Having A Vocal Only Rehearsal With Your Band

If you want your band to sound it’s best, have a dedicated Vocals only band practice.

The Eagles Singing Harmony
The Eagles Sing Harmony Live

   One of the most neglected aspects I’ve seen with live bands over the years is the backing vocals. I’ve seen plenty of bands that have an excellent lead singer or even multiple lead singers that nail the lead vocals every time. But they are severely lacking in the backing vocals. Too many bands just don’t take the time to learn and then fix problems with their backing vocals.

   I’ve written many times on Live Musician Central that the ability to sing is crucial to your skills as a band musician. It’s up to you as an individual player to take ownership of singing backup vocals in your band. Along with your regular, personal practice on your instrument you need to take the time to practice your backing vocals. I often practice my singing while I’m driving as it’s something I can do without my hands. Make sure you take the time to learn your individual backing vocal part before you have a band rehearsal.   Continue reading “Having A Vocal Only Rehearsal With Your Band”

Expand Your Vocal Chops By Cross-Training Your Voice

Cross-Train your voice by donating your time to your local choir. It will help you increase your skills as a singer and a musician.

Improve Your Lead Vocals With Cross-Training
Improve Your Lead Vocals With Cross-Training

   Singing is one of the most basic and essential skills in any live band. If you play an instrument, having the ability to sing will give you the multiple skills to make you a more valuable member of the band. It’s really in your own best interest to develop your singing skills as much as possible

   As you know, singing is controlled by the muscles in your throat and the muscles that control your breathing. Any athlete knows that training the correct muscles will give you stamina and greater power. This is also true with your voice. As you train these muscles you’ll be able to sing better, longer and with more vocal range.

   Another truth that any athlete knows is that cross-training muscles is an excellent way to increase those muscles abilities. The same is true with singing. If you are a lead singer and all you ever do is sing in the upper ranges of your voice you’ve probably noticed that you struggle singing parts that are in the lower ranges of your voice. The same is true if you only sing in the low range of your voice. You’ll struggle when you go to hit those high notes. That’s where the concept of cross-training your voice comes in.     Continue reading “Expand Your Vocal Chops By Cross-Training Your Voice”

Some Tips For Memorizing Song Lyrics

Memorizing song lyrics for your live performance is easy if you follow these simple tips.

Bill says, "What was the next lyric?"
Bill says, "What was the next lyric?"

   One of the most essential skills a live singer must develop is the ability to memorize song lyrics. As a singer in a live band you may be called on to memorize 40 songs or more worth of lyrics. That seems like an overwhelming amount of song lyrics to memorize when you look at that number. The fact is, singers do it all the time and believe it or not it’s not an insurmountable task. As with everything that you’ll do in a band, it begins with the first step. Today I’m going to talk about some tips that will help you in your quest to memorize a setlist worth of song lyrics.

   All big tasks are easier when you break them down into smaller parts. The first thing you need to do is decide what song you want to memorize. It helps if you’re already familiar with the song but even if it’s a new song that you’re not familiar with there is a specific way to approach memorizing every song that you want to learn. The first thing you should do is find a copy of the lyrics. We used to have to sit with a recording of the song and struggle to figure out what the singer was saying. Doing that took a lot of time and led to a lot of lyrical errors. Continue reading “Some Tips For Memorizing Song Lyrics”

Amazing Singers Paul Potts and Connie Talbot from Britains Got Talent

Two amazing singers emerged from the 2007 season of Britains Got Talent. Paul Potts and Connie Talbot.

   For today’s live artist spotlight I’m going to feature two amazingly talented singers that were discovered on the British television show titled “Britain’s Got Talent”. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you’ve already seen these video clips as they’ve had millions of views on the Internet. The clips are from the 2007 season of Britain’s Got Talent and the winner has already been decided. If you don’t know who won, I won’t spoil it for you. Although I will say the winner was chosen from one of the two singers that I’ve posted clips of below.

   First up I have little Connie Talbot who is 6 years old. I am a jaded old musician and I’m extremely critical of other musicians. So it’s easy for me to write off this little girl since she doesn’t sing spot on, dead perfect. I have to remember she’s 6 years old!! So honestly, I am amazed at her skill. Second on the list is Mr. Paul Potts. A man who struggles with self confidence and who has the glamorous career of mobile phone salesman. So it’s a bit shocking to see such a boring old regular guy just kill it singing a very unexpected tune.

   I’ve posted up the auditions of both singers as well as a couple more clips that show their progression through the show. In the last clip, you can find out who won the Britain’s Got Talent competition.

6 Year Old Connie Talbot Audition (fast-forward to :55 to see her sing)

Paul Potts BGT Audition
  Continue reading “Amazing Singers Paul Potts and Connie Talbot from Britains Got Talent”

Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 Video Demonstrations

Video demonstrations of Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 pitch correction software.

   Yesterday on Live Musician Central I wrote a post about the excellent software Celemony Melodyne Studio 3. The software is simply fantastic and it’s almost impossible to do it’s capabilities justice simply by writing about it. So today I’m posting up a couple of very informative YouTube videos discussing Celemony Melodyne Studio software. So if you have a few minutes, it’s really worth watching these videos just to see the amazing capabilites of Celemony Melodyne pitch correction software.

Melodyne – Direct Note Access
Continue reading “Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 Video Demonstrations”

Advanced Vocal Pitch Correction With Celemony Melodyne Studio

Celemony Melodyne Studio is an excellent program for timing and pitch correcting vocals as well as instruments.

Celemony Meldyne3 Studio Screenshot Collage
Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 Screenshot Collage

A while ago I wrote a post on Live Musician Central about working with Celemony Melodyne Uno to pitch correct your vocal recordings. Melodyne Uno has been a great tool for fixing out of tune notes on my studio recordings. I have really enjoyed working with Melodyne Uno but I finally decided I wanted more features and the ability to work with multiple tracks simultaneously. So I went ahead and upgraded to Celemony Melodyne Studio 3.

Melodyne Studio 3 has been fantastic to work with. As I said, my main motivation for upgrading was the ability to work with multiple tracks simultaneously. It does this perfectly and the ability to work with multiple tracks at the same time means that my recording projects get completed a lot faster. It’s so nice to be able to compare two, three or more harmonies together while having the ability to shift individual notes in any of the lines. Being able to bounce between tracks instantly and then being able to hear how the harmonies play back is really a huge time saver.    Continue reading “Advanced Vocal Pitch Correction With Celemony Melodyne Studio”

Live Musician Central Announces Products From Music123

   Live Musician Central has now added product links from Music123.com . I have shopped many times with Music123 and have always been pleased with their customer service and ease of checkout. I bought my Line 6 TonePort KB37 from Music123 and I buy my Dean Markley Blue Steel Strings from them as well. Today I’m going to give you a few links to Music123 so you can check out the excellent promotions from this great online music store.

Continue reading “Live Musician Central Announces Products From Music123”

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