Singing Tips - Part 1 Diaphragm

Yea, Yea, I know... I am not a "Great" singer, more like a Good singer of a large variety of different styles of music. If I was a Great singer, I would have made my millions while I was much younger. I do however have fun singing, and do my best to make it un-painful for my audiences. So why am I giving advice, being the novice that I am. Well I hang out with a lot of novice singers. We have good voices, and through this Karaoke jam that we have created we have found that we get a little applause now and then, and it kinda feels good, and hearing ourselves over a nice sound system kinda adds to our presentation over singing in the car or the shower.

I am no expert here, so take my suggestions how you want. I have learned a few techniques over the years that are certainly worth passing on. While breathing is very important for holding those notes, more important is the use of your diaphragm. No not that one, the one that exists in your body just below the center of your ribcage. When you sing, you actually should not be using massive amounts of air from your lungs to push the notes out. If you use your diaphragm correctly while singing you should be able to project your voice at its most powerful state without blowing out a candle six inches from your mouth.

Now don't catch your hair on fire trying this, but it is absolutely true. Try it. First lets see how to find and use your diaphragm. There are some actual exercises that you can do to enhance the use of your diaphragm. Place your hand at the center of your rib cage and make the che che che sound. You will feel this muscle tightening up, that is your diaphragm. If you tighten that muscle while you are singing you will project your voice rather than blow your voice out with air. Like any other muscle, if you don't use it, you lose it. To prepare your body to start using this muscle, you need to exercise it. Try this:

1. Make the Che Che Che sound, (like the little engine that could)  but thrust it as hard as you can 20 times

2. Then do the same saying Pa Pa Pa, with emphasis on the consonants, almost holding your breath before you release each sound, 20 times again.

3. Then the same with The The The.

by now your diaphragm will feel like you have been pumping iron if you are doing it correctly. Now try singing with the candle in front of you holding your diaphragm tight and you wont blow out the candle.

If you can exercise this little muscle enough, and then remember to use it to sing with rather than a volume of air, you will be able to hit notes better, project them and not ruin your throat, and also hold notes for as long as you can hold your breath. This doesn't work for every style of singing, sometimes you need to use some air too, but it is one more tool in your arsenal.

I will have other tips for singing soon, like shaping your mouth, position of your chin cool little tricks that allow us to hear the finest part of your human instrument. See you at my shows!

Ed

Growing the Entertainment Biz

Just want to take a minute to thank all of my comrades in the Entertainment Business out there. One thing that I have really noticed from last year is the ability of us all to join forces and work together to increase attendance at all of our events.

Facebook has probably done more for communication and advertising our events, but just having your own page limits the exposure for each event we perform at strictly to those that follow us as individuals closely. Through networking and real friendships with our peers we have been able to multiply the number of people that find out about any given event at which we are performing. Our working together promoting each other has helped all of us get more gigs, increase our attendance, and then get even more gigs.This excitement transfers to more fans showing up at any given gig that we do.

I was going to tag all of you that I am referring to, to thank for this wonderful networking, but I didn't want to miss anyone, because you are all so important. The Venues, the Bands, the DJ's, the Solo Artists, and the Fans, are all equally important in the growth of our industry. Just know that I know, and I am sure that you have realized or are realizing that we are not competition, or enemies, rather all in this together. More and more of us are banding (no pun intended lol) together and sharing leads, and recommendations, and fans, and venues and eventually even the wealth. We have finally realized that the more people we can get interested in coming out to our shows, the more hooked they will be at coming out to have a good time even more often.

I can only do so many shows a year. When I get booked up on any given date, I still get calls for that date. Knowing people in this business gives me the ability to be a problem solver for customers, and a marketing asset for my peers. What goes around comes around. 4 shows that I did last year were referred to me from those that you would think were my competition turning into real profit dollars for me. I was able to return the "favor" 3 of 4 times, but the good news is, we aren't keeping score.

Here is to more of the same in 2012, we can all use a boost in sales. A big thank you again to my partners in Business... that is you! the Venues, the DJ's, The Bands and especially the Fans!

Happy New Year!

When Should You Hire Your DJ FIRST ?

So, you've decided to have an event (Wedding, Birthday, Anniversary, Business Party, etc). You think you know where, you have ideas for food, you know which people you want there... Now what to do for entertainment?  The earlier you bring the Entertainment to the mix, the easier it will be to develop the Theme for your party. The capabilities of the person or group that is your entertainment will define the flow of the evening. You know people will eat. You know people will have cocktails and socialize. Then What?

