VOCAL PRODUCTION; BACKING VOCAL DEEP DIVE

This is Part 2 of the Vocal Production series. We are going to take a deep dive into backing vocals. Be sure to check out Part 1; Vocal Production Defined if you missed it.

Great vocal production, especially really well arranged, performed, recorded and mixed backing vocals are like a secret sauce that can elevate your music. You know, if you want to get your songs to that place where people listen and then look at you like they are shocked and say, “wait, that’s YOU?” Don’t underestimate the power that comes from this corner of the production world. The best part is that it doesn’t take much more time or effort on your part (it does take more time for the producer/engineer for sure but most producers know the extra time to edit and mix different backing vocal parts is well worth it). With some planning and foresight you can create a pallet of vocal sounds and textures that will help define your signature sound. Best of all, you get great return on investment with backing vocals. A little goes a long way.

Be sure to check out Section 3 that goes into the how of recording great lead and backing vocals.

Maybe the coolest thing about backing vocals is that they are really subtle…almost subliminal where most people hardly notice that they are there. Yet, if they were gone, the “flavor” of the song would be entirely different. This is actually key to creating great backing vocals. Creating parts in a way where they don’t actually draw attention to themselves yet without them, something would be missing. It’s pretty much like magic.

One additional note about backing vocals, they can play a HUGE part in defining a genre. You may do a certain type of harmony to say “this song is country” or “this song is more indie pop”. But also, mixing it up can help you stand out in your genre. What if you do something with the backing vocals that isn’t typical of your genre?

Ok, enough of my blubbering over backing vocals. In case you couldn’t tell…I LOVE BACKING VOCALS!

We’ll go over the terms and vocabulary generally used, then just like in part 1, I’ll give you some examples. Then I would love it if you searched your own music library to see if you can find any of these types of backing vocals. Post your findings in the comments!

Doubles - Until you’ve been in the studio recording vocals, you may not notice subtle layers of lead vocals during certain sections of the song. But just you wait until we go on our hunt! You are going to hear sooooo much of this “vocal doubling”. It’s everywhere. There’s two ways of going about it. There’s having the lead vocal doubled such as in the next two examples. A doubled lead vocal is very typical in LANY’s music (as its their signature sound.)

I found this Taylor Swift song called “August” that has a double lead throughout the whole song, which isn’t typical of her sound. Whenever an artist does something unusual, I always ask myself, “why did they choose to do that?” I would have loved to be a fly on the wall while this was being produced. So beautiful.

The other approach would be layering in two more lead vocals, one on the right, one on the left and at a softer level than the main lead vocal. An example of this can be found everywhere, including the examples below.

Stacks - Sometimes we want layers and layers and layers of vocals to create a big full sound. This means singing the same melody or harmony part over and over again. The more layers you record, the fuller the sound! You can listen to the LANY song above again and hear how at the chorus, it sounds like there’s more layers of the melody as well as an octave below.

If I may be so bold to share one of the songs I produced; Elyse and I have dialed in her “Elyse” sound which is a combination of the instrumentation of course but also how I produce her vocals. Notice at :38 seconds at the pre-chorus, we’ve added a few stacks of the lead (one to the left, one to the right, slightly softer than the lead as described above). Then at the chorus, we layered quite a few stacks of the melody, plus an octave drop (using an altered vocal, it’s way too low for her to actually sing haha!)

Choir - You can sing each layer with a slightly different tone to get more of a choir or group sound. I’m going to be bold again and share another song I had my hand in ;-) Dave Zimmerman at Noisebox studios recorded Kyla’s lead vocal and did the final mix. Isn’t she amazing? I made the instrumentation and made the “choir”. I sang each choral part about 10 different times with a slightly different tonality. I imagine that I’m a totally different singer for each take, with a different vibrato, tone, rhythmic accuracy, pitch accuracy, etc. I usually space myself from the microphone differently to get a slightly different vocal texture. It’s so much fun to do if you are like me and love imitating other singers.

