Category: Music Clinic & Lecture Notes

by Gary Powell

Professor Glenn Richter asked me to pose a question or two for your contemplation. Below you will find several from which to choose. I will look forward to plunging the depths with you next Wednesday, October 20, 2010.

“Notes are the tiny fragments of sound that, when artfully strung together, become emotions, landscapes, storms, and dreams. Composers and the musicians who perform their works must be very aware of the notes, as they are the means through which the former translate their meaning into something the latter can understand. However, without the meaning the notes have no purpose, and the musicians must artfully translate the written music into expressive sounds.”
~ Laura Rando, Notes Become Three

Laura Rando’s description of the importance of music composition brings up an important question; with whom are you going to do business? Regardless of your chosen discipline within the music industry, you will have to make this decision. Best it be conscious!

Let’s assume you agree with Laura Rando. If so, who is the keeper of the flame and where is the temple of righteousness? You have a few choices for clients, most of which are large organizations or corporations. To narrow the list there are record companies, television networks, movie studios and universities. I’ve purposefully omitted one holder of the truth for you to discover yourself or maybe you have others to suggest as well.

It’s best to choose your lane before being forced into making a wrong turn!

Most students have limited access to advice from professionals who have worked within these companies or institutions. Most professors have gads of feedback for living a professional life in academia, but limited experience in working within corporate entertainment production companies. That said, some composers have worked for decades within these production companies and still can’t explain in any cogent manner what happened. Now you, the gifted, the talented, our hope for the future – have some work to do!

As a serious student musician or student of the music business, you will certainly hope to find work with people who share your intrinsic and artistic values. To fully understand yourself, it might be important to grapple with some of these artistic existential questions: What is art? What is it’s highest and best use? Why does entertainment sometimes quit entertaining? When does entertainment transform into high art. How does the idea of high art drop into meaninglessness? What are the effects of money on the production of all art and entertainment? Where does the money come from and where does it go? Just how transparent is the funding of any production or position?

You can bet I have answers for all these questions, but they’ve been rendered unfortunately in hindsight. Here’s the gift; you can learn from my experience without it having to be your experience. Your forthcoming decision should include defining what you value and then identifying the organizations or people which share that value. This is hopefully where you will spend you life. However, without a gold-template reference of what’s really out there, this exercise becomes rather academic. So, it’s time to continue your initial reality research through this class and then maybe do some further research on yourself as well. Seldom will these two research papers match, but doesn’t have to be that way! See you next Wednesday. I’ll be the tall white-headed one.

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What if we lived in a world of “no wrong notes?” Before finding our own creative identity, we can either feel completely free or maybe even horribly oppressed. Either mindset can be a great motivator for substantive contribution to self and then to a larger audience and ultimately community. Beyond developing talent, this is what I aim to release in singers.

Enter thirteen singers, all students at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Without much knowledge of what they were getting themselves into, each auditioned and won a spot to participate in “The Producer’s Workshop.” This workshop is designed to identify talent and train singers to perform within the skill-set required to be a professional recording studio-session singer. Within that discipline almost every style of singing is demanded. This workshop is not for the shy or timid. This takes great courage, as most of the singing is improvised and the ear gets as much a work-out as the voice. Here’s the deal: after twelve hours of training, I choose one singer to travel to my Austin recording studio to record one song written and produced to compliment the singer. This year that recipient is Daniel Cloud, an accounting major, who when asked during our show where he was from quipped, “my mother’s womb?” Daniel was also given a $300 cash prize from the “Friends of Music” at Sam Houston State University.

by Gary Powell

Nurturing cooperative relationships with university music schools is important to me. Without these schools the musical landscape will continue to flatten. The student musician brings a diversity of musical interests to their classical training with genuine relevance to them both personally and generationally. The popular and commercial musical arts have largely been viewed as outside the purview of ivory-tower conservatories. In October, 2009, I tried to make a bridge between these two camps in a four day vocal workshop hosted by Sam Houston State University. The workshop is designed to introduce to student singers the skills needed to work as a session singer in a professional recording studio.

