Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Thanks too all who watched it and are supporting me with this!

I felt kind of weird at first when recording this. The fact that I was just singing to my laptop was strange… But I ended up enjoying it =). By the way, the arm that you see playing the guitar in this video is my cousin’s (thanks Jayson).

Through their YouTube blog channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/legaci, ‘Legaci’ the group name of Justin Bieber’s back up vocalists, upload vlogs (video blogs) of themselves performing songs. Legaci serves as a good example of how a group of people looking to obtain a better career as backup vocalists, reached that dream by performing covers of artists, uploading it all onto their vlogging channel, and getting discovered through doing so. The following video is one of their many posts – ‘Performing “Down” by Jay Sean TO Jay Sean! (w/ special appearance by our boy Justin Bieber!)’.

One of the best female singers, Hayley Williams, from my favourite band ‘Paramore’ speaks highly of her singing teacher Brett Manning whom has unique coaching methods, as she says “It’s been about 5 years since I started taking lessons from him and I won’t go to anyone else!”. She also talks about how the types of techniques and exercises that Brett teaches is very beneficial and helps to relieve the strain from her throat while singing.

Brett also has a blog site - http://www.singingsuccess.com/blog – called ‘Singing Success’ with many blogs posted by Randy Moomaw of tips that I find very useful on topics such as ‘do not neglect self promotion‘. This particular post allows you to become aware of the importance of taking full advantage of the opportunities you have to promote yourself, which is very much along the lines of what I am required to do for my advertising campaign assignment (explained previously in my initial posts and in the ‘About’ section of this blog). It explains that you should use social network sites as this helps to give people a heads up about your upcoming shows/gigs, he says that word of mouth should be used because it is still one of the best marketing tools for creating a buzz, plus more! Click here to read more.

Ever heard of Ken Taylor? Neither had I until I was browsing around looking for cool stuff to share with you guys. This guy’s amazing! He’s a vocal coach who’s been a professional singer since he was just 15 years old and has a lot to offer with his experience. He blogs about important things that people in this field of interest need to know like overcoming stage fright, preparing yourself for rejection in the industry, singing should be as relaxed as speaking, singing audition tips, and my favourite – 5 bad habits that will kill a singer’s voice.

Here’s the 5 tips Ken Taylor gives from his blog site ‘singingtipsblog.com’:

1. Sleep Deprivation = Bad Singing

I learned this the hard way. Freshman year of college I hardly ever got 8 hours of sleep… honestly, I was probably averaging 5 to 6hr/night. I also didn’t progress at all vocally my freshman year. My lack of sleep not only led to a lack of focus, but also swollen vocal cords that made my voice feel very heavy.

The following year I forced myself to get 8 hours of sleep every night, regardless of petty things such as homework (;p). This made all the difference in the world for my voice, helping put me in the best position where I could continue to grow. The moral of the story - get your 8 hours of sleep each night.

2. Screaming is our #1 Vocal Enemy

No, I’m not picking on the rocker’s reading here. There’s actually a legitimate way to produce that epic growling sound you’re looking for (though probably less than 0.1% of all vocal teachers could help you get there). No, what I’m actually referring to is over using your voice.

Lets face it, we all over use our voices sometimes. Whether it’s cheering at a high school basketball game or a college football game, talking over a band at a bar, screaming at a sibling, or maybe yelling at the dog when it’s done it’s business inside. Whatever your reason, if you scream enough you’re singing voice is going to have some major issues.

Now, I can give you tons of advice as to what to do instead of over using your voice, but in the interest of time I’ll give the you simplest answer I possibly can. Don’t Do It!

3. Don’t Sleep with Your Fan Blowing on You

I’ve known people who can get away with this one, but whenever I sleep with a fan blowing on me I always wake up with a scratchiness in my voice that lasts most of the day. If you do this and you consistently have issues with your voice, try turning off the fan and sleeping with less covers.

4. Caffeine and Alcohol Cause Dehydration & Kills the Voice.

Yes, I love Dr.Pepper. And honestly, I drink it way more than I should. This is bad because too much caffeine and/or alcohol can dehydrate the voice, causing your folds to feel very dry and scratchy. It’s not a fun feeling, nor does it make relaxing while you sing easy.

