Author: Mark JW Graham

I listen to a LOT of music. It’s part of my job. And one of the things that keeps me entertained is spotting similarities between different songs then trying to trawl my memory for which ones seem similar.

My wife played me Pharrell Williams Happy which is making radio rounds at the moment, and it instantly reminded me of another song called ‘Tightrope’ by Janelle Monae. Pharrell Williams Happy has catchy lyrics, catchy riffs, catchy harmonies… basically just all around catchy, though I definitely think the video version adds a certain something over the plain audio version.

Whilst not identical, I think they are both fun and groovy songs that I’d like you to have a listen to, enjoy, and let me know whether you think they sound similar.

Pharrell Williams Happy

I prefer the contrapuntal harmonies and interesting melodies in Pharrell Williams Happy compared to the slightly more hip-hop spoken word style lyrics of Tightrope…

Janelle Monae – ‘Tightrope’

… but I absolutely LOVE the bass movement in Tightrope! The video isn’t quite as eye-catching or as simple as Happy, but it’s certainly a lot of fun to watch. Incidentally, one of the dancers from this video is also one of Justin Timberlake’s backing dancers in the Saturday Night Live rendition of Suit and Tie… also a great video I plan to feature in a blog post sometime.

As an aside, I think that the visual element to these songs plays a big part in making them stand out over being just another catchy but ultimately repetitive style of song. I remember teaching a local student who used projected images and video clips as part of his performances to basically make his stage performances ‘live’ music videos – very cool! Many other acts out there are doing this, and certainly worth exploring if you’ve got the time and inclination (oh and the money!)

Anyway, have a watch/listen of these groovy songs, see what you think, and comment below to share!

Christmas is nearly upon us and I find myself looking back on a year gone by, asking myself ‘did you achieve your musical dreams?

So, did you achieve your musical dreams for 2013? How about 2014?

Many exciting things have happened this year – from teaching students who got fast-tracked for the Voice, to teaching the lead singer for the Soul Sista Tina Turner experience, to beginning vocal coaching at AEDA Performing Arts Academy, winning Entrepreneur of the Year for Nottinghamshire, being on BBC Radio Nottingham, and more.

Here’s the funny thing…
But I’m not just a singing teacher, I’m also a singer. I’m a musician. And so at the end of the year, deep down, I think I’m less concerned with having a list of accolades from others and I think I’m more concerned about feeling I’ve progressed with my voice, my music, my general ability to make and coax music from others, as well as having achieved specific goals.

Here are the top three things I’m really pleased I’ve achieved musically this year… but also where I have to go next (keep thinking about ‘how you can achieve your musical dreams’ when reading this).

1) I can sing songs happily through my third bridge – For those of you who don’t know what bridges are, they are passageways in the voice that we all need to learn to navigate to get to higher notes (and conversely get down through to lower notes). I’ve had access to third bridge for a little while, but this year things have really settled down. It’s never easy for a guy to sing that high, but with practice it’s doable. I’m pleased because now I can actually sing words through there consistently… there’s nothing quite like singing a song your female student is struggling with to show them there’s NO reason they can’t do it!

Where next: I can control the volume, but the next step is to be able to take it down to whisper quiet volumes ala mesa di voce. Then I will feel truly in control of this part of my range.

2) I can now play piano better – I can teach well from a piano, but I am not an accompanist by trade. It’s an entirely different skill set. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in bettering my overall musicianship and teaching skills, so I set out to learn to play piano better. I can now get through various pieces with some basic ornamentation even on the fly when students bring in music, and I’m getting better all the time. It’s a wonderful skill to have, and it’s a rewarding instrument to play.

Where next: I can play basic pieces, but more complicated chord structures sometimes throw me… so the goal is to get more exposure to complex songs, and get more of these under my belt.

3) I can now write better songs – I’m not a prolific songwriter, but when I do have writing stints, I want to get better at being a songwriter. I’ve spent a lot of time this year honing my skills as a songwriter, and while it is not what I aim to earn money at doing, it is immensely useful to understand the commercial rules of writing songs to be able to craft songs that are accessible to others… this is also really useful when it comes to guiding students to writing more accessible songs. It’s not that we all have to write songs intended to be Radio #1’s, but we can all take a leaf out of hit songwriters books to understand how to write songs that really capture the ear and imagination of listeners, using those techniques to a greater or lesser extent.

Where next: I need to write MORE!… but I also need to decide how much of the commercial songwriting tools I understand and use in lessons are ones that I want to keep and use, and which ones I will choose to ignore. By doing this, I know I can create songs that are simultaneously accessible while being simultaenously unique to me.

