I’m going to be honest: vocal arrangements were one of the hardest aspects of worship leading for me to get my head around. I (like many worship leaders nowadays) don’t come from a background of classical training or choirs… alternative rock didn’t go a long way in teaching me how to harmonize or breathe correctly. We as worship leaders want the vocalists (including ourselves) to perform excellent as possible, like all members of the band—and we assign them an even greater responsibility, due to vocalists’ potential connection with the crowd.
I recently sang the praises (pun absolutely intended) of an excellent video resource for leading a band, so I thought it’d be appropriate to give a quick review of a couple training DVDs focused on the role of the worship vocalist. One of the problems I’ve run into recently is that there are more and more resources available to the worship leader for training, but it is almost impossible to find more information on them anywhere but the sites where they are sold. This makes it hard to make purchases wisely with our church worship budget (which, lets not kid ourselves, is usually our own wallet). I think the obvious answer is the collective worship leading blogosphere, where we can point out resources that are useful (or not) in our own ministries. That’s my goal here, as I check out LeadWorship.com’s Worship Vocal Workshop and Musicademy’s Worship Vocals Course.
Part 1: Paul Baloche/Leadworship.com’s Worship Vocal Workshop
The Worship Vocal Workshop is a counterpart to Paul Baloche’s Worship Team Workshop, and is very similar in format. Paul and his band, joined by three excellent backup vocalists (Michael Mellett, Nirva Ready, and Kari Jobe) speak to the viewer in a style not unlike what you would experience at a worship training conference. Each vocalist comes from a different musical background, so the comments shared are generally insightful. Sometimes the conversation gets a little “chummy,” but it keeps things light—nice when watching this video in a group. Overall, the training focuses on the role of the worship vocalist as part of the overall worship band/team, and tries to bring together a heart for worship with “timeless vocal principals.” Of course, Baloche, the vocalists, and musicians are able to illustrate their instruction with full-band songs (usually off Paul’s latest album).
The production values are excellent, like the other DVDs in the series, and the workshop on a whole lasts about two and 1/4 hours–the perfect length for a vocalist training meeting or two (although the very end, a discussion of monitors and microphones, gets a little long… you may want to fast-forward a bit). The workshop retails for $29.50, and does not include any additional downloads or materials… you get a case and a disc.
One section I found particularly useful is on the difference between singing as a solo vocalist vs. singing in a group, discussing the attitudes and techniques that adapt when making that change–for example, judging your voice not just on its own merits, but how it fits in with the whole vocal blend. The workshop is very practical: when to breathe, mic technique, finding complementary parts, communication, and so on. Some teachings will come across as very basic but are things that we often let slip in our arrangements week-to-week.
There is a basic introduction to harmony; this course does not go deep enough to teach it entirely, although it uses a solid ‘chord tone’ approach. Baloche even teases at a “How to Sing Harmony” DVD—here’s hoping he wasn’t just joking!
Bottom line: Unless your worship is all-instrumental (which its not), buy this DVD. Most of the challenges facing your worship vocalists are addressed in this workshop, and it is extraordinarily useful for group instruction and getting everyone on the same page. Highly recommended.
Part 2:Musicademy’s Worship Vocals Course
Musicademy is a UK-based company that sells long-form training DVDs for several types of worship musician, such as guitar, keyboards, and of course, vocals. The complete worship vocals course is actually a four DVD set, for a total of about eight hours of training. The focus here is worship vocals, and some of the training gets into items that concern the worship leader as well as the background vocalist… choosing songs, leading the crowd, etc. The atmosphere here is much more like having personal voice lessons, primarily taught by Kate Sibler (I have no idea who she is, she is not included in the list of teachers at the Musicademy site), along with a number of other vocal coaches. Later discs touch on some technical aspects like microphone technique and how to help in tear-down after worship.
The production values here are lower—much of it looks like it was filmed in front of a blue/green screen (replaced with distracting warm colors, in my opinion), and the frequent on-site interviews could have used some help with audio equalization. Also, the DVD packaging is poor… four discs literally stacked in a standard-sized DVD case… not a big deal, but as they retail for $79.99 at WorshipTogether.com, I expected more (again, no accompanying materials here either). There is also an option to purchase just the first disc at $29.99 and add the rest later if desired, although this route will cost an extra twenty dollars.
The entire contents of each disc is listed at the Musicademy site, so there is no need to list them here, but the range of instruction covers vocal warm-ups and exercises (quite a few, actually, spread out over the four discs) to basic vocal improvisation. One of the things I appreciated about the instruction is that it is peppered with on-site interviews (some apparently filmed backstage at a Matt Redman concert, based on the music in the background). These clips come from folks like Brenton Brown and Vicky Beeching—and Tommy Walker, who oddly reminds me of Jeff Goldblum. The comments they share are genuinely helpful (sometimes even contrary to the teaching that preceded it), and obviously come from a great amount of experience.
As far as teaching on harmony, the basics are addressed here, but I feel it could have been explained clearer and more thoroughly. At one point, lines are displayed on screen to represent the different parts—not a bad idea, but there is not enough explanation as to why the singers are choosing each part. I think the time should have been taken for a larger music theory element as part of the course.
Unfortunately, there is a big problem with these DVDs obvious from the beginning of the first disc: the license agreement for the series, also repeated on the website:
“Musicademy DVDs are only licensed for your own personal use. Where you would like to use the DVDs in a group setting you need to apply to Musicademy for a group license. Would you like to inspire and train future worship leaders and musicians with a tried and tested set of contemporary course materials?”
If you do, it is going to cost you $400, as well as the price of extra training resources. Be aware: this is not mentioned on the WorshipTogether site where I purchased the set. The license does not allow group watching without “purchasing a registration pack,” although they would be good for team instruction over the course of several sessions. Of course, nothing would stop you from lending these discs to worship leaders-in-training for their own personal use.
Bottom line: The Musicademy Worship Vocals Course would be good for a worship leader/vocalist who needs solid instruction on the foundations of singing—eight hours worth (although the British accents make it easy to listen to). For the cost of the set, there should really be some sort of printed or downloadable course book to follow along with. The high cost of a group viewing license limits the course’s usefulness as a training resource. For more info, check out the sample/trailer below.
Do you have thoughts on either of these vocal training DVDs? Leave a comment!
August 20, 2007 
Posted in Reviews 
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