According to Nashville live music producer Tom Jackson, communication is 15% what you say, 30% how you say it, and 55% how you look. That’s very true, but you still can’t neglect the 15% of what you say and 30% how you say it. That’s half of your communication! And since a singer’s job is to communicate, […]
Do you feel power in your chest voice, but tightness and a lack of agility as you sing higher? Do you feel freedom and flexibility in your head voice, but lack that power and resonance you get in chest voice? “Split” your voice and you can combine the freedom of head voice with the depth […]
Last week I wrote about singing harmonies on the fly. This week’s article is about singing harmonies when you actually have time to plan them out. If you haven’t read last week’s article, and you find terminology in this week’s article confusing, you might want to revisit last week’s article before reading this one. … […]
In a number of private, group, and full-band sessions lately, this question has come up: How do you sing harmonies? First, let’s make sure we are on the same page with a couple of terms. I’m defining them in my own lay terms here, but click on the terms to go to their definition […]
Singing well takes work. Playing an instrument well takes work. Writing songs takes work. Honing stagecraft takes work. Pulling together a band, booking a band, creating buzz… You name it, whatever you do in music, ad however much you love doing it, there is also a part of it that involves WORK. To do WORK, […]
This week’s post is an article from guest blogger Jim Dix. Jim is a Florida singer, trumpet player, and teacher. If you are in Florida and looking for voice or performance coaching, I recommend contacting him. To make a song live and breathe, speak the lyrics. Speak the lyrics of the song when learning a […]
If you haven’t written a song before, it might feel like something you just don’t have the innate talent for. I know, because I wrote my first song about two years ago. Before that, I thought I simply was not a songwriter. And the nonlinear creative process was initially very hard to wrap my logical, […]
Are you dying to get into a band? Would you take a position with almost any band, as long as you could get on stage? Think carefully about your options… not all opportunities are the right ones! … Recently, I met up with a musician friend I hadn’t seen in a while. I’m keeping names […]
This is the second of several articles dealing with what to do on a bad gig night. The first article, Gb-Db-Ab-SQUIRREL!, gave some ideas for what to do when you just can’t focus, and your mind is like a dog that gets distracted by a squirrel. This article is about what to do when your energy level […]
Two days ago I returned from a performance bootcamp in Nashville, run by Tom Jackson. Over the last 20 years he has coached tens of thousands of performers, from indie startups to top commercial artists like Taylor Swift. I have been following Tom for a while now, and I thought I understood what he meant […]
