What Do We Do Now that Rock Won't Go Away?

What do We Do Now that Rock Won’t Go Away?

        When a vocal soloists performance style allows scooping up to pitches, breathy unvocal sounds, purposefully delayed vibrato (or purposefully no vibrato), the result is without doubt “uncertain” sound.  As Dr. Frank Garlock has often taught in his Symphony of Life Seminar, breathing heavily into a microphone immediately places the musician in the listener’s “intimate zone”—a place that the Christian vocalist does not belong!.  I have said for years that scooping up to pitches is not a compatible vocal technique with the truth and constantness of the gospel. What I am saying is that the way we music unto God sends messages to our audience.

        When a vocalist initiates pitches without the use of vibrato, the sound produced creates two illusions.  First, the sound will either be or seem to be under or above the pitch.  The initial sound produced will leave the impression on the mind that the sound is not “true”, constant, or certain.  Second, this initialized sound creates undue tension in the sound, because the listener does not have to have an earned doctorate in vocal pedagogy to hear that the sound produced is too tense and not exactly on pitch.

        As a voice instructor of many years, I find it hard to concentrate on the spiritual message when I know that the vocalist has placed great tension on the arytenoid and cricoid cartilages that control the vocal folds. (This vocal technique is one of the chief reasons for the development of vocal nodes that often require laser surgery.)  It is my strong philosophical belief that the comfort and rest of the message of the gospel should be certain, constant good news and should sound like “good news”, and that any musical technique that distracts from this message should be avoided by Christian musicians.