http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/talented-young-musicians-run-the-risk-of-burning-out-early/2011/12/23/gIQANhUeQP_story.html

When it comes to singing, nowadays we get more of the former.  Technology smooths out the rough edges with auto-tune and digital enhancements.  At a recent Wicked performance that I attended, I noticed that everyone in the show seemed to have the same quality to their voices.  It took me a while to realize that I was listening to digital sound manipulation in a live situation.

Here’s an article about director Tom Hooper discussing his preference for live singing in the new movie production of Les Miserable.

You can hear the singing in the trailer:

I have a good friend (an acoustic bass player) who once told me that it was very difficult for him to listening to singing because the sound was so raw and emotional.  It made him uncomfortable.  For me, that’s the reason I like singing.  I want to experience the emotional rush of being swept up in the feelings of pain, joy, excitement or dread that singing can express.

Which do you prefer?

I have a few favorite remedies, such as gargling with this anti-inflammatory recipe:

In a class of warm water, combine a pinch of salt, turmeric and a dash of lemon juice.

Or using a Neti pot to cleanse my sinuses (not for the faint of heart).

But here’s a product that I like because I don’t get drowsy or dry from using: Mucinex. It’s available over the counter, and a bit pricey, so often I’ll buy the generic brand at my grocery store. It works just as well.

Here’s an article written by a doctor with more information about the drug: How Does Mucinex Work?

I can’t think of a better way to start a career!

Take an inside look at Samantha Crain, a singer-songwriter from Canada: How she thinks, who inspired her, and how she developed her talents in this article written by Vincent Schilling and published originally in Indian Country Media Today ezine:

Samantha Crain, Choctaw, has been writing and playing her own original brand of folk-rock since she was in her teens. Now 26, with an EP and two full-length albums under her belt, she’s an acclaimed artist who’s won praise from the likes of the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Spin magazine and NPR.

Crain spoke with ICTMN from Canada, where she is currently on tour, about how she got started in the music business, her love of Neil Young’s music, and the importance of her newest album, the highly autobiographical Kid Face, which is due out in 2013.

What would you consider your musical genre?

I kind of like the label Americana. It encompasses all of the things I kind of tap into, which is folk, soul and roots music, and country. I like Americana because it is an overarching thing for my music.

You live in Oklahoma—how do you like touring in Canada?

We do a lot of stuff in Canada, especially in Winnipeg. It is a whole different ballgame up here—there is such support for native artists up here. It is such a community and it is so supportive. Even the government of here is so supportive of aboriginal artists and musicians. Unfortunately it hasn’t really reached that sort of entity down in the states.

When did you get started in music?

I started playing music as a means to travel, actually. I started this as an afterthought that I grew to love tremendously and found an identity. I started touring and writing when I was about 18 or 19. I didn’t take any time to hone it, I wasn’t one of those people who started playing really young and then it eventually turned into this. I naïvely jumped into it all at once.

I wrote six or seven songs and then I said I can go play these in a coffee shop wherever I want to go. that’s kind of how I started, I just started booking shows for myself all over the place or wherever I thought I might want to go spend some time and then I realized, “Well I should probably make a record so I have something to sell to the people while I’m playing there.” I said, “Well I guess you should probably write some more songs…” I learned about it as I was in the business.

I grew to love and appreciate the art of songwriting—that has become my main focus of it now. I still do a ton of touring, but songwriting is something that is super special to me and I love meeting other songwriters and hearing about the other ways that they write songs.

When I was in college, I was a creative writing major. I studied poets and how there were all of these different movements and poetry. I feel like there is that same sort of thing and songwriting, it’s just not so cut and dry and talked about as much. I find the same thing in studying different songwriters in different areas of songwriting. I think there can be the same thing said about the movements there were for poetry and art.

What have been some of your influences from musical artists and poets?

John Keats Is a huge influence in poetry and I love Walt Whitman. I also read a lot of short stories; I love Flannery O’Connor, and there was a writer named Breece Dexter Pancake who only released one collection of stories, but they are tremendous. I also like Henry Miller—I could go on about literature forever.

What about your family or heritage influences growing up?

