You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Tips for Accompanying Singers - #57

Episode Date: March 28, 2018

Pianists, Peter Martin and Adam Maness discuss some common ways to accompany a vocalist.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to give you seven tips for accompanying singers. What would you know about accompanying singers, Peter Martin? Come on, man. Well, yes, I've done it a lot. And in fact, I should have mastered it by now. And I still haven't as much as I've done it.

But it's something I have a lot of fun with. I love talking about it. I love playing with great singers. And I really think it's, you know, if you get into a situation with a great singer and a great audience, it's really just the peak. It's the mountain. As much as we love instrumental music when you combine it with the lyric, that direct connection a singer can have with the audience, it doesn't get any better than that. No, there's nothing like it. You're absolutely right. And it's a special skill to have. It's something that we say we should treat them like instrumentalists and you should, but it really is its own thing. And there's certain things that you have to adhere to or good to know if you're going to attempt it. So let's start off with number one.

Okay, so number one is listen. Now, those of you familiar with the podcast know that many of our lists start with listen. It's often number one. It's often number one. There's a reason. Yeah, that's right. When Adam and I first put this together, I think we had a big whiteboard and possible answers to possible questions and listen was always number one. But it really is just so important.

And if you start this concept and this endeavor of accompanying singers, if you start from the place of listen all the time. And I mean, like, when you're listening to recordings, when you're listening in the actual gig, when you're listening to their ideas, all that. If you listen and try to hear before you try to be heard, you will really have a lot more success. And it'll make all the other little tips kind of, you know, become even more valuable. Yeah, it's the most important thing in playing music is listening to the music that's being played as you're playing it. And it's no different with accompanying a singer. it's the first thing you should always consider is what is going on around you, what is the singer

singing, what should you be playing with that? So it's a reason it's number one. Number two is that the singer is always correct. Now this is very hard, way, way, way, way, way hard to say. But it's true, the singer is always right even when they're wrong, which that never happens. No, of course not. But you, your job, whether you're a pianist or a drummer or a bassist or saxophonist or a trumpet player is to set them up for success no matter what is going on, no matter if they're, they come in in the wrong key. I mean, we have how many nightmare stories about stuff like this with singers who maybe aren't the best singers in the world, you know, but you, it doesn't matter. Your job is to set them up for success. You need to be

listening. You need to go with them and be there for them. You are their safety net. Right. And I mean, a lot of the, you know, the stories about epic fails from singers, if you really look at what happens, a lot of times it's the accompanist, you know, the instrumentalist fault for bringing them in wrong or not setting it up correctly. And so you have to, like, set things up for their success while they're singing before they come in and afterwards. And ultimately, it's going to make you look good. It's going to make the whole band look good. And we want the singer to be part of the band. And great singers want to be part of the band. Totally. It's for everybody. No, I mean, think about it. If you just finished a tune that was in E,

and now you're about to play a tune and see and you're just told a little story to a crowd and then the piano player sets you up to some crazy intro that has no relevance to the note that you have to come in on. We'd never do that. That's a hard gig, man. That is tough to do.

And you've got to remember, I mean, the vocalists, they are out there, a singer, their instrument is themselves, is their body, their vocal cords coming out of their mouth. We have a piano to hide behind or a saxophone, or even if you're a trumpet and you're right up there in the front line with the singer,

you've still got your actual metal trumpet. And the vocalists are truly naked out there with their instrument. And, you know, that's part of the thing. They can go to these epic highs with the lyric and connecting with the audience, but they need the support, and so we need to set them up for success. That's great.

Number three, lead the singer, but also know how to be led by the singer. So that sounds like it contradicts a little bit. But the trick with that is you got to go back to number one and listen first and foremost, but there's times when you're going to want to lead the singer when they need that. And it's really not that different than an instrumental solo, whatever. Yes, we're accompanying, but this is not just a one-way street where we stay in the background. There's information flowing both ways.

So as you're listening, you'll see sometimes the vocalist needs a little push in this direction, and you should be confident enough to do that. that's not getting in their way. It's just like they're telling a story, but you're there supporting. You're not just listening. You're accompanying. At times, that means filling in or pushing or suggesting another key or a tempo or whatever. So that's what you're specifically thinking about, like, I'm going to interject this to try to push them this way?

