As a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency and professional jingle singer and founder of ReelMusician.com, I have written numerous articles on entering the j ingle singing and session singing world. Most of my articles have zeroed in on the ground floor stages of creating an incredible jingle demo reel far exceeding your competition. In this article I would like to expand on the secondary phase of jumpstarting your singing career by emphasizing your approach and marketing to producers, jingle houses and ancillary production staff after you have a fully mastered jingle demo that you are sure will make your potential listeners say Wow! With that in mind, let’s look at some key areas where you can capitalize and start promoting your singing career in an effective way!

To start with, there is no way that I can hit every question with our limited time together, and neither can I gauge your abilities, ambition and go get it nature. With that in mind, I will start as if everyone reading this article has an incredible sounding jingle demo reel, not the I can do it at my friend’s house demo reel, but a demo reel that screams “I gotta hear that again,” along with incredible drive and ambition. Any questions you might have with your jingle reel go to ReelMusician.com. So where do you go with your jingle demo and how do you approach these individuals? – Great questions, let’s start with where you will go.

You will pitch your jingle demo reel starting in your immediate local market. Some of you will have to broaden your local area as you may live out in the country or more remotely, but you get the idea. You will be sending out your reel, with your name, telephone number and year on the front sleeve along with again your name, contact numbers, email address, order of jingles in sequence and year on the inside sleeve. An extremely short bio along with a picture is not a bad idea. You will send out this package to everyone you might think can help you – This includes other jingle singers that you’re not directly in competition with, jingle houses, industrial music houses, and key studios.
Once you have made your initial mailing, you will follow up with a phone call or email, phone call of course being the better option, and asking for their feedback. You will want to come across as confident, friendly, professional, with a great attitude and willingness to be extremely flexible. Now keep in mind that 10 different jingle houses will undoubtedly give you ten different responses much like everyone is an “expert” and has “recommendations” with your resume. Look for common denominators in your conversations and make sure that you are a great record keeper.

Keep track of who, when, the date, any follow up material needed and any and all misc information in your conversations that you need to keep a record of. Don’t be lazy here. This is a business and you need to treat it as such. Computers make one’s life infinitely easier with keeping track of information like this, but you can do it manually. As a side note, emailing is significantly easier and less costly, but it is not quite as effective as actually mailing out your jingle reel. Once you make a connection with a jingle house, they may request it or you might inquire if it’s ok to submit via email and mp3.

You will begin to expand your jingle singing campaign to secondary and major markets like Chicago, LA, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. You will want to get familiar with the different jingle houses by either researching jingle houses online or visiting ReelMusician.com clicking on jingle singing and then on music production links. You will again contact these various production facilities sending out your jingle reel and again following up with these potential clients.

As I’ve stated in previous articles, you might want to consider having a second jingle reel or additional session singing tape to cross over the desks of those producers on the verge of using your singing talents. Sometimes all it takes is a little reminder and you get the next call. Singing commercials can be extremely lucrative and your ability to push a little bit on the front end could really pay off well. Even if your passion is to become a major record label artist, there’s no crime in pursuing a money making venture on the front end to help facilitate living expenses, and who knows, you could very easily sing commercials and make a considerable living the rest of your life. That wouldn’t be all bad now would it.

Let’s spend a few minutes looking at different conversations as you send out your reel. Producer number one likes your reel, but is asking what experience you have. Your answer will sound something like – “As you can tell by my reel, I am a seasoned singer and can deliver the singing goods and I’ll be consistent with everything you throw my way.” Notice I didn’t say, “We’ll I haven’t sung on any commercials yet” – Emphasize the reality that you will deliver on every singing project thrown your way. If you have a real smooth voice and the question is whether or not you can get more of an edge on your voice you can respond, “One of my greatest singing strengths is my ability to blend and with the right tracks and backing, I can deliver an upbeat jingle.” Now don’t over do it and by all means be honest. Don’t tell them that you will sound like a heavy rock and roller when in fact you won’t even come close. Just be honest and at the same time put your best foot forward. You will have a number of questions that come up, but be prepared to always give an honest answer, but putting your best foot forward at the same time. Perhaps in another article I will expand on what we’re talking about here. As always, good luck and we look forward to hearing about all of your singing successes!

