Lesson 5 Intro – Transition between songs
Greetings all and Happy Holidays!
Hope you get your fill of Turkey or Tofurkey – whatever you desire! This intro will be removed later, but for now in case you run across this – enjoy our holiday spirit!
Last week I saw a concert of professional musicians – they were excellent musicians!
BUT, there kept missing the mark on one important area.
They were not connected to the audience. Now some of the clues for this are when you hear things like “we love you Portland”. Okay, that’s not “bad” and not a sure sign, but just a clue. Let’s get to the meat of the issue.
Their 3rd song was a great upbeat syncopated number that had everyone starting to move in their seats and a few folks even started standing up to dance (in a mostly ‘sit down’ venue). Then they went to this amazing slow deep song. The one that makes you look inside, remember, and… Then abruptly shifted to another upbeat tune with a reggae feel. WHAT?
The bigger PROBLEM here is that these highly skilled touring recording artist performers do not understand Transition. This is really a make or break it skill anyone can learn but no one talks about or teaches… until NOW.
First, let’s talk about the simple part – choosing the song order. There are a lot of factors here and we’ll dive deeper later, but for now we’ll be quick and say, you want to create a “contour” of “energy” that is easy for the audience to follow and flow with. I know there will be lots of questions on this but this is really the easier part that is covered in a lot of places, so I’m moving on to focus on the next part and we’ll cover this element in a later section.
Next, and what I feel is most important, is understanding how to take the audience from one song to the next.
NOT FOR PROFESSIONALS ONLY!
Does this topic sound exciting? Boring? It’s subtle…
Think about this. WHO DO YOU LOVE?
So with this image present we continue… this is not just for professionals. It’s actually more for every day singers. A lot of professionals eventually learn or figure it out, but most of us are casual to semi-pro singers and it makes such a difference.
Mastering this area can empower a mediocre skilled performer to outshine the superstars. Have you ever seen a band that was “so so” musically, but they had a “lead” who had such a rapport that everyone in the room was having a good time?
That’s part of it.
There’s another BIG part.
The skills learned to master transitions spill over to ever area of life.
You might be singing in a lineup of 10 other singers where you have no control over what happens before your song. You’ll see how to work with this.
You may be wanting to sing a sweet love song to your sweetheart while driving in the car – there are simple things that can empower your song to pull the best out of you and have your audience in the space to best receive the ‘gift’ of your voice and the music.
You might be proposing marriage or negotiating a business deal. The same skills apply.
This is a big intro for a link to a lesson… so, I’ll wrap it up here and continue on the website.
Note 1: this lesson requires feedback! I will answer questions! And I will ask questions of you.
Note 2: Update: you may know that I’ve been working on restructuring the websites for months and running into a lot of obstacles. It’s still a work in progress, so “don’t mind the dust” it’s fully functional, just not quite as pretty and organized as it will be soon.
All the Best to you!
Stephen
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LESSON 5 Starts Here
Based on the introduction and your life experience, tell me your thoughts on Transitions between Songs?
What have you seen that works?
What didn’t work?
How might you use this in your life? (yes, I know we haven’t covered the ‘how’ yet)
I’ll be here adding more all weekend responding and giving your the next pieces of this lesson as we interact….
Next… segment
Today we’re going to talk about one of the biggest challenges for Advanced singers, but it’s also a technique that can help singers at any level… so, I offer it to everyone.
The Problem:
How to transition from the current song/situation, to the one you are about to sing. This might sound simple, but consider these examples. Let’s say that you song is deep, emotional, moving… one of those tear jerker songs that reaches the soul of every listener – IF you sing it well.
- The song preceding yours is sung by someone else and their song is high energy, stand up, tap your foot, dancing in the isles. You get the picture… now you have to help shift the energy of the audience to a place where they can receive the message of your song.
- You’re at a gathering and asked to sing a song. You don’t know where everyone will be… maybe folks are scattered around the room talking in small groups… maybe a comedian just left the stage. Maybe it’s in the middle of a series of boring, or enlightening talks.
