[Aiken]

I had been singing at church for a while with my wife, but some things went down that basically forced us to leave music ministry. I thought I was being called to help lead people in worship, but maybe it was my own ego. I'd appreciate a few outside opinions about my vocals. The recording isn't quality and I know there are a couple of bad chords/dead chords played on the guitar. But, in general, what do you think?

Thanks for listening. I really am looking for honest opinions. I've been asking God to send me a sign...to speak to me in a way that I can understand so that I can try to do His will and not mine. So, if you think that this probably wasn't my calling, please let me know. Maybe He will be speaking through you.

--Aik

[Dark Helmet]

quick questions...

in a choir, what part do you sing?

alternately, what's your range?

and

were you sitting or standing? I think you were sitting.


answer those and I'll give you a breakdown...

[Aiken]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet

quick questions...

in a choir, what part do you sing?

alternately, what's your range?

and

were you sitting or standing? I think you were sitting.


answer those and I'll give you a breakdown...

I've sung both bass and tenor. I was sitting and not warmed up. I haven't really sung in several weeks.

[tenwatt]

You sing fine. There's nothing Earth shatteringly good or bad about your singing in those tracks. With a little work/practice/training you sound like you could sing really well.

I don't think you have some astounding, unique gift that you would be offering as praise to God but if you feel lead to praise God with your voice there wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of. I think your voice is solid and confident enough to sing before a congregation.

[Aiken]

Originally Posted by tenwatt

You sing fine. There's nothing Earth shatteringly good or bad about your singing in those tracks. With a little work/practice/training you sound like you could sing really well.

I don't think you have some astounding, unique gift that you would be offering as praise to God but if you feel lead to praise God with your voice there wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of. I think your voice is solid and confident enough to sing before a congregation.

Thanks for the input. Yeah, I didn't think that I was astounding, but I thought I might be solid to pretty good. Admittedly, the recordings I offered didn't show me at my best (poor recording, sitting, not practiced or warmed up) but I thought you could get a general idea.

While I never thought of myself as amazing, as I listened to the recordings I got the impression that I wasn't even as good as I thought I was.

--Aik

[Dark Helmet]

your breath support sucked.... because you were sitting and playing at the same time.

that's a good thing, since its REALLY easy to fix.


other than that, you sounded fine, I'd say you're a baritone, as you sounded really thin in the upper register.... pitching things so they are comfortable for you AND the congregation/group you are leading is important... you can move a song a little, but dropping it by a third leaves the Tenor and Soprano out in the cold.

You might also work on your enunciation a little and and how you project your voice.

6 weeks of voice lessons would be a good investment and would move you forward immensely. (this is a compliment, if you didn't have something really good to work with, I'd have said six MONTHS).

I've heard people with much less to work with become effective WLs... so GO FOR IT!

[gtrdave]

I echo what tenwatt said.

And I'd add that "At Your Feet" in A might be at the high end range of your voice, so dropping it down a step might get you in a more comfortable range.
Definitely standing and being warmed up would produce better results, but you've got a decent and very workable voice with nothing to be ashamed of.
If you get a voice lesson or three and learn a little about breathing and control, you'll only get better.

[Aiken]

Thank you for your feedback. You have given me a lot to think about. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that I didn't really do those songs as if I was performing them for someone else. I have let myself grow lax because of the hurt involved with my exit from music ministry. Perhaps I will do a better recording and post it for comparison. However, all of the problems you pointed out I will take seriously and, if I don't give up singing altogether, I will look at getting a vocal coach to help me overcome any issues I have.
Thanks again.

--Aik

[Dark Helmet]

you're being pretty rough on yourself...

you're a couple weeks from being ready to rock... given a couple hours of rehearsal/practice, I'd sing with you tomorrow.

[Aiken]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet

you're being pretty rough on yourself...

you're a couple weeks from being ready to rock... given a couple hours of rehearsal/practice, I'd sing with you tomorrow.

