Spotlight on the Singer

Rock Out Without Ruining Your Voice!

Have you ever had a voice teacher tell you that if you sing _______ (insert your favorite genre of popular music here. . . Rock, Blues, R&B, Gospel, etc) you’ll ruin your voice?  I’ve spoken to many singers who’ve had this experience and it’s distressing! The singer’s concern is completely justifiable. Let’s face it, you can’t very well earn a living as a singer if you can’t rely on your voice to perform consistently. It’s like the professional athlete who’s always on the injured list. It’s not too long before he’s a retired professional athlete.  Bottom line, it’s hard to feel free to rock-out, if you’re worried about blowing out your voice. So is it true?  Are some styles of singing inherently damaging? If you want to preserve your vocal health do you need to give up singing these styles? I’m happy to tell you that this does NOT have to be the case. Certain styles of music use a vocal styling that some call “singing hard” or “belting”. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is that these styles of music call for vocals that are full, rich and natural sounding. While this style of singing may be more vigorous it CAN be done without hurting your voice.  It’s not the sounds you make it’s the WAY you make them. Let’s look at this in more detail. 1) Singing “hard” works your vocal muscles more vigorously. However, it’s not this vigorous workout that creates vocal fatigue and blowout, muscle tension and manipulation are the offenders. This muscle tension can occur in various parts of your body including your lips and face, tongue, jaw and abdomen, which then creates tension in your throat. After singing […]

Singing Career Success Tips!

Like any business or career, building a career as a singer takes a vision, a lot of hard work and a strategic plan. Over the years I’ve worked with many, many singers starting out on their careers. They often ask me what key things they should know. Here’s what I tell them and what I’ll now share with you: 1. There is no “one-size fits all” career model. The ways to make a living making music are as varied as the singers and musicians themselves. The key is finding what’s right for you. loans for people in need 2. Have multiple income streams. 3. Always play with musicians who are better than you. 4. Keep learning! Take constructive criticism and use it to make yourself a better singer and musician. 5. Find a mentor or mentors someone who’s already doing what you want to be doing and ask lots of questions 6. Stretch yourself beyond—way beyond— your comfort zone. If you don’t know how to do something, figure it out, or find someone to help you figure it out. 7. The more musicians you know, the better. 8. Always be true to yourself, but be willing to explore new things 9. Don’t burn bridges. If you choose to leave a gig, do it professionally. Also, don’t post negative comments about other musicians or bandleaders on Facebook or Tweet about them. Remember that there really is no such thing as a “private internet” and you don’t want these negative comments to come back to haunt you. 10.  If it’s not fun, don’t do it. This doesn’t mean it won’t be hard work, but if you’re going to work hard at something, shouldn’t it be fun? 11. […]

Are Your Ducks In A Row?

As you know, I’m a big fan of  “Dream it, Plan it, Do it”.  Success truly requires all three.  In my opinion, planning is a step that is often overlooked, which can lead to feeling disorganized, overworked, dispersed and potentially not getting any closer to your dreams. cash advance north versailles pa It is, however, possible to OVER-Plan. It’s a very easy trap to fall into, being very busy “getting your ducks in a row” creating plans, setting up this, setting up that, but not really DOING anything.  So while I’m a big fan of planning, I’m also a big, BIG fan of ‘tweaking as you go!”.    Example: want a CD to sell at your shows, but don’t have the money or time for a full on production? Record 4-5 high quality but simple acoustic versions of your songs and sell those CDs at your shows. Then use that money to record a full length/fully produced CD.  Same thing for websites. You don’t need an elaborate multi-paged site right away (if ever). Start with a simple one page site. You can always add to it or change it later on. The point is, dreaming and planning are important, BUT there comes a point when it’s time to stop planning and time to start DOING. Ok, so maybe you’ll have a few rogue ducks, but you can always corral them later.

Brick walls

This weekend I started re-reading “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. I’ve read it several times before, but it is still a delight. If you’ve never read the book or watched the video, I highly recommend it.  (Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture) Every page of the book is filled with absolute gems. One of my favorites has to do with brick walls – you know the seemingly impenetrable barriers that so often appear as we work to achieve our goals.  Here’s the quote:  “The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”.  Wow, right!?! As artists on our paths to success, we’re likely to encounter a lot of brick walls. For each, there’s a strategy. Some need to be charged at head on, others chipped away at bit by bit and others need to be skillfully scaled. Sometimes we need a boost from someone or something and often, probably more times than any of us would like us to admit, we need someone to throw us over. What are your brick wall strategies? Jennifer

