more – I want to live in the center of your love, walking in your love and carrying that love with me every day. I love that, I love those songs that take on multiple dimensions as you sing them. They just mean different things and bring about different feelings and messages in the song.
[ WM ] As I was watching the video for“ Living with a Fire” on Worship Together’ s New Song Café( linked in our Song Spotlight with Chris Quilala), I was struck by how awesome the background vocals were, including yours. What tips do you have for worship leaders in terms of singing great BGVs when they aren’ t leading a song?
[ Kim ] I think it’ s really important to remember that your voice is an instrument as well. The other instrument players in the band are considering the dynamics within the song. So, it’ s not everyone playing the exact same rhythm in the exact same moment. It’ s everyone listening to each other, and feeling it out. Knowing when to play a lot or when to play a little. When to play quarter notes, half notes, or whatever it is. Considering the dynamics and adding to that. It’ s the same thing with the background vocals. I love a really strong and confident background vocal. I think the best BGV’ s are the ones where you consider everything – the sound, the dynamic, and the message.
If there’ s a spot on a song, say in the second verse, and the last two lines are just really strong with a powerful message and you want people to hear that, I may not sing any background vocals on the entire second verse until I get to those two lines. Then I’ d bring in a really strong background vocal to just bring emphasis to that message and those lines.
Same thing with a chorus. If the band is playing the first chorus kind of soft, make sure your vocals are soft and blend, and maybe do a lower harmony. But when that chorus gets to be big, that’ s when you want to jump up on the higher harmony and really belt it out along with the leader. I just think it’ s important to think of the dynamics and how you’ re adding, and it’ s not just musically. I think it’ s also the message and the lyrics and where you want to add emphasis. Just as if you were reading through your Bible and something stands out and you want to highlight it – you grab your highlighter! In that same way, in a song there are points or words that you want to highlight. You want to bring emphasis to that because it’ s so good and so strong!
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September 2018 WorshipMusician. com
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