Help me help my singer

[H-evolve]

People might have seen some posts about me looking for a vocalist for our melo death project. It was not easy to find someone, and though we have found someone with some potential, there are things that require work. I'm not a vocalist, so I thought some people here that are either vocalists, or experienced in a studio, or experience band musicians, could help me.

Arguably, one could say "well if he sucks just kick him out and be done with it". Though this could be a fair suggestion, finding serious musicians/singers, that want to put the time, is not easy thing. Especially when we don't do that full time.

Here are things I noted he has a hard time with:
1- Fitting the lyrics in the tempo: He writes good lyrics, but it's often a very nice text that doesn't fit the tempo. We need to help him restructure the sentences, and word pronunciation, to fit the melody
2- Tone and choice of notes: Though he's a scream/growl vocalist, there is still a tonality that you give to your voice. We realized most of his sentences "sound the same". Meaning, he starts the sentence on the same note all the time, and finishes on another note, again all the time. Like every sentence goes from C to E. Does that make sense? See number 3 below as what I think really doesn't help that problem
3- He can't do a full take: because he struggles with timing (point 1), we have to record the vocals bit by bit. For guitar and such, that's not a major deal, but when it comes to vocals, I think it "encourages" problem No2. By doing it bit by bit, he doesn't realize he's using the same tone every sentence.

So ya, I think if we'd be able to solve those 3 things, we'd be in very good shape. I think most of this come with experience, but if at least I could orient him in the right direction "right now", it'd help.

Any suggestion, advice, etc is welcome.

Thanks

 

[TheIllusionist]

Bit late to the party but lyrics: try writing lyrics phonetically to the melodies that are written. This works far better than cramming poetry into music. All to often there's simply too many lyrics and less is more with them.

Tone/notes: it's generally a sign of an inexperienced musician. Ask him to listen to various bands and see what they do. Its easy to stay in the same range and use the same notes over and over as it's safe and it always works. However it gets boring to listen to.

Tone comes from singngs experience, working hard and usually vocal tutors.

As for timing, you could write the songs with him, track it bit by bit and let him go away and listen to it. Then come back a few days later and track it properly. Do it as a draft/template.

Also if he's using the same notes still and doesn't hear the issue he probably hasn't got a particularly developed musical mind so it's down to you to help him write and coach him through the vocals

 

[H-evolve]

Hey thanks for your suggestion. It's never too late, for sure. I had almost forgotten that post and saw it in the first few today.

So yes, thank you this, I think it gives me good pointers. I'll try applying them, or actually suggesting it to him.

He's also quite involved with another band as a rythm guitar player. He kinda joined them after we recruited him, I wasn't see this as a problem, but I'm starting to wonder how serious he is with working with us.

Therefore, following you last points, I think my will to support and coach him will very much depend on his commitment to do the work on his side for us.