Your Life is Not a Game Show

Stop trying to think of the quickest way to get people to know who you are.  There is nothing worse than having everyone's attention and having nothing meaningful prepared to say to them.
-Melissa Mulligan (MMVS)

How many times have you heard "Like, oh my gosh you should be on American Idol!!'"  If you have a decent singing voice, chances are you hear it every other time you open your mouth.  I am still told I should be on that show, which is funny... maybe as a judge?    

Brian Dolzani - excellent songwriter, excellent person

The best application of your talent, passion, and hard work is not a TV game show.  Telling a good singer she should be on American Idol is like telling a brilliant science student that she should be on Jeopardy instead of going to medical school.  A producer friend of mine says it's like deciding you want to be a millionaire... and then just playing the lottery.


I think most people associate American Idol with the way to "make it big" because it's the most highly publicized entry point into the music business and the rest of it seems like a big mystery.  But I'm pretty sure the career that you want goes beyond being on TV for a few months and then vanishing when the season is ends.   Out of the estimated one million people who have auditioned for the show in the last ten years, perhaps six true stars have emerged.    

The truth is that the path to success in music requires excellence at what you do and the ability to make fans along the way.    As for fame - there is no path to fame.  Fame requires a funny combination of timing, luck, and excellence that you can prepare for but can't dictate.  Most of the finalists on American Idol aren't famous, and they met a lot of "important" people along the way, so it's not just about who you know.  The fact is there are always way more talented people than the public can be interested in at one time.

Frank, Cole, and Shelby.  We're a community at MMVS.

In short, nothing guarantees fame.  You can't be in this for the fame.  You must be in this for the love of music, the enjoyment of sharing your music with lots of people, and the desire to be excellent at all of it.

Five Steps on the Path to Excellence

1. If you want to be a performer, you need amazing songs.
2. Focus on becoming the best version of your most unique self.
3. Create a show that is fun, engaging, and musically enjoyable.
4. If you want to make music for a living, you need to work at it like it's your job.  Starting now.  That's right, before anyone pays you to do it.  It's your education prior to graduating to the real world.
5. Stop trying to think of the quickest way to get people to know who you are.  Because there is nothing worse than having everyone's attention and having nothing meaningful prepared to say to them.

I Front a Loud Band - "WHAT?!?!"

Where do you sing the best - with great pitch, tone, flexibility, range and emotion?

Home alone?  At lessons?  When your best friend is singing with you?  In the car?  In the shower?

For most people the answer is not "With a live rock band in an unfamiliar venue, with very little control over the soundboard and very little vocals in the monitor, while trying to win over a noisy crowd."

Duran and Ben know how to give energetic live performances that are played and sung under control.

I work with professional musicians who perform with full bands.  In their lessons they have been progressing tremendously well; expanding their range, learning how to blend their lower and upper registers and breaking bad singing habits.  Their lessons and acoustic performances are wonderfully improved.

But performing with a band is completely different.  The singer often can't hear himself well, which leads to shouting over the guitar, bass and drums.  This leads to pitch problems and throaty singing.  The singer also now has the job of fronting the band, which requires a level of energy similar to that of doing sprints in a sauna.  There goes breath control!  

Many frontmen and women say they don't want to have to think about singing when they're on stage - they just want to feel the music and go with it.  My answer to that is "so... practice a lot."  

Here are my recommendations for anyone who plans to maintain pitch, tone, power and vocal health while fronting a band:

1. Learn how to sing with POWER without straining
2. Utilize more movement while vocalizing in lessons and rehearsals
3. Redefine what it means to vocally "bring it" on stage - there are ways to cut through the sound of the band without shouting.
4. TURN DOWN YOUR INSTRUMENTS AND TURN UP THE MONITORS.
5. Redefine what it means to bring the energy level up while keeping your vocal performance under control.
6. If you don't exercise regularly, get on an exercise program.

Peace, love and power,
M

MMVS Showcase Video

Enjoy this video (produced and edited by Mike Falzone), about the recent MMVS Winter Showcase and the preparation it takes to put on such a dude awesome event.  Featuring: Kicking Daisies, Mike Falzone, Brian Dolzani, NEVER4GET, Take Zero, Emma Converse, and roughly twenty other MMVS superstars.  XOXO

HEY MMVSers - What should our group songs be for the Spring Showcase?