General Music Chat

wHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND A VOCALIST THAT DOESNT SUCK. I MEAN WE HAVE SEEN MANY VOCALISTS AND NONE OF THEM ARE RELIABLE NEVER MIND A GOOD SINGER. AND WHEN WE DO FIND A RELIABLE MUSICIAN THEY SUCK. iF ANYONE KNOWS WHERE I WOULD GO TO FIND A GOOD VOCALIST ONLINE OR BY PHONE PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP

Yes, some of us can sing but I for one am way down South.......and not the genre LOL good luck man

I can do alternative covers, also some classic rock. I also play some easy guitar. I'm a pritty good lyric writer also. You can listen to some of my folky songs at www.myspace.com/roadwolf987.com. I can sing much more aggressive if need be, but I rather not scream the whole time. email me [email protected] if you are interested. I have a band at the moment but I'm looking for something allittle bit more focused and allittle less heavy metal. I want to here your band before I get draged into a band I don't like.

I hear your frustration guys and I agree but I think the problem is really the time that singers spend on seriously training themselves on how to sing on pitch. I have a group that is awesome (whenever we can get together). I trained these people to really know how to sing and listen between the lines (if you know what I mean). I studied under a hard core instructor in NYC and she once said, I think what people neglect to see is that the real singing comes from the heart. I learned that was true. If you want to hear more drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll give you some helpful hints.

If you want to hear more drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll give you some helpful hints.

Better yet Shabah, why don't you upload some music clips of that rockin' Christian power sound you got goin out there in Colorado Springs?

Actually a vocalist found me Boy can she sing www.myspace.com/sultrystorm .
I'm really from a rock background but I was always accused of overplaying, the four on the floor was never for me, now they are saying I don't play enough and I really get to expand my playing lol. The chorus and last section of Honey have some very cool bass riffs which are quite interesting to play live since they pump the tempo some. So maybe keeping an open mind and trying something new might help. true this does not help you if you have a band specifically looking for a death metal singer.

Rosa saw my profile here and liked what she heard. I posted about five snippets of some of my tunes and the collabs I've been on. So maybe taking the time to post something might increase the odds. It does not have to be pro level. A simple video or web cam will give the person the gist of what your like.

Then again I also agree with the point about location. I grew up in the SF grey...er...bay area where almost everyone played guitar or drums and more recently bass. Of all of them I would say about 10% were actually any good. All the good singers were already working.

Now I live in North Carolina. Not everyone is a musician but there is a higher percentage that are real and there are a lot more gigs. I'm talking paying gigs! None of this: the band buys the tickets crap.

Good luck on your search!

One of our local bands has been auditioning lead [Male] vocalist for the past month or so. They are mostly Alternative/Modern Rock, With a list of 40 covers or so. One of their covers are 'Sweet Child Of Mine'. [I.... would like to find a singer with that vocal range, etc.] The point I am getting at is, Wouldnt you want, To be willing, And adapt to the ability & style of the vocalist? As a Band. (Good Luck at finding the vocalist you are searching for), But like it has already been stated by others. [Most good vocalist are already with a band]. 'Be versatile' as a musician, Good policy for success, To achieve a 'Working' cover band.

Irminsul, we're working on that sound so we can download on the site but believe me we're having a hard time replacing those musicians for the sound I'm looking for. This is hindering us but I'm confident that we'll get there. We have our choice of plenty of singers and musicians out here (Christian mecca) but it's hard to find people to commit. I can get recording set up, vocals and other musicians are ready but I want a little more percussion besides the drummer before we record. I love percussion. Listen to "Rusted Root". You won't be disappointed.

Shabah

Why do they suck? I have a theory.

There have been some great acts who suck in their own way. For example, Bob Dylan had trouble hitting a clear note without sliding on or off it. One would not call him a great singer except in deference to his superb songwriting ability.

Aspiring vocalists often say, "I sound just like (fill in the blank)." No, you don't! You copied the most blatant parts of the style, but not the crux of the musicianship.

Blacks, cowboys, and Brits have had success in the music business. So middle-class suburban white kids think less about tonality than about pretending to be a black British cowboy. They jumble the most blatant aspects of the idioms into one incoherent and incongruous whole. (Apology to any genuine black British cowboys reading this.) Anyone who pretends to be unable to pronounce "i"s and "r"s considers him/herself a singer, intonation and tonal quality be damned..

