Karaoke Forums

not THOSE kinda toys  :fright:  but it does get me to thinking  :ideagrin:  hehehhe

.. I'm with Milo... I debated if I should hit that link or not.. You know me Tig.. I hate turning Foxy Red

you ladies have been hanging around me WAYYYYYY too much it seems LMAO... gotta keep ya on your toes... backs... knees... whatever...- tig

WANNABEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

WOW ITS GREAT TO SEE YOU AND YOUR OPININATED SELF HEHEHE I AGREE COMPLETELY WITH YOUR OPINION..

HAVE MISSED YOU..SING..SING SING GIRL SING!

HUGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Thanks Kass,

I won't be around as much as I used to be but,  I plan to mouth off a little here and there and maybe tick off a few people.

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Too soon old......too late smart.

I love to sing.  So, I sing.  I really don't worry about whether I sound like, Shania, Martina, etc.  I used to, I admit it.  I was a wannabe mimic.  BUT.... then I discovered I had a lot more fun if I just did it the way I thought it should be done.  Sometimes that's pretty close to how it was done, and sometimes I play a bit.

I don't expect to get rich, and I wouldn't make a good top 40 singer anyway.   I don't hop around madly all over the stage, I don't wear skimpy clothes (I'm a grandma, you should THANK me for covering myself!), and I'm not airbrushed.

Because I love music, and I love to sing, I try to do the best job I know how, and I am thrilled if people like what I do.  But I started with a hairbrush microphone and barbie doll audience, and I was quite happy singing.  I sing in the shower, I sing in the car, I sing whether anyone is near or not .

I sing because it brings me joy.  I love it when other people like it of COURSE I do.  But I'd sing anyway .  I just might not be as LOUD about it if they didn't like it .

Teri Jo

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Teri Jo
...May the road rise to meet you... just, not too quickly, and not too hard!

OHHHH GURLLLL>>>>MEMORIESSSS


The Barbie Groupies!!!!! When I was little..I had a few...then..My grandma went on a yard sale trip and I had 64 woohoooooo Biggest Fan Base I ever had...butttt..there was this one..with a poodle head..and a human body..it always made me nervous...and I would forget my words......I was so glad when my brothers GI Joe beat it up on a Mission and scared it away...

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Teri Jo
...May the road rise to meet you... just, not too quickly, and not too hard!

I think that a couple of you have been right about the music industry and what it takes to make it today.  It is all about making money to the corporate offices of the major labels. I understand that, they are not in business just to help people get their songs heard or to make someone famous. When they consider an individual, they ask themselves, "What can this person do for me?  How much money can we make off of him and how much are we going to have to invest in this persons career to create a marketable product?"  Face it, singers are a dime a dozen, as much as I hate to admit it! If they dont sign me to a contract they can sign one of you and the company is just as happy.  Also, correct is the fact that the major listening audience and the major purchacing power of music is the teenager so the labels must cater to them.  That is why country muisc has taken the disgusting turn it has in the last few years.  We are getting pop with a fiddle or steel thrown in every now and then and calling it country!  They are leaning more to country rap than to traditional country and it is because the teenager spends the most  money on music.  Also, with the exception of a few such as Buddy Jewel and a few others, to make it in the music business, you have to have the look!  Kass, you are right the female singers all look and sound alike today!  I dont care to hear most of them! Just my opinion and not law but just my opinion.  If they don't look young and perform half naked ( Hey! I dont mind that! I am a man! ) then they are not going to make it! A woman with no talent but a great body  and pretty face can be a star today!  Ummm, Simon said so during tryouts televised on American Idol!  I do know that several of us here in SS have had the opportunity to sign with major labels and for one reason or another did not do so.  As for me, I did not want to sign my life away and let some guy in an office at a major label decide how I should look, what I should sing, or where I should sing.  I want control of my life. Lord knows I dont have the look so I probably would have not done much unless I was lucky like Buddy Jewel.  I like what I do best. I record in Texas at a studio I can afford. You cant buy my cd's in Walmart but I keep a couple thousand in the back of my pickup just in case someone actually wants to buy one! I sing what I want to sing, and I sing where I want to sing! To me, call me a rebel if you want, I like being in control of my life and in control of my music.  Even after all of that, I still get a radio station or two to play me on their stations from time to time.  When I go out, people often recognize me and that makes me feel pretty good. Am I a star? No, not by the major labels standards, but I feel like one when I sign an autograph for someone who asks or when someone buys my cd and asks me to sign it.  I may never be known by anyone who lives more than a hundred miles from me but hey, those who live close to me know who I am. To me, that is pretty good! Most of all, I just love to sing and I love to be on stage! It would not matter if I ever sold a cd or if anyone ever played my songs on the radio or not. I just have a lot of fun doing what I do. ...That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

