An email from Andrew in Australia...(cool questions)

Hi all. Here's an email sent to me by Andrew Roland from Australia. I thought I'd response to it here (in case you're wondering, I do have his permission ;-)

"I recently bought and listened to the Song Writing Secrets recordings. Great stuff. I thought I was an experienced song writer but I picked up lots of good new stuff. Particularly your tips about getting ideas from DVDs and library books for songs :-) "

Why thanks Andrew. I really appreciate the feedback. It's a method overlooked by many :-)

"I'm mainly a guitarist and not much of a singer. In order to make decent demo recordings I was considering hiring session singers to record the singing parts for my songs. What do you think of this idea? The only other alternatives are 1. I learn to sing which could take 1+ years 2. I meet other singers (a good friend of mine can sing) but I find that they often are not good enough or don't have the right range or sound. For example two songs I've written would be great for a female rock singer but the only singer I know is male."

This is a tough call, and I've been there. I myself can sing (funny enough, I'm a vocal coach) but I still have times where I want another lead voice for the track - and not my own.

Here's what I would do. Firstly, I would learn to sing in any case. (when I say 'i' I mean whoever faces this dilemma). This will give you more flexibility in the future when facing these hurdles. You may want to lay down your vocals regardless of whether or not you sound 'fit' for it or not, and this is a good thing.

I recently bought Brett Manning's Singing Success course a couple of weeks ago, and wow. I don't see how anyone can't improve their voice and vocal range with that one.

Ok, so let's move on to hiring out a session singer to do the job for you. I don't see anyting wrong with this, provided you're sure that the vocal tone you're after is similar to the tone your chosen singer has. There's nothing worse than paying a singer that sounds awful and just doesn't deliever. Believe me, I've been there. Not cool.

Here in the UK, you can probably hire out a session singer for around £50-£150 a day . Some even charge £200 or even £250.

In US dollars, this equates to around $100 - $500. But don't let these numbers scare you. You will often find that vocalists who charge the earth can often get away with that because of their status and credibility. I'm not saying that the more expensive one's aren't any good -- I'm sure that many are brilliant.

But what I AM saying, is that you can often find diamonds in the rough by just fishin around. Going to a couple of open-mic nights, shows or even university gigs can often be an easy way to find a hungry singer who will lay some vocals down for you for a cheap or reasonable price. It can be done... and infact, it happens all the time.

I've also had luck hanging out at rehearsal studio's. Quite often, when you approach a singer after a rehearsal, they will often take you up on the offer since they've just come out of a 2 hour rehearsal which they've spent money on! ;-)

"Do you review songs? If so I would like to send you 1 or 2 of mine and ask you what you think."

If I said yes, at this point I would be in-fluxed with emails asking me to review their songs. Don't get me wrong, the answer is yes, I DO review songs in detail. All the time, actually. BUT, the thing is, it does eat up all my time. If you want your song reviewed, then I'd put a price of $150 per song review.

I know, I know - you're thinking, how could you charge such a ludicrous amount? The truth is I'm hoping that people will see the price and get put off. Seriously! If there is interest, then I will make a separate blog post (and email everyone) about the specifics.

On that note, of anyone is interested in having their song review, then contact me here:

songwriter.review@gmail.com

Andrew, thanks for the email.

Oh, and before I forget, Andrew is based in Bondi, Sydney Australia (hope I'm getting this right) and if you're a female singer in Sydney looking for a songwriter, then give Andrew Roland a shout here:

andrew.roland@resonatesolutions.com.au

Cool :-)

Talk soon...

Shamir