Your songs are only as emotional as the performers who play them. It goes without saying that you should hire the best performers your budget will allow. But if $100/hour for a professional vocalist is a little steep, here are a few ways to help encourage the best from your session players.

1.) Always praise, never criticize.

This is THE most important rule in my book. The only way any session musician could ever get comfortable at your studio is if YOU put them at ease. That’s one of your jobs as a producer.

When trying different versions of a take, tell them how you would like it to sound, instead of what they did wrong ie: “That was great, but let’s try to hit the high note a little stronger” instead of “you know, you were a little off on the high note, it didn’t sound that good”.

Always start with praise, then with a correction. Keep your vocabulary positive. The best producers make the artist feel as if they can do nothing wrong.

2) They Can Do Nothing Wrong

Remember this rule while you are writing or recording. There is no “wrong way”, there is only “a different way”. Don’t tell people that their way is wrong. Remember that music is an art, and there are no rules in art. When a performer is playing something you don’t like, correct them by saying “let’s try it this way too”. Don’t start off my saying “nope, you were wrong, do it the right way”.

3) Let Them See The Light

Ambiance, atmosphere, vibe: whatever you call it, they need it. I guarantee that you will get a much better performance if you have water on the table, comfortable chairs, maybe a few candles, a towel, mints, and candy. Have you ever tried recording in an office with harsh florescent lights and hard wood chairs?

4) Take Your Time

If you’re recording at your own studio, you have all the time in the world (which is an evil thing in my opinion). Let the artist relax, “get into the groove”, talk a little and get comfortable with the other people in the control room. A tense artist’s performance will always sound ‘artificial’ in the final song.

Don’t be worried if it takes another 10 minutes to finish the take. Each performer works at their own pace, and the best thing you can do as the producer is to respect that and adjust your pace to theirs. Unless you have a record company breathing down your neck. Then everyone has to work at THEIR pace!

5) Ask For Help

Artists love to be listened to. It’s always good to ask them for their opinion. Whether you actually listen is up to you. But once in a while, a simple question like “What do you think? Do you want to keep that take?” can do wonders for their performance. It helps keep them involved in the project and make them feel less like a “hired hand”.

Obviously, if it was the worse singing you’ve ever heard and they want to keep it, just mention that you will do “one more take as a safety”. And then, when they’re not looking, use the better take instead and auto-tune it to no end. This is a little producer’s secret, but don’t let the artists know!

6) Know The Words

Make sure that you, the engineer, the assistant engineer and everyone else in the control room has lyrics to all the songs. The best way for your studio team to find their way around the songs is with the lyric sheets. Another good idea is to USE THE WHITEBOARD! That’s why it’s there. If you don’t have one, get one. Write down the chord progressions, lyric ideas, timing marks, track listings, McDonald’s lunch orders, everything.

7) It’s MOSTLY About The Music

I’ve heard people say “it’s ALL about the music”. Well, in my books, that’s not the truth. I’d rather say “it’s mostly about the music”. Because you have to remember, it’s also about having fun, having a good time, writing and performing the best you can and above all, sharing your talent and gift with others. Try to make it less of a job, and more of a passion and you’ll find yourself doing it for the rest of your life!

Written by Richard Dolmat

Richard Dolmat is owner, engineer and producer for the Vancouver based recording studio Digital Sound Magic. Visit his site at: http://www.digitalsoundmagic.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Professional singers can broadly be divided into two categories – Popular or classical. Whilst many of the principals I will outline below apply to both worlds, there is much more emphasis on vocal training in the classical world. The rest of this article is therefore written with popular music singers in mind.

Pro singers in the popular music world can be divided once again into those who perform original material and those who perform cover versions of already popular songs. These singers maybe solo vocalists, or perform as part of a band. Successful singers in both groups usually have the following three core elements in common.

1. Voice
2. Performance
3. Music

These may seem obvious, but please read on as I develop these ideas

Voice

You don’t need to have an amazing voice to become a professional singer, but it sure helps. Neither do you need to have any formal vocal training, although having a few lessons with a vocal coach can certainly help you learn the basic key principles that can help you improve much faster. The most important thing to do as a budding professional singer is practice. Only through practice will you develop the vocal strength, stamina and lung capacity you need to be a performer.