- You’re singing to your sweetheart. Maybe you want to pop out the song at a special moment, while walking in the forest or along the waterfront… or while driving in the car.
As you can see the types of transition situations are endless… some might be easy and some are quite challenging (at first glance)… but, some people have the ‘secret’ ability to pull this off time and time again.
That’s what I’m going to teach you.
The question and answers are not trivial and go pretty deep. In fact, I’m creating an entire course just on this topic… but, I’m going to give you the core of it here. You might have paid $97 for this course, or received it as a free bonus for
Please follow this as it might be the biggest insight to singing, and doing almost anything in life that you have run across.
You won’t find it in any singing text book and unlikely you’ll see it mentioned at a master class for advanced singers (though I heard one master singer ‘hint’ at these ideas).
But, a few elite singers use this practice regularly. And, I expect most successful singers are using the technique whether they realize it or not.
Step 1: Find a good model to watch to open the door for understanding…
Assignment 1: write about what you are seeing/understanding about Transition in our blog section below.
Assignment 2: Find a good model to watch. Here are examples.
- the Dali Llama
- A good Preacher (not so much the firey, but the ones that set the tone so you’re ready to hear)
- A top performer with charisma
An example of someone to watch… someone who projects a sense of Calm and Peace and perhaps Love. Note that we will move to the qualities, but these will help us build the foundation of understanding what we are looking for.
I’ll give you specific video clips in a few days to check out on youtube. I’m waiting because I want you to have the experience on your own rather than just taking what I hand over. So, do this on your own. You might go a different direction and that’s great! You might blaze a new trail and bring fresh insight to our discussion.
For those curious about the plan… Here’s an Outline of Lesson 5:
- Watch people with great transition qualities
- Discuss one aspect of what these people do –
- Identify the main components/steps of Transition
- Becoming masterful at each Step in Transitions
- Tying it all together. Extending this technique to broader applications, such as entire performances, other areas of life, public speaking, promotions.
And if you’re getting to this lesson late we’ll have a break here so you can do your research before you go to the next sections.
FYI – this lesson will be interactive/live for about a week (through Dec 4). After that, I’ll still respond to comments, but those who are ‘on the ball’ will get the real time experience 🙂
Enjoy your discoveries!
Stephen
Thank you for opening awareness on the subject of transitions in musical venues. This is a very important subject; one in which you have done a great job coaching. As a former church and present nursing home pianist/singer, I have seen how different types of music can have a powerful effect on environmental factors and people’s responses.
Great work!
Hi Barbara,
Thank you very much! Glad you appreciate what we’re doing here. Hopefully the next sections will take it up a couple of notches!
All the best,
Stephen
Hi, I haven’t really sung in public so I haven’t (so far) had to put together a series of songs to transition to and from. However, as my area of interest is opera, I have been to several concerts.
My most favourite was when Jonas Kaufmann came to sing a selection of songs. The concert started with an orchestral interlude, followed by an aria, then back to orchestra, aria, and so on. Sometimes the interlude was from the same opera that the following opera was from; other times it was at least the same composer.
Due to the nature of the concert, there was much applause and going on and off stage by Jonas and the conductor so it wasn’t a very continuous transition from one piece of music to another – but I think the programming was such that it made it flow from one to the next even with the clapping in between. Jonas’ most loved arias weren’t at the very beginning, but interspersed during the concert. And he also kept one audience favourite for the inevitable encore. He left us wanting more – which is probably good marketing as we will no doubt attend future concerts of his, for sure. All in all good programming, and of course great singing.
Hi Miki,
Good observations.
This type of setting is probably a bit more distant from where I’ll go with things, but still valuable to reflect upon. The classical opera world has so much “canned” format and often little room for more personal transition expression.
My opera friends may be cringing at this! And to be fair, in some ways a more strict ‘expected’ formal structure you could argue that there is the highest most need for and ability to pull off beautiful transitions.
