Why Singers Are A Pain In The A** To Work With! 

How do you know a lead singer is at your door? Always late and doesn't have the right key

@@lawrencewheat1290 How do you know when a drummer's at your door? He's late, his knock slows down and he comes in out of time.

LOL... Last night I left my banjo in my car. When I woke up the side window was broken out and there were three of them now.... :D

How do you know your stage is level? The drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth.

@@joeruder The same thing happened with my accordion!

lol The way you describe this is both humorous and somewhat tragic. Honestly, good enough should suffice. We should'nt be expecting perfection from people. That is what we have autotunes for today (if you're the sort who requires a non-human sort of robotic perfection). Good enough seems like it should be just that...good enough. That said, I'm the person LISTENING to all these finished productions that all you producers labor over for hours so people like me can listen effortlessly. I'm thinking there must be songs that producers have to work so hard on that they can't even listen to them a year or two later without cringing, remembering how hard it was to achieve. lol

@@le_th_ i like glen frickers way of doing it, he autotunes the singers first efforts and gets them to learn the perfect version, then records them live singing, so it doesn't sound mechanical. benefit, the singer... goes away.

@@felderup that’s how I work. I put a real-time auto tune on the singer while they are singing. When I sing myself it’s helpful, you can hear it moving the note up or down so you know where to improve. It’s also builds confidence while performing. Once good takes are recorded I turn it off and correct any unpleasant moments manually. This way things feel more natural, it’s not robotized, but still “perfect enough” to meet modern listening expectations for pitch. Split the diff

ME TOO !

That's a great point. Singers are frontmen/women; they want attention. And having known some actors - and opera singers, which truly is a combination of both - they're definitely drama-seekers offstage, too.😅

OMFG Just NO to ice skating. You NEVER allow your lead guitarist, drummer, bassist, triangle player...*anyone*...who uses their hands to ice skate just before or during a tour. My god, that is like inviting catastrophe AND causing dozens of people to lose their jobs, all because one person in the band...much less the lead vocalist and guitarist...decided to behave like a self-absorbed idiot who can't equate possible consequences with actions and go ice skating. This is why professional sports teams FORCE their players to sign such extensive contracts on what they can and cannot do while under contract...even in their free time...even in the off-season. One snapped wrist...one twist of the knee...bye-bye entire tour, and all the record sales that would've happened with it....and every single job, right down to the people who work security and concessions (drivers, roadies, tour managers, guitar techs...and many, many more). ice skating smh

@@le_th_ Wow

SKYRIM

@@le_th_ jesus christ, it was obviously a joke......

Skyrim is like crack for women.

How is Frankie's mum? Was she at the gig?

That’s awesome 👏🏽. I have an Oliver myself halfway between Birmingham, Al , US and Huntsville-NASA et Al. We enjoy various great stuff ourselves. Music is important. Rock on. Enjoy the little big stuff. I’ve been revisiting Audioslave among others.

I'm an amateur jazz singer and singing feels like I am in a rocket ship with 5000 buttons and switches, lamps blinking everywhere (especially pitch but far from being the only disturbance) and I think I know what half of the buttons do. I have to land this thing everytime I perform on a different planet while there is an invisible goblin that plays around with the buttons while I fly, before and after. Starting a difficult piece feels like a fighter pilot but it helps to have pieces I love, where I know what to convey and it has somehow locked in. It helped having experience in acting but being a useful actor is still miles away from being a functioning vocalist. I also know that instrumentalists think they could sing just as good or better but then they still don't do it. Because from the inside, it's much more difficult than it looks. The audience should sometimes be happy they won't ever hear your inner voice while singing :) Also there are pieces where you are expected to function just like one more alto sax or trumpet. I try to avoid these because they don't let us add our value. Good music is a conversation, not a march.

Justin man I really gotta agree with this dude. 20 year anniversary shows too, if you’d be so kind. Lots of love too x

We concur

Their RU-vid ad got me. “Friend or Foe” is excellent…great retro late 70s/early 80s prog.

