By Gary Powell
In the fall of 2008 I was holding a workshop; “Pop Vocal Performance Techniques for the Theatrical Singer†at DeSales University in the beautiful Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. This was my second trip to DeSales invited by theatrical director, educator and longtime friend Dennis Razze who directed me in the role of Jesus in JC Superstar in 1980. We’ve been best buds ever since.
The Broadway show as a genre has adopted many new vocal styles over the decades broadening the palette of sounds demanded of “Broadway” singers. Hence the workshop. My work in the recording studio since 1978 forced me to become fluent in every vocal style from barbershop quartets to hip-hop. These skills are what brought me to DeSales to present this vocal workshop.
While at DeSales, professor Patrick Mulcahy invited me to speak to his theater class. After class a handsome student, with an appealing scruffiness and iPhone in hand, asked if I would listen to his songs. After some cajoling and deal-making by JP with a student in the audio booth of the theater’s black box, I listened about 30 seconds of JP Dunphy’s singing, whipped out my Bose headphones and suggested we retire to the lobby to hear more and for me to listen more critically. Obviously, this young singer had some game.
JP’s songs were mostly covers, but often more appealing from a vocal standpoint than were the originals. I had a couple of hours to kill, so JP graciously adopted me and helped me remember what it was like to be in college. We drove about town in his tricked-out Cooper Mini, which he continues to modify himself; all the while both our iPods were trading-off songs and blaring out the windows. JP picked up the pledged chocolate chip cookies for his fellow student and “black box” audio tech and returning us to his dorm room/recording studio. JP’s songs were recorded in this very typical box-like college dorm room with bunk beds; not much audio gear, but loads of talent. Most of the time it’s the other way around.
Ever since meeting JP I had wanted him to come to Austin and spend a week with me, but it took a couple of years for me to button up my previous contracts and to move my studio more toward talent development. We finally booked the travel plans and the recording sessions and our song “Get Away” is the first result. There will be many more offerings coming from JP Dunphy; some from me and some directly from him and others. My goal is to empower our most talented musicians and songwriters to take on the responsibilities of developing their music and performing careers themselves. In this, I am happy to me a mentor, sometimes producer and friend.
My best wishes to you, JP, and for your success.
You can follow JP Dunphy on both Facebook and Twitter.
“JP Dunphy, Get Away” Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
Austin Producer Gary Powell has been searching Texas for outstanding performers across many genres of music since 1978 to cast singers in his productions. Meet Leslie Powell – no kinship to Gary and talented without the need of nepotism. Gary produced Leslie Powell on her first iTunes release, “Rain Check” written by both Gary Powell and
Helen Darling. Leslie graduated from Westwood High School in Austin, Texas in 2010 and is studying theatrical arts at the University of Texas. Please support Leslie in hopes that we will hear more music from her in years to come.
“Leslie Powell, Rain Check” Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
Austin Producer Gary Powell has been searching Texas for outstanding performers across many genres of music since 1978 to cast singers in his productions. Meet Leslie Powell – no kinship to Gary and talented without the need of nepotism. Gary produced Leslie Powell on her first iTunes release, “Rain Check” written by both Gary Powell and
Helen Darling. Leslie graduated from Westwood High School in Austin, Texas in 2010 and is studying theatrical arts at the University of Texas. Please support Leslie in hopes that we will hear more music from her in years to come.
“Leslie Powell, Rain Check” Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
by Gary Powell
When we take action, initiate; we put into motion all kinds of good things that can happen. Maybe it’s kind of like the “break” on a pool table. You don’t have to be an expert for balls to fall in the pocket. Just don’t quit shooting, even if temporarily blocked from entering the pool hall. Choose to not take the shot at all and the less talented than you will get the break. So, simple. Take the shot.
by Gary Powell
Jazz pianist and long-time friend Jeff Hellmer came to the studio in 2008 with the purpose of creating a solo piano recording of seldom-heard Christmas songs. Jeff was graciously helping me build a catalog of holiday music for Miramuse, which at the time was a business-to-business solution for helping companies learn how to best utilize music to enhance their brand or deepen their relationships with customers and even employees.
I had researched ancient hymns and carols in the mid-1980’s for Ensemble 109 at the University of Texas and had written several vocal arrangements for several of these beautiful pieces of music; most of them lost to antiquity. Jeff freely improvised from these original hymn arrangements delivering a freshly re-harmonized interpretation of these ancient carols. Jeff also added a classic in “Oh Christmas Tree” and and one of my own tunes which I wrote as he waited, “Enchanted Star.”