Monday afternoon, the auditions were scarcely attended. Three hours later as the word got out, there were a dozen or more singers waiting outside the audition room. I chose thirteen singers who worked with me twelve hours over the next three nights. I do not teach a one-way path to singing correctly. The popular arts are too diverse for that kind of judgment. I do teach the idea that singing itself is a discipline regardless of style. Within that discipline are songwriting and production skills; not to mention vocal arranging chops which often fall to session singers. The evening of day four we presented a demonstration recital of our three-day experience together to a warmly receptive audience.

Dr. James Bankhead, Director of the SHSU School of Music, agreed to pay a cash prize with the added opportunity to travel to Austin and record a featured song with me producing. Although we all audition for musical opportunities, I do not believe that the words contest and music should be uttered in the same sentence, especially on television. Add in all the U.I.L. learn-by-rote silliness and the N.A.R.A.S Grammy circus; these vested institutions have done far better for themselves than for any individual or in their supposed role of supporting music as an art form and profession.

Bree Derberker, with a sparkling young face and long blond hair, harkening back to the sixties, caught my ear with a beautifully sung “B” natural (in the staff) with a tightly focused sound dead-solid in-tune. That perfect note is now on iTunes. Linky Dickson, a tall woman who blew into the audition as a handsomely thin whisp of cleverness, delivered her own penned songs like your favorite pair of old house shoes. Cliff Randal walked in with a canyon-wide Texas smile who became my immediate ally in the cause. Maria Roos delivered a beautiful soprano tone that was natural, in-tune and with no signs of being artificially re-sized for contests. Daniel Cloud; undeniable good looks and a quirky sense of humor sounded as close to Josh Groban as I’ve heard, but with a brighter tone and a penchant for R&B and barbershop quartet singing. Go figure! In our demonstration recital, Hannah Miscisin sang the song “Guilty” by Sara Bareilles which I had never heard or played before. During the performance, the sultry tempo naturally slowed – sometimes to a grand pause as I tried to get my ears around the next unpredictable chord change at the piano. Hannah sat in the stillness of this new version of the song as if it were always meant to be performed that way. Hubert Jones, Jr., a devastatingly handsome man with a rich baritone voice immediately disclosed ATO Records as his record company accompanied by his ambitious professional intentions after graduation. Rebecca Castillo said she wanted to better understand popular singing styles in order to relate to her students better as a music teacher when she graduates. Kiersten Ortiz and one-name “Desmond” allowed me to remember the passion of my youth when I wanted something so badly that the risks I took were worth it. I can assure both Kiersten and Desmond that their reaching out for this experience was seen and hopefully rewarded. Justin Finch, with a sculpted face and tightly focused tone built for musical theatre, was capable in every style I threw at him. Songwriter, and at the piano was Emily Elizabeth, who had more than the composer Palestrina on her mind. David Smith, the soul-man of the group, was fearless in his improvisations accompanied by his infectious personality. According to a recent profile article on the SHSU site, Jennifer Gauntt writes, “SHSU senior Nic Alaggio is a self-proclaimed band nerd.” He is even more than that in excelling as a jazz and classical trumpet player who confidently walked into these vocal auditions with a beautiful Taylor acoustic guitar. He played a song he had written, “Go World Go,” with a lyric delivering a personified Earth crying out to its oppressors. Nic’s naturally rhythmic and earthy voice delivered this lyric of indictment with a punch impossible to ignore.

Dr. Bankhead and I decided that this vocal workshop experience would be best for all concerned if all the students came to Austin for the recording sessions in my studio; Powell Studio Productions. As Paul McCartney said, “Let It Be.”

The sessions happened over a long weekend in early May, 2010. The song we chose was a mash-up of Bree Derbecker’s heart-felt song and Nic Alaggio’s earthly protest. Fortunately, they were both in the key of “G” major, and with Bree picking up her tempo and Nic slowing his down, the two songs were a perfect fit. All of the tightly-voiced background vocal parts were scored and some were simply head-charts. The parallel group male part sung under the lead vocal in verses two and three were all written and learned on the spot. Guitars were played by my long-time associate Larry Seyer and trumpeter Nic Alaggio. Again, go figure.