7 Career Building Principles I Learned From Gardening

Gardening is one of my favorite non-musical pastimes. I love being outside and getting my hands in the dirt. Time in the garden is also time to free my mind and very often, to find the solutions that have been eluding me. As a songwriter, I find working in the garden to be a magical cure for writer’s block!  Many of the guiding principles I apply to building and growing my musical career – and the career’s of other singers and musicians – come from what I’ve learned working in my garden (and vice versa!) So grab a cool drink, sit back, relax and get ready to ride the metaphor train! 7 Career Building Principles I Learned From Gardening 1. Gardens take time This one is courtesy of my Mom. Creating a beautiful, lasting garden takes many things including: a creative eye, an understanding of plants and soil, proper maintenance and hard work. More than almost anything else though, creating a garden takes time. It’s not a one-day or even a one-season project, but rather an ongoing labor of love that needs to be worked on bit by bit, everyday.  A garden will grow, evolve and change over time (sometimes in surprising ways) and if you do it right, those plants and flowers will be there for years to come. If you ever feel overwhelmed or discouraged with your singing career, take a deep breath and know that sometimes, what’s really needed is just a bit more time. 2. A little planning saves a LOT of work later My Dad is really big on planning out his gardens. Whenever he is putting in a new garden (or an area of a garden) he draws it out […]

Name That Goal!

Goals are funny things, in that we’re much more likely to accomplish them if we’re very specific in naming them. For example, how many of us have said ……I want to get in shape, lose weight, eat better….did we actually achieve these goals?  I know I didn’t. Why? These goals simply weren’t specific enough. Try this on for size though: Text Loans Direct Lenders For Bad Credit Goal – I’m going to exercise for one hour three times per week. I’ll do this at 9:00 AM Monday, 9:00 AM Wednesday, 9:00 AM Friday. Now there’s a specific goal. When I work with singer’s on developing and expanding their professional careers, they very often tell me that they want to earn more money with music (in fact, this is often the #1 thing they tell me). The interesting thing however, is that usually when I ask them how MUCH they want to make, they stare at me blankly. One singer actually asked me how much I thought he SHOULD want! So if your goal is to make more money making music – give that goal a dollar amount. If you want to sell more CDs, well, decide how many If you want to book more gigs, again, decide how many. Be specific in naming your goals. Then you can begin to work out the plans for making them happen!  Have a great day! Jennifer      

Persistence

We’ve all heard the saying  “If at first you don’t succeed, try again”. Right? I read an interesting magazine article a while back titled “How to Lead a Creative Life”. The article focused primarily on Martin Scorsese (and was a very cool read) but also highlighted several other creative entrepreneurs, including James Dyson – inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner. Did you know that James Dyson created 5,127 prototypes of his bagless vacuum before he was successful! That’s 5,127 times of not getting it quite right, of what some might call failure.  Wow! I’m not an expert on vacuums, but I can imagine that what worked for Mr. Dyson was that with every prototype that didn’t quite work, he learned something and then changed/tweaked/improved his model for the next prototype (and so on and so on). While becoming a singer isn’t quite the same thing as designing a vacuum, the same principle certainly applies. If something isn’t working, well, there’s a reason. Therefore, doing it the exact same way again, will probably be unsuccessful, again. To me, that’s not persistence, that’s just banging your head up against a wall. So I propose that we change that old saying to “If at first you don’t succeed, learn, make it better and then try again!” Jennifer

Design Your Own Career

A few months ago, I got a call from a young musician who is getting ready to graduate from music school. He’s starting to think about what avenues he wants to pursue after graduation and had apparently gone to see a career counselor at his school to get some advice on how to go about making a decent living making music. Sounds logical, right? Apparently, after much discussion, the career counselor’s words of wisdom were “if you want to make a decent living …(drum roll please)…you should become a plumber” (!) No joke. Now, I don’t think this was a personal affront toward the student’s musical ability, but more the counselor’s estimation of the current state of the music industry. True – The music industry, as we’ve long known it, has changed considerably True – CD/music sales aren’t what they used to be True – The competition for a label deal is really tough And so on… What’s important to remember however is that the major label artist business model has never been the only business model for musicians. It may have been more attractive than others, but it was never the only option. Musicians were making a living making music LONG before this business model came into existence. Consider: the guy playing the piano at the saloon; or the traveling musical theater troupe; or the musician playing for the King’s court. I’ve heard stories that Bach and most of his family members were busy, working musicians, hustling gigs wherever they could get them. The key is finding the business model that’s right for you and then seeking out the opportunities. Club gigs, theater gigs, studio gigs, restaurant gigs, private gigs, songwriting gigs, church gigs, […]

Dream It, Plan It, Do It!

The way I see it, achieving success really comes down to 3 key ingredients: DREAM IT PLAN IT DO IT Sounds simple enough right? But surprisingly, in building our careers, we often make the mistake of omitting one or more of these key ingredients. Building a career is kind of like building a house: DREAM + PLAN but NO ACTION = NO HOUSE DREAM + ACTION but NO PLAN = A HOUSE THAT WILL PROBABLY FALL DOWN PLAN + ACTION but NO DREAM = A HOUSE THAT YOU MAY NOT ACTUALLY LIKE. Whether you’re building a house or building a career, you need all 3! Happy Building! Jennifer

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