Is that what you mean by that? Yeah, yeah. And I mean, the way I think about it is less what does the singer need? It's like, what does the music need? Right. And great singers are going to be thinking the same thing. It's not like, okay, I need to do this, or I need the pianist to give me this, or the saxophone player needs to do this.

If everybody's listening to the overall sound and letting, I mean, yeah, you're not going to always agree 100%, but at least you'll be coming from a good place, a good, honest place. And so, you know, my experience with great singers is they love to be pushed and surprised at different times. You can't do it all the time, and you have to listen and let them complete their thought,

and there's a lot of nuances to it. But I think that there's always more leading, coming from the accompanists than people realize. Like, to me, it's not that interesting of a thing, Well, I think about those great recordings with Elephist Gerald and, I mean, many pianists, but Oscar Peterson. I mean, he's like, he kind of solos through her solo sometimes. He does. But it works.

You know, and like that energy helps her along. And he's never getting in the way, I don't think, you know. So there's a lot that can, I mean, that's kind of an extreme case, but there's a lot that can be done leading from behind. Yeah, if you're tasteful with it, if you think about it, you know, in a dynamic way that you're not overpowering the singer, but that doesn't mean that you can't. play anything and to lead them. Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is we're there a company and support, but that does not

mean that you're not leading. Sometimes support means you've got to, you know, take a little bit more on your shoulders for that, for that period and charge your head. That's great. And I'll add to this, I think an important part of this is the relationship you develop with the singer, because it's like getting to know someone with how much they want you to do this and how they want you to do this. Right.

It can be tricky at first, so, you know, try to always listen. Yeah. That's the most important. Well, that brings us to number four, and that is, lyrics. Learn them, know them, love them. Listen, the singer is actually telling the story of the song. This is the only time this happens in jazz because instrumentalists can set the vibe and play the melody, but they're not actually able to convey the text of the song, and the singer is. And if you don't know the story of the song you're playing, how are you going to be able to

set it up correctly? I mean, you could just kind of vibe on it, and that's one thing, but it is super helpful to understand, you know, is this a love song? Is this a snarky? love song? Is this an ironic love song? Is this a Lynde's song? Is this a... I love list. Farns List was a great... Is this a... Is this a... You know, is it a ballad? Is it a... what's the feel? But you can get a lot of that information from the story, from the lyrics. Right. And it just helps to know what the singer's going to sing as well. Right. And this is kind of getting back to listen to. It's like preparing the listening so that, I mean, yeah, you know, what the song is. You know what the lyric, what the vibe of the tune is, but then if you really know that going in, you can listen

to that night's particular interpretation of it and see how you're going to fit in. Because, I mean, our, yeah, we aren't actually adding the words from the saxophone or from the piano, from the drums, but we're putting in the texture, we're putting in the vibe, the little nuances that go along with that. And if we don't know the story, how can we, how do we fit in? Yeah, exactly. So that brings us to number five, I believe. Yeah. So now this is being tasteful with your fills. So everyone's going to have a chance when accompanying a singer to play fills because singers need to breathe and there's space between lyrics and there's things to be done. But it's very important that this is the time to be tasteful. This is not the time to really play the way you want to.

It's not a mini solo. I see like pianists, especially doing little mini solos in between a vocalist lines and that can work if you really get into the style and the flow of how the vocalist is singing that particular performance. But if you're just doing your style, it just sounds like it's jumping around and it's like a weird kind of juxtaposition that doesn't work. So you have to kind of breathe with them. And like what I like to do, especially on ballads and in duo situations where there's some sort of giving tape taking flexibility is I'll find myself sort of breathing along with the singer

as they're singing different lines and going through the lyrics. so that when you come to your place to do a fill, you're going to kind of play with the same, you know, sort of, what are those slurs that go above? Yeah. Yeah, kind of, you know, I almost think about like, yeah, like a slur, you know, like a phrase, you know, like a phrase. So then your musical phrase will be as lyrical as, you know,

as the singer is doing it. It'll match because that's the whole thing. You need to match into the overall performance with your fill. It's not the time for your style to come out. Now, within that, if you're doing it well, your style can come out and should in smaller ways, but it's got to be within the way the phrases are offset. Yeah, I think you are a really good example of someone who does this very well.