My dad plays guitar, and he always listened to cool music. I grew up listening to Bob Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival, Simon and Garfunkel. My mom would buy me these blank hardcover books and writing was what I would do for fun. As a kid I would write stories and I have piles of those in the attic.

My parents and my family were always urging me to be a curious person. My grandmother lives near the Council House of the Choctaw nation, in Clayton, and the library down there got rid of a lot of books in the 60s—my grandmother bought probably half the library. Going to her house was just like sitting in a library. I found a lot of books with Choctaw hymns and different tribal stories, picture books, encyclopedias—any time I was there at her house, I was just immersed in information. That has been a constant in my life, to take in as much information as I can.

What did you have to overcome to do what you’re doing?

As much as I was brought up to be my own person and be creative, it wasn’t exactly my parents dream for me to take all of my knowledge, go-get-it-ness and gumption, and to turn it into hopping into a rusty van and play for zero dollars. Even though my family is super supportive now, it did take a couple of years for what I was doing to make sense in their minds.

What I was doing did not make sense all the time; I just knew that it was something I felt I had to do.

In addition, the music business is also a sort of money pit, and you’re always playing catch-up financially. I look at that though as everybody is in this type of situation. There is also that idea of being your own support system. You have to keep your head up and be resilient. The music business is such a fickle and changing being. You have to have it somewhere in your head, that though they may not like you today, they will turn their head at you tomorrow. It’s tough but at some point you just tell yourself, those types of people will always be there. It’s like that for anybody, not just the music industry.

if I can keep comparing what I do and the troubles that I go through to everybody else’s it makes it that much more bearable to me this no matter what I would be doing, everybody has their job, as a cog in some functioning society – whether mine was writing songs and writing music or whether mine was waiting tables – and I do that sometimes too – I’d be facing the same sort of troubles, just in a different light.

The same sort of character problems and struggles go with everybody. They just come in different vehicles, I think.

What were some of your musical influences?

I think all I ever wanted – is… I just want to be Neil Young. There is something about him I’ve always felt this strange sort of feeling that he is my spirit animal or something. I have had a weird connection with him. I love his voice I love his rhythm – and whatever tempo he was playing his songs at – is whatever tempo I feel that I would be writing a song.

He always phrased lyrics the way that I naturally would phrase sentences—I really love Neil Young.

There is also a lesser-known songwriter named Jason Molina—the Magnolia Electric Company—who is based out of Indiana. I’ve always had this imaginary, camaraderie with him. I’ve never met him but I always felt this need to respond after I hear a song of his. For years I have been secretly responding to him and writing to him in my songs.

There is a song on my new album that is completely written to him in light of some personal problems I had read that he had been having. He had written on a blog on his website, I wrote a song directly to him on my new album.

I’ve been talking in these little secretive nuances written to him throughout the years—I can’t put my finger on it there is just something about his songs that make me want to reply. It’s kind of like that feeling you have whenever you go to church or powwow and there is a responsive singing going on—the leader says or seeing something and then the audience says something back. That is the same sort of feeling I get whenever Jason Molina sings something or writes something.

When you’re composing a song, do you have to strike a balance between poetry and music?

It has moved in a different direction. When my first EP came out I would say 80% of what I was doing was the poetry of it. Because that is what I was most familiar with, the lyrics and the words—I wasn’t comfortable enough with the guitar or writing music yet to delve into different types of music or different chords or rhythms. But now the longer I’ve been doing this, I would say it’s moved more into a 50-50 thing where I do think more about the music and the sound of a song—for the specific genre that it is going to fall into or the influence of the chord structure. The poetry is always there, lyrics are so important—that is what people are singing back if they get into a song—and that is what they are singing in their kitchen, they’re focused on the lyrics.

I think it is really important to think about the music—that is the vessel for the lyrics. If they don’t like the way the music is sounding, then the lyrics won’t ever get implanted into people’s ears.

How much of your music is guided by your ancestry?