     Most often, people plan nearly their entire evening and then remember... oh we need a Band or a DJ, or Magician, or something. This is totally backwards. Especially now that more and more people are having events not at a traditional Venue. Most Venues have a person that has great experience in managing the Flow of an evening. A good Entertainer has this capability as well. The right Entertainer will sit down and help you plan the Flow of your evening, and help you develop a theme that will forever be remembered by your guests.

     Included in my services is my expertise in event planning. I attained this experience from being totally sensitive to the attendees at many different kinds of events. One thing that I have found over the years is the importance of having a person in charge of mingling with the guests, constantly taking their "temperature". You will find that most entertainers and DJ's take this temperature from the Stage. However effective this is... nothing matches going out and talking one on one with your guests. Over the years I have carefully manicured and upgraded my equipment to make it easier to spend more time moving around the room and visit with your guests. I also move quickly, bouncing around the room, back and forth to my equipment, and back out with the crowd.

     We used to judge the "Temperature" of the crowd by whether or not they were dancing. Fact is, there are a lot of people out there that enjoy watching and listening. By playing the right music, you will get the people dancing that dance, thus giving the people that watch and listen, something to watch and listen to. Once in a while even the hard core dancers need a break or get thirsty. Now is the time for all the Girls to come up in a group and sing a couple of tunes, then maybe the guys, or maybe its time to play Minute to Win It. Oh, and now the Dancers are back, 4 or five songs later, its time for a slow dance... turns out the dance floor is packed with lovers... time for 2 slow dances in a row.

     If I am watching from the stage, I may even have an educated guess about what to do next. But, by talking with all of your guests earlier in the evening, I know that there are 5 women out there that will definitely be entertaining crooning out a couple of "girlie" tunes, and so n so's grandfather has this awesome rendition of Frank Sinatra, and your cousin's daughter who is only 8 sounds just like Taylor Swift. And then there was the advice from a couple of people that said "whatever you do, do not give the mcrophone to Uncle Charlie.. you'll never get it back", which might be ok, but in this case no one wants to hear from Uncle Charlie.

     Bring in the right DJ or Entertainer early in the planning stage, and these things can be put into the mix on purpose, leaving spontaneity for even more interesting developments. Your DJ should not just play music, he should be an MC. That is short for Master of Ceremonies. There are some bands out there that do this well, but if you have a band, you might still want a DJ to fill in the major MC skills and play during the bands breaks. Bands generally take 15 to 20 minute breaks every hour, unless previously arranged.

     To answer the title question, "When Should You Hire your DJ FIRST?"... I say always. Great Entertainment will get remembered long after the wonderful buffet has been digested.

     If you are planning an event this year, I am willing to do my initial consultation at no charge or obligation. This will help begin the initial planning, and find out if I am a match for your event. If you haven't thought of having an event this year.... think about it ... life is too short to miss great times with great friends!
    Cheers...

Video and Light Show Upgrades!

Next time you are at one of my shows, you will notice that I have finally finished upgrading my system to a state of the art, multi-screen set up allowing me to perform with a complete Music Video Show. I finally have set up my DMX Lighting system so that it is controlled from the same computer that my music plays from. I now have the ability to Mix Videos, and control the lighting on the fly to match the mood of the particular song that is playing.

     I can also mix regular music and Karaoke in the same manner. You will see that it is really cool when all of a sudden while you are dancing, one of your friends comes up from the dance floor and sings the next song without skipping a beat on the dance floor. This makes for a total night of high energy and fun! This works best when singers give me a list of songs that I can mix in when the timing is just right for the mood. Other times when there are no performers on hand, you can come up and request a song and if it matches the mood at that moment, I can have it cued up and playing in as little as 5 seconds.

     I also have remote control capability from my Android, which frees me up even more to come around and get your requests and check the mood of the room, while staying at the "Helm' ready to crossfade to the next song right on cue!

     At some point, I hope to re-build one of my old computers to bring so you can search and request songs and send them right to my desktop as well. If you have not had the Music Video experience, you must check it out soon. Even the old classics are great to see... some of them you never knew were on video. I have videos from the 60's taken from Live Ed Sullivan Show, all the way to the current Club Mixes that you have danced to all over the country. Its time for something new... see you soon!

Ultimate Wedding

It's not often that you'll hear me brag... but I just have to brag about the Wedding that I MC'd on 10/10/2010 at Amore in Belfast.