Like I remember hearing you play a ballad with Diane, and all of your fills were these beautiful, like, bell octave things in between her, and it just was the perfect, I mean, it wasn't a solo at all. It was just, it fit the music, you know, and that was the most important part. Yeah, and I think that, yeah, the important thing, too, is for the fills. It's for the music, and it's also, again, in support of the vocalist so that they feel like in between their phrases, they don't have to think, why is he playing so long, why is he playing so short,

do I need to come back in? If you're kind of breathing with them, and by breathing, I mean not just the actual, it's not about that amount of time you need to breathe. I mean, a good vocalist can grab their breath way quicker than we ever can. But it's kind of like almost the breath of the music. So ideally your fill, you'd be finishing your fill, that that phrase, right, as the vocalist, wants to come back in and he or she feels natural coming back in then.

And then also, I mean, you know, the Phil does not need to finish and then vocal start. It doesn't need to go back and forth and be binary like that, too. There can be some overlap. In fact, that's a really great way to do that. So think about dynamics and kind of trailing off. But, I mean, a lot of that more advanced stuff, I guess, comes with a great relationship with the singer and kind of knowing what each other does. Well, that brings us to our sixth tip for accompanying a singer,

and that is to don't treat them like a singer, treat them like musicians. And this one is actually important because, you know, ultimately the singer, especially a good singer, should have as much musical knowledge or be as good of a musician as the rest of the band.

And if you can look at them as a fellow musician and, you know, accept their ideas as equal with the rest of the band, Everything is going to be better, actually, than trying to have some kind of elitist attitude towards the vocalist. We're never guilty of anything like that at all. We've seen it, but we're not guilty of it. But actually, you can learn a lot from how to phrase a melody to dynamics, to telling a story from the singer. They're a musician. They're just a different kind of musician.

Right. And I mean, I think that we, you know, all the jokes about, are you a drummer, a singer, or a musician, and all these different things. It's actually kind of springs forth from a little bit of jealousness that we have, that instrumentalists have about singers because of this, you know, amazing connection that they can have with an audience that's kind of next level. And absolutely singers are first and foremost musicians. And I think that that, you know, it goes both ways too. What I've seen is like the great singers that I've been able to be around and work with, they act like musicians, you know.

and in terms of like they want to be part of the band they want to interact they don't want it to just be a backing band i mean diane reeves has talked about this for years but she actually acts like this every night on the on the stage it's like it's what she'll say i don't have a backup band because she'll be interviewed and they're like who's in your backup band she's like that's my band but it's not a backup band because she never wants to have that kind of separation she loves being part of the band and being in on all the musical things so because she comes to the situation comes to the stage and she's like that's comes to rehearsals like a musician and like a vocalist at the same time you know we interact on that musical level so this brings us to number seven so always feel like there's a lot of pressure on the last one number one was easy listen we just do that every time right right right but this I would say number seven for tips for a company singer have fun okay just enjoy the moment sometimes we forget in getting all these things that we need to do and think about you know how much fun I mean this really should be the highest

level of joy when you're playing with a great singer. Now, if it's a bad singer, tip number seven is leave as quickly as possible, yell fire, whatever. To go out the back door, yeah. But I mean, this is really our chance, you know, especially as jazz musicians with a great vocalist of connecting with an audience, having some success, getting some better gigs. I mean, think about how many more fun gigs you can get when you're playing with a great singer. You know, because certain places just, I mean, it doesn't matter if you're Herbie Hancock, Chick-Koree or whatever, you're blocked out of a few venues unless you show up with a great singer.

That's true. So have fun with it. And you'll hear it. You will hear it. Oh, and we just want to say big shout out to Becky because this was actually, this was a question that was added to the website that you can go to openstudionnetwork.com slash podcast. Yeah, or you'll hear it.com. Either one gets you to the same place.

Oh, that's right. Thank you. Thank you, Becky, for submitting these questions. Please, you know, if you have a question for us, go to you'll hear it.com. And, you know. You'll hear it. Yeah. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast.

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