Some of the first singing I ever heard was going to powwows or hearing drum groups. I think there is something that has always stayed with me when I started singing. There was some sort of natural and emotive property that I really held onto. I write music that does not necessarily fall into traditionally native sounding music – but that emotive property and rhythm to my songs are the only place that I can trace this back to—which are those drum groups that I grew up listening to.

There is something very primal about that. I cry almost every time I hear, listen to or see a drum group play. That tone of where their voice is coming from—most people seem from the head—their sound comes from this weird guttural back of the throat place. It really tugs on your heartstrings. It is such an emotive animal sounding thing. I have always tried to sing that way. I try to take it out of the headspace and really be able to tap into something primal in your singing. I can say that that is probably the most that I get from my ancestors as far as music goes—is the emotion of it and the power that comes with that.

It is something that is transformative; you become a different person. It is therapeutic and there are so many different feelings about it are almost—it’s hard to even describe unless you actually done it it’s otherworldly.

What is your favorite song that you have written?

There is a song on my first album call “The Dam Song”; the reason that that song is so meaningful to me is because it was my step away from fictionalized songwriting into more autobiographical songwriting. I had to grow into most of my songs when I first started because they were very fictional and story-based. They were ideas I would get from talking to other people or they were just based in telling a story.

It was more fiction than anything that had happened to me. It is hard to get into that personal area of sharing yourself with people that you don’t know. “The Dam Song” was my first foray into an autobiographical writing style and getting really personal.

There were a few songs on my second album that were very personal—but there were still those fictional story songs.

My new album that will be coming out in February is completely autobiographical. Everything on it is stuff that has happened to me to include my experiences and my feelings—”The Dam Song” is the leader of all of that. It was the thing that got me comfortable with writing that way.

What is your advice to a young person wanting to get into the business?

This is so cliché but it is so important to learn who you are and be yourself. Learn your influences and apply that to who you are as a person. People can tell when you’re trying to be somebody else, and it doesn’t resonate, because people have to deal with that every day. People want someone who is unashamed and unabashedly him- or herself and are comfortable with that.

When it comes down to art and creating, everybody has that within themselves to create something original. You have to not be afraid to create what is you.

It is such a cliché thing but it is so true and I’ve had to learn this over and over and over again. Especially in the music business when everyone is trying to fit you in a little cookie-cutter shape or genre. You have to constantly push away from that—continue to learn who you are; don’t be afraid to turn things down if someone is trying to make you something you’re not. Keep a good head on your shoulders—don’t change who you are as a person.

For more information on Samantha Crain, visit samanthacrain.com.

People tell you that you sing well, but YOU know you could be better!

You want better high notes,

(And sometimes you suffer from stage fright.)

Students who’ve studied with me have gone on to win competitions, join bands and learn to sing like they never thought possible. Others have just wanted to enhance their joy of singing for themselves.

You have come to the right place if you need a solid singing technique!

Hi, I’m Malya Muth, a singing and career guidance coach with 30 years experience to guide you to achieving your dream to sing!

I will show you how to:

• sing more strongly
• increase your flexibility
• learn correct breathing techniques
• conquer stage fright
• prepare an audition
• join a band
• win a talent show

You are dying to get out there and sing, but you worry that you won’t make a good impression. You need to feel like you know what you’re doing by having a reliable technique that will serve each and every time!

I have singing exercises, performing techniques and strategies for overcoming stage fright that are time-tested, passed down from the masters and proven to produce the results you are looking for.

You know what – I have loved singing as long as I can remember! As a matter of fact I remember my first singing contest on the playground in fourth grade! All through my childhood I sang, played the piano and wrote songs to express my feelings.

But I had problems to overcome – first and foremost – intense stage fright! I studied and worked hard to overcome my vocal challenges and fears then went on to sing professionally for many years. You can read more about my training here.

I have had to work hard over the years, and now I want to share my knowledge with you!

First and foremost: You need to understand how your voice works.

• A lot of singers struggle with vocal range because they are singing high notes in their belting register incorrectly or trying to bring their head voice down too low. Learning how to extend or switch registers will easily give you a 2 – 3 octave range. I will show you the secrets known to professionally trained singers.

Then we’ll talk about breath support and tone production.