“Go World Go” written by Bree Derbecker and Nic Alaggio featuring the singers from Sam Houston State University is now available on the Miramuse Label on iTunes and Amazon.

Gary Powell “The Producer’s Workshop” begins again with auditions on October 4, 2010 at Sam Houston State University.

The opportunities open to recording artists have been profoundly transformed since I began my professional career in 1976. The idea that a musician could record an album in their living room with a laptop and two decent microphones and then acquire worldwide digital distribution for a few hundred dollars would have been thought to be crazy talk even ten years ago. Nonetheless, now we have that ability. For the first time, I myself have pushed three of my personal album productions to iTunes in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, and the European Union. The albums are also available for download on Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, and LaLa. Apple’s iTunes store alone has now sold over six billion songs since it began on January 9, 2001. About 200 of those sales are credited to me personally (not counting my work for Disney), so you can see that there is another hurdle to jump through in learning how to find and direct customers to buy our music.

It’s an exciting time to be a musician and artist, for not since 1776 have talent and integrity had such an opportunity as this. – Gary Powell

A producer’s or professor’s development of an aspiring musician who can compose and produce a marketable album has never been enough for success. Like politics, it has taken the power of movies, television, nepotism, secret deals and every other sordid ideal to make it to the top of the charts. It’s just that now, we as musicians no longer have to wait for what we thought of as our big break. Now, utilizing many of the emerging distribution and marketing technologies, we can finally take control of our careers while implementing our production and marketing strategies incrementally. Refer back to the 200 units sold digitally by me online. Before I posted those three albums for sale, there were another 127 albums composed and produced by me for different clients and record labels. Those albums have sold some 45 million albums in 47 countries. These kinds of numbers do not happen because the proverbial cream has risen to the top. There is much more to this music business than just writing and recording. Unfortunately, entrepreneurship is is not taught to most aspiring musicians, so until we rise to the challenge of learning how the business of music works, we will continue to miss the opportunities offered us through new marketing and distribution technologies.

Obviously, the major record labels are not thrilled about the democratization of the music business, but, they should be. These opportunities are renewing the public’s interest in discovering and maybe buying music again. Regardless, here we are – millions of musicians, singers and composers for whom the record companies are becoming irrelevant. That is not entirely true just yet, but broadening our educational arts curricula to include basic entrepreneurship courses will give talented individuals tools and hope for building a sustainable business – a business they can solely own and from which they can prosper directly. It’s true that we all can have a chance to swing the bat for a home run, as long as we can build and own our own stadium. Thus, this effort will require some very serious skills beyond learning counterpoint and spelling major-minor seventh chords.

It’s an exciting time to be a musician and artist, for not since 1776 have talent and integrity had such an opportunity as this. I just made that up, so please don’t make me defend this bold statement. But, hope really needs no defense, as long as it is accompanied by education and discipline.

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by Gary Powell

This March 15, 2008 I shared my birth date with the SXSW Music Conference in Austin, Texas while serving as a panelist for their new “Quickies Session”. Instead of the typical panel full of self-serving musical contradictions and pandering, this experience was different. Not unlike “speed-dating”, each panelist sat, with no more than four pre-registered participants, for a twelve-minute jam session of ideas and brainstorming. Its subject being centered on studio production, there were few, if any, beginners participating in this panel. The main question I inferred from the participants was, “what do I do next?” That, of course, is the question for all of us regardless of where we are developmentally. Consequently, there were no questions about how to become a better musician. Being a competent musician seemed to be a given and that fact should, of course, never be a given. I found myself not talking about gear, recording techniques, how to work with singers, financial issues, producing, or my connections. I did find myself talking predominantly about creating relationships, which was the one skill or strategy noticeably absent from most of these participants. We humans have done a poor job of integrating our humanity within the technically evolutionary construct of the past two decades. “Future Shock” is now here, delivered and filled with all our many creative tools and technologies which are often isolating.

If born after 1981, then this isolation is possibly all you know. Unless humanity takes an overwhelming evolutionary leap backward, humans will be still, very unconsciously, be making decisions about whom to work with the same way we have in the previous hundred thousand years. It will and always has been about relationships. Who are our allies? Who are not our allies? Who can you trust and who can trust you?

