Gracie with Real Life 101 interviews me about what it takes to
become a voice coach. Caroline Cole performs. Run time 5:40

  
4th of July AnthemAnnemarie Picerno Wins!

Are you proud to be an American?  Annemarie Picerno shows her Red, White and Blue colors by writing a song about this great land of ours.
Annemarie’s song, “We Love the USA” has won our contest. She will receive a one hour session with Renee and a six month membership to Renee Grant-Williams’ Membership website.

Click HERE to listen to Annemarie’s song

“We Love the USA”
Words and Music by Annemarie Picerno

The Business Side of the Music Business Are You Ready?

When you’re thinking about building a career as a recording artist, you’re really talking about turning yourself into a multi-layered, multi-faceted business empire. It only takes one person to sing, but it takes a team to build a career.

Your team must include a producer, a lawyer, a manager and an agent. And while there are certainly other members you use on your team, like publishers and, of course, a voice coach, these guys and their counterparts are absolutely crucial to your success. When do you need them? Really, it’s a question of which comes first—the chicken or the booking agent?

How do you know when and how to start building this team of yours? You might be surprised to learn that it all starts with YOU. Can you answer yes to these questions? If not, perhaps you need to wait a while before bringing the professionals into the picture.

Do you:

1.  Have a substantial history of playing out?

2.  Get paid for your performances?

3.  Have a fan base?

4.  Have original material?

5.  Have a good 3 song demo?

6.  Have a recording that a radio station would consider playing in place of an established star?

7.  Have a large social media following? (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Reverbnation)

If you can’t answer yes to these seven questions then perhaps you are not ready to run out and start looking for a manager. After all, if you don’t already have these things in place, what would a manager manage?

Record labels no longer spend money to develop a singer -- those days are long gone. You must already be a star, larger than life, before you start to assemble your team. Spend this time working on you, the product. Work on your voice, songwriting, and performance skills.

Don't wait until you are working in the music business to learn how the music business works. Be prepared. Knowledge is always the best defense. Educate yourself. Read everything you can about the business in which you intend to excel.

One of the most frustrating for me as a vocal coach is that I’m often put in a difficult position when a young singer comes to me excited about getting ready to pitch a demo or a completed album to the labels. If I feel in my heart they are not ready, I’m not shy about making my feelings known. But I also realize that if they don't heed my initial hints, there's probably no stopping them.

Sometimes I suggest they "A-B" themselves with leading singers on the radio. Sit in a car in the dark, with a great car stereo surround sound system and listen to your favorite artists and then to cuts you have recorded. Then listen back and forth.

I try to get people to imagine that they are a radio program director pondering, "Let’s see, will I play the new Carrie Underwood single today or the new Mary Smith single? Let’s see, Carrie Underwood? Mary Smith? Mary Smith? Carrie Underwood? Uh, I think I’ll play Mary Smith today and the new one from Carrie tomorrow." When you can honestly imagine that, then I would say you might be ready.

It’s counterproductive, even discourteous, to invite any of these people to spend their time at a showcase or at a meeting with you when you, the singer, haven't taken the time to do your homework and do what is necessary to make yourself a bona fide competitor. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. 

Click here to watch my video titled "This New Business Of Singing"

Click here for Part 2: Get The To An Attorney

Nashville vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams reveals the trade secrets that have already helped hundreds of aspiring singers become celebrities: Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Dixie Chicks, Miley Cyrus, Huey Lewis, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Jason Aldean, Christina Aguilera...

Like me on Facebook at or follow me on Twitter @MyVoiceCoach. My blog can be found at MyVoiceCoachBlog.com.

Go to CyberVoiceStudio.com and sign up to receive my free weekly Video Voice Lessons.

For more information go to MyVoiceCoach.com or call 615.244.3280 to schedule a private voice session in person, by telephone or by Skype.
 

Learn How to Sing T and D

How can a singer learn to pronounce T's and D's without sounding like a snob? You may have never thought this would concern you. But there it is -- something else for a singer to worry about! As if it wasn't challenge enough to learn to make those perfect vowels your voice teacher has been struggling to drill into you. Now you've got to look into your T's and D's too?

This is one aspect of voice training where priorities differ among the many vocal techniques I have studied. Most of the vocal techniques I've encountered are "vowel-centric." Singing instructors tend to concentrate on teaching perfect vowel sounds -- often to the exclusion of the consonants.

Now, we do need the vowels to carry the tone but they tend to get a disproportionate share of the attention. One of my many former vocal coaches put it this way, "Serve up your vowels on a silver platter and simply try to get through those pesky consonants until the next vowel comes along and you can once again open up 'The Voice'.

I'm sorry to disagree, but if people didn't care about understanding the words they wouldn't listen to songs!

Funny thing is, whenever I've encouraged my voice students to simply enunciate more clearly, almost without exception, they target the letters T and D to exaggerate but continue to ignore the rest of the consonants. This, as you might imagine, makes the singing sound very contrived -- like a faked British accent.

Our crazy mixed-up American English makes it difficult to establish rules, especially when you take regional differences into consideration. Therefore I've made up some of my own guidelines so we can at least talk about them. But I cannot guarantee these recommendations I am going to make will absolutely fit every person, every situation, and every region. Keep an open mind and actually speak the examples aloud.

T is generally produced in two ways:

"Aspirated" T is a hissy sound made with a little puff of air at the front of the teeth.

Use it:

1)  At the start of a phrase "Take your umbrella."

2)  At the end of a phrase preceded by a consonant or a vowel. "Make a list."

"Stopped" T sounds much like the letter D. Lightly press your tongue against the ridges above and behind your front teeth and hold briefly. It is the release that gives the letters their slight "pop."

Use it:

1)  When T is followed by a vowel. "I can not see."

2)  When there are two Ts together. "I won't tell."

An aspirated T in the last two examples would sound contrived to American ears.

D is also a "stopped" consonant like the "stopped" T described above. Its emphasis is determined by the length of time you maintain the hold with your tongue.

Use it:

1)  In the middle of a phrase "No, I'm done here."

2)  At the beginning and end of phrases "Did you go?" "Yes, I did."

When you sing, your goal should be to make the words sound conversational. This means a good mix of vowels and consonants. The T and D sounds are the trickiest to generalize. Whatever you do, use caution to keep them sounding natural. These examples don't cover all the many ways to approach T and D in a lyric, but they are at least a start.

 

Nashville vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams reveals the trade secrets that have already helped hundreds of aspiring singers become celebrities: Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Dixie Chicks, Miley Cyrus, Huey Lewis, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Jason Aldean, Christina Aguilera...

Like me on Facebook at or follow me on Twitter @MyVoiceCoach. My blog can be found at MyVoiceCoachBlog.com.

Go to CyberVoiceStudio.com and sign up to receive my free weekly Video Voice Lessons.

For more information go to MyVoiceCoach.com or call 615.244.3280 to schedule a private voice session in person, by telephone or by Skype.
 

Springtime Songwriting Contest

Spring is in the air!
We are happy to announce
our winning songwriter,
Mark “Brink” Brinkman.

Mark’s song “April Snow” has won our contest. He will receive a one hour session with Renee and a six month membership to Renee Grant-Williams’ Membership website.

Click HERE to hear Mark’s winning song

My little bud Axyl passed away this past week from a blood clot. He will be greatly missed.

Cool video by Redhead Express about working with me

Click this link to check out this cool video by my students Redhead Express.
These girls are such a pleasure to work with, and talented too.