General Music Chat

There are two female fronted bands around here.

One of them is a country band, so it's easier to do all fem material.

The other is with a singer I worked with years ago, & she does just about anything, & it's fun.

Nope. No prob's here with fem's doing anything at all, really.

Sorta on this same subject, I'm trying to get Dddonnie, with his cool masculine deep voice, to sing either "You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man," or "Stand By Your Man," in Flamingo Road. I want him to do it straight up, just like it was any other song. No swishing or goofing at all. I wonder how many ppl will let it slide by not paying attention.

I play in 2 groups, one has a guy that I consider to be the best male vocalist on the planet.

But Im also in a side group that has a male and female singer. Beth plays keys also and can sing Joplin, Journey, Heart and Zep so she adds a whole other dimension that the band didnt have before.

If you are as good as you say you are I would think that you can get a job pretty quick in the right cover band, cause in my area most of the bands Ive listened to over the last year and a half shouldnt be singing to start with.

In your case if you look like your profile you look real nice and that s a big plus for performances and if you can sing its another plus, so I would get out there and start auditioning. If you are really good dont settle on the first group you run into, find one that you feel comfortable in musically first and then one you feel comfortable with on a personal level. On the other hand if you audition with a bunch of married men, their wifes might have a lot of say in whether you can be part of the band or not. Keep that in mind that there are a lot of hidden bosses out there, so you might not get a gig because of something unrelated to your abilitys, if that happens just move on quickly to the next thing.

These sights are great for ideas, but if you really want to do this, answer any adds you can and be cool with everyone, dont burn any bridges, cause the active musical community in any area is a small place and sooner or later you will run into the same people again. If you want to play in club land start going to gigs of bands that you like and get to know the people that are actually out there playing. Believe me if you came to one of my gigs I would be flattered that you wanted to talk. Spend a few dollars on some business cards with your name, phone number, email and or myspace acct, say on there that you are a classic rock singer or whatever genre you want to sing in and get busy getting work.

On a side note, if you have a myspace acct and your profile looks like it does on here my band Aint Yo Mama would like to be your friend.

Heres the link http://www.myspace.com/aintyomama1

Good Luck, practice an hour or more a day, network and get some gigs, if you happen to get in the west Tn area get in touch. Im networked with a lot of bands in the area, and folks are always looking for players. And believe me very few are getting together on bandmix, they ask other players whos available, more gigs are gotten that way than any other. Face to face is still the way to get jobs in music, not sitting on your butt behind a computor, I know I tryed sitting and waiting for a couple of years and nothing happened. I finally got out of the house and started meeting real people and I have more stuff going on musically right now than I know what to do with.

Cheers

I agree with neanderpaul, sometimes singing right on the upper ragged edge of capability is appealling, more emotional??? Its like someone redlining a car engine, or has that feel. To identify with a song completely it almost has to be a male voice, if you're a guy. With a female singer it just never quit reaches the same connection level, if you're a guy. Most of us guys dont identify with women or their issues.

For me when a female singer sings high male parts it usually lacks in a specific way. it's like the guy singing that high has to work at it and when that happens that 'edge" is approached. nearing breaking up. it's that intensity that makes it sound so good. When a lady sings the same part it usually doesn't have that edge. There are exceptions. And there are great intense lead female vocalists. Heart, Janice, Gretchen Wilson etc etc.

I couldn't agree with you more. There is no way I can sing say, Journey songs. He gets up to a region that if I try to go there, it automatically changes to my "head" voice and I sound different then him EVERY time. But on the other hand, when I hit Heart's higher ranges say in Crazy on You, I can nail it. Something about a male's voice gets into that almost falsetto area that a woman is just NOT able to go. Women can not sing falsetto. Period.

I hate to bring it up again, but don't you make every single song your very own? I would definitely encourage that. Who cares how that guy sounded on that song? If you're the one singing it, it's your emotions, your impression of the song, that we're going to be hearing, unless it's just an impression of the original artist. That being said, there are going to be songs that just don't fit you, so you must avoid them. For the remainder, however, I beg you, make them your own!

You have plenty of power. You simply must apply it so that it fits your emotions & personality, fits the song, & is pleasing to the ear. Piece o' cake, ain't it?

Seems like a band is willing to work with a female singer or they aren't.

That's a "NO DEAL" over this way.

Currently in a Classic Rock band (sole guitar player) and we do some Southern Rock, etc. It's an all male vocals thing and I struggle to hear a female voice doing leads on much of any of what we play.

