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346 contributions to Rock Singing Success
8d •
Being an New Artist is Tough
Getting traction with new music is not easy... https://www.statsignificant.com/p/has-new-music-become-less-popular?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F16278f72-faf9-41c7-a49f-b4278c10b7ec_1248x880.jpeg&open=false
2 likes • 7d
@Don Davis I've played the major label game, and I'm currently doing demos for s new one. But making a living on a major label is difficult, even more so if trying to go big. The band I was part of in the mid-90's got signed to John Elefante (of Kansas) and his brother's Pakaderm Records, under a Major distributor. I left them pretty much at the signing table, and was too young to realize I could've easily hopped into another band on the label. But I'm glad I didn't. The band fell apart mid-tour after their first Label album from band politics and other big issues that came up. The label fell apart about the same time (even with a HUGE name like John's heading it up). I once coached a band (in music career stuff) who were on a big European label and were touring with VERY big names. A Label management shift sidelined them, and for 2 years they couldn't create anything new or play shows. Thankfully, the singer ended up working in video games like Starcraft and WoW soon after, but the band lost ALL momentum. Even my partner in coaching music careers, who headed up Rhapsody of Fire, (one of the biggest power metal bands in Europe at the time)...when I partnered with him, they owed they're label $30M and spent a couple of years legally unable to create anything new or tour until they finally sold that contract to a new label—perpetually in a HUGE amount of deferred debt, even while making a living. I've heard plenty of other similar stories too—even 30 Seconds to Mars had a period of a $30M lawsuit against them at the end of a record contract. The math on the album alone is insane. Back then the artist gets an advance to spend on recording, producers, marketing, and the whole production process, that the Label chose, and only got to pocket and live off of any money that was left over. BUT they owed that money to the record label, paid back out of the band's 10% of the profits. That's a loan with 900% interest! And that's not even considering the more common 360° deals that include the Label getting a cut of the merch, ticket sales, etcetera that are done now.
0 likes • 5h
@Don Davis Seeing physical still on top is surprising and encouraging, especially for those pairing it with digital downloads (2nd highest). That says a lot about what people are still actually spending money on. It's easier for the artist to make money with those than streaming. Even though streaming revenue is high, I can only imagine most of that is going to the streaming platforms than to the artist. But correct me if I'm wrong! Most encouraging on that chart is synchronization revenue rising. That's in incredible way to make ongoing money for an artist.
3d •
What Grit Techniques Was Kevin Dubrow Using In This Song?
I was listening to The Charismatic Voice yesterday and Elizabeth reacted to Metal Health by Quiet Riot. After listening to this song in its entirety, I realzed it really is a tremendous vocal performance. I'm especially interested in a couple of gritty sounds Kevin DuBrow made in this song. The first is sort of a whispery sounding grit that you will hear starting at 1:42 into the song. I would guess it is some sort of bleeding air grit but it is very unique sounding. There must be something extra he is adding to that technique or combining that technique with. Them starting at 1:58 you hear his main , go-to grit sound. It had a very hard sound to it! I'm not sure I've heard anyone with grit quite like this. It's intense like Hardcore Bark but still very different. I'd love to know how he's creating this sound! Also, at 2:32 there an almost acapella part where you can really hear this technique without the other instruments covering up his voice very much and he hits some really high notes. Is that whistle voice at 2:47? Here's the link to the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_1ruZWJigo
0 likes • 5h
Most of this seems like feel for him. Kevin DuBrow is known as a master of mixed voice, which tells me he utilized cry vocal mode a lot. But he also has a naturally bright voice (if you hear his interviews), so the extra brightness/edge in his tone isn't surprising. Given all of that, the first rule is don't do it if it's not comfortable for you. At 1:45, he is pretty uncompressed (like bleeding air grit), but his volume and the end of the chest-voice part tells me a lot about his actual position. This seems like an upper grunt to me. At lower volume, he uses a lot of falsetto vocal mode (airy voice), but then more of the grunt comes through as he gets louder. At 1:58, he leans more into uncompressed/bleeding-air, but still keeps the hyoid constriction of the grunt (just not as much of it) that gives him a bit of a growl. At 2:32, it's the same as the above point. But the higher pitch at 2:42 tells me he's really got an amazing mixed voice under that distortion; meaning he's FAR lighter and relaxed in his singing than he sounds with the distortion added on top. And yes, 2:47 goes into whistle voice, also far lighter than it sounds—and likely not too crazy high for him with his natural tenor-sounding smaller vocal tract. It still all comes down to feel, relaxation, and cry vocal mode into a medium-medium light mix, and then playing with compression and constriction to shape the distortion. Just be careful with balancing the extra constriction that gives him a growl-like quality with less compression to relax it so that it doesn't grind.
