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Just putting this out there because that's been my experience. I believe vocalists and musicians are equal in terms of song. True, unless it's an instrumental.

In my experience vocalists and instrumentalists run full spectrum. Some are extraordinarily skilled, gifted, and dedicated musicians and some are not. I have worked with some of each and a vocalist who really respects themselves and the band is a pleasure to work with.

My favorite vocalists:

1. Have strong fundamental skills. They have good intonation, sense of time, phrasing, diction, and breath control. They know how to work a mic for dynamic effect.

2. They bring energy into every song and really relate one-on-one to an audience.

3. They understand the language of music and can relate to other musicians in common musical terms.

4. They know their limitations, what key they need for each song, and bring lead sheets with changes on new songs to share with the band.

5. They show up, prepared, on time, and bring their own gear. They strive to lift up the band instead of putting them down.

I have worked with a few vocal musicians that hit all 5 points, but not many. Those were always the best gigs.

Ms Betty - you have a nice sound, good luck in your search for the right accompaniment.

Thank you for your well wishes. I'll be working with an amazing guitarist and a drummer. Can't find anyone for keys, going with what I have as always. It's great to have a great Sound Engineer/Producer like mine.

Will keep working on this album til it's finished. But having fun! Have the best day all! Smile just because!

@Guitar Mike_Great work on guitar and Gr8 blend on final mix. I listened to bits and pieces of your songs but all of "Believe". Liked the song!

We celebrate good find in musicians you will see more come to play with you your songs. Happy to hear finish of album.

George and I have apparently worked with the same singers!

For all that, I believe the vox are the key element. With covers, the vox make them sound familiar. With originals, the vox define the song.

Talbot

Yep . . .

I consider myself songwriter first, vocalist second, and guitarist third.

So I'm biased towards vocalists

But I do think that vocals/lyrics are the human element that instruments simply can not provide. It takes imagination for a listener to relate to an instrumental song, but it only takes life experience to relate to words being sung in a melody. Vocalists are usually people who are vocal about their emotions, which every person deals with daily.

I like listening to great musicians playing, but instrumental music all starts sounding alike after a while and I need words to cling to.




.

Thank you for your well wishes. I'll be working with an amazing guitarist and a drummer. Can't find anyone for keys, going with what I have as always. It's great to have a great Sound Engineer/Producer like mine.

Will keep working on this album til it's finished. But having fun! Have the best day all! Smile just because!

@Guitar Mike_Great work on guitar and Gr8 blend on final mix. I listened to bits and pieces of your songs but all of "Believe". Liked the song!

Thanks for listening, Betty. Wait til you here the mastered versions!

For me, vocals are about 4th on my personal list, but no question that (when the songs is right) putting more emotion in the singing makes more people like it.
Example: Saturday night, I did 2 songs solo, first was a Marvin Gaye combination of Mercy Mercy Me and What's Going On. Unfortunately, I just could not get the rhythm right on it, and it became incredibly difficult to sing and got the expected crowd reaction. Second song was 'Signs' (5-Man Electrical/Tesla). Got right into that one, nailed it solid and had the crowd all singing along and complementing after. Moral of the story: know your material, and sing it with emotion!

I often feel this way, and here's the root of it:

Because many (not all) vocalists do not spend any time learning anything about music. They are focused completely on the lyrics at the expense of everything else.


Here's a common experience for me (a guitarist) working with a "vocalist" in a group setting: Suppose a song has an instrumental break (most do). All the musicians in the group know the vocal lines, or if they don't know the lyrics by heart, they at least know how long they are supposed to play (measures) during verse and chorus. So the musicians in the group know what they are doing every second of the song, when to come in and out, etc... Now, here comes the instrumental break or solo, and the vocalist either comes back in too soon or too late. Why? Because they don't know anything about music, and they only pay attention to the vocal aspect of the song. When music is playing and they're not singing, they don't know what to do. They don't "hear" the notes to the music - they are completely and totally focused on the lyrics only.

This happens a lot. And quite frankly it annoys the hell out of me.

Many vocalists don't take any time to learn the craft of music. They know nothing about measures, note duration, time signatures, or the nuances of the instruments working together.

A guitar player can hear the notes to a solo and know exactly which song those notes are from and where they are located within the song. A vocalist? They're clueless. They couldn't even tell you what song it's from. Because they don't hear the music.

In many cases, vocalists are just glorified poetry readers. The music doesn't even need to exist for them. They have an egotistical ignorance to the way they go about performing a song. They expect the musicians in the group to bend to their performance idiosyncrasies and to "cover" for them when they screw up because they can't take the time to learn how the song actually goes. They just hear the lyrics. That's all.

Now, obviously this isn't the case for every vocalist and I've worked with some good ones. But it's common enough that, I think, this is where some of the disdain comes from. At least for myself.

I get deep pleasure & inspiration working with great singers. Right mix of musician & vocalist = magic!

To the lovely Ms. Ponder_How was your session?

I'd like to thank all who posted replies, it's great to see such diverse opinions on this topic.

Yw GuitarMike!

@Branson_Session went well and it was very productive. We recorded two songs(both rough cut) and now they're at copyright office. I'm still hoping for a reliable keys player. I have some in mind but it's a wait and see on that.

My producer's on vacation so I'll be back in studio maybe in September, 'if' he's not touring with his sister.

WTG & WTB on getting tracks to L of C! Do you work alone or collaborate on your songs? Melody or lyrics first? You've got me majorly curious about you lovely lady!

@Branson_GTG after this.

I have musicians in studio to play for sessions; but, I'm writing all of my originals on my own so far. It's challenging because I never learned to chord, I learned to play all the notes using both hands. I took private classical lessons as well as piano classes at college. I'm still very rusty, haven't played in years so I'm using simple chords(have chord chart books) to chart my songs.


On my first two compositions(I'm still in love with you was one of them), I wrote every note and was told by the accompanist, "we work by charts only". Boy was that ever a time saver. Learning to chord, it feels as if I'm starting from square one.

You asked about melodies and lyrics. Both come to me at the same time, it may sound impossible, but it happens. The songs come to me out of no where and it's as if each one wants to be written.

Peace out!

I'm not a creative thinker I'm just a humble musician and a fan of your sweet sound. Googled you and I like your poetry.

G'nite and take care Ms. Ponder