       When people hire DJ's for their events, they have no idea how important it is to have a Professional until it is too late. When you hire me you get even more than just a professional. It is the same with the Event Center that you use. Between Jerry's expertise (the Event Specialist @ Amore) and Chef Wayne's expertise at Amore's, and my expertise this had to be one of the greatest events that has been done in the area in a long long time. Jerry and I knew it was going to go well when he showed up to mow the Wedding area with his lawnmower only to find that I had already done it on Friday! Have you ever seen any DJ ever mow the site before... on his own without being asked?

      The Wedding was for the now Mr and Mrs Larry and Kate (Caswell) Fagan. I must give great kudos to Larry and Kate for picking just the right music for the ceremony and events throughout the day. The right music does put a crescendo on each moment as well.

     Back to my bragging... I met with the Bride and Groom at Amore Restaurant and Lounge to plan their wedding after emailing them a planning sheet that they had mostly already filled out. After about an hour and a half, we had come up with a pretty good plan for what they wanted to accomplish. I then met with Kate and the Staff @ Amore the next Wednesday at 1pm to witness the planning of the Event Center side of things. By the end of this meeting we all were on the same page knowing all details of the special day.

     I then edited my event planner document and sent it for review by the Bride and Groom. We changed a few things and I brought the final copies for the Staff, and the Couple, to the Rehearsal on Saturday @ Amore's. I set up a small sound system and asked the Groom who was going to run the Rehearsal, he said that he would. He did a very nice job planning the whole ceremony by the way, he wrote the whole thing himself. After about 15 minutes he saw that everyone would probably listen to me more for directions so he asked me to take over the direction. Everyone enjoyed the rehearsal, and new exactly what to do for the special day and we were done in less than an hour.

     The day of the Wedding arrived, and I showed up with 2 sound systems, one for the Ceremony outside, and the other for the Reception inside. I set up so that the sound from outside could be heard inside as well. The music playing before the ceremony could be heard simultaneously inside and out, and when the Ceremony started you could hear all speakers and vows inside and out as well.

     The Wedding went off without a hitch, and soon the guests had come indoors to find music videos of Love Songs playing on 3 screens, and Amore had set up lucious appetizers, water stations, punch and the cash bar. It was decided by the Bride and Groom to have heavy Appetizers all evening... and what an awesome idea it was. While the photos were taken by the ocean, the guests happily watched, waited, ate and drank. I was socializing with the guests the whole time, finding out who they were, what kind of music they liked, whether they might sing later, and also keeping them all informed about how the rest of the evening would go. The Wedding Party came in the front once the pics were done and went to the upstairs Lounge to refresh themselves before being announced in to the reception.

     The grand entrance was accompanied by "America" by Neil Diamond (one of the Groom's favorite singers!). I announced the Wedding Party and then the Bride and Groom in, played one piece of music and we moved right to the toasts. One more song was played then we moved right to the First Dance, Father daughter dance (I was visibly emotional when I told the story of how the Father had always recorded music mixes for the daughter and that every mix tape always had "Dream a Little Dream for Me" by Mama Cass, and they danced to it next. We went through the rest of the special dances and immediately began the Dance Party.

     The weather was so nice that a lot of the guests ended up outside on the deck mingling, so we changed gears for a bit, and I just sang some love songs for about 20 minutes. Then we gathered everyone inside for the cutting of the cake, and then the Anniversary dance. The dancing began again, and when we needed a break from that the singing began. What a wonderful bunch of voices these folks had. One of the ladies came up and asked if I had some Motown song that would work for the gents to sing. I said how about "My Girl"... excellent. She got like 10 of the gents young and old up and what a fine job they did! After a few performances we moved back to lively dancing. There was more singing later, and more dancing, and then back to a lounge atmosphere where everyone was visiting and I was singing love songs again.

     Most of the guests stayed late, (it was cool that most were staying at the Belfast Motor Inn next door) had a great time I got so many compliments that I just had to share this Event with everyone. After the event was over, I sat and had a drink with the Staff at Amore, and we had a little bragging session because, well, we have been doing this for years, and no one does it like the pros do, especially Jerry and I. And we are the best available by far. If you need a DJ for any event, you may pay a little more for me, but it will be a remembered event for sure. If you just want someone to play music hire some DJ or just use your IPod. If you want somewhere that serves AWESOME food, beautiful atmosphere, and a highly experienced planner go see Jerry at Amore Restaurant and Lounge.