by Gary Powell
For the students from the University of Texas Butler School of Music (MUS 339M)
Professor Glenn Richter asked me to pose a question or two for your contemplation. Below you will find several from which to choose. I will look forward to plunging the depths with you next Wednesday, October 20, 2010.
This is a preview of
The Gift of Conscious and Well-Informed Decision-Making
.
Read the full post (596 words, 3 images, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)
by Gary Powell
For the students from the University of Texas Butler School of Music (MUS 339M)
Professor Glenn Richter asked me to pose a question or two for your contemplation. Below you will find several from which to choose. I will look forward to plunging the depths with you next Wednesday, October 20, 2010.
This is a preview of
The Gift of Conscious and Well-Informed Decision-Making
.
Read the full post (596 words, 3 images, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)
What if we lived in a world of “no wrong notes?” Before finding our own creative identity, we can either feel completely free or maybe even horribly oppressed. Either mindset can be a great motivator for substantive contribution to self and then to a larger audience and ultimately community. Beyond developing talent, this is what I aim to release in singers.
This is a preview of
Gary Powell “The Producer’s Workshop 2010”
Sam Houston State University
.
Read the full post (328 words, 2 images, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)
What if we lived in a world of “no wrong notes?” Before finding our own creative identity, we can either feel completely free or maybe even horribly oppressed. Either mindset can be a great motivator for substantive contribution to self and then to a larger audience and ultimately community. Beyond developing talent, this is what I aim to release in singers.
This is a preview of
Gary Powell “The Producer’s Workshop 2010”
Sam Houston State University
.
Read the full post (328 words, 2 images, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)
by Gary Powell
Nurturing cooperative relationships with university music schools is important to me. Without these schools the musical landscape will continue to flatten. The student musician brings a diversity of musical interests to their classical training with genuine relevance to them both personally and generationally. The popular and commercial musical arts have largely been viewed as outside the purview of ivory-tower conservatories. In October, 2009, I tried to make a bridge between these two camps in a four day vocal workshop hosted by Sam Houston State University. The workshop is designed to introduce to student singers the skills needed to work as a session singer in a professional recording studio. 
This is a preview of
Gary Powell “The Producer’s Workshop 2009”
Sam Houston State University
.
Read the full post (994 words, 3 images, estimated 3:59 mins reading time)
Table Topic: How to Create Great Art and Save the World at the Same Time
Congratulations to SHSU for raising $57,000 with your annual event,
Let’s Talk. Presenting as a “Conversation Leader,” I was pleased to be involved with this worthy program. Having my former professor and friend, Walter Foster and Jeri Lyn Foster, who were most influential in my educational upbringing, was a great surprise. Renewing my relationship with the university through
Mike Bankhead, has also been a pleasure and an honor. Thank you
Rhonda Ellisor, and
Nancy Gaertner for a beautifully run event! Written below is a quick follow-up of the discussion held at our table.
Okay, so maybe I didn’t quite get to the “saving the world†part of my table topic. Saving the world is actually an ongoing negotiation I am having with record companies, distributors, social-media sites, networks of friends, lawyers, publishers, allies, supporters and with myself as well – all the while trying to compose and record some worthwhile music, identify talented deserving performers and musicians and earning a pot-load of money to fund it all.
Table Topic: How to Create Great Art and Save the World at the Same Time
Congratulations to SHSU for raising $57,000 with your annual event,
Let’s Talk. Presenting as a “Conversation Leader,” I was pleased to be involved with this worthy program. Having my former professor and friend, Walter Foster and Jeri Lyn Foster, who were most influential in my educational upbringing, was a great surprise. Renewing my relationship with the university through
Mike Bankhead, has also been a pleasure and an honor. Thank you
Rhonda Ellisor, and
Nancy Gaertner for a beautifully run event! Written below is a quick follow-up of the discussion held at our table.
Okay, so maybe I didn’t quite get to the “saving the world†part of my table topic. Saving the world is actually an ongoing negotiation I am having with record companies, distributors, social-media sites, networks of friends, lawyers, publishers, allies, supporters and with myself as well – all the while trying to compose and record some worthwhile music, identify talented deserving performers and musicians and earning a pot-load of money to fund it all.
by Gary Powell
Every singer, regardless of where they are in their recording careers, needs an outside ear of someone they trust who is a competent coach in the recording studio. As a vocal coach, helping to sculpt a vocal performance of a talented singer is one of the most exciting musical events in the studio.
After getting a feel for what the voice might be able to do, I listen for pitch accuracy, tone, weight, phrasing, color, air and any missed opportunities across all of the singer’s performance choices and gestures. That may be even the right order for my listening hierarchy. It all happens sort of at the same time though, so it’s hard to know which comes first for me.
