Singer Searching for the Sweet Spot

Hi there,

I did a recording session for a Grammy Award winning producer recently. He'd heard my voice before hiring me so while I was nervous, I was reasonably confident it would go OK. 

He played me a few songs he'd written and after a while we got to work. The first one was a rocky number and I did my best to give it some. But I could see on his face and hear in my own head that it just sounded...blah. There were no notes I couldn't hit and I was doing my best to channel Joan Jett but it just wasn't happening. Beyonce was looking down at me disapprovingly from the personally signed photo on the wall. No pressure then.

Now sometimes the problem with songs written by one sex for the other is, no matter how much the writers know about music and songwriting, they just don't quite fit the voice for which they're intended. How often have you heard great singers do mediocre performances because the song just doesn't suit them? That's why song choice and key choice is make or break on TV talent shows like The Voice and when you putting that decision in someone else's hands, well, good luck!

We come to grips with the scope of our own ranges as singers but within that cluster of notes I've realised there are those that make my voice soar and others that are just a bit...blah! In other words, there is definitely a sweet spot and if the song doesn't enter into that neighbourhood then maybe that tune's not for me, not in that key at least. So when a band says: 'Well, we do this song in this key,' I think you have the right as a singer to say: 'Do you mind if we do it in my key?' After all, they don't yet make capos for voices. 

Anyway, the second song we recorded at this session went much better. I could see the producer's face relax and could swear I saw Beyonce winking at me. Bet she knows all about the sweet spot.

See you next time.

How to Get on the Radio Part 2

Hi there,


My last blog was all about the importance of community radio, particularly for indie artists. Check that out here for info on an Australian service that distributes your CDs to this national radio network.


We live in a web world now. Most artists and their record companies deliver new songs digitally to the commercial radio networks (more on commercial radio in a later blog). Some community stations still rely on physical CDs but most are moving in the digital direction - so you should too.


Get Your Songs on the Database
The good peeps at AMRAP are helping us out again with the government-sponsored AirIT service. Community radio programmers apply to get free customized CDs of music from the database, or download songs instantly. AirIT even have their own charts.


If you're independent and have some radio-ready releases, you can be part of this database for free. AirIT will take three of your new tracks but you need to apply well before their release date and prove you have other promo planned ie live performance, distribution and other marketing activites to support your new music. Visit here to register.


There's no doubt digital is important, but we still live in a tactile world so don't ignore the plastic! Get physical copies of your CD to radio broadcasters as well as via AirIT. And follow up the radio folk to see if they are interested in an on-air interview with you. The beauty of community radio is its accessibility - most radio hosts want to talk to you! But go down the digital path too and you'll have all angles covered.


Cheers,
Amanda
Next week: How to Get on Internet Radio.

Songwriting - Therapeutic or Tedious?

Hi there,


I've decided this is the year I finish the first draft of my novel. As a result, I've been reading a lot of how-to books on the subject to help nudge me along. Every single one so far has said that most writers don't actually enjoy writing. They enjoy having written, the satisfaction of finishing a piece of creative work. But the laborious process of getting the words in the right order is often plain frustrating.


I am hoping that learning more about writing fiction will also help me improve my songwriting. I've got to admit, those days when I'm wrangling rhymes and slaving over syllables can be more about exasperation than inspiration...but oh how I love having written!  So can you compare lyric writing and writing a book? Let's see, I'm going for 85,000 words for my novel - a song for me will be more like 150. But of course you have to consider rhyme and singability for song words too. And then there's that pesky music to go with the words.


A piece of advice that seems to be consistent in these 'Dummies Guide to Writing your Novel' type tomes is to allow yourself to write freely. It really helps to silence your internal judge at least for the first draft. So this week one of my goals will be to write a quick pop song. Get it out in one go without agonising over adjectives and getting vexed over verses. No editing. No refining. No censoring. Muzzle that inner critic and let the fun begin!

Time to Pop the Cherry

Hi there,

I find it pretty intimidating playing brand new songs to someone for the first time. It’s one week until my first original gig of the year – where I’ve committed to perform some brand new songs destined for Album no 3...

It was a bit easier for me in the past when I mostly co-wrote songs. Like a trouble shared is a trouble halved, so the blame for a dodgy verse structure or naff lyric is not entirely your fault when more than one person has authored a song. This time, as part of the whole ‘do something that scares you’ routine, I’ve decide to write the whole bloody album by myself. The audience at Lizotte’s next week won’t hear entirely virginal songs, however – they will have been heard first, of course, by my fabulous accompanist.

I thought I’d try to make his job easier by recording rough demos of the songs I’ve written so far. A bit of midi drums and even a bass line, to give him the vibe man.  After his first listen (while I watched my knuckles turn white in another room), he said he didn’t ‘quite get’ one of the new tunes. But that one is supposed to be my Goldfrapp-esque dancefloor hit! He said it sounded like monkeys had played the drums in the opening. Things took a turn for the even worse when he started talking about my show tune. SHOW TUNE!? Oh you mean the sultry tear-jerking blues number? Oh dear. Things thankfully did improve when the songs were stripped back to the vocals and chords and his arranging skills were added on top.  Percussion-loving simians have now been banished and Minnelli-like melodrama has melted away.

Note to self: do not under any circumstances attempt to be a music producer. Don’t give up your night job!

The Best Things In Life are Frightening

Hi there,
Now I'm not talking about extreme sports here although perhaps the reasoning is similar. If you're a performer reading this, have you ever been backstage, about to go on and felt your nerves knot, stomach churn and brow dot with sweat? Maybe you're saying to yourself, 'What if I forget the lyrics? What if nobody likes what I do? Why the hell do I put myself in this position?' I read once that Deni Hines regularly vomited before getting on stage for a particular show.

I think part of the reason why the hell we do it is Adrenaline and other natural chemicals. I've decided that a bit of fear is actually good for you, and dare I say it, feels good. I think of all the greatest happenings in my life and fear has been an important factor in all of them. Leaving home at 17 to live in at a country university where I knew noone? Exciting! Leaving a well paid corporate job to become a professional singer. Crazy? Perhaps. Scary? Definitely. Falling in love? Cue that fight or flight syndrome, quickening heartbeat and of course that lovely Dopamine.  Having a baby - surely one of the scariest but most fulfilling things a human being can do?

So sometimes I wonder if I do things in my life on purpose to get my pulse racing, without even realising. I did hear someone advise once, that you should do something every day that scares you.

My latest attempt to keep myself unnerved is booking two gigs where I've committed to play a whole swag of new tunes. That's daunting on its own for me. Trouble is, I booked the gigs - and started promoting them - without actually having written any of the aforementioned songs.

16 days to go until the first gig. Yes I am freaking out just a bit. I am a notoriously slow songwriter and 16 days would be a reasonable timeframe for me, for the first draft of one song. But I can honestly say I like living here out on a limb. The best things in life are frightening.

Terrfiy me, please.