I appreciate where you are coming from but you don't know my history. Most of the answers here seem to assume that I'm trying to get to the point where I can lead people in praise and worship. I was, basically, leading worship for a number of years on weeks opposite the actual music director. At least, I would say, I was the main vocalist on those weeks. Some things happened, the music director eliminated my group because he said he wanted to make sure the music was always the best quality. Now, my wife and I had gotten numerous indications from parishioners that they preferred our group to the other one, and I agreed. The music director is not suited vocally for leading contemporary music. His favorite lead singer in the group is also unsuited. Of course, this is all in my opinion, but it was backed up by what others were telling me independently. We all were invited to join the other group but many of us couldn't (scheduling conflicts, etc.) My wife and I finally worked out our schedule where we could join the group and help and we were instantly made to feel like second class participants. We were constantly dismissed and ignored. We finally couldn't take it any more and quit.

Now, the key is that my wife and I had a very frank discussion with the music director about where we thought he was lacking. I basically told him that he wasn't ready to lead contemporary music and that he needed to listen to outside opinions, not just his own views and the views of that other singer. So, to not be a hypocrite, I also need to consider that maybe I wasn't good enough to be leading worship. I have been hard on myself. I don't want to live my life thinking that I'm good at something when I'm not. I don't want to listen only to my own ego. To that end, I solicited some outside opinions. I was a little self-sabotaging when I did so, because I threw together a cruddy recording on the fly after not having sung those particular songs in probably six months to a year. Yet, I still didn't expect to hear about the support issues, etc. If the best that can be said about my singing is that it's OK or fine then it's not good enough to lead people in praise of God. He deserves better and so do they.

I don't want to sound like I'm ungrateful. I realize that you are being encouraging and complimentary. I just don't want to fool myself. I used to get a lot of compliments. My wife usually got more. But, sometimes, people are just "being Christian," and say things that they don't really mean ( or they just love everything.) I truly do value the honest listen. I'd rather know the truth.



--Aik

[Dark Helmet]

I still say you are ready to go. God says "make a joyful noise" not a technically perfect noise...

Your ego is correct, you are perfectly fine to lead, I sing with people half as good as you all the time, and neither me nor god minds one bit.

[Aiken]

Well thanks. Again, I appreciate the words of encouragement. There's just a lot of hurt still associated with singing for me and my wife. I pray that we will get over it soon, because worshiping through song was central to how we approached God. There is a lot of self-doubt on both of our parts. That's why I through the recordings out there spur of the moment. I needed an objective opinion because I knew I couldn't come close to being objective about my own abilities anymore. The fact remains that everyone's first take on listening to them was that I need some work. I'm ok with that. I can own that.

The comments about not singing anymore didn't have to do strictly with the fact that I think I'm awful, just wondering if I'm really being called to it, or if my own desires are stopping up my ears so that I can't hear what He's whispering. Pray for me as I continue to discern His will.

--Aik

[Dark Helmet]

that's fair... but don't doubt that he's given you the ability.

[gtrdave]

After reading your last few posts, I can see the reason for you being discouraged.
Regardless, God gave you a voice and a decent one at that and you should be praising Him with it.
Maybe start singing outside the box, away from church; find a local ministry, homeless shelter, coffee shop, nursing home, etc...and don't worry so much about the structure of church-based praise and worship for a while.

Just a thought.

[Aiken]

Originally Posted by gtrdave

After reading your last few posts, I can see the reason for you being discouraged.
Regardless, God gave you a voice and a decent one at that and you should be praising Him with it.
Maybe start singing outside the box, away from church; find a local ministry, homeless shelter, coffee shop, nursing home, etc...and don't worry so much about the structure of church-based praise and worship for a while.

Just a thought.

Thanks. You've expressed a similar thought to me before. My wife and I do remain active in one ministry where we can lead worship, but it's not an every week kind of activity. It comes and goes. We also are currently in a band that plays secular music for free at various church and community events. The future of that band, though, is uncertain for various reasons.

I guess I'm still just struggling because:
1. We were basically forced out of the ministry
2. All the people that praised us before for what we were doing were silent when we were forced out.
3. The church leadership sees our contention with the music minister as an ideological difference rather than a behavioral issue on his part.

That struggle has lead to lots of self-doubt. I'm not sure how it is for everyone else, but for us it's often hard to be sure that we are following the path that God is calling us to rather than our own desires.

My wife and I have thought about doing a little coffee house stuff. That may very well be in our future.

As an aside, my wife didn't know that I had posted those recordings. I let her listen to them Friday night and she didn't even make it through the first one. Those songs aren't ones that we did regularly and she basically said that, while they didn't sound BAD, they didn't sound like I normally do either. She has suggested that she pick a song or two for me to do and re-post.

--Aik