Have you ever had the opportunity to hear great gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson or Andrae Couch?

If so you would no doubt have been blown away by the power and energy that goes in their performances and resulting beautiful songs.

Given that gospel songs can be the most powerful of all singing genre’s, why is it that when a local church choir attempts to sing them, it all sounds a bit flat? The secret is that to really sing gospel, you need to have a completely different mindset as well as a different set of singing techniques for gospel compared with traditional hymns.

The origins of Gospel music dates back to the mid 19th century in the American south. Because illiteracy was common amongst African slaves – literacy being forbidden by law -  a popular method used to propagate Christianity was call-and-response songs.

The usual method in a call-and-response song is for the leader of a choir to sing a phrase or a line of the song and then the remaining members of the choir respond by repeating the line back. Interspersed within each verse is a chorus that is sung by everyone together.
Typically the structure of the song is reasonably simple with repetitive lyrics and an emphasis on injecting a  lot of emotion into the song.

If you compare this simple call-and-response type of song to a traditional church hymn by classical writers such as Charles Wesley, or Isaac Watts the differences are immediately obvious. Traditional hymns have complex, albeit beautiful lyrics, with many verses and little or no repetition via a chorus. Such traditional hymns were impossible to sing for anyone who could not read! Because of the complexity of the lyrics and technicality of the traditional hymn, it becomes nigh on impossible for choirs to deliver emotionally charged performances.

To be able to really sing gospel, you need to have a mindset of “I am singing for the Lord!” You have to relax, loosen up the body a little bit, move with the music, and most of all have a whole lot of fun. Of course that doesn’t mean attention to vocal technique gets thrown out the window! And in some ways this is what can make Gospel such a difficult genre to perform – you need to be relaxed and have fun but at the same time maintain control over your vocal technique!

To be able to sing gospel requires both a powerful voice along with very strong breath support. Your phrasing should be very dramatic and packed with emotion.

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To be able to convincingly tell a story in a gospel song you need to feel the emotion of what you are singing about. Lack emotion and your performance will be limp and the congregation will be falling asleep in the pews!

Step 1 for singing Gospel - get control of your breathing and a good way to do that is with the Fontanelli exercise

Stand with good posture and slowly in a controlled manner breathe in through your mouth while silently counting to four – now slowly exhale your breath to another count of four, making sure to expel all the air that you initially took in. Try to view yourself in a full-length mirror to ensure you are fully expanding your midsection, and make sure you maintain that expansion while exhaling.

Now the secret here is that once you can easily complete that exercise to a count of four, next step is to increase the count to five, then six, and so on. When you work up to seven or eight, add a hold phase. Breathe in for a count of four, hold for a count of four, and exhale to a count of four. Watch to ensure you achieve and maintain good expansion. Gradually increase the count as you exercise each day – this is not something you can do just once, you need to keep performing this exercise each day as you practice.

The next thing you will be required to work on is dynamics. An excellent exercise for dynamics is called messa di voce (Italian for “placement of the voice”).

Inhale a deep breath and sing a pitch in the middle of your range that is comfortable for you. While sustaining the pitch, start very softly and gradually increase your volume of sound, then slowly get softer again.

Next is expression, and to develop this you need to study the text of your song. First try  to read it aloud like you would a story to a child, and then proceed to sing the song with the same expression you used when you were speaking it. Its a great idea to watch videos of all the great gospel singers, Mahalia Jackson in particular and you can find these YouTube.

The original call-and-response songs were designed as a tool for teaching purposes so annunciation is very important when you sing gospel. Once again watching videos of the greats will be very helpful in getting across this point.

But most of all when singing gospel, remember it is a joyous song, so BE HAPPY! Sing it like you mean it and you will have a whole lot of fun!

Tags: How to Sing Better, sing gospel