It will pay to be honest to yourself about your singing abilities at this early stage. Get some friends opinions, ask them to be honest, and be prepared for the worst. At least if you find out that you only sound good in your own head now, you won’t waste years of your life.

Performance

The first thing must have for a professional singer is confidence. Don’t worry if you haven’t got this yet, singing is a great way of developing your self confidence. You need to get out to some karaoke nights, open mic nights and talent competitions to overcome your fear before you can start getting paid to sing.

You must also work to develop your own style as a musician. Once you’ve mastered your tracks, play around with the phrasing and melodies and take time to try new things. You need to stand out from the crowd.

Your on stage image is very important. Even if you’re in a band that just wears jeans and tee shirts on stage, make sure they are clean and fit well. A poor image makes a bad first (and lasting) impression on your audience.

Music

The final element is the music. You can have a great voice and excellent presentation, but if your music is awful you won’t get very far.
There are three ways to get music to sing:-

• Cover Versions – download backing tracks off the internet
• Original material – write your own music
• Original material (2) – find someone else to write music for you

The most important thing that you need to remember, until you’re famous is that you must keep the music you perform appropriate for the audience.

In conclusion, you must master three core elements can you start to think about getting paid for your work as a singer. Why not try and offer your singing services to a charity night for free, so you can test out your skills in front of a live audience, and get some experience of what it’s like to be a professional singer.

Best of luck!

Gemma King is a professional singer, songwriter and vocal coach. You can find out more about becoming a professional singer at her website becomeasinger.net.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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One, if your music is sloppy and you are not well practiced this shows talent agents and managers that you don’t take your music very seriously. If you don’t care to practice then why would you care enough to show up for a gig? This is the mentality that talent agents and managers need to have in order to protect themselves from a bad investment. That is even if you get that far; most talent agents and managers won’t be able to listen to your music if it is in bad shape. Practicing is a vital part of your musical career and you should take it seriously.

Set aside a period of time every day or at least every other day to perfect your songs and to make sure that you are able to perform them well. Don’t get yourself recorded until this time comes and you feel that you are ready to be promoted. It is a hard thing to keep from jumping ahead and trying to get yourself out there right away because you are excited. Waiting till the time is right and you are practiced is going to start your music career off right. Start My Song is where you can gain instant recognition for your musical talents. Submit your creative works and watch your fan base grow. For more information check out Start My Song.

Article Source: http://www.startmysong.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Personally, I couldn’t think of anything more destructive to my creativity than being a starving artist. Although, that wasn’t always the case.

In the past, I looked at day jobs as evil things that got in the way of my songwriting. However, by not having a job, it gave me the time that I wanted but not the money needed to utilise my spare time wisely and efficiently.

It takes a lot of effort worrying how you’re going to pay the rent or where your next meal is coming from. I endured this agony for a couple of years.

That experience taught me that having a day job which supports your songwriting is the best way to go.

After a number of attempts doing odd jobs here and there I now run my own business Orangutang Music.

For me, having a day gig has so many benefits:

1. I have a regular income coming in.

2. With this regular income comes less stress caused by financial worry.

3. New job = new environment, new people, new skills to be learnt, new experiences and new opportunities to harvest song ideas.

4. A new appreciation for the time that I do devote to my songwriting process.

Don’t become a ‘job snob’ like I have had been in the past and spend precious songwriting time chasing the dollar and putting yourself under financial pressure.

Being a full time musician is a wonderful thing but if you are going backwards financially because of it then, you got to ask yourself, “Is it really worth it?”

Taking a day job does not mean that you should believe in your abilities any less.

If you can manage doing your music full-time then go for it however, if you are not at that stage yet you have some serious things to think about.

Letting your creativity flourish in a financially stress free environment should be the highest priority.

Until next time, happy writing,

Written by Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Article Source:
http://songwritingzen.wordpress.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Obviously the most important way you’ll connect with them is through your music. However, you’re going to have to do more than just get them listening – you want them to talk to everyone they know in the hopes of creating new fans, who will talk to their friends, etc.

So how do you find these fans? First, you get them into your music. Then, you have to make them feel like they are part of something special.