Parallel harms - A harmony line that lines up perfectly with a lead vocal I call a parallel harmony. Sometimes its just one vocal like this Conan Gray song at :34 seconds (that harmony part could be doubled, it’s hard to tell). Notice the stacks in the chorus, including an octave below the melody and another harmony a 3rd above the melody once in a while. So subtle and easy to do in the studio with great big returns.

Here’s another example of a parallel harmony coming in during the pre-chorus at about :55

Sometimes its a complex chord but each harmony is lining up with the lead. I still call that a parallel harmony.

Remember that backing vocals help define genre? In this Dan and Shay song, the chorus harmonies are really typical country. There is a tighter 3rd/4th above as well as one below that both follow the melody more tightly.

Also, if you want your song presented as a “duet”, then having a parallel harmony is a must. Here’s an example of a duet up through the 2nd chorus. Notice we don’t hear any “additional” backing vocals until a little “ooo” action at the bridge. Adding too much backing vocal activity would take away from the sense of it being a duet.

Another “duet” that is non-country…But here’s some more beautiful parallel harmonies throughout that are more complex chordal wise but still “linked” to the melody.

Gang Vocals - Similar to stacking, for gang vocals we really want it to sound like a group of people singing, some people who might not actually be singers. This can also be a lot of fun because you can pretend like you are a bad singer for a few of the takes. Layer about 20 of those, you are going to sound like a rough and tumble group of people singing along to your song. You can also use people that are hanging around who might not be singers. Capturing different genders helps it feel like a group singing along at a concert.

Here’s a couple of great examples of “gang vocals”. In Selena’s song, starting at the first chorus you can hear the gang come in.

This Dua Lipa song had a bunch of people singing this gang chorus, including actual talking, yelling, party sounds that they recorded to give it a party vibe. Hear that parallel harmony she throws in during the second pre-chorus?

DooWop Vocals - I made this term up myself! The way harmonies were arranged and mixed back in the Bing and the Andrew Sisters days or groups like The Supremes or The Temptations made famous is a unique signature of those groups and of those time periods. Some modern artists like Michael Buble and Tori Kelly, Bruno Mars or even Kelly Clarkson have used “DooWop” style vocals with great results. Probably the best example is Bruno’s “Leave the door open” (talk about one of the coolest throwback 70’s songs ever). Notice how the backing vocals seem to “answer” the lead?

Group Vocals - This is what I call a group of backing vocals that aren’t attached to the melody so they are doing something different, but don’t necessarily feel like doo wop. A great example of group backing vocals is in Alessia Cara “Wild Things”. Notice in the chorus there is a parallel lower harmony but there’s also these groups doing totally different things, like “Eh’s” and “oh’s” and “ayayayayay” stuff. Do you think they arranged it this way to give the song more of a “wild”, tribal feel? I think so!

Let’s listen to perhaps the Queen of backing vocals Ariana Grande. In this song, see if you can hear some doowop style as well as parallel, stacks and group vocals. Wow!

Countermelody/Adlib Vocal -

Sometimes there is another “lead” vocal that is weaving it’s way around the melody vocal, usually more toward the end of a song. It sounds like that second lead vocal is improvising (which is sort of true but actually is well thought out and “written” just as the main melody line was). I’ve heard this called “scatting” which in my mind is something totally different. Because scatting has been the official term for nonsensical syllables sung along with improvised melodies common in jazz….well, here’s the best example of scatting by two of the great vocalists and scatters of all time; Mel Torme and Ella Fitzgerald.

Back to countermelodies; another King of backing vocals is Charlie Puth. In this example, you’ll hear just about everything we’ve talked about. Doubles, stacks, parallel, group and starting at you’ll hear the countermelody coming in.

When you are figuring out your own sound, you can experiment with trying out something that isn’t typical for your genre just for fun.

Now, go have fun! Don’t be afraid if you don’t think you are “good” at backing vocals. As you listen, I’m sure you noticed that a lot of it has more to do with layering and octaves than actual harmonies. So go be bold!

Check out section 1 for an introduction to vocal production and section 3 (coming soon!) for things to think about and do when in the studio.