Singer Studio Notes

You’ll perform the song better if the lyrics are memorized.

Things can be fixed later but it would be better if you just did a better take right now.

i.e. Lean on how good you are, not on how good the editor is.

But yes, in all likelihood, edits will be made.

Your facial expressions come through the microphone.

You’ll sing better if you’re in shape.

Practice it slowly, make sure you know all the pitches.

Get better at feeling like singing.

You’ll sing it better if you’ve sang it a hundred times before…preferably in front of an audience.

Ad libbing in the last chorus is going to be harder than you think…come in with some ideas.

When you need a break, no need to be dramatic. Take the break. Come back. Get to work.

Do at least one weird take.

Follow vocal trends with careful discretion. If it doesn’t work will you be glad you did the trendy vocal thing?

This vocal take might out-live you…make it great.

»» This is an incomplete list. Send me what you have and I’ll do a follow up in the future.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

One Liners

Not feeling like it isn’t a good reason not to do it.

Being uncomfortable is often a good reason to keep going.

Desire is powerful and can lead you astray just as much as lead you to success.

We all have plenty of motivation, we just need to learn to aim it.

We all have a long enough attention span, we just need to learn how to spend it.

Circumstances aren’t forever.

We control very little but what we can control is worth our time and effort.

Presence trumps technique.

Service and connection are the antidotes to complacency, navel gazing, and many other things.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

What Are They Crying For?

All the screaming and crying during Beatlemania and every artist-mania after it…

What are they crying for?

I’m not sure this is the complete answer, so feel free to add to it…

Music and tears are both languages of the soul. So there’s a natural conversation that happens between the two. It’s a conversation of connection and longing at the same time. Already but not yet.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

The Perfect Tie

If the blue tie store knew that everyone walking by liked black suits, they’d change they’re name to the black tie store.

For most of us if the customers would just tell us what color suit they’re gonna wear, we’d be happy to make the perfect tie.

But they don’t. And sometimes what they say they’re gonna wear and what they actually wear are different. And then the style changes. And then a new tie shop opens down the street.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Closing The Deal

Closing the deal isn’t about finally convincing them.

Closing the deal is about putting yourself on the hook that they’ll be glad they did the deal.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Making Personal Music

Another first Monday of the month…new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple. It takes some work to put it together but I always like that I did it.

It’s still a lot of work to put out your music.

There’s been so much talk of AI taking over and killing songwriters and creatives. But as of today, my take is that AI is really good at making music but has a hard time making your music…if you give AI all the inputs and ask ‘what song am I going to make next’…odds are it’s going to be a lot different from the one that you come up with yourself.

There are so many weird decisions, so much whimsy, emotion, stubbornness and compromise that get injected to a song written and recorded by an artist. Music from an artist is personal. And because it’s personal it’s a lot of work.

Impersonal music is going to keep getting faster and easier to make.

So which are you going to get better at making?

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple