Fingerpicker wrote
There is an easy way to find out if you can sing.
Book yourself into your local Open Mic night, start playing...
Step 1) Establish a base response to to the guitar work. If people take an interest, stop talking etc all's well.
Step 2) Fire up the vocal chords. Bad signs are: people leaving, going for a smoke break, heading for the bar. Those that can't leave their seats pull out cell phones, start SMSing. Others start whispering/chatting to their neighbors. Good signs are people developing an interest in what you are doing. People smoking outside start looking in the window and door, coming back in etc..
When you get to the end of your set, your rent-a-crowd will cheer loudly if you did well. If you f****d up, they will clap politely and pretend that they don't know you THAT well.
Very few people will tell you to your face that you can't sing. I had it happen to me by the person who ran the club, so my desire to sing was stronger than his opinion. Right or wrong, I don't know.
singemonkey wrote
@Fingerpicker. Good test. Yes. People won't tell you that you can't sing. And sadly, you need confidence to sing otherwise you won't reach far enough for the notes and will end up going flat out of caution.
yes thats the tough part about being a vocalist is that opinions on their abilities become seemingly more "personal" than say with guitarists, and most people won't comment negatively for fear of hurting someones feelings............
and i believe we must make a distinction between people wanting to sing for fun .......and those wanting to get up on a public stage professionally , cos hell yeah if you in the 1st category ....just go for it and sing your heart out ....... however when you have greater aspirations to go pro or semi pro thats when it gets to be a different kettle of fish
in my mind the only true test to see if you can cut it as a vocalist......( ok we talking about peeps who want to cut it in the pro scene here or any gigs that pay pro rates for artists even if they may not be fulltime pro's ) ....
best test.......... is to see if you can audition for a vocal position in a pro band or commercial stage production, where believe me , no one will pay you if you not got something they want or need........ cos at pro levels there's no sympathy , if you get hired to do a job, and you can't deliver , it's your reputation and you only get that chance once............ cos they won't hire you a 2nd time........ and the competition for "paying" gigs is so high that if you don't perform well you can be replaced very easily ......and most definitely will be ...by either the venue or the band itself........
and NEVER forget normally a pro vocalist is heavily tied into the bands image and stage personality ........ so you need to look the part and have that X factor where an audience likes to watch you perform... image is so important .....and of course some vocalists in many genre's have what we refer to as character voices (dylan/mark knofler/macy gray ect) so it's NOT just cut and dried ...
or as easy as if you can hit a note you should be employed........ over someone else
so being a vocalist is a grey area...... where way more than just a good voice comes into play .......but i still believe if you sell cd's and put bums on seats when you perform you doing something right ........and obviously offering the diverse audience out there something they want ......