So what about you? What did you achieve this year? What are you looking to achieve next year? How are you going to go about achieving those goals?

Do comment and lets get some discussion going!

Do you want to conquer stage fright when singing or performing generally?

So, I was having a chat with a fab student of mine on Friday night about how to conquer stage fright. Despite having a sickeningly good voice, and performing regularly, they still find the nerves knock them off balance whenever they perform – so, how to conquer stage fright is the question to answer! I have also been chatting over Twitter with one or two people who find then same problem. Sometimes it’s mild nerves, sometimes it outright destroys performances.

While chatting with my student in their lesson about this, I explained my approach to being on stage and dealing with stagefright.

Most people, when they speak to amateur performers or people who do public speaking a reasonable amount, about how to get over stage fright, they often tell them ‘look over their heads’, or ‘imagine them naked’, or ‘pretend they’re not there’… but I think that approach is flawed. In my opinion, the whole issue of stage fright stems from an overawareness of one-self. It stems from being way too aware of how one looks and sounds on stage. And by doing all of the above it reflects an inward acceptance that you look stupid on stage (which isn’t true!), and only buys into that mindset even further. This approach doesn’t dissolve the issue of stage-fright, it actually makes it MORE concrete, but tries to ‘deal with it’ by placing this imaginary stage-fright demon character on the sideline.

Instead, I advocate changing the focus. I advocate changing the focus not AWAY from the audience, but specifically focusing ON the audience. Yep, you read that right.

Focus ON the audience to conquer stage fright.

Follow me if you will.

When people go to watch a performance, they think they are there to watch the performer – i.e. this places the performer as the ‘subject’ of this situation. They will watch the performer sing, dance, jump around on stage, and they will watch eagerly for the stuff you do, and the audience will think that’s what they are there to do… and the performer thinks that is what the audience is there to do. The audience has specifically turned up to scrutinise your every move and observe every mistake you make *cue hyperventilation*

Well let me tell you, this is 100%…

WRONG

This sounds petrifying! Til you realise this is WRONG and is not what’s really going on.

Yes, the audience is watching you, but it is not what the true situation is. The watching of you stems from what the true situation is. The audience watches you, because THEY are the ones who are there to be entertained. They are not there just to watch someone, they are there to be entertained and ultimately ENGAGED by you.

Wait a minute…

…if they are there to be engaged by you, then that means THE AUDIENCE is the subject in this situation. They are the stars of the show! They have turned up wanting to be charmed, won over, entertained, brought up and brought down. It is not their job to watch you, it is YOUR job to entertain them.

How do you entertain someone? Well, unless you are a hermit, you’ve all had conversations with people, and you can probably remember some great conversations you’ve had with friends and family members.

Whenever you have a chat with someone, you naturally try to talk about topics you have in common, and you exchange lines of conversation with them. When you are in a group, you organically take turns to speak, you make eye contact, your tone rises and falls, topics change and the people you look at change depending on the conversation at hand. These are simple social tools you can use and weave into the way you perform songs in order to focus on and engage with an audience. Treat them like they are the participants in a musical conversation. Of course, you are doing most of the talking, but you know in any conversation when someone is bored and when you need to change your tone or topic of conversation.

How much do you hate it when people can’t look you in the eye when they talk to you? Or when you are talking to them and they keep checking their phone? Or when people zone out because they don’t understand what you’re saying. Don’t let the audience do these things, and certainly don’t do these things yourself when performing. These are the goals to focus on, because when you’re doing all these things, you don’t have the TIME to focus on yourself.

Simple tips:
1) Make eye contact with the audience – your goal is to hold their gaze
2) Address whole sentences and thoughts in the lyrics to specific audience sections – your goal is to make them understand what you’re saying
3) Treat it like you are telling a story in front of a group – your goal is to hold their attention

THIS is observing the rules for enjoyable social interaction nature when it comes to human nature, and you can capitalise on this when on stage.

Remember, although they are watching you, they are the real stars of show. If you focus on the audience in the same way as you would when holding a conversation with someone, focus ON them and make sure they are looking at you, then your focus CANNOT be on yourself. When you make your objective to hold people’s attention, the focus on yourself very quickly abates. By changing the focus, you completely castrate and neuter the power that stage fright stems from. By focusing on the audience, they focus on you, without ‘you’ having to focus on ‘you’!

The audience is the subject, and they are the star of the show. By focusing on the audience and being so tunnel-visioned on engaging them, you don’t worry about yourself. In doing so, you make them focus on you, and engage with you, which makes your performance all the more compelling.