Southern Rock has some Gospel burried in its sound which does call for female backing vocals. Alt. Country or Country Rock might be more open.

Do some Utoob searches for Southern Rock Female Vocals, etc. and you will see what I mean. Unless you have a blasting blues voice in a lower register, it won't sound right, even if you have vocal talent.

To each her/his own I guess. Good vocalist are hard to find. Correction: Someone who can sing and who WANTS to perform is hard to find.

Philbymon had a good point about making a song your own. I would go beyond that point. If the lyrics are not suitable for a woman, then why not change the lyrics? I, the honorable fisherman bob, grant you, Robint the musical license to change some lyrics so that you, Robint, can sing any song you want to sing ANY WAY YOU LIKE. You now have the freedom to maximize your creative vocal potential. Now, don't you FEEL BETTER?

Bob, umm - changing lyrics?
You mean change male & female references?
In other words - changing 'she' to 'he,' & vice versa?
I guess I can deal with that.
After all, the classic "House of the Rising Sun" was written for a woman, but sung by a man . . .
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But how far does one take it?
I wanted to do "867-5309" with a female vocalist, but . . .
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And I like "last dance With Mary Jane," but I wouldn't even consider doing it w/a female lead . . . I suppose I could change it to something like "Billy Joe,"
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But, it YOU wrote the song, - would you be pissed that some smuck was changing your lyrics?
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That's something to consider . . . where do you draw the line?
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Well Bob - . . . guys . . . girls . . . talk to me . . .

It wouldn't bother me in the least if a woman took my song & made it her own. I think it would open it up to entirely new parameters that, if they WORKED, could make it even better, if she's a great singer. All songs are open to the performer's own interpretation, imho.

Along the same lines, a really great song is still good no matter what genre you play it in, be it country, rock, reggae, or what have you. There are damned few songs that can do that, but they are the best, to me.

Our band does mostly contemporary rock (STP, Fuel, Creed, etc.) and we're currently trying to find a singer. As such, we've been open to a female the entire time. To us, it doesn't matter if the person is male or female. What's important is (a) can they sing? (b) will they learn the material? (c) will they show up to practice? (d) are they a decent person who can fit in with the rest of us?

I mean, we've been trying to put our band together since January (so 8+ months now) and by far the hardest part has been finding professional, dedicated people who aren't complete flakes. So from our perspective, the sex of the singer is the LAST thing we care about.

So my advice would be: keep responding! Keep looking! There's a band out there that will appreciate your talent, believe me... They're waiting for you.

Let's say you're playing at a private party or a bar or wherever and a few of the songs you're covering for whatever reasons don't fit the lead vocalist's voice, or style, or personality, or GENDER. Let's say you change the lyrics somewhat. I'm not saying re-write the entire song's lyrics. Just re-write some parts of it so it MAKES MORE SENSE FOR YOUR LEAD VOCALIST. Is the original songwriter EVER GOING TO KNOW THAT YOU CHANGED PARTS OF THEIR SONG? Is it SACRILEGE to alter a cover song? Some people have to do covers EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL. This may have something to do with their being a bit ANAL RETENTIVE. Some people are so ANAL RETENTIVE THEIR SH*T TURNS INTO A DIAMOND. I'm not any of the artists we're covering. I can't sing like Muddy Waters, or James Brown, or ANY of the people we cover. I'm fisherman bob. If we try a cover and I can't sing it as well as I would like to then we change the key the song is in, change some of the lyrics a little, do whatever it takes to make the song sound good to our ears. This music business SHOULD be a creative process. Doing covers SHOULD be an inexact science. I'm not a mynah bird or a parrot, I'm just ME trying to do the best I can. Lead vocalists usually do the best they can. If something is not working try changing it to MAKE IT WORK. Be flexible. We all have the musical license to BE CREATIVE, even doing covers. On top of everything else being creative is way MORE FUN for me than mimicking somebody else. Sorry to off here but this subject has been a sore spot for me over the years. I've gotten into a ton of arguments over this very subject. I just do what I do and hopefully the audience enjoys what we do (usually the case). Later...

Have an audition tomorrow (Sunday)...just gonna go in there and do my best. {breathe} inhale....exhale. Sing from the diaphram NOT through the nose and above all, have fun and be myself!!!

Ok I'm ready.

Best of luck & tell us how it goes, Robin.

Er, ahh I thought last dance with mary jane was about smokin pot.
If you smoked billy bob youd be having a funeral.