That being said, I will not tell you to stop drinking caffeine or alcohol, but what I will suggest is that you get in the habit of drinking water regularly. I’d suggest no less than one glass of water per other beverage you drink. If you do this, you’ll at least help balance the hydration issue making it less likely for you to get dehydrated cords.

5. Don’t Have Allergies :p

Don’t you wish it were that easy?! Well, of course the reality is that many of us do have allergies and it’s a real issue that we deal with on a seasonal basis. To fix this, many will take allergy medication (aka dehydrators) and others will battle this inconvenience with sheer will power.

While I don’t have a solution for allergies, I will say that water does tend to help those who are suffering from them, whether you’re on medication or not. If you don’t like water, try adding small amounts of flavor to it like lemon or a powdered mix that’ll help make it more palatable.

To read more of Ken’s stuff, visit: http://singingtipsblog.com/

Check out Guy Babusek’s blog at http://speechlevel.blogspot.com/ where he gives his opinions, lessons, tips and musings on vocal technique and good singing. Guy also has a YouTube account that you can subscribe to and learn so much from! Here’s one of his videos interviewing his teacher Seth Riggs, the founder of ‘Speech Level Singing’.

eHow is a blogging site that provides instructions on numerous topics written by eHow contributors, one of which being ‘how to become a studio musician & singer’ by Carl Hose, as well as more along the lines of this topic with the titles ‘how to become a backup singer in a recording session’, ‘how to become a backup studio singer’, and ‘about backup singers”. This site is great as it has great tips and also provides links to jobs and auditions that we can apply for!

Instructions given by Carl Hose on ‘how to become a studio musician & singer’ are as follows:

1. Study your craft. Attend a music school if you can afford it—demonstrated knowledge and ability, not a degree, will get you the jobs. This means learning the skills a studio musician needs, in whatever way you learn best. These skills include the ability to sight-read music, compose, improvise and play a variety of instruments.

2. Visit recording studios and talk to the producers and engineers. Leave a demo CD that showcases your proficiency on a variety of musical instruments. Include several different musical styles to showcase your diversity. As a studio musician, you can be called upon to play everything from country to rock. Ask to be placed on the studio call list.

3. Play in public as often as you can. Build a name for yourself and keep your skills sharp by playing with local bands, filling in for musicians when needed and networking on the music scene.

4. Build a portfolio and keep it updated with every new gig (job) you play, whether it’s a live performance or a studio recording job.

5. Consider moving to the closest major city to you, or major music city. Making a move such as this can be a big deal, but realistically, you want to go where the jobs are. If there isn’t a studio where you live, your chance of getting work drops.

Click on this link to read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_5765217_become-studio-musician-singer.html

Hi! My name’s Jhoanna, middle name Marie, and this is my very first post! Yay!! =)

Here’s a few things I’d like to let you all know…
I’m doing this blog as part of my last Advertising subject at UWS. With this being my final semester of uni, this subject – Advertising Campaign – gives us students taking up the unit, the opportunity to create a campaign of ourselves. The purpose of this campaign is to promote ourselves in our areas of interests and passions that we will one day, hopefully, be able to work in.

So what exactly are you into and where would you like your career to go? (you may be asking… I hear you). Well, what I really love to do is…………..SING! While growing up, I was forced to sing at every family gathering, sunday school performances for church, and even forced by my friends at high school to sing randomly for them. But although I was ‘forced’ into doing them all, I have learnt to love the gift. I have sung at events such as school concerts, uni gigs, fundraising concerts, community reach programs, 18th’ and 21st’ parties, weddings, and at West Sydney Community Church. If I ‘dare to dream’ of doing absolutely any job in the world, it would be to work with a famous singer such as Alicia Keys as a back up vocalist, or to go even more local, do backup vocals for Guy Sebastian or record a song with Rai from Thirsty Merc. However a more realistic goal that I would also be just as pleased with is to be a wedding singer and/or backup vocalist, as well as using my voice to help out with community outreaching events where possible. All of which I can use my advertising skills and knowledge to promote myself likewise. So through this blog, I will post things relevant to what will help me (and those reading this blog with similar goals) make my (our) way into this future career, as well as updates on how I’m progressing with it all.

Keep visiting as I will be posting more! Also feel free to visit the links of other social media sites of mine provided =).