10 Song Mapping

This lesson will continue the topic of “when to sing harmony” as we explore the concept of song mapping—creating a plan for what and when each vocalist on the team will sing… to achieve the greatest dynamic journey in your songs and worship sets! We’ll explore different options for song maps in contemporary worship songs, and you’ll learn super practical tips and guidelines for how to do this yourself with any song!

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mottotom27 December 19, 2021

Wow those harmonies.. you and Jason sound so great together which inspired me. Has given me plenty of ideas and food for thought here. When you said “the high isn’t based on pitch alone” that was definitely an eye-opener and got me thinking about overtones and resonance a bit. Exciting stuff! 🙂

Charmaine Brown December 28, 2021

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed the lesson!

wenakwan December 7, 2021

Hey, Charmaine! This is a great lesson. I really love your demonstration videos. You and Jason sang so well as a team.
We just formed a small praise team. The vocal lead is a male and I am doing background vocal for him. In this case of only 2 singers and the lead vocal is a male, BV a female, besides singing male solo, male female unison, in the more powerful part, like the last chorus, what should we do? If I want to sing a harmony part here, should I sing a high harmony or low harmony? Will male high harmony sound nice with male melody because female voice and male voice is like an octave apart. Female high harmony will be very far from male melody voice in terms of pitch. Or should I sing a low harmony? Will it sound better?

Charmaine Brown December 15, 2021

Hi Wena! Glad you enjoyed the demo videos! Great questions—it really all depends on the song and the sound you want to create, so it’s important to try different things and see what you would like. When you first come in to join the male singing, you could come in on melody, but then as the song grows, in general I would try doing a low harmony first, and then a higher harmony. Ideally the male will also be singing higher as the song progresses, so the female higher part should fit well.

cmjenny March 19, 2018

Hey Charmaine! I have already begun the process of song mapping and it looks very similar to the way you do it. Our team does a lot of different types of music, but with our own team feel and have been a 3 part harmony sound for years. Most of the team has sung throughout the songs as well, so Little by little I have been changing that to get a more contemporary sound and to have more dynamics within the songs. There have been a few blank stares, but overall I think all the vocalists are taking it pretty well, lol, with some discussion of how we are all worship leaders with at without singing in a mic. I do want to ask your thoughts about mapping a song with 5 vocalists when the song is led by a male and the other 4 are female. What would you recommend each BV vocalist sing for a 2 part harmony song? Or even a 3 part? I have my ways, just want to get other ideas. Thanks!

Charmaine April 3, 2018

Hey! Great questions! With so many female voices, I would definitely have most of them back off on the microphone for all of the “down” parts of the song, and when you want more power/dynamics, have 2-3 females join the male on melody, and 1-2 sing the same harmony part as each other. For 3-part, wait until later in the song, and maybe just have one of the females jump to a secondary harmony part, while everyone else stays on their parts. Hope that helps!

Laura January 7, 2018

This is so great. I love the idea of song mapping. Our team has two worship leaders (male and female) and two backing vocals. In regards to this arrangement of four singers I have a question for you about harmony parts…

Would you ever get a BV and a worship leader singing the same harmony line? Or is it best to have the BV stay on melody or find a third harmony…for example, if a song is female led and the male worship leader is doing the harmony, could the female BV join on the same harmony line as the guy?

Thanks for your help!

Charmaine January 10, 2018

Hey Laura! Great question! Definitely yes, I would in some/many cases, it’s great to get 2 people singing the same harmony line. In some of my song example videos there are 2 people singing the same part for sure! I am not a fan of ALWAYS having 3-part harmony. I think it works well to bring it the third harmony part in in some songs to really build it up, but I love keeping it simple much of the time, with just melody and one harmony!

On my worship team, what I’ve done many times is “experiment” with one idea — ie, ask the female BV to join on the same harmony line as the guy — and then if it doesn’t sound great, switch it up!

10 Song Mapping

Miracles by Dustin Smith, Stuart Garrard, Josh Silverberg, Chris Quilala

Holy Spirit by Bryan Torwalt, Katie Torwalt

What a Beautiful Name by Ben Fielding, Brooke Ligertwood

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