Ever notice that punk rock fans wear their hearts on their sleeves? How punk rock music has such a big impact on their fashion, their purchases, hell even their politics?

It’s because they belong to a special club – the club of punk rock.

YOU need to create that special club, and you’ll recruit new members by interacting with them.

Here’s a math equation for you:

Quality, Interactive Content + Digital Marketing = Fans

Let’s break this down a little more. You are responsible for creating the quality, interactive content. So what’s interactive content? Many think that “interactive” means “flashy graphics and sounds”. While that can play a role, good interaction is more about getting a response out of the viewer/listener. Their are 3 major forms of interactive content that we will have to produce to get people’s attention:

Audio – obviously the main focus is your music. Create good music, and LET PEOPLE HEAR IT – you’ve got to give something away to build the foundation. Enabling the listener to share the music with others, comment on the music, even remixing the tracks, etc. – that’s the interaction. Also note that podcasts also play a role in the audio content department. Podcasts could consist of material just like a blog post could, and we’ll be covering ideas for content in a little bit.

Video – video content is HUGE – live performances especially. We haven’t spent a whole lot of time talking about video at this point because for many, video is expensive to set up, record, edit, etc. However, if the opportunity to get video in there arises, DO IT! Again, you could even do little videos of practice, being in the studio, interviews – see below for the plethora of ideas you could use to create good video content.

Photos – a given. People love looking at you in every kind of situation, whether it be performing live, in the studio, or eating a pizza. People develop an emotional bond via pictures.

Type – you should by now have the ability to get the typed word in front of your visitors. I stress the blogging stuff so much because it’s SO EASY to do, and it costs really nothing other than the initial set-up fees and hosting. Your time is the only factor, and I know that a lot of that is spent creating the music.

That’s what we have to understand the most though – being a successful musician is so much more than just creating the music – you’ve got to create an emotional bond with your fans.

You can start doing that today by writing consistent blog posts on your website that give people a peak into your world, your mind. The more you give people, the more they’ll pay attention to you and gossip.

Think about the media’s obsession with Britney Spears. They NEED constant updates of her life. They NEED gossip. Millions of fans tune into E! everyday or pick up People magazine for the latest news. Why should they get the attention? Get it yourself by personally blogging about what’s going on.

Now, let’s make one thing clear – DON’T GIVE IT ALL AWAY – give just enough to keep people interested. If you want to talk about personal stuff, go ahead, but be a little vague maybe so that people can ask questions or gossip or want to hear more – if you give too much away, you might turn people off a bit. Keep ‘em hanging and wanting more.

If you’re asking yourself “Who the hell gives a shit about me?”, just turn on the TV. It’s full of silly reality shows about ordinary people and their ordinary lives. And we all love it. Trust me, if you start creating interesting content, people will pay attention.

So enough blabbering all ready. Here are the things your fans want to hear, watch, and read about:

1. The meaning of your music – inspirations, lyrics, personal things, etc. Give us a peak into the creative inspiration behind things.

2. The creation of this music – you could blog for months on end about the process of writing, performing, recording, etc.

3. The performing of this music – again, there is so much to talk about here. Imagine writing a post about every gig you play, the things that happened at the show, the food you ate, the crazy drugs you did afterwards; whatever happens, write about the experience. The bigger and longer the tour is, the more interesting insights you’ll have to share.

4. The business of this music – my blog, for example, only discusses ONE ASPECT of the business and I’m not even trying to promote an album yet. There’s a million different aspects to the business that you could share with the world.

5. Your personal development – how things in your past have affected you and the music you create. Did you have a parent who was a musician? Who was the first band you saw live and did they have an impact on you?

These are the five main things that you should use as inspiration for a blog post. If you started off doing one category each week, then you’d have a nice mix of content for your fans to consume. However, don’t feel constrained either by these ideas – if you something creative pops in your mind, then go with it.

There are a million resources online which discuss content development, “linkbaiting”, blogging, and other concepts that will help improve your writing. The more time you spend learning how to engage your audience, the more powerful the bond you create will be.

And that friends, at the end of the day, is what it’s all about.

Article Source:
http://www.evolvor.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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