I'm forming a band... help?!?

[agentfuschia]

My band is currently composed of a male singer, a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. I'm thinking of adding another vocalist, female, and a percussionist. What do you think?

[Mr. Vai]

i think u shouldnt be asking us, thats what i think

[PonyOne]

ignore that.

I had a couple girls (my girlfriend and a female friend, both of whom are very good voacilists, in terms of choir, klezmer, etc) do backup on a couple songs once and it didn't work too well.
Adding backup singers or, for that matter, a new singer all together, is just like anything else musically. Think what'd happen if White Zombie added a harpsicord, or if Graham Coxon from Blur decided to use an ESP with a Boss metal pedal.
If you can find a female vocalist whose voice matches the general tone of your music, or if you can (or are willing) alter your music to match the tone and pitch of her voice then it could definitely rock.

Any band can benefiet from some good percussion (hand, i presume?). There's some hand percussion in Aenema by Tool throughout the whole song. There's a local band i've heard a few times at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA, who plays metal, but structures it around their percussionist, who is from West Africa, and plays a suite of traditional drums. Plus hand percussion tools are CHEAP, you can buy a set of professional bongos for like $40.

[Mr. Vai]

that so stupid, whats he gonna say, "hey some guy on the internet told me we should hqve a girl vocalist, so lets do it" dude ask ur band we have no clue if u play punk, rap, rock, techno whatever u play, ask ur abnd mates not us

[agentfuschia]

oh yeah, sorry i forgot. we play metal and alternative. i thought about the female vocalist so there would be added vocal range. i heard sevendust's "licking cream" and it sounds good, duet. i'm just asking your opinion, i'd like to know what better musicians like you think.

[PonyOne]

THANKS

[AtomicMassUnit]

I'd suggest some of your existing members learn to sing harmony. It's pretty easy once you learn how to. my band is a rock band, but we do alice in chains style harmony, and three of the four members sing, so there's a lot of room for it. the biggest mistakes people make early on in trying to sing harmony is singing octaves. this rarely works. most of the time, 3rds 4ths and 5ths work best. i'd say 99.9 percent of our harmonies are 3rds and 4ths. if youre interested in that sort of thing, contact me.

Atomic