Notation of vocals sung by a non-singer player

Hi, I'm writing a piece for electric guitar, live electronics and the voice of the guitar player himself. I have a doubt: I know that, for example Crumb (Black Angels) and Saariaho (Noa Noa), use this format:

Instrument

Voice of the player

Live electronics

But... I'm doubting about doing the same, because in my piece, the voice is very important, it goes beyond some spoken words or phonemes like in the cases mentioned above. It's active most of the time.

What do you suggest? Should I leave the format I mentioned, or should I place the player's voice above the instrument staff?

Thanks in advance,

Isabel.

Hi, I'm writing a piece for electric guitar, live electronics and the voice of the guitar player himself. I have a doubt: I know that, for example Crumb (Black Angels) and Saariaho (Noa Noa), use this format:

Instrument

Voice of the player

Live electronics

But... I'm doubting about doing the same, because in my piece, the voice is very important, it goes beyond some spoken words or phonemes like in the cases mentioned above. It's active most of the time.

What do you suggest? Should I leave the format I mentioned, or should I place the player's voice above the instrument staff?

Thanks in advance,

Isabel.

As far as I know, there isn't any definite convention regarding these things. Often, such additional staves are added below the normal instrumental staff, but writing it above is perfectly possible as well. I wouldn't concern myself too much with the question of how "important" one element is though. The question should merely be: What is more easily readable. If you have lots of free space above the instrumental staff and the space below it is filled with dynamics etc., then writing the voice above may be a good choice. Or maybe it's exactly the other way round and it fits better in your score if you write the voice below. Do whatever looks clearer to you.

(Writing the electronics on the bottom seems like a good idea though - that's a rather commonly accepted standard, except sometimes in larger ensembles/orchestras, where it may be written above the strings.)