• Proper breathing and support will give you a clear tone, and longer phrases. It will also help you prevent vocal fatigue from tensing your throat, jaw and shoulders.

Once you have mastered the basics of singing, it’s time to look at performance technique.

• Even confident singers need skills to connect with their audience. Understanding storytelling techniques and acting for singers will make your performances more believable and compelling!

My motto is “Singing is not Rocket Science, but it’s not intuitive either!

Every celebrity singer that you see has studied and coached with professionals who are trained in the art and science of singing. Don’t leave your voice to chance. Sharpen your tools, gain confidence and strengthen your skills with training!

It doesn’t matter where you live. If you want personalized coaching from me, let’s get started now! You can reach me at 425-778-5394 or email.

Call me: 425-778-5394

Remember, I’m offering a Free Voice Assessment! – because it’s important to know if you’ve found the right teacher for you. Contact me through my website or by phone, but hurry.
Scheduling space is limited. Contact me today!

A few days ago I posted an article about how Susan Boyle’s fairy tale dream has been tempered by reality.  Like everyone else, I was moved by her story – and admittedly – she was not the best candidate for instant stardom.  However, as a singing coach, her experience matters to me because it helps inform other wanna-be singers about the upsides and downsides of success.

I juxtaposed her article against an article I lifted off of Wikipedia detailing the rise of Bruno Mars.  I’m always struck by his talent and confidence when I watch him perform.

The moral of the story for me was  how preparation for being successful in the music industry is crucial. Dreaming about stepping into the Limelight without spending the time honing your craft in the studio and on stage can set you up for a shaky reality, if it actually happens.

So – with that in mind – I wanted to share a music interview from NPR about singer Kendra Morris who, at the age of 31 is finally realizing her life-long dream of becoming a professional pop singer.

There’s a lot to be learned from her process.  Give a listen:

Kendra Morris – Skateboards and Karaoke

Susan Boyle – Dream Versus Reality

In contrast – here’s an article from Wikipedia about Bruno Mars, a very popular singer with an extensive career build up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Mars

p.s. Bruno Mars hosted SNL recently.  Watch it here:

Have a dream of being a singer?

Wondering how to go from a “nobody” to a “somebody”?

Start acting like a professional today, by preparing for life as an active performer.

You never can tell when opportunities will arise. Sometimes it’s a matter of creating your own, always you need to work towards it. And when a window of opportunity suddenly opens, you’ve got to be ready to climb through.

There are certain items every singer would benefit from having in their tool box. These will help you be prepared in any number of circumstances.

Here is my list of Tool box “should haves” :

1. A Program(Set) of Songs – Practiced, Polished, Memorized!
2. A Pitch Pipe- why pick a pitch out of thin air? Stick this in the glove compartment of your car, in a backpack or a bag and have ready if you have a chance to practice or sing with or for someone special. If you start too low or too high… well, you know what happens! (And it’s not pretty).
3. Backing Tracks: since you can’t carry a live band around with you, backing tracks for pop singers is the perfect solution to needing something to sing to. Backing tracks are another term for “karaoke” tracks, and are simply instrumental recordings – with or without backup vocals – that you can sing too. One caution – make sure that the backing track you buy is in the right key for your voice. ProSound Music Library offers transposable tracks. I’m pretty sure iTunes does also. There are many sites to buy these from. Download and carry with you on a CD or on your iPhone or iPod.
4. Throat Lozenges. If someone asks you to sing and your throat feels sticky or dry avoid water, since it rinses off the natural lubrication your throat needs. Instead – suck on a cough drop!
5. A trusted accompanist or group of musicians you can call on to back you live: Wow – you just got a live gig for tomorrow night! Who should you call? Hopefully one or more musicians that you’ve already worked with and can trust. Don’t wait until the last minute to put this together! Keep your eye out at all times for musicians that interest you. See someone you like? Hand them your …
6. Business Cards with your name and contact info on it. Even if you haven’t got a MySpace page or Website yet – make sure that people know how to get a hold of you. VistaPrints is a great resource for inexpensive cards.
7. And lastly, A Vision of who you are as an artist, and what your next step needs to be. If you are clear about your path, you’ll recognize when the right opportunity presents itself. Pie-in-the-sky thinking is really an obstacle to success. Be pragmatic, be consistent, be clear and be ready.

