-Last month I gave a very general overview on how you don’t have to be sitting around waiting if you’re not presently in a full band. There’s many things you can do. Now I’m going to focus on individual roles-starting w/ singers.

-In some ways, the singer’s role in the band is the easiest-in some ways it’s the hardest. The singer does not need to buy any gear outside of a good microphone. Singers don’t even have to lug gear around-although some do help with set up / tear down of the PA at shows.They don’t have to buy strings, pedals, amps, etc. The main concern of a singer is upkeep of their voice so at show time it will do what it’s call upon. For those of you who have been in numerous bands, I’m sure you know that, for some singers, that’s hard enough for them to do .However, many times when a band falls apart a singer who only sings is pretty much helpless until they get into another full band. Many singers I know can write lyrics / vocal melodies but don’t know a thing about how to write parts for the other instruments-so they are stuck until they find someone who can do that for them. It doesn’t have to be like that.

-My 1st suggestion would be to learn to play another instrument-normally a guitar. Even if it’s just chords / playing rhythm. At the very least, you can go out and perform as a solo acoustic act. Learning guitar will also help improve your singing because your vocal now has something to anchor itself to-as long as the guitar is in tune of course. This will also be a big help in making demos if you wish to record stuff. If you have a demo w/ vocals & rhythm guitar on it, you can coordinate w/ a studio to hire the rest of the players and record your song. Now you have something to play to people when they ask what kind of music you do-and it also helps when you are looking to hire people for various things like recordings, live shows, etc. Ideally it would be great to have you’re own recording setup and do this yourself. Yes, that means investing in hardware / software, but many home studios do just this and can record up to broadcast quality. In addition, singers have an advantage w/ this method because they can do one of the hardest things when recording-writing vocal melodies / lyrics & singing them.

-In addition, you can also do many other things. Some of them include getting jobs singing on people’s demos/recordings-whether it’s lead or backing. Getting connected w/ people who do jingles (commercials) on radio/TV/internet is another option. A 3rd can be to write songs for other people to use. If you get good enough w/ this, it’s possible to make a lot of money thru places like TAXI (www.taxi.com). Next month-Guitarists!

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