The gift Jeff Hellmer brings to us is a relationship to music that belies that relationship’s underlying complexity while deepening our own. Jeff’s musicianship invites us to engage his music in an atmosphere free of self-agrandizement. What’s that sound like? The sound is alive, safe and disarmingly intelligent! – Gary Powell
Now this recording is available for download from iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody for the rest of the world to hear. Thank you Jeff for making my Yamaha C7 sound better that I could ever do myself. Also, thank you to master piano technician, Brian Henselman, for keeping this piano in top shape.
“Jeff Hellmer, Christmas Jazz” – Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
by Gary Powell
Jazz pianist and long-time friend Jeff Hellmer came to the studio in 2008 with the purpose of creating a solo piano recording of seldom-heard Christmas songs. Jeff was graciously helping me build a catalog of holiday music for Miramuse, which at the time was a business-to-business solution for helping companies learn how to best utilize music to enhance their brand or deepen their relationships with customers and even employees.
I had researched ancient hymns and carols in the mid-1980’s for Ensemble 109 at the University of Texas and had written several vocal arrangements for several of these beautiful pieces of music; most of them lost to antiquity. Jeff freely improvised from these original hymn arrangements delivering a freshly re-harmonized interpretation of these ancient carols. Jeff also added a classic in “Oh Christmas Tree” and and one of my own tunes which I wrote as he waited, “Enchanted Star.”
The gift Jeff Hellmer brings to us is a relationship to music that belies that relationship’s underlying complexity while deepening our own. Jeff’s musicianship invites us to engage his music in an atmosphere free of self-agrandizement. What’s that sound like? The sound is alive, safe and disarmingly intelligent! – Gary Powell
Now this recording is available for download from iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody for the rest of the world to hear. Thank you Jeff for making my Yamaha C7 sound better that I could ever do myself. Also, thank you to master piano technician, Brian Henselman, for keeping this piano in top shape.
“Jeff Hellmer, Christmas Jazz” – Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
by Gary Powell
For the students from the University of Texas Butler School of Music (MUS 339M)
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.
All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
.
by Gary Powell
For the students from the University of Texas Butler School of Music (MUS 339M)
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.
All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
.
by Gary Powell
Before we go forth into the world wielding our grand visions, there is some personal housekeeping to be done. Otherwise, our grandest vision will drip onto the world as tepid back-flow from someone else’s previously held ideas. But, you say “I know what I want and how I want to change the world.” Well, for a moment let’s look at you and try to understand how many institutions you have been associated and with some living below your awareness. Answer the questions below, then add up how many “yes” answers you accumulate. Read below to assess your score. 
1. Were you born a human? (if so add ten yes marks)
2. Were you born a boy?
3. Were you born a girl?
4. Were you raised by both parents?
5. Were you raised by your father only? (if so add two yes marks)
6. Were you raised by your mother only? (if so add two yes marks)
7. Were you raised by your grandparents?
7. Were you raised by a grandfather? (if so add two yes marks)
8. Were you raised by a grandmother? (if so add two yes marks)
9. Were you raised within a state or any other system for child services? (if so add four yes marks)
10. Were you raised by wolves?
11. Did you go to kindergarten?
12. Did you go to pre-school?
13. Did you go to elementary school?
14. Did you go to middle school?
15. Did you go to high school?
16. Did you date in high school?
17. Did you not date in high school?
18. Are you in college? (Add one yes mark for every year spent in undergraduate college)
(Add two yes marks for every year spent in graduate school)
19. Have you ever suffered unfair consequences for your behavior?
20. Have you ever felt betrayed?
21. Have you even betrayed a friend or family member?
22. Have you ever joined a civic, scholastic, religious or professional organization? (Add three yes marks for each one per year)
23. Did you ever believe in Santa Claus? (Add 10 yes marks if true.)
24. Can you name members of any current or past rock and roll bands? (Add one yes mark per name.)
25. Can you explain your wardrobe or “look” using reason?
26. Are you wearing fall or winter boots when it’s still 87 degrees outside? (Add 5 yes marks if true.)
27. Have you ever used an excuse to avoid a party or commitment you didn’t want to attend?
If you have more than 50 points, then you are nearly unconscious with no self-awareness. If you have 12 points or fewer then you were probably raised by wolves and will soon either be in prison or running for congress. Is this a stupid list of questions posing as a sociological study? Of course it is. Did you get the point? If not, the point is this; as individuals we must unveil the hidden agenda of others living within our proximity, circumstance and psychology. We have to become free.