Pretension does not make great music. It's been said that Handel ruined English music for a century. He was so good that for a hundred years English composers wrote with a fake German accent.

As Frank Zappa said,
"You are what you is.
You is what you am.
You ain't what you're not.
A cow don't make ham."

Waddaya think? Does this theory hold water?

the psychiatric drugs that 80% of children are now taking are somehow ruining their vocal chords. Whatever happened to men who had huge voices (Jim Morrison, Eric Burdon, David Clayton Thomas, Joe Cocker, etc.)? How come all the male lead singers I hear in contemporary popular music sound like weanies (Justin Timberlake etc.)? Maybe all the ritalin and other attention deficit drugs are somehow altering the testosterone level and ruining vocal chords. Maybe instead of drugging our kids we give them a swift smack on their butts to get their attention, thus saving their singing voices later in life? Just a thought. You may laugh at this theory but I think there may be something to it. Later...your friendly neighborhood blues singer who still has a fairly high testosterone level fisherman bob

I ain't laughin', Piscatore Roberto. I've wondered along the same lines. We seem to be witnessing the wimpification of America. A kid acts like a kid, and Ritalin goes down his throat to make sure he never does it again.

Hence the line in my song "Quantum Uncertainty" (hear it on my profile)
http://bandmix.com/davegtd/:

"Quarks are runnin' 'round my brain.
Their politics are quite insane.
I need a dose of Ritalin
so I won't be a kid again."

There was a time when guys with long hair didn't sing like girls. Frankie Valli being an exception, of course. As Gallagher said of him, "Walk like a man, talk like a man, sing like a woman."

By cracky in my day we had to walk to school with no feet. We didn't have no fancy mp3 players and myspace was some place in my room. We didn't have no fancy game consoles we threw things like dirt clods and rocks at each other for fun.

Seriously. It sounds like a bunch o crotchety grampa sittin round lamenting the bygone era.

BTW Dave, Zappa rules.

It sounds like a bunch o crotchety grampa sittin round lamenting the bygone era.

Speaking fir myself only, fair enough, BassPlay3r -- except that even back in the Stone Age we had people who thought they could sing and couldn't.

One particularly frustrating experience was a girl with a good voice. She couldn't learn a harmony part. As soon as I would start singing, she was on my notes. I couldn't sing a harmony part. Same result -- she'd follow me. And she resented going over it to get it right. Prima donna.

I saw Frank Zappa several times in concert. Best shows ever. Tight as a tourniquet, yet spontaneously conducted by Frank. You know how when your band hits that last staccato note, and you hear the clear echo from the back of the room? That tight, but throughout the whole show. Yet Frank could change things at any given moment.

If you need a good book, read his autobiography "the Real Frank Zappa". One anecdote from it:

Zappa disliked guys dickin' around with their instruments onstage prior to the concert -- the little solo dweedly dees guys often do while prepping. The band had a term for <ahem> self-gratification -- "woo". Ike Willis was fooling with guitar notes once. Zappa merely said, "Woo." Ike understood.

name me any current popular singer who has any power in his voice. I can't think of any. I have a new slogan: spare the rod spoil the child, and spare the ritalin and save the vocal chords. Later...

You folks also might be interested that several studies have shown the effects of pollution on sex. Seems it causes too many female hormones being created . . .
The first studies go back about 10 tears or so, when they noticed male fish changing to female. They wanted to find out why, and found a direct conection to pollution (not from cars; other sourcs).
I don't rcall - I think it might have been a fire retardent which never decomposed. The stuff is found everywhere; chairs, couches . . .
. . . helps make guys 'find their feminine side' . . .
When males get shots of male hormones, they turn into . . . well, - wrestlers.
When males get shots of female hormones, they, uh . . . they sing higher.
.
Of course, if you're a male and WANT to sing higher, it'd probably just be easier to wear underwear 3 sizes too small . . .

name me any current popular singer who has any power in his voice. I can't think of any. I have a new slogan: spare the rod spoil the child, and spare the ritalin and save the vocal chords. Later...

Brendan Perry from Dead Can Dance.

Also, on the ritalin thing...do you have any source evidence for this or is it just a suspicion, Bob?