Blue October Tickets : Some Of The Band’s Songs Exhibit Vocals Similar To Those Of Peter Gabriel

Blue October is a rock band from Houston, Texas. The band was formed in 1995 and currently consists of Justin Furstenfeld (lead vocals, guitar), Jeremy Furstenfeld (drums, percussion), Ryan Delahoussaye (violin/viola, mandolin, piano, backing vocals), Matt Noveskey (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Julian Mandrake (lead guitar).

Blue October was formed by lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Justin Furstenfeld, his brother Jeremy, and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye. They were later joined by guitarist/vocalist C.B. Hudson and bassist Matt Noveskey. Some of the band’s melancholic songs exhibit vocals similar to those of Peter Gabriel or Richard Butler.

The band’s fifth studio album, Approaching Normal, was released on March 24, 2009. It was distributed via as its predecessors Universal; however, the band opted to use a different production style, by using digital audio workstations like FL Studio instead of recording it with live instruments.

Also, rather than Justin Furstenfeld producing the album, Approaching Normal was produced by Steve Lillywhite. The album debuted at #13 on the Billboard 200 chart. The band released two versions of the album, each with a different bonus track: an “explicit” version, with “The End” as the bonus track, and a “clean” version, with “Graceful Dancing” as the bonus track. “Graceful Dancing” was also released in late 2008 as a “special gift” to fans signed under the band’s email list.

“Dirt Room” was the first single from the album, released on December 23, 2008. “Say It” was released as the second single on April 24, 2009. The song was first performed at Edgefest 17 on April 27th 2008 in Dallas, TX.In May 2009, Blue October’s show in Pittsburgh was cancelled by the Fire Marshal and the Pittsburgh Police Department due to overcrowding and unsafe conditions. Not wanting to disappoint fans, the band setup their gear on the corner outside the venue and played a mini-set to the delight of fans.

On October 22, 2009, Blue October announced that the rest of the tour had been canceled due to Justin Furstenfield suffering a severe mental anxiety attack. He returned to perform at Stubb’s Theater in Texas a month or two after his attack.The tour was re-scheduled in 2010.On June 1, 2010 the band announced they were beginning pre-production on their next studio album to be produced by Tim Palmer.

During the week of February 14th – 18th, Blue October singer Justin Furstenfeld did a stint as a guest DJ on Austin’s KROX-FM radio station. Justin previewed four new tracks on the air, presumably on the new album, titled “The Chills”, “The Waiting, “The Getting Over It Part” and “The Flight “.On April 3, 2011 Justin Furstenfeld announced that the album would be distributed by RED Distribution, a Sony imprint for independent artists.

On May 4, 2011 Blue October played the first full song of the new album live, called “Feel Again”. On May 6, 2011 Blue October played a second song in st louis mo from their upcoming album titled “The Followthru”. Justin did a duet with Patricia from the band “The Soldier Thread” for the song.

Most People Don’t Understand the Stress of Being a Singer

A couple weeks ago, R&B singer Alicia Keys was forced to cancel a performance in Cleveland, OH. The show was scheduled to take pla ce on April 26th before Keys decided to cancel. Earlier last week, Keys canceled another show. That one was supposed to be held in Pittsburgh, PA.

Why did she cancel, you might ask? Keys was suffering from swollen vocal chords, making it impossible for her to sing.

Of course, Keys isn’t the only one that has suffered from swollen vocal chords. Former aAmerican Idola winner and current pop star Jordin Sparks suffered a similar problem recently. Ironically, Sparks was the opening act on Alicia Keys’ tour. She was forced to miss several shows because of her illness.

Most people see concerts or watch artists perform on TV, and don’t realize the enormous pressures of being a singer. It seems like a glamorous life, because as a viewer, you’re only seeing this person for five minutes as they sing on aSaturday Night Livea or aLettermana or aGood Morning America.a But the effort that goes into those five minutes is incredible. Singers are constantly singing. They do tons of interviews and performances. You just never see/hear most of them because they’re on programs you don’t watch, or confined to certain markets where you don’t live. Singers go on tour and perform 2-hour sets every night for months straight. That’s two straight hours of intense singing, because after all, they want to give their best effort every night. When they aren’t on stage, they often doing vocal warm-ups backstage. Warm-ups don’t require the energy of a live performance, but they do add to the constant tension on one’s vocal chords. It’s something that’s hard to imagine if you haven’t been there.
And it’s not just singing. We all know that the keys to being healthy are getting proper rest and maintaining a low-stress lifestyle. Neither of these things come to fruition when you live the life of a pop star. Between practice, recording, press and performances, singers are often putting in 12-hour days. It’s not uncommon for a huge pop star to get only a couple hours of sleep a night, which is devastating on the vocal chords. And then of course we’ve all heard about the partying that goes on. But even without the partying, there are constant stress factors that affect a singer’s health.