In a discussion of people’s goals, Rae Moses, composer and Head of Choral Music for Carl Fischer Music writes, “Obscurity and poverty never seem to make the list of desired outcomes.” Right, they don’t. So, it’s clear that no one desires to be broke and “just a nobody.” And so two more questions; why do so few achieve the opposite and second, why is obscurity and poverty a rare outcome for most educated people? The answer; most of us are willing to live with obscurity, much more than poverty, so we simply redirect our energies to producing income rather than reaching for our aspirations, however exalted. Second, achieving both fame and riches first requires the ambitious to trespass into someone’s territory, without getting kicked out, to eventually gain invitation for entering a curriculum which has never been taught in school. There is no known path to this new school or we would all be doing it.
Assuming you have broken through the massive life-compressing limitations of how you have been personally compromised and then achieved some manner of self-awareness; here is the question. Given enough time and money and with no worries of supporting oneself, what would you do with your life? And, what would your world look like to others and how would they recognize it? Further, how would others prosper within it?
For further reading: Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
.
by Gary Powell
Before we go forth into the world wielding our grand visions, there is some personal housekeeping to be done. Otherwise, our grandest vision will drip onto the world as tepid back-flow from someone else’s previously held ideas. But, you say “I know what I want and how I want to change the world.” Well, for a moment let’s look at you and try to understand how many institutions you have been associated and with some living below your awareness. Answer the questions below, then add up how many “yes” answers you accumulate. Read below to assess your score.
1. Were you born a human? (if so add ten yes marks)
2. Were you born a boy?
3. Were you born a girl?
4. Were you raised by both parents?
5. Were you raised by your father only? (if so add two yes marks)
6. Were you raised by your mother only? (if so add two yes marks)
7. Were you raised by your grandparents?
7. Were you raised by a grandfather? (if so add two yes marks)
8. Were you raised by a grandmother? (if so add two yes marks)
9. Were you raised within a state or any other system for child services? (if so add four yes marks)
10. Were you raised by wolves?
11. Did you go to kindergarten?
12. Did you go to pre-school?
13. Did you go to elementary school?
14. Did you go to middle school?
15. Did you go to high school?
16. Did you date in high school?
17. Did you not date in high school?
18. Are you in college? (Add one yes mark for every year spent in undergraduate college)
(Add two yes marks for every year spent in graduate school)
19. Have you ever suffered unfair consequences for your behavior?
20. Have you ever felt betrayed?
21. Have you even betrayed a friend or family member?
22. Have you ever joined a civic, scholastic, religious or professional organization? (Add three yes marks for each one per year)
23. Did you ever believe in Santa Claus? (Add 10 yes marks if true.)
24. Can you name members of any current or past rock and roll bands? (Add one yes mark per name.)
25. Can you explain your wardrobe or “look” using reason?
26. Are you wearing fall or winter boots when it’s still 87 degrees outside? (Add 5 yes marks if true.)
27. Have you ever used an excuse to avoid a party or commitment you didn’t want to attend?
If you have more than 50 points, then you are nearly unconscious with no self-awareness. If you have 12 points or fewer then you were probably raised by wolves and will soon either be in prison or running for congress. Is this a stupid list of questions posing as a sociological study? Of course it is. Did you get the point? If not, the point is this; as individuals we must unveil the hidden agenda of others living within our proximity, circumstance and psychology. We have to become free.
In a discussion of people’s goals, Rae Moses, composer and Head of Choral Music for Carl Fischer Music writes, “Obscurity and poverty never seem to make the list of desired outcomes.” Right, they don’t. So, it’s clear that no one desires to be broke and “just a nobody.” And so two more questions; why do so few achieve the opposite and second, why is obscurity and poverty a rare outcome for most educated people? The answer; most of us are willing to live with obscurity, much more than poverty, so we simply redirect our energies to producing income rather than reaching for our aspirations, however exalted. Second, achieving both fame and riches first requires the ambitious to trespass into someone’s territory, without getting kicked out, to eventually gain invitation for entering a curriculum which has never been taught in school. There is no known path to this new school or we would all be doing it.
Assuming you have broken through the massive life-compressing limitations of how you have been personally compromised and then achieved some manner of self-awareness; here is the question. Given enough time and money and with no worries of supporting oneself, what would you do with your life? And, what would your world look like to others and how would they recognize it? Further, how would others prosper within it?
For further reading: Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
.