A couple weeks ago I recorded some vocals for someone I recently began working with. The trackbed had some very slight misalignments between the drums and the rhythm guitar, because of some kind of side effect of a filter he had used during mixing. But I recorded the vocals anyway. I probably spent a total […]
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note. [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisma ] In current music, we hear a lot of […]
In high school, my best friend and I planned the most exciting trip we could imagine: we were going to drive the six hours from Phoenix, where we lived, to Los Angeles to see our favorite artist play a concert. We had recently turned 16, so we could drive, and we felt free and excited. […]
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, […]