So you think you cannot sing...or you cannot go as high...or as low as the original so therefore you cannot sing that particular song.
I have been in music for 25 years....not professionally...but I play guitar in accompaniment to my voice. I used to do busking years ago. Then karaoke came along....and the guitar finished up on the wardrobe. However sometimes I get it out and play.
I tell you of a little trick you can do. If you think that you cannot go high or low in a particular song...try this;
Hear the original and sing with it....or hear someone else doing that song at karaoke and do the same. If you find that it is too high.....when you sing it...tell the karaoke guy....to put it ONE DOWN...or TWO DOWN when you sing it. This is what is called "key transposition"....which many professional singers practice....in real music. For example..a song in the key of "E" may be suitable for one singer...but the same song may not be suitable for another IN THAT KEY!! So you have to either put it up...or down. In karaoke however....there  is no key...it is just one up.....two up...or one down..ot two down.......up or down to eight if required. Many karaoke singers think that they are either bad singers...or cannot sing a song when all it requires it what I told you above.
Try it.....and contact me and tell me how you went.

I key down most all songs all the time, even tune the guitar down and play a half or full step down on top of that sometimes, like music says play a G and I play a F# (1/2 step down) or an E (full step down) at "run time".

In audition, with pitch control area, you can step a backing down or up without changing the tempo, and put it right into your own key.

I thought that just I did this, didn't know it was a trick used by many.....

Russ

I'll buy one!!! How much ya want for it?! I'll throw a tennis ball down to Texas with the cash in it... and you stuff the CD back in the tennis ball and toss it on up here! K? Just like at the ball game



seriously though.... I do want one!! We'll talk later



by the way.... I COMPLEEEETELY agree about the pop with a fiddle and steel.... POOF! It's "country" now.
I mean.... hell I'm pretty young still (22) I'm not a teenager anymore, but I think I'm still in that age group that they're tryin to cater to... and it makes me kind of annoyed to think about all these so-called country fans that are out there now. They're fans of Sara Evans and Rascall Flatts....... that's NOT country!

Country music is Dolly Parton.... Reba's old stuff.... Randy Travis (who's one of my all-time faves) Alan Jackson.... Patsy Cline.... and a FEW of the newer-comers like Leeann Womack (some of her stuff sounds VERY Dolly-ish) Most ppl my age don't know what country is...

here's an example.... I just went to an Emerson Drive concert. Yes I'm a big fan, but I know they're that pop-country that's popular now. Anyways... they started the night with a cover of "fishin' in the dark" which is only a few yrs old... and practically everone there didn't know what the heck they were singin..... I mean COME ON!! "Fishin' in the dark!!!" Just makes me wanna two-step just thinkin about it! anyways... I don't really know why I'm babbling....

I'm just a bit annoyed at all the punk-rock kids with their trucker hats and dyed-black long hair stickin out the back callin' themselves country fans.

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Teri Jo
...May the road rise to meet you... just, not too quickly, and not too hard!

Hey Russ.. you do not do it all the time. You'll have to find out what suits you. Each song has it's own characteristic. If you have a guitar it is much easier. Usually the karaoke version of a disc....is in the ORGINAL key of the original singer. if you can obtain the song and sing to it at home in the original key...then you will find out what suits you. If you find that it needs a lower key..then when you go and do it at karaoke...you lower it accordingly. I know it is a lot of work...but of course it depends on you. I do karaoke for fun....but I'd like to do it pretty good too...for fun!!
You aim for excellence.....without expecting perfection is my motto.

here, here, Teri! That's just what I mean.... VERY few old-soundin' REAL people with REAL voices are even doing country anymore. It's sad that the industry had to take the turn it did to make their money. It's too bad there aren't NEW artists out there with that old country sound... I'd buy their CD in a HEARTBEAT... and I'd buy it cuz of their musical talents and their sound.... not because of their pretty face or the VIDEO... OMG.... that's a WHOLE other story.... VIDEOS... I'm freakin shocked at the stuff on country videos now that wouldn't even be shown 5 years ago.

