HOW DOES A PRODUCER WORK WITH A SINGER/ARTIST THAT HAS TROUBLE BEING COACHED?

How does a Producer work with a singer/artist that has trouble being coached? (What are some ideas on how: 1) to get a singer to accomplish a Producer’s suggestions; 2) to help the Producer improve the artist’s singing; 3) to save the project a large amount of recording time?)

The question has been posed frequently. This is for producers working to produce a singer that they believe in, but the artist is unable to adopt the suggestion.

First, it helps to understand that the majority of singers, whom producers work with, are essentially blind. They don't really understand how their voice works. Therefore, they don't understand why someone likes or doesn’t like their voice (a very insecure feeling). Some singers will try to cover up insecurity with arrogance. That rarely works in the long run.

The scenario is a situation where the singer feels like they're having some success and then someone mentions to them that they need to change something. It can be very frightening to hear someone say that for instance: that they’re off key and/or have no feel.

When the singer try’s to correct it, they can’t. In these scenarios, what the singer needs is for someone who can make them feel confident by giving them “cause and effect” suggestions. These actually result in a quick resolution to the vocal problem. “Cause and effect” suggestions allow the singer to realize that they can learn from and kinetically sense what feelings work and what feelings don’t. These teach singers how to use their voice to make changes on their own (just like musicians do).

What is required is to get actual hands-on-improvement techniques. These techniques allow the artist to feel, hear and be excited about accomplishing the changes immediately. The fact is that as soon as the artist gets the feeling that everyone is excited about what's happening, the artist’s defensiveness drops at the same time.

This is because there is excitement about the continuous forward movement of the project everyone is excited about going to the studio for tracking due to the successes during Pre-Production. Everyone knows that the project is going to be a win and going to have a great vibe

Brad Chapman Vocal Pre-Producer

www.bradchapmanvocals.com