As my voice coach, Lois Hartzell, always used to tell me: An Amateur thinks they can just get up and do it. A Professional knows they need to prepare!!

Here is the article written by John Jurgensen, with a link to the original article

Adele’s Doctor On How to Save A Voice

“Hemorrhaged vocal cords.”
The words conjure images of a bloody blowout, one that seems all the more dramatic because it sidelined Adele just as the 23-year-old singer was dominating the music business. But the doctor who successfully operated on Adele last week says that the condition is generally not as gruesome as it sounds (“This is not a lot of bleeding”) and does not afflict only powerhouse singers. TV pundits who shout over each other and traders screaming above the din of a stock exchange, for example, run the risk of voice trauma, an acute form of the stress that we all weather over decades of vocalizing.

Citing Adele’s privacy, Dr. Steven Zeitels, director of the Voice Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, declined to discuss her case specifically. But in an interview he described a condition that he has treated (in some form) in hundreds of singers, including Steven Tyler, Julie Andrews and Roger Daltrey, who had a pre-cancerous growth removed from his vocal cord by Dr. Zeitels just six weeks before the Who performed during the Super Bowl last year.

Adele’s record label, Columbia, and her manager declined requests for comment.

Injuries to the soft tissue of the vocal cords lead to bleeding and the formation of blister or callous-like growths. Such polyps and nodules contribute to scarring and the stiffening of the vocal cords. The less pliable these folds of mucous membrane are, the less they vibrate and oscillate properly. Translation: “You cannot sing,” Dr. Zeitels says.

Bad singing habits, such as failing to warm up, can contribute to vocal injuries. A likelier culprit: Most pros carry on with the show even when they’re ill or over-fatigued, making their voices especially vulnerable, he notes. “They may not be doing anything incorrectly. They may just have an amazing work ethic. They don’t call in sick.”

The doctor, who does the bulk of his surgeries on throat cancer patients, says that there’s nothing inherently more dangerous about belting out, say, blistering hard rock vocals or muscular Adele-style soul. In fact, Dr. Zeitels treats more singers of opera than other genres, he says, “probably because what’s expected out of their voice is slightly more precise. A pop singer with nodules is common.”

He speculates that many afflicted singers go undiagnosed. That may be changing. Like Adele, Keith Urban and John Mayer both recently went through throat surgery, putting their performance schedules on hold. The procedure Adele underwent, which typically takes about an hour, involved the use of a precision laser to remove a benign polyp and stabilize blood vessels that had ruptured. Dr. Zeitels predicts the field will be revolutionized in coming years by the use of “biomaterials” that will allow doctors to refurbish old or damaged vocal cords. This could potentially produce what he calls “super singers.” Imagine a 50-year-old seasoned veteran who is suddenly endowed with the vocal abilities she once had at age 20.

Dr. Zeitels says singers should be emboldened by the technological advances and growing success rate in the field. It’s a shift since the late 1990s when Julie Andrews lost her voice after a surgery intended to remove lesions on her vocal cords. That put a black eye on the field, says Dr. Zeitels, who did not perform that procedure but has worked with Ms. Andrews in attempting to correct it. (The singer is the honorary chair of the Institute of Laryngology and Voice Restoration, a non-profit group that funds research at Mass General and other institutions.)

It’s unclear when Adele will return to the stage. Meanwhile, there’s a huge demand, with her “21” album continuing to ride high as the top selling title of the year by far, some nine months after it was released. (As a stop-gap, a concert DVD, “Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall,” will be released Nov. 29.) Dr. Zeitels says a two-to-three month recovery and rehabilitation process, led by a vocal coach and/or speech pathologist, is typical. “More often than not, the person has been singing around an injury, so you have to decouple some of those habits,” he says.

In an entry posted on her blog Monday, Adele pined for a comeback and joked about pursuing an alternate career. “The operation was a success and I’m just chilling out now until I get the all clear from my doctors,” she wrote. “I best get back to practicing my mime show now.”