their performance task.
Where some secular singers
do seek to engage the participation of the audience,
the soul purpose of the contemporary worship singer
is to facilitate and lead the congregational voice.
This is a challenging mission,
because my research revealed
that when the singer presents a covert performance,
they run the risk of rendering the vocal presentation
void of charisma, which can suppress the involvement
of worship participation.
The opposite of a covert performance is an overt one.
But as we already know, overt performance,
the type that would draw too much attention to the singer,
is generally discouraged in the Christian worship space.
So the singer is continually seeking
to achieve the perfect balance
of not too much and not too little,
all with the purpose of encouraging the congregation
to join in and sing along.
Now, this all takes the wisdom of Solomon
and none of us ever get the balance right 100% of the time.
Every Sunday we must humbly step into the worship space
seeking to serve our church community and God
with our heart, mind, and bodies,
that are orientated towards the glory of God
and not ourselves.
Indeed, one of the primary concerns for any singer,
Christian or not, is the care of their body.
Our body is our instrument,
and this can be a real challenge
to the contemporary worship singer
who might be placing the voice under performance light
at seven a.m. on a Sunday morning.
(bell rings)
Unfortunately, the research revealed
that less than 13% of church singers
are correctly and adequately preparing their voice
for use with a structured and disciplined warm-up.
The literature admonishes singers to warm the voice
citing the reduction of vocal agility, tone, and stamina
in the voice that does not observe this practice.
If the contemporary worship singer
is committed to giving God their best,
then warm-ups are a must.
The challenge here is knowing what constitutes
as a structured and disciplined warm-up.
Now I know that many church singers have been encouraged
to warm up in their car on their way to church.
If this is you, then you're not gonna like this,
but your car is the last place
that you should be warming up the voice.
Always do your vocal warm-ups in a quiet space
away from significant background noise,
and approach it as a full-body activity.
You cannot fulfill either of these ideals
while sitting down inside your car--
(car engine revs)
surrounded by traffic noise.
If you're searching for a structured vocal warm-up
designed to adequately prepare your voice
for performance light, then click on this link
and I'll walk you through a warm-up
that will have you singing longer, stronger,
and with much better agility and tone.
Actually, I've made this link into a playlist of videos
that will systematically step you through a series of skills
designed to assist your vocal development, and in doing so,
support your ability to lead God's people in worship.
I'm Dr. Dan, sing well.