It will be fun to look at these ideas again after the content of this lesson is complete.
All the Best to you!
Stephen
Thank you for such a well-thought out response to my concerns regarding key change transitions Stephen. Seriously, yes, you were on a roll. You gave me a lot of great technical information, and to be honest, I’m no where near versed or knowledgeable in music theory as you, so some of what you shared was a little over my head. But I LOVE that! It makes me want to continue to learn… lets me know I’m on the right path and in the right place. And I agree with what you shared on jazz, resolution and transition. I, too, enjoy jazz and all the places it can take you. My first love remains contemporary Christian – Chris Tomlin, Lincoln Brewster, Mercy Me, tobyMac to name a few. With all you have to do I with your time, skills and abilities, I am sincerely grateful for the time you took to give me such a personal, informative response, Stephen. I feel like we connected… and that’s what this is all about. Have an amazing day!
Hi Marsha,
Thanks for your kind words. We ARE connected 😉
Part of my hope is that these lessons continue and grow to serve us in more of a “community” environment.. not just buy this for $10 bucks and you’re done… unless that’s what you want.
For me it’s adds a lot more to life to meet people, make new friends and share the essence of life.
Only a little ‘roll’ this time 🙂
Glad you’re feeling challenged and learning!
Me too! (lots of new things coming that i’m getting to figure out).
Blessings to you,
Stephen
Good Morning!
I am a worship leader/choir director/voice teacher. For me transitions had never been an issue until recently. I would ask for the main topic of the message and have the songs go that way. When I do solo programs, it is much the same, choosing a topic and then lining the service up accordingly. Almost all of my transitions are done with scriptures that tie the songs together, although usually just in the choosing they are tied together. It is important to me that the verses used contribute to the scriptural basis of each song or song set.
When I have done more secular venues, I still use a scripture to introduce and set the mood for my songs. People don’t mind because I am dramatic and I don’t preach. I let the songs do that. It is usually very well received. However, one competition I was in had no allowances for intro because the time restrictions were exact, and I had made the mistake of having the music edited to fit the exact time frame without allowance for an intro.
One more thing I do is to fill long interludes. If there is a long lead-in or instrumental bridge in the song, I use scripture to fill that, too. It eases the awkwardness of not knowing how to behave when there are more than a few bars to wait for.
At our new congregation, where I am only a sub, the main issue is that now I am working with dancers, too. I have to make sure the transitions and song orders accommodate their level of excercise and the necessity to not overwork or abuse their heart muscles. This necessarily means that the verses between songs cannot be too lengthy and that the program needs to start gently and end gently.
Hope this is what you want to know.
Hadassah,
Thank you for sharing this information. For those of you reading this who are not in a church setting, there are still lots of excellent points raised that are useful beyond a religious setting.
For example, spoken words on a secular topic overlayed on an interlude can be useful… secular or not, this technique is useful even for giving directions to a group, for example the logistics or moving to the dining hall for the next section.
Taking into consideration Dancers and their energy level is a bit more involved and close to the direction we’ll be talking more about.
In short, we want to look at all factors in the current setting, take those in, and create a smooth bridge to the next section.
Sometimes it’s as easy as taking a breath.
In the case of dancers, I’m guessing you’d need to have some control over leading their activity – hopefully you can design repeated sections in the choreography so that you can lenthten and shorten the dancing based on what’s happening in the moment. Of course with some sets, you’re committed and it’s canned and rehearsed with no room for spontaneous modification.
I’m curious to learn more about your use of dance in your congregation – if you have videos, please post a link, or send in a private message.
Thank you for the great contribution!
