Do You Listen To Your Singer??

[nsmar4211]

I listen to singer.... sometimes I help singer when the words escape the brain. Lead guitar is very good at realizing it's time to go into a lead if something goes wrong, we listen and follow him and then come back in together. Found out that I listen to the rhythm guitar more than I knew the hard way when I couldn't hear it one night and it was a new song for us....singer forgot words.....I heard lead guitar go into lead part so I went into lead part chords....but they were actually just doing verse chords.... *sigh*..... but normallly we all listen to each other. Several of our songs have stops in em... sometimes we hold out for singer sometimes we come back in on beat. But those are things we work out when we're learning the song

[stringslinger95]

Well every time I've jammed with different people I've learned one thing, singers are unpredictable, they're worse than a guitarist for adding new things, and slowing and speeding up at certain parts of a song. While you've got to listen to everyone, I think the tightest band is when everyone locks in with the drummer, so the drummer is who I listen to rather than the vocals. That being said it's cool sometimes when you're all really comfortable playing together and everyone can flawlessly follow along whether its the guitar or vocals changing things. Ultimately though, when a singer is doing the usual "front-man" flash and doing all sorts of things to get a crowd pumped up its much better to listen to the drummer, at least to give the singer a steady canvas to paint their pictures on.

[BillyRay]

I listen to our singer all the time, but not for cues. I listen to him so I can reinforce his rythmn or play around with the vocal melody: I do a lot of counterpoint stuff in my current band, and a lot of it is with vocals.

[kelleysdad]

I am the singer in my band. I never listen to myself

[denhou1974]

In my first few years of playing I never listened to the singer. In fact, I would sing the bass part in my head as I played it.

Spending a few years in dance/funk/disco bands broke that habit. All of those bands had the tendency to stretch the songs or repeat certain sections without warning so it was imperative that I listen to the singer to know which part they were going back to. Not only that, it's hard to sing backup when you don't know the words or are singing the bass part.

[deathofbalance]

I play in a hardcore band. Listening to the singer for vocal cues is an exercise in futility, I can never understand what he's growling anyway.

[dulouz]

I listen to the singer not because I need the cues, but in case they screw up. If you are in your on little world and the singer screws up, a trainwreck is awaiting you and your band.

[mccartjm]

when it comes to listening to a singer durring a song, you pretty much have to listen to keep it tight...you have to listen to everyone esspecially as a bass player. But when it comes to song structure/writing/dynamics i tend to not listen to singers, i have met many singers that have had very bad ideas that didnt even know it, while all the other band members talked about it behind his/her back and were afraid to tell them that they were musically retarded. I try to keep wiriting between me, rhythm guitar players, and drummers.

[megadan]

I mostly play and listen to instrumental music, so vocals mean nothing to me.
In bands with vocals I don't listen to them. Mostly I just lock into the drummer and lead the songs.

[thecool]

the best musicians always listen more than they play

[DGbass70]

Here's my situation.....
I play in a worship team which is.....6 vocals,drummer and bass(me)
Most of the time i have to figure out the songs following the vocals(for the key) and then play what i think goes well with the song as far as rhythm goes.Once in a blue moon i get some songs on cd's so is easier to figure them out,but sometimes i have to change the key of the song i learned from the cd because is either to high/low for the singers/vocals.