Singers Handbook

Choose a topic to see related posts

Your First Demo

If you’ve been singing all your life, by the time you get to high school you’ve been in every choral group available, maybe you’ve joined a band or started singing at parties or events. At some point you realize that in order to sing more, you’re going to need a demo; a demonstration record that shows off your voice and the styles you sing.

Singing With The Band: I Can’t Hear Myself

Since you are an acoustic instrument it’s hard to balance your vocal with the electric instruments in your band. You amplify your voice with a microphone that allows you to be heard beyond the limited distance your voice would normally carry. Even so, it’s difficult to compete with musicians who have turned their amps up as far as they’ll go or with a drummer who is pounding away behind you.

Top 5 Tips For Better Lyrics

Lyricist Mark Winkler helps you improve your lyric writing.

What Is My Range?

We’ve all heard about Mariah Carey’s five-octave range. How is that possible? What do you have to do to have such a huge range? In fact, how do you figure out what your range is?

The Right Style

All your life you’ve listened to a variety of music. But now it’s time to choose your own style.

Background Singing

Jumping up on stage to sing with your friends at a local bar is nothing like professional background singing which is among the most demanding of singing jobs. The basic requirements are a great voice, sightsinging skills, a fast ear for harmonies and the ability to blend.

Session Singing

It’s one thing to send a solo demo if you want solo work but how do you show off your ability to sing backgrounds? Two top session singers tell their stories.

When Rock Singers Need Help

Rock and roll is a big noisy emotional business and singers tend to rant and rave until their voices are shot. Singers often end up with vocal problems. Too often those problems are exposed in the press: shows canceled, recording dates postponed, bands replaced in tours because the singer had no voice.

Practicing Creativity

By Lis Lewis A singer is an artist. Whether you sing your own material or interpret other people's, you're bringing insight about life and your worldly perspective to your songs. You probably grew up singing to records, memorizing your favorite songs and the way your favorite singers sang them. But at some point you had...

The Art Of The Singer – Ready, Set, Perform

By Lis Lewis A singer has an intense job. No matter what your mood, or how difficult your day, you need to be able to jump up in front of the audience and do a great performance. This means being able to sing the energized uptempo numbers as well as the blues ballads even if...