Singing Behind The Beat

It’s a rather annoying feeling to hear it, isn’t it? Especially when you can’t quite put your finger on why it sounds laggy.

Well, today we’ll explore the reason as to why 🙂

The main thing that carries pitch is the vowel, therefore the human ear perceives the start of the word as when the vowel is sung, not the consonant.

Therefore, to sound on time, you paradoxically have to sing the consonants early, so that your vowels fall on the beat. Only then will you sound on time.

Example 1: You Can’t Stop The Beat
Zoom into (4:05) onwards, and compare the lead singer (Queen Latifah) with the background singers

Notice that she sounds like she’s singing behind the beat? In contrast, the background singers are very on the beat (especially obvious when it’s just them in the last bit of the song).

Figure 1: Visual representation of why there’s this late sounding problem

Here’s another couple of examples to illustrate the point:

Example 2: The lag is especially obvious in the rap parts
Example 3: Super obvious lag in words like “dance”, “plans”, “brands”, “hands”.

Now that you’re aware of this, it’s really just a matter of intentionally trying to put the consonants a little earlier. If it’s a bit tricky at first, think of it as opening your mouth on time instead of singing the consonants early.

Hope this helps!

~ Andrew