.... But yes I understand.... Country music is a business and unfortunately there's just not enough record sales to keep that old sound alive... that's why everyone needs to buy Mike's CD! HAHA!

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heya

I just got off tour around ontario canada, and i can tell you that most singers have it damn hard. Its not all about singing and the look. You have to work long hard hours. You get up in the morning at 8am, get all cleaned up, go to soundcheck without eating because if you do you won't sound the same. Leave soundcheck for wardrobe and then have to run off to get some food before you pass out. You get maybe an hour to yourself, if that, then do signings and promos, before doing another soundcheck. Then you go over your songs, practise, do one find check of the stages and its showtime.

So then, your get all worked up, go out and sing your heart out for your set. (usually 4-7 songs, depending on how big the venue is) go backstage and try to cool down, but end up getting mobbed again by more people. You then get to clean up, go out and eat, come back, go over what your gonna do the next day, plan all your bits and bites out, then go out for fun, or sometimes to promo parties, and then when you get home around 3, 4am, sleep, and get up at 8am the next day and do it again.

Now, i used to think, hey i can sing and thats all you need....well it isn't, its hard work. And in between that you have to take time to write and talk to family and friends.....and i am happy i am off tour for awhile...man oh man...

So as i digress here i go.... Singers are packages made by the man. They are made by people who think that you can handle it or not. You don't just gotta have the voice, you gotta have the right temper, manner, speach, and last a look...good or bad, come on, have we looked at some of these singers lately...yuck . Anyway, thats my two cents.

peace out,
ardis

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ardisproulx

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~I don't love you because i want you, I love you because of what i see in you.~

~Tis not about life, nor is it about death. Tis about what you do with the time you are given.~

Ardis

I don't think anyone was referring to how much work it was or wasn't, actually, we were talking about what female singers are making it to top 40, and male too in a lot of cases...

Shania and all them worked (and continue to usually) just as hard as any non top-40 singer, we were just talking about getting to TOP 40 status and what is making it there these days.  I can't think of many singers up there that can't sing, or are lazy or any of that - we're just saying they are all fitting a mold.

"Living the dream" we call it.  And as you stated, that dream requires a lot of work to chase.  And maintain, for that matter.  It doesn't take long to be a "has been" in today's music industry.  

But ya know, I think there's always been a mold, it's just that the mold changes.  Youth has been worshipped since time immemorial.  Dolly and Loretta, and Reba, they fit the mold of their own time. It's the industry, it's business.. if it sells they wanna make more of the same.

They can't QUITE create an assembly line, but they'd love to.  They've done it even, remember the Monkees?  The Partridge Family?  They were groomed to fit a mold.

Anyway... soap box is free for the next yammerer!!!!

TJ

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Teri Jo
...May the road rise to meet you... just, not too quickly, and not too hard!

Insight, ability to market yourself (or establish contacts), a knack for innovating, and enough technical singing skill, and musicianship ability to produce something those in a certain location want to listen to, is perhaps the "talent" one would need if what made national "top 40" airplay was solely about aesthetic aspects. Climbing the ladder for an artist would still be political, specific age groups would enjoy (as well as loathe) the songs, and we middle-aged folks still would end up without a clue as to where styles are evolving to, but talent would factor in more if commercialism didn't undermine artistic skill at the national airplay level of music.


Pop music trend is difficult to anticipate. Certain styles appear (to certain age brackets, and listeners in certain geographic areas) to just pop up out've nowhere alot of the time; "Fad" often bumps out what some of us consider "good singing", "talent", and "aesthetically pleasing" musicianship, and the listener almost seems to become the victim of what's presented to him, (either that or switches radio stations), but in time we get used to the new stuff, even might start to like it. The industry trains many listeners.