😭 Very sad news. Much love to Ozzy ❤❤❤

I'm surprised he's managed to perform for this long tbh.

Who said it was live? I doubt his vocals were live

I think what ED G means with his comment is that was the last chance to share the same place with such a living legend. 🦇🤘

@@Rocksarum correct.

...and the guitars were recorded via a Scholz Rockman.

Agree😊

I'm thinking Steve Perry outdoes Christine McVie vocally, as lovely as her singing and music is/was. Freddie Mercury probably does, as well, especially live, but also recorded. Bonnie Rait's studio version of "I Can't Make You Love Me" is superior, not so much vocally, but in evoking emotion. There are many songs that are vocally stronger or more evocative than Songbird, which is a beautiful song. Even the Beach Boys have better vocal performances recorded than Songbird. Brad Delp on Boston's first album? I dislike the man's character, but I cannot find fault with his singing on that first album, each performance was just impressive. You might feel a very sentimental attachment, linked to the time and place when this song first came out, and what it meant to you, which is truly wonderful and not at all to be discounted. That is the magic music holds for many of us. It takes us right back to the feeling we had during that place and time. Like you point out, they had to try all night long, over and over again, to get one good take they could use. The real test is can these vocalists deliver live when they tour, which is really hard to do night after night. Do they sound better...as good...hit and miss...or cringe-worthy when they perform. It's a huge strain on their vocal cords to perform at that level, night after night, and it requires rest, humidification, protection from the cold outdoor temps if performing outside in fall, or at altitude, and many other accommodations. When you see a band live, and the vocalist is even better live than on the recording, that is when you stand there, slack-jawed at what a truly extraordinary vocal performer they are. Few can deliver that live.

@@le_th_ music is like food.

If jazz is your thing, the most talented contemporary female vocalist by a Universe or two is Hailey Reinhardt. Her cover of Creep or singing live with Jeff Goldblooms Jazz set are just unbelievably nuanced.

@@le_th_ I agree with most of what you say but nam still astounded by Christines take thank you for such a cool opinion.

@@supertuscans9512 Thanks for the tip I think one of musics real powers is the subjectivness of what is ''good' all the best.

It's the matter of ear training.

@@DenEz_TV I guess I think you have to be a bit gifted tho😊

@@suzirox6599 it's actually not that hard if you learn music all your life. I can hear chords too, it's not difficult.

@@DenEz_TV I was classically trained to read I think it sets you back when it comes to hearing chords. Wish I had learnt by ear

@@suzirox6599 Exactly! I had the jazz education, I know how classical dudes can't hear chords, I played with them in bands.. it seems to me this thing is international, because i'm from Russia. And we have the same problems:)

I love music theory, it helps me enormously every day. When I hear notes I know their relationship and what they're called. The Beatles knew no theory (apparently) but George Martin sure did. When something doesn't work in the studio I know why. Someone has to.

I get what you're saying, and intuitively it makes sense to think of the instrumental tracks as "the cake", but in most cases the lead vocal is the focal point of the song (the reason there is a song for the band to play), rather than icing or fluff. I would argue that it's usually the other way around; the lead vocal IS "the cake". Obviously this isn't always the case, especially in predominantly instrumental genres like Orchestral, Classical and Jazz, or in Funk, African Hi Life, Disco, EDM etc, where rhythm and groove are king. While an instrumental arrangement and hooks can sometimes be as important as the vocal, I'd say most songs can be interpreted in wildly different ways, with chords, harmonic structure, rhythm all changed, yet the essence of the song is preserved in melody and storytelling. I don't say this to diminish the importance of the rest of the band. As a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer and songwriter myself, I often feel my greatest sense of accomplishment as an arranger or as part of the rhythm section. That said, I bet that If you were to ask the average listener to sing you the guitar part, or bass line of their favorite song, most wouldn't be up to the task. That's because the majority of people immediately tune into lyrics, melody and emotive performance, while groove, syncopation, and harmony strive to serve and support the song.