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Well it is that time of year that we, as Christians, get to enjoy so much in the celebration of the birth of our precious Savior, Jesus. My prayer is that the whole world would come to know Him and His glory. I realize that there are millions in the world today who don’t believe in Jesus as Savior. The goal of each one of us should be to sing about Him in such a way that would uplift the world around us, and lift Him up to the world around us, in order to see the miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ come to be the most sought after miracle in the world. I believe in miracles in accordance with what happened in Bible days, and that they still happen today because of what Jesus did and who He is. Among all the miracles that occurred in the Bible, and we find many wonderful ones, I believe the greatest is the miracle of Salvation. When a sinner comes to know Jesus and his life is changed, it makes news in heaven. All of this is the reason that we as Gospel Singers do what we do. We sing about Jesus in order to win souls to Him.

If we sing for any other purpose, then we are misusing the talent that He has given us. If we just want notoriety, or financial gain etc from our singing, then we will possibly gain them, but we will not affect anyone’s life for the better, for eternity. I would like to encourage each and every Gospel singer to sing about Jesus in order to grow the Kingdom. Never lose sight of this goal. No matter where you sing, whether it is in a Church or a Concert Hall, always let people know your reason for being there is to bring the message of salvation to their lives and that He has blessed you with a talent and you are using it for Him.

Along with what I have just said, I would like to say to each of you that my prayer is for you to have a blessed Christmas season. It is the most precious season of the year. May God’s richest blessings be with you and yours.

Now to the business of talking about singing. The reason that we study how to sing correctly is twofold, one is that we can sing beautifully to honor our Lord, and the second one is that we can sing for a longer time in our lives to honor our Lord.

I would like to talk, this month, about the Tone of your voice, and how you can make it more pleasant to listen to. We have already discussed posture and breathing, as well as attack of notes, to some degree. The next thing to discuss is the tone of your voice and what it takes to change anything that is unpleasant about that. I will never forget the first day that I met Mike Allen, who by the way is noted as one of the very best bass singers in gospel music. We were in the recording studio, and he had just came into the control room while I was singing one of my vocal parts on a new song for the Prophets Quartet, which Mike and I sing together in, along with Ed Hill and Paul Jackson. I came out of the studio into the control room and I was introduced to Mike. The first thing he said to me was “man I like your tone”. Needless to say, I was highly complimented by his comment. Mike is a great bass singer, and has a great quality of tone himself. I have always concentrated on tone placement and amplification all of my singing career. I happen to think it is one of the most important areas of singing after posture, and breathe control. I said that to say this, I will be discussing for a couple of months just how I get the tones that I get. Of course first thing is correct singing posture, then strong breath control. Once you have these two things working correctly, then you must start to think about making quality tones.

Tones are made by the air ,controlled by your diaphragm, escaping over your vocal cords and having someplace to resonate. The resonation chambers are used to various degrees to temper, make louder, softer, more bright, more mellow each tone that you make with your voice. There are three basic resonation chambers. 1. The chest and larynx area, where most of your low tones are resonated. 2. The Oral cavity, where most of your mid-range tones are resonated. 3. The mask, or (nasal and sinus cavities), where most of the higher tones are resonated. The ideal tone is one that has elements of all of these resonators in it. Sometimes, voice teachers and coaches, call these tones Bell Shaped tones or Pear Shaped tones which means that you have enough of the nasal resonator to add brightness to your tone, enough of the oral cavity to give it volume and spread it out some, and enough of the chest and larynx area to mellow the tone. By resonating each tone in all three areas you end up with a tone that is clear, loud enough, and mellow enough to be very pleasing to listen to. How do I resonate tones in all three of these resonators? The way that I do it is to start by resonating the tone in my mask area first. With my mouth closed, I place the tone in my mask so I can feel the vibration of the tone when I put my hand on the bridge of my nose. I then open my mouth widely which makes the tone have volume and fulness, I then check my posture to make sure that my head is on straight. Once I have done these three things I listen to the tone closely to see how pleasant it is. If it is too bright I try to drop it down a little into the oral cavity. If it is too full, I try to move it up a little. The jaw and head alignment come directly into play here. By closing the jaw slightly you can force the tone up more into the mask. By opening the jaw slightly you can force the tone into the oral cavity and if your head is on straight, as I have mentioned in other columns, you will also feel the lower part or resonation of the tone. The object is to make a pleasing tone that projects to the audience in a confident manner. I realize that you cannot do all of these things on stage while you are singing. These exercises are done during your warm up time, prior to singing on the stage. Once you get the right placement for your tones, then you must catalog it in your mind and try to replicate it during your singing on stage. Once you get the placement right in warm up, practice it a several times.

This should get your mechanism used to doing it the right way, and give you mental recognition of the right way, which should carry over into your singing enabling you to make the right tones without having to go through all of the exercises. I recommend to do this every time before you sing whether you are a novice or a professional singer. Most Gospel Quartet music, especially for the top three parts , is placed mainly in the oral and nasal cavities. This gives it brightness and clarity, along with volume and some mellowness. It also has a tendency to blend better with this kind of placement.

I am closing for now. I will write more about tone placement in January. May God richly bless each one of you. Thanks for reading this column. May everyone have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Remember Psalm 118:6 “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear, what can man do unto me”

God is on your side, go and sing for Him , bless His church, and win souls for the Kingdom

In His Service,
Bill Baize

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