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JC-RECORDS.

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I got an email from someone recently who said they thought they sang better with their eyes open instead of closed and wondered why.

Well, actually you can sing just fine with your eyes closed.
Or not.

What matters is what else you're doing with your eyes closed.

It WON'T work if:
You are going too far in to your head, like a songwriter writing or rehearsing a song. You must at all times be communicating to someone with passion befitting the lyric.
You are numbing out, just going through the motions and avoiding eye contact with others

It WILL work if:
You move behind those closed eyes. Your eyebrows must lift naturally like if you were actively engaging someone with your eyes open.
Your mask (nose, sinuses, eye sockets) must be engaged.

You are really talking to someone with your emotions. It's hard to freeze behind the eyes when you are truly communicating.
You are actually closing your eyes because it feels like the most honest emotionally appropriate thing for you to do at the time. (best reason)

So, how do you know if you're doing the right thing when you sing with your eyes closed?

If your throat gets tight, you're not.
If your ribcage is still instead of open, you're not.
If your vocal ability is more limited than when your eyes are open, you're not.
If you are not feeling something yourself, you're not.
If you open your eyes and the audience is still with you, you probably are, unless they know you and just wondered if you're closing your eyes because you're about to pass out.

What's your experience?

Singing causes tissue adaptation.
When we sing, our tissues and muscles change. This is all the more reason to practice with as much perfection of form as possible on your vocal exercises.

Opera singers have what is known as "frontal tracking" which is like a callous starting at the gum line at the top of the teeth going back along the "suture line" to the soft palate which can be felt with the tongue.

I know most of you reading my blog will not be opera singers, but this concept has a lot to do with all kinds of contemporary singing, too. The act of consciously, properly and habitually placing your voice in the voice "Path" of the open throat that I talk about causes certain muscles to strengthen and coordinate, certain tissues to become more flexible and certain adaptations in various structures of the throat and mask. This makes it easier to get in the right place the next time you sing.

Breath function works this way, too. If you get in the habit of correct inhale, breath support and breath control, certain muscles strengthen and coordinate and others (shoulders, neck, jaw) relax and become flexible.

Psychological habits also cause physical adaptations. If you perform as communication, your face will get a work-out. Your body language will be sensitive to what it is actually communicating instead of just going through the motions of singing.

This incredible knowledge should give you fresh incentive for what should be one of your new year resolutions: To practice using your voice correctly. The better the form, the more this practice becomes your "modus operandi", and you wouldn't think of singing any other way, because your body has adapted to "make it so".

It should also let you know that you are capable of more voice than you think if you work with great vocal technique. A beginning chef or guitar player has hands that are not nearly ready for the heat and moisture a master chef's hands deal with, or for the riffs and stamina of playing by a veteran guitar player.

Practicing INCORRECTLY, on the other hand, is like banging on a piano. The vibrations actually affect the wood of the instrument playing well makes a piano "sound" better as the wood hardens around those great vibrations. Playing poorly messes up the wood.

So... work mindfully and carefully as you do your vocal exercises and/or your pitch practice.

Two things we can do when using the voice: Thinking and Doing.

Are you communicating or just thinking about communicating?

There are two things we can do when using our voice, and our choice makes all the difference in the way we use our anatomy:

* We can THINK the song or speech. A one way street INWARDS. Examples:
Songwriter voice (usually lightly singing as we create the song).
Talking or singing without completely committing, such as occurs when we are not really confident what we are voicing will or should be heard, or when we don't think we can sing the song well.

* We can DO the song or speech. A one way street OUTWARDS. Examples:
When we are truly committed to communicating and directing a message to someone, without being too concerned whether they hear us or not.
When we are confidently speaking or singing because we trust our technique and our message.

The problem comes when we do the wrong thing at the wrong time. For instance;
If we try to power the communication when we are not confident, we may stress our voices and/or we will be communicating weakly or harshly and ineffectively.
If we sing the song we are in the process of writing too hard, our bodies may not yet have learned to properly support the melody until it has a chance to "learn the dance". Again, this may cause vocal strain.

Alternately,
If we sing in performance without commitment and confidence, we will not support the voice or open the throat, leading to all kinds of weaknesses and strain.
If we sing in performance without directing that communication to someone, we will only be internally communicating and that will sabotage the performance. We MUST sing to someone in such a way that they can understand the words and the meaning behind the words for optimum performance results.
The choice is yours. I find it empowering to know I can choose between these two options! Do you?

Are you a lyric writer that is
stuck with coming up with a title
for your song?

Titles are very important parts
of your song, because they are
often the part of the song that
is remembered the most.

As you create your title, remember
that you want it to be related to
what you are trying to get across
to your audience.

