Music & Song, The Universal Language
Music is a universal language. Singing can be fun and also a thereputic form of positive emotional self expression. Some say it’s the language of the soul or heart. If nothing else, it’s fun to develop your singing voice and nice to be appreciated for it.
No Such Thing As A Bad Singer
As far as singers are concerned, in my opinion there is no such thing as a “bad” singer. There are only “developed” and “undeveloped” singers. Everyone can learn to sing well and develop their natural voices. Even the so called “tone deaf”. There are specific exercises and vocal drills that can help bring out the best in each singer.
Giving The Singer Their Voice
One strong conviction I have about Karaoke is the host needs to “give the singer their voice”. What I mean by that is to make sure they are loud (but not too loud) and clear. Singers love to hear themselves sing so let them. An experienced KJ (Karaoke Jockey) can fine tune the equipment to the singers voice so they sound the best they can. Many KJ’s for whatever reason drown out their singers with the music and I think this is a mistake.
One excuse for drowning out the singer I’ve heard more than once is “some singers need to be drowned out because they don’t sound good”. This is evidence that the KJ doesn’t really know about vocal development. First of all, if you drown out an “underdeveloped singer” they will typically try to compete with the music volume by singing louder or even screaming, which sounds even worse. But more importantly, in order for any singer to develop their skills they have to hear themselves sing so they can identify their strong and weak points in any song. How am I able to tell if I’m in or out of tune if I can’t clearly make that distinction when I’m singing?
The best thing I can do with an undeveloped singer is to “give them their voice” and fine tune the tone, pitch and special effects to clairify and enhance their voice in order to make it sound the best it is capable of and prevent them from having to scream into the mic. This not only sounds better but it gives them the opportunity to become aware of their strengths and weaknesses in order to make the necessary adjustments.