That’s why you see this sort of thing all the time. It’s not just Alicia Keys and Jordin Sparks. Bono of U2, a veteran who’s been doing this almost 30 years, still has to use an oxygen tank and try not to talk on U2′s off-days. Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, known for having one of the most intense and loudest voices on the planet, has spent his share of time in the hospital. Nearly everyone who has worked as a singer has suffered a vocal chord injury of illness at some point.

So if you’re one of the people who was supposed to see Alicia Keys, only to have it canceled, you’re probably upset. Try to see it from the singer’s standpoint. They need to rest those vocal chords in order to give great performances. After all, a singer can’t survive off ringtones alone.

The Best Vocal Breathing Exercises

May be your singing coaches prefer to improve your v ocal breathing skill if they keep asking you to practice your breathing by using your diaphragm. In reality, it’s true the continuous practice of the vocal breathing exercises may eventually to improve your singing skill faster than ever.

Using your diaphragm for breathing itself is not easy and using it for singing is still more difficult. The fact is that diaphragmatic breathing and diaphragmatic singing have nothing to do with good singing, leave alone improving the quality of singing.

I don’t think that practicing of your singing skill have nothing to do with your singing quality. After all, our purpose of practice singing exercise is solely to improve our singing skill and quality. In fact, it’s related to the speech level singing where it is the best combination of breathing, speech and singing.

Speech level singing will prompt you to focus on singing skill and that will facilitate the speed of your skill improvement. It put up represent supposed that diaphragmatic breathing may gain intake of air but it has no relation with the superior of singing skill. Utilizing them for singing will head you to behaving more of an exercise than singing.
You don’t need a whole lot of air to sing. Unmatched simple-minded truth looked across by many singing teachers who insist on vocal breathing exercises is that more high-pitched the note in singing, the less the air took by your vocal chords. Thus they are incorrectly to focus on deep breathing for effective singing. Disregarding the additional benefits, to a greater extent intake of air is not needed by our vocal chords, neither in singing nor in speaking.

Then again, speech level exercises may assist you to amend your singing skill. Since rehearse of singing feeds you the pleasant of singing simply then you turn fully engrossed in singing. Betterment in your singing quality is not possible if you turn the actual process of singing into an exercise.

Your singing quality will be improved easily if you practice your exercise seriously. I’m sure you will be able to reach the higher pitches smoothly along the higher vocal range. You will discover that you’ll follow able to coast over a wide range of higher notes easily without straining your vocal chords.

With speech level exercises, the air pressure required will come in a rather natural manner. The bonus is that your pitch level will get better and your voice will get its own character and flow.

On that point, there has very much you are capable to learn from your fashionable superstars through following their performances. Respect and study and then practice without the draws rein of an exercise. It bequeath certainly will improve your singing skill.

Expert: Larissa Lam
Bio: Larissa Lam has almost 20 years of professional singing experience and has studied under top vocal coaches in LA. She has coached various singers for record labels and musical productions.
Filmmaker: Nili Nathan

Duration : 0:2:20

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Expert: James Meny
Bio: James Meny has taught the middle voice technique for years. He is also trained in the opera & classical vocal styles & has studied under Seth Riggs, who teaches stars like Josh Groban & Stevie Wonder.
Filmmaker: Todd Sapio

Duration : 0:1:40

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Expert: Larissa Lam
Bio: Larissa Lam has almost 20 years of professional singing experience and has studied under top vocal coaches in LA. She has coached various singers for record labels and musical productions.
Filmmaker: Nili Nathan

Duration : 0:2:11

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Duration : 0:2:45

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Expert: David Kingery
Contact: www.artsatstjohns.com
Bio: David Kingery has been a singer, actor, director, music producer and vocal coach for the past 18 years, and is currently living in Miami Beach.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller

Duration : 0:2:9

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Duration : 0:1:28

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