Music styles are transient, aesthetics always evolving, and something entirely alien today marketed well, becomes tomorrows demand. 50's music (alot of blues style) became passe, Motown became huge, along with the British invasion which soon took back seat to a new style of R&B (stylistics, temptations etc.) much different than what late 40's R&B was, and soon what *WE* get used to as being "Good singing, harmony and compositions" (ballad style music) is displaced by "Funk" and "Disco", and what becomes important to the listener is a type of music that is sexually charged, and good dance music.  A decade later that dies, and "Punk" becomes big, Rock and metal take on many forms. "Grunge" becomes popular, next rap style gets larger and becomes more mainstream etc..

While I agree there's ALOT of great sounding vocal talent in Singers Showcase. Credit must always be given to the original composer, after-all.. many cover his/her material because something about it is much better than just "good". The original singer didn't merely get their song out, and make it because of "vocal talent", even the singing and composition alone might not've made it in most cases. There were many factors. In some ways, to say "I could've done that better", is analogous to knowing the winning powerball numbers after they were already picked. Being a "technically polished vocalist" seems to be an infinitesimally small aspect of what seems to matter, and who get's a foot in the door in this industry, (although it will help with the coverband gig). After a person get's a foot in the door, who makes it to "top 40" status seems to have little to do with musicianship at all. What we end up hearing often isn't "that good" musically, but it's marketable at that given time.  There are lousy singers, but fabulous composers (Bob Dylan comes to mind ).  Did it really matter how "good" his voice was ? His compositions, and lyrics were amazing. Those who like listening to Dylan aren't doing-so expecting to hear technically skilled vocals. The singer or instrumentalist who might not be "that good", might be an excellent composer, if-not perhaps an innovator who like Jimmy Hendrix when he first came out, many thought was pretty lousy. Even "good vocals" is subjective, and evolves given time, as we get used to hearing different things. How many initially liked the vocals of Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, and many of the other well known vocalists today, who initially when heard had weird voices ? Gravel, and raunch in a persons voice weren't traditionally favorable qualities, and certainly weren't aspects that would ever make a person "technically skilled", yet David Clayton Thomas, and Burton Cummings did quite well with their gravel, some of the Motown vocalists with "raunch", and in time became prototypes of "technically skilled" voices in their genres.

I'm curious, but I'll never know the answer to this following question..

If James Taylor, and the Beatles walked into the industry today as unknowns (about 40 years later), same songlists (more trendy looks) as talented as they were "musically" in their day, and as big as they made it during their time, would their music enable them to break into the industry 2005 as "new names" ? Would they get a chance to climb to airplay status ? Would they have had an impact during any other time as new artists, given the styles and demands of a different time ? How many of our "favorite songs" became known to us because of the musical content ? There're loads of fabulous songs, and musicians we'll never hear on the radio, because it seems to me that the building to the point of who get's that break, who's name get's the chance at becoming known via radio play (even among the most talented) is about as arbitrary as where lightening strikes. We don't hear songs just because they are "great songs".

How much does musical talent really have to do with this at all ?  Seems VERY little !!!

Now regarding what Russ was saying, I agree (regarding singing talent that is); There're many excellent vocalists in here. When I saw the"pop music top 40" in a context with "vocal ability" it triggered off all sorts of confusion, haven't heard technically brilliant singing in top 40 in many years... (well except for Seal and a few others I suppose, and regarding "technically" skillful, I suppose that's arguable to many as well), but I'm not sure if anyone really means "top 40" music (in the context of Karaoke vocal music). Karaoke for the most part seems to stay closer to traditional ballad styles of music. Usually Classic rock & ballad, Country styles, R&B, show, or opera in some cases. It's contemporary vocal music, songs occassional lifted from top 40, but more of a classic vocal music..  It'd be nice if "pop 40" was of the same musical quality most in here like to sing, and less diverse  Occassionally something nice turns up on mainstream FM radio, yet not often anymore IMHO, Kids might like it, I can't listen to most of it.

There are a lot of great singers on here and there are a lot of singers on the market today that can't really sing. IMO some of it is about image and some of it is about vocals but IMO it's all about the song. For example: Shania Twain is an awesome artist but her first album didn't do well....why??? Because it didn't have that certain song to start off her huge career. Now when her next album hit the market and released "Any Man Of Mine" she hit it big time. If it was all about image like people say it is then why are some of the good looking singers not famous or being noticed? Again because they haven't found that certain song to start off their career. I don't know if this makes sense to whoever reads it but it does to me.