As you say the title of the song,
listen to how it sounds to the
ear. You want to make sure that
it is pleasing to the ear.

As well as being to pleasing to
the ear, you also want to make
sure that after the listener
hears that title that they
want to also listen to the rest
of the song.

Set aside an evening that will
be totally dedicated to watching
TV. Now you won't be watching
it to watch the TV shows. You
want to watch with your ears
instead of your eyes.

Make sure that you have a journal
or notebook with you so that
you can write down words, phrases
or titles that catch your
attention.

If they caught your attention,
then they have caught other
peoples' attention. These
may be words and phrases
that you might be able to use
yourself.

You can do the same thing with
a book or a newspaper. Make it
a habit to read books, newspapers
and magazines, critically watching
for titles that might stand out.

Once you have these written down
in your notebook, it is time to
analyze what you have written
down.

The first thing that you want to
decide is what made you write it
down to begin with. You want to
see if it is the particular words
in the phrase or if it is the
sounds for the way the words are
formed. Did the words rhyme are
certain way? Make sure you have
an understanding as to why you
chose them.

Something else that you can do is
to take a blank sheet of paper
and for 5 minutes (set the timer)
just start writing titles. Don't
worry about how they look or how
they sound, just write.

Write as fast as you can about
anything that comes to your
mind. Once the buzzer goes off,
then stop writing. Read
everything that you have
written and look for anything
that might catch your
attention that you might be
able to use in a title.

Once you have decided on a title
write it down so that you don't
forget it. You can write it
down in your rap journal. Write
down any other titles that you
thought about as you might be
able to use them later on.

At first pre-production meeting with artist:

I talk to artist and the artist's team (management, label, etc.) about the above concerns, including the budget they have available, the type of project they want to record and their expectations about time frame for completion.
I try to ascertain what commercial success the artist would consider to be worth the money they want to spend on the project, and then make recommendations based on how realistic I think their aspirations are.

Even though sometimes I can help the artist network or suggest marketing plans, I never promise to pitch projects to labels or promise commercial success.

At pre-production meeting with team:

After making the choice of studio and band leader, I like to have myself, producer artist and band leader meet together to brainstorm overall production values (the acoustic and/ or electronic feel and grooves and instrument choices wanted for chosen sub-genre), musician choices, track, vocal and mix recording dates. I like to include studio engineer if possible at this meeting.

Then I finalize song choices, pick keys and lay down piano or guitar worktape tracks for the artist to practice to.
I also schedule vocal lessons with the artist to get them completely ready for the studio, which limits the studio time needed for their leads and gives them more confidence for the best vocal possible.

When song choices and keys are final, I book the studio and players. We cut the tracks usually having artist do "scratch vocals", have the artist live and work with the tracks at home and in vocal lessons until ready, then we book the lead vocals, background vocals and mix.

Bottom line: Don't skip pre-production. It makes much better use of your money and when you listen to the final mix, you will be ever so grateful you took the time.

Pre-production for recording projects:

A studio recording project is accomplished with better quality and more financial economy if time and effort is allowed for pre-production.

Here is my list for pre-production goals:
To find out who the artist is (what songs fit their voices and their hearts best) and what impact they want to make with this project (what kind of emotional messages within lyric and music do they want to deliver).
This "discovery" part of pre-production is necessary for new artists and also for established artists with each new project. The process can go quickly (one meeting) or take months of experimentation, with the timeframe agreed upon between producer and artist on the front end.
To discover what the artist wants to accomplish with the resulting CD.
Should it be an inexpensive demo to learn studio technique, to put on websites or use to network with other singers/songwriters or to try and get live gigs.
Should it be a full demo to use for serious song plugging to majors?
Should it be a limited press or limited budget master with great quality for limited sales as they build their fan bases?
Should it be a full master (absolutely radio-ready with commercial quality "sonic envelope".

Do they need information about photo sessions, graphics and CD replication?
To discover how committed the artist is to the work required for the resulting quality desired.
This should include an assessment of where the artist is vocally and if they write, the quality of songs they are writing.

Here I must ask myself as producer: what kind of project does this artist want me to help them attain? What can I suggest within their abilities that will leave them completely satisfied and even surprised with the quality of the end result?
To find out the artist's or their label's available budget for the project.
Then I can work up a cost estimate of the project, keeping within their budget constraints. This will determine, among other things, the number of musicians, the choice of studio and engineer.
To decide where the songs will come from will the artist write or co-write some or all of them?
Will I write or co-write on the project? Will I need to collect, listen to and suggest songs from other sources? My criteria for song choice is simple: WHAT IS THE BEST SONG FOR THIS PROJECT... not who wrote it. If it's a tie, I'd go for one written or co-written by the artist.