Stephen
I sing as part of a worship team in our church. At first you might think that this venue is so totally different than singing to an audience or performing at an event. But as I’ve read through each of the amazing, insightful, and thought-provoking comments and replies, I realize that there really is a lot of common ground. First let me explain that we sing contemporary Christian music at our church in a congregation of about 150-200 people. We have a set amount of time at the beginning (approximately 20-25 minutes) of the service, and again (about 10 minutes) at the end of service. The “purpose” of our music and songs is to CONNECT with the congregation and to encourage them to feel free to enter into a place of real, meaningful, personal worship with their God, their Creator. Transitions are so important to us, especially with such limited time. We have found that starting with a couple of up-beat, energized, get up on your feet and out of your seat songs helps to pull everyone together (and wakes them up). Then we have about a 3-4 minute break where people greet each other, then we pull them back together with a couple of moderate songs, and our endings will depend on where the pastor’s message wants to go …. up-beat, or more quite, reflective, or worshipful. One of the struggles we seem to encounter in our song transitions is the key changes. For some of our musicians/singers, this isn’t a problem, but for others it can really be rough for them. We do practice before our services to try to work out some of the issues, but it’s still a problem. I think that all of us (musicians and singers) consider it a great responsibility, as well as a privilege to do what we do each Sunday, and we really do have some of the BEST singers and musicians. So sometimes it can be discouraging when we don’t seem to be connecting with the congregation, or they aren’t connecting with us. I am so open to any ideas or comments that could help us.
Hi Marsha,
ABSOLUTELY!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Any church choir, or probably any singing environment can benefit from understanding what’s happening with their transitions.
My girlfriend is one of 2 main singers in a small church (30-50 usual size) and I we often talk about the transitions. I often lead sessions in churches as well… I don’t want to say it’s more important in these environments, but in some ways it’s actually easier to talk about… there’s extra language and understanding that’s not always available in secular settings. At least in the way I think about it…
Sounds like you have a great handle on this, so I’ll jump down to talk about an easy picking topic you raised.
Key changes – sometimes I find that more highly skilled church musicians (or musicians anywhere) tend to work with more complex music, which usually includes more ‘interesting’ or ‘sophisticated’ chord progressions and resolution sequences.
Notice this choice of words…
Resolution… how is that related to Transition?
Let’s jump to Jazz – it moves from tension, conflict, almost resolution, just to set up more tension to be almost resolved. For me Jazz is intellectually stimulating, but doesn’t touch my soul like other genres.
This is just ME – some folks are just the opposite experience.
Back to church – I’ve seen a lot of Ph D Choir Directors bring in complex music that is an achievement. But, in my opinion, it often does not serve the congregation so well. I’d rather hear that music in a concert setting.
I’m jumping way out of my boundaries here and no nothing about your choir director. But, if you’re looking at transitions – you might want to look at the key change complexity as part of the decision for transitions.
Lastly – I tend to mix up my music on the fly… keep about 200 songs ready at the finger tips and lips, and often for the transition, will change the keys so that one flows more naturally into the next.
For example, if we’re in Cminor and I decide to pull in a substitute that is normally done in D or Dminor, I might move it down to Cminor… IF, I’m looking for an easy smooth unsuspecting flow into the next song… sometimes just hold the ending of the one song and let it gradually flow into the next without a break.
Similarly, going from the V to I or tagging on an extra couple of chords, you can usually quickly bring in almost any other song with easy flow and only have to move it up or down a step. Of course with more chord changes you can bridge any 2 keys together, but it may not serve the Transition as well as doing the song in a slightly shifted key.
That’s a lot easier than trying to move a 4th or 5th sometimes. of course if you’re in an Upbeat mode, this doesn’t matter as much… jumping from here to there is often not much more than any other ‘jump’ that you’re already doing.
Can you tell I like to get on a roll talking about this? Is this too much? Should I tone it down? Maybe I’m putting too much out there. Seems it’s easier to just drop it in conversation than to formally present a lot of this. Your feedback on this is also appreciated – and if you don’t want to critique my commentary in public drop me a private note 🙂
So, Marsha – hope some of that might be helpful and makes sense.
Have a great Sunday morning!
Stephen
ps: Marsha – thanks for reading all of the other comments before submitting yours. YOU ARE practicing one of the main principles in this Transitions Lesson… eg, getting a gauge on the audience (us) by reading what we are already writing.