Impacting an audience

I can’t get out a lead sheet or arrangement this week. On Wednesday, I got asked to go to Kansas City this weekend because of a set of circumstances regarding the original artist(s) who can now no longer perform.  So I have three concerts to get ready for on short notice and I am a bit under water.

Here is a quick thought though.  Someone recently asked me to critique a vocal solo.  I am not sure why because I know little if anything about vocal technique.  The best I could offer was some feedback on how to make things work better musically.  As I listened to her very nice performance, I was reminded again of an idea that I touch on often here: don’t settle for impressing people at the expense of affecting them.

Now I am purposefully not tying this idea to Christianity.  In other words, I am not stating the obvious truth that vocalists should be drawing attention to God rather than themselves.  Rather, I am talking about the role of music itself in any setting and its power over listeners.  Go outside the church and listen to famous singers of any genre.  They all understand that their goal is to affect listeners rather than dazzle them with technique.

It is a funny thing about musicians.  They like to load up their music with stuff that is mostly impressive only to other musicians.  Pianists do it with flashy arpeggios and octave runs.  Vocalists do it by showing off their range and doing riffs.

We forget sometimes that people don’t care about that stuff.  The average person in the seat does not know that you can hit a high A. They don’t have perfect pitch and have no clue what note you are hitting.  They don’t know how hard it is to do a 6 note riff.  They don’t even notice that you do riffs.  They just want to be affected by your music.

So how do you affect people rather than impressing them? That is the million dollar question and there are no absolute answers.  But it starts with your decision that you are willing to sacrifice complexity for that opportunity.  You cannot focus on affecting people if you have to be too focused on the technical aspects of your music.

What that means practically is that you might choose not to sing on the edge of your range.  Or it might mean that you eliminate or simplify riffs.  Your goal is to perform the technical aspects of the music in a way that sounds effortless.

I may have posted this video before, but here is an example of what I mean.  This is May Leporacci singing as simple a rendition of “God Leads Us Along” as is possible.  No riffs, no high notes, no fancy arranging.  Just singing.  And yet it affects me every time I watch it.

If you don’t see the video below, click here.