Re: [Harp-L] Blues Backing Tracks for a Female Vocalist (Wannabe)?

[Elizabeth Hess <TrackHarpL@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, Bill,

It depends on the melodic range of a given song's melody.  My "easy" 
vocal range is from F below middle C to D or E one octave and a bit 
above middle C.  I can go a bit lower and a bit higher, but it starts 
to sound strained.  (My coach is working with me on this part.)

My struggle is to find  _an effective procedure_  for learning and 
practicing new songs, given that I don't have the luxury of rehearsing 
with a live band.  I haven't found a good blues singer in my area who 
teaches, or a good teacher in my area who teaches blues songs.

I have no illusions that the great blues singers of the past -- male 
and female -- went to the Hal Leonard web site and bought "Pro-Vocal" 
books with companion CDs, with both "demo" and "sing-along" tracks.  
Yet this is what my teacher has been having me do.... so far with jazz, 
but now she has asked me to find some blues backing tracks.  "Because 
this isn't your gig," she said, of my most recent jazz attempt.

I have plenty of jam tracks with which to practice harp.  Not Ronnie's, 
but Jimi Lee's, among others.  It hadn't occurred to me to try singing 
songs to those tracks.  I have The Blues Fake Book, with lyrics and 
melodies in them.  Perhaps I should try merging these.

I know one blues singer who told me, "I listen to a song at least a 
hundred times before I even try singing it."  So, there's one method.  
(This doesn't solve the problem of accompaniment in the practice room 
at the music school.  (I am not trying to initiate a "Yes, but" game, 
here.))

I know how to read music.

Eons ago, I used to sing in the church choir.  We had rehearsals every 
Thursday night, and we would practice pieces in various stages of 
readiness for singing in church.  The organist played piano as we 
rehearsed in the church vestry.  If there were trouble spots, the 
director would have just the altos or just the tenors or whomever 
practice one passage until it got ironed out.  Every week in church we 
sang an anthem, an offertory, 4-part harmony on all the hymns, and one 
of several "Amens" from the back of the hymn book after the 
benediction.  We weren't the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  But we were 
decent.  I am not inexperienced with learning songs.  BUT:  I didn't 
have to identify which songs to learn.  And I had a rehearsal context 
that was dynamic, with a professional director and professional 
accompanist.  I haven't figured out how to replicate those results with 
just myself, an electronic keyboard, and a CD player.

The immediate problem is that my teacher has asked me to acquire a 
backing track for "Summertime" in the key of C minor or D minor and be 
prepared to sing the song and play a harp solo between verses.

The global problem is identifying suitable blues songs for my range, 
skill level (and the skill level of the band I jam with on Tuesday 
nights), with female-centric or androgynous lyrics, learning to sing 
them without benefit of a band to practice with, and be able to 
communicate enough about the song and its structure to the band when I 
want to  *sing*  this song at my local jam.

I would love to hear what has worked for others of you when you were 
learning to add vocals to your harp performances.

Many thanks.
Elizabeth (aka "Tin Lizzie")


On Nov 9, 2010, at 10:00 AM, william.lifford@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Hi Elizabeth,
>
> Do you know what keys work best for your voice?  "The girl keys" still 
> leaves it wide open... Lots of female singers can sing in every key 
> (or most).
>
> Not everybody can sing decently in every key, and a lot of artists 
> tend to stay with the keys that suit them best, not straying too 
> often.  Your vocal coach can help you find which keys work best for 
> you.
>
> I have the Ronnie Shellist backing tracks; great for harmonica and 
> could be used for singing as well.
>
> Bill