Sep '25 •
Great Tool to Build Your Music Plan
I don't have music to share for Music Monday like I had hoped, but I want to still share something valuable. While I no longer coach music career as my main thing, I still enjoy constantly learning about and keeping up with current music business best practices. While researching the validity of a certain music business book, I accidentally came across the Custom GPT, The Musician's Roadmap. I used this tool to map out a full release plan for my songs, collaborations, and poetry, that fits my brand, genre, goals, ideal fan, and more. But to do that, I had to know how to talk to it about yourself. Otherwise, it give incredibly generic answers. If you're unfamiliar with Custom GPTs, to put it simply, they're an AI conversational interface that's trained on knowledge base files and specific instructions to answer your questions. Trained and instructed correctly, they can be very powerful tools. In this case, The Musician's Roadmap is trained on just about anything you need to grow your music career, from recording to growing a fanbase. Like any Custom GPT, the more detailed information you give it about you and what you're trying to do, the better the answer it will give you. One big trick with AI is to get it to ask you questions to help you come up with better prompts or to ask it better questions, especially if you haven't yet fully figured out how to prompt it or what information to give it. To test it, I gave it general information, just to see what type of answer it gives and if it was worth using. The answer was detailed, but as I told it: "This list is vague and overwhelming. Ask me questions to help me form a better plan based upon my brand, music, ideal fans, and more." That opened up the floodgates. The questions it gave me, which I'll put below, helped it give me a very details plan specifically for me. That started a good back and forth conversation that felt like an extremely well-informed expert was brainstorming ideas with me. Any new ideas I had, I would ask it questions about, which it would then compare to it's knowledge on trends, market, and genres. That led to a whole conversation about possible things to do for social media, fan interaction, release schedule, collaborators, hired guests, other creative offerings, and much more. I now have a full, multi-phase, monthly plan to start moving forward with, and good ideas for how to adapt it as I go.
0 likes • 6h
I plan to eventually recreate this tool to be even more powerful. I spent many years as a music career coach, recording/mixing/mastering engineer, performer, event planner (concerts on crack), and more. Since I have written books and courses on it in the past, it won't be difficult to train it on my expertise and other experts I trust. But even as is—using the general knowledge of the internet—I'm very impressed.
Feb '24 •
👋 Introduce yourself right here!
This is the introductions thread. Say hi, tell us where you’re from and what you’re all about! In your introduction, answer these 3 questions: ➡️ What is your current music project and vision? ➡️ What moment made you want to pursue being a rock singer? ➡️ What's the main thing holding you back? We can’t wait to meet you!
0 likes • 19d
@Suzie Barrock Sounds awesome! Do you have a link to your band?
1 like • 2d
@Jason Skeens welcome! I know exactly what you mean. I’m a very loud singer, to the point I’ve had my mic come unplugged at a 150-person rock show and no one noticed. I have to be mindful of not over-singing—the one thing I have to constantly think about when I sing. But being able to relax and let your voice flow is definitely a trained thing. You’re in the right place. We’re glad to have you here.
1 like • 8d
Interesting take. I never considered the SoCal roots of pop-punk and emo. I don't think starting with Green Day was a good example of what he was conveying. Green Day's inspiration, and also a huge influence he didn't talk about in the video for pop-punk, is steeped in early punk-rock from London and New York—I would venture to say it's mostly London's influence. The use of /ou/ (or "[ʉ]" in this video) instead of /oo/ is something I highly recommend in rock singing. I often describe it as "ew" or the Scottish "You," keeping things up and moving forward, rather than the the speech like /oo/ or [u] that pulls back to the throat to narrow the vowel. Of note, /oo/, /ee/ are both narrow glottis vowels that have to change when n a singing acoustic position rather than speech. They pull back to the throat in speech. /R/, and /L/ also want to pull back to the throat acoustically in speech and need changed to support singing resonance. The strong Rhotic /R/ and exaggerated use of diphthongs of pop-punk and emo is the opposite of what I teach if you want more control and steady resonance. Granted, it's a stylistic choice, but for control and maximum resonance and freedom, you'll usually only want to sing the most open or prominent vowel of a diphthong, similar to the "chicano" style he mentioned in the video, but often still keeping the offset or end of the vowel as movement into the second vowel of the diphthong. i.e. 95% open vowel and 5% narrowed vowel; or "I" being "ahhhhhh-ee" or "O" being "ahhhhhh-oo." However, exaggerated diphthongs can still be placed well, e.g. turning "I" or /ah/+/ee/ into more /ah/+/ih/ee/ (combined vowel), using the jaw or tongue to narrow into the /ih/ee/ rather than changing acoustic placement. Not pop-punk, but a good example of this is Layne Staley's famous line, "Feed my eyes," showing the use of the jaw and tongue to alternate between /eh/ and /ee/. Consequently, the same narrow embouchure idea that turns an /eh/ into an /ee/ih/, without losing acoustic placement, would also apply to turning an /ah/ into an /ou/—giving you a map to singing /oo/ in a good singing placement rather than the throat.
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@draven-grey-6980
Over 30 years as a professional recording and performing musician, music career coach, rock singing coach, recording engineer, and storyteller.
Active 35m ago
Joined Jan 6, 2024
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Denver, CO USA
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