How to sing prog

1. Be a band member:  Sing WITH the band, not in spite of them. Be an instrument, not a soloist. If your melody sounds out of place when played on a keyboard or violin (while the band is playing), then it IS out of place. Don't make the band fade to the background playing chords and vamping every time you step up to the mic -- unless it's for an occasional solo consistent with the composition.

2. Don't try to show off:  Avoid unnecessary runs, modulations, or other vocal theatrics. They don't make you a better singer. Use them thoughtfully and sparingly.

3. Control yourself:  Don't be overly sappy, whiny, or emotive -- we're not your girlfriend. Don't be overly angry, shouty, or abusive -- we're not your enemy. A sprinkling of well-placed emotional expressions is better than being clobbered over the head with it for the whole song.

Think of Jon Anderson's vocals in Gates of Delirium. He sings with the band, and is only occasionally the focus. His melodies complement the instrumentals. He is not known for doing runs or other gymnastics. And while the song is emotional, it spans that gamut of anger, fright, confusion, and peace -- and we're not drowning in any of them for the duration.

But don't strive to sound or sing like Jon. Be yourself, but try to adapt the underlying features of his vocal performance that makes him great (items 1-3 above).

Hi,

Hmmmm ... but then, if I'm blind, I can still do prog and progressive ... without the baseball ... of course, if I do per some crazy chance hit the ball, everyone will say it's luck!

I prefer chances that do not require "others" to define it for me. But, yeah, that's me!

Hi,

... and never forget the light show! The hobo costume is not as favored today ... so something different other than flowers ... might be interesting!

Hi,

Good methodology helps a lot ... as long as it is focuses in the right place, in your case the chords , or the words ... which for me is OK, but sometimes a bit of an issue. We are making an assumption here ... that the music itself is THE RIGHT INTERPRETATION for those lyrics, and that's asking for things to go wrong.

Simply taking lyrics on their own ... a perfect example is Mick Jagger ... and he can sing without the music! Which tells you that he works on how he wants something to come off, and in the end, I think that a lot of the music is adjusted to his feel, because it is very strong! 

In general, for 9 out of 10 bands, the singer has to adjust to some music that his inner feeling has to justify, and if you are a deep feel and think person, that is going to get difficult ... the lyrics will likely not fit quite right, and your ability to find something to make it work gets really hard. The best suggestion I would make is adjust the lyrics a wee bit, so you can bend them around the notes a bit more ... instead of simply defining a sort of melodic adjustment to the notes, which for all of us here, is horrible and boring and at least 100 years old, and the reason why we don't like operas. We like stuff that stands up and out, and is different from the music on its own ... but here is the pot of gold ... when you take that voice out, guess what your mind hears ... that same voice, and a substitute won't work very well at all! It's sort of like watching a band at the Red Lion circuit doing The Rolling Stones, and sounding horrible, because their singer has no idea what this is all about at all, and how the music is accenting the words themselves. In general, most bands will NEVER help a great singer, because the guitarist and everyone else is the star before the singer is even considered!

So, you either stand out bigger and better than the band, or you're done with that band, because the guitarist is not going to give you the "time" that is taking away from his solo, and other crap like that, and a strong singer that takes people away from the band, needs to have a lot of respect for their singer and their ability to get attention on the stage to the band's music ... without creating inner issues for the band!

Prog is no different than anything else in music when it comes to singing. However, it is easier to think that a lot of the lyricism in prog is further out from the usual design of lyrics for the past 75/100 years, and one great learning lesson is to go check out that history ... and then find out how the heck can some of those jazz folks do things, that are not lyrics, but come off as lyrics ... try Flora Purim, or even Gilly Smith (Gong) for the stuff they did that made their music greater. I'm not sure that there are many "men" that do a lot of that, although in the heyday of theater and film voice experiments (late 60's and early 70's), this was done to an incredible degree ... but if yo think this took away from Roger Chapman, Joe Cocker, eventually Peter Gabriel, Fish and many others ... then you are not quite hearing or getting what they were about ... it was a lot less about the notes, than it was about the massive theatrical expression, and this was even more so for Roger Chapman (Good News, Bad News) whose incredible performances blew out a lot of folks off the stage ... but his band gave him so much space, while he himself had one of the best guitar sounding bands ever!