Hey there everybody!
This time I'm coming to you with a question. There have been several groups and singing ministries that I have admired over the years not only for their authentacity in the Lord Jesus Christ but also their sound. The sound of the vocals are tight, strong and somewhat big and brassy in some cases. To give you an idea of the sound that I'm after, here are a few groups that have the sound that I've grown to like:
Pastor John P. Kee & New Life (their earlier works from like the late 80s until the mid 90s)
Ricky Dillard & New Generation
Donald Lawrence & Tri-City Singers
There are many/plenty others but this sound that I think I'm after came from upon the east coast. It is very brassy and "in your face" kind of singing. I would hear this style mainly in urban contemporary praise/worship and "some" urban contemporary gospel songs/music. The style is also in the music too.
Having been drawn to this sound, I tried to duplicate it with the people I was amongst but they weren't willing to follow this new sound I was hearing. They didn't want to do it because it would change they way they formed their vowels and consonants. From what I was able to teach them, some of them duplicated this "tight" sound but we didn't get a chance to see it completely through.
When that congregation hired a new music minister, the first thing he taught was against my vocal teaching. He spake against the "back of the throat" singing and instructed them to bring their "voices forward." I couldn't do anything because he'd gone to school for vocals and taught high school choir very well. He was able to get a different sound of them and raise that choir to their "former glory" in singing but he didn't shape their sound as I had desired to.
So my question is do bringing forward the voices help to create the sound that I was trying to do? Did the back of the throat teaching hinder me from trying to create this sound I was hearing? I've asked one vocalist about this and I can't remember what they told me and they'd never heard of bringing the voices forward.
Please help me with this!