Let me introduce you to Canadian singer/songwriter from Toronto, Kate Schutt, who was one of the participants at the “In the Studio” panel. Yes, I left that session with many CD’s handed to me from other participants. Two days later, however, Kate is the one who followed up with me by writing a personal note with her enclosed Artistshare download card. Her note made her music personal to me. Now I wanted to hear it. How simple was that?

Kate has also adopted and implemented the paradigm shift of Web 2.0 by including her audience in her music production ideas. You can go to her ArtistShare site and submit personal love stories from your own experiences. If chosen, Kate will write up to four songs drawn from her audiences’ own experiences to be released in August, 2008 on her album entitled, “The Telephone Game”.

Fortunately, Kate Schutt is also the real deal. Within her jazz leanings, she is a songwriter (and I don’t give that title lightly), arranger, guitarist and sings with a seductive and whispery vocal timbre. This is what we want to see; talented writers and performers who not only hone their craft and deepen their artistic expression, but also take the initiative in taking care of themselves rather than Waiting for Godot.

Find recording session musicians and collaborators using the online tools of file sharing and professional networking of INDABAMUSIC.

SONGNUMBERS provides your music with a unique telephone number for listening and downloading songs to your customers.

FIZZKICKS lets you create custom designed download cards for your music.

MYXERTONES creates ringtones directly from your music.

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by Gary Powell

Every singer, regardless of where they are in their recording careers, needs an outside ear of someone they trust who is a competent coach in the recording studio. As a vocal coach, helping to sculpt a vocal performance of a talented singer is one of the most exciting musical events in the studio.

After getting a feel for what the voice might be able to do, I listen for pitch accuracy, tone, weight, phrasing, color, air and any missed opportunities across all of the singer’s performance choices and gestures. That may be even the right order for my listening hierarchy. It all happens sort of at the same time though, so it’s hard to know which comes first for me.

Concurrently, while discerning the capabilities of the voice it’s a mistake to not also consider the person playing the instrument. The psychology of the artist will always be present in a recording session even if it’s unconscious. Fear, anxiety, nervousness, feelings of inadequacy, overconfidence, and arrogance are all likely to show up in the studio, especially with singers. A singer’s instrument of choice is already integrated in a physical-emotional-walking-talking-singing-human-unit. Chances are all the disparate parts of that human unit are actually not, however, very well integrated. Making conscious the unconscious in a respectful and effectual way should be the goal. Insightful observations will help any coach discover the person who is in the studio or on stage with you. Knowing when and how to actually share these observations is a skill as important as what we know about the voice itself. I strongly suggest becoming a student of the psychology of an artist and of yourself BEFORE attempting to interpret or intercede. Stepping up to the next level for a singer will not only be about their singing capability. Step lightly. There is a human being behind that voice.

Singers hoping to transition to the recording studio after having had some success in live performing present a special issue for a vocal coach. The excitement alone of a live performance can mask many vocal problems of a singer. Audiences can respond emotionally to shear bravado and volume. A $10,000 signal path of preamplifiers, tube microphones and compressors is not as easily impressed as human audiences. This electronic audience simply listens in more detail than we humans do. I’ve often said that no one learns to sing until they start recording. That said, there are some great voices out there whose recorded performances sound just terrible. Seldom is it the fault of the microphone! Usually, it is either the fault of the vocal coach or… the lack of having a vocal coach.

Most recording producers are secretly intimidated by singers. A producer’s skillful use of technology can help mask their lack of knowledge and experience.

Nashville likes the term vocal producer. The term producer has become meaningless to me, so I prefer the coaching model.

Learning to sculpt a vocal performance takes years of mindful experience especially if your goal is to have singers still enjoy their singing after you’re gone. Veteran vocal coaches work in VERY fine detail not unlike the aforementioned signal path. Some singers will fall into this experience willingly and with great joy. Others might be resistant or even confrontational. It’s our job to discern when someone’s singing is being enhanced by our presence and when it is not. Hopefully, we can ALL know that much.

In the meantime, nurturing the awakening of a person’s talent in a way that both sustains the voice and the singer should be the goal.

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