John Swan Teaches Us How To Sing

"We're lucky when we play music that we get to take this journey. It's better than sex. Drugs. Rock & Roll. Drink. Whatever it is. Nothing is as personal as your relationship with your instrument. And what do you get out of it? Why do guitar players sit there over and over and try to work out a guitar solo? And then they get up there and it's over in a couple of seconds. They do it because they're passionate about what they do."

John Swan (aka Swanee)

That quote came from John Swan (Swanee) - one of Australia's most talented vocalists. John's musical beginnings were in Adelaide, where he started as a drummer. After a few years he slid into a lead vocal role and he's never looked back. You might not know that John has gone through an amazing personal journey over the past few years: first coming to terms with his alcoholism and then coming to terms with his sobriety. But, his musical journey is far from over - in fact he's pining for the next challenge in his musical career. With a fresh band, he's putting together a compilation of some new songs as well as some new renditions of old favourites for a series of tours in 2005.

In the midst of all the creative work John is doing, he has discovered something else that provides him with a great deal of joy, teaching. And, not surprisingly, he has become one of Australia's most sought after vocal coaches. His own personal technique has been harnessed and he now shares the seeds of his natural gift with aspiring singers all across Australia. John talked to The Metro Gnome - we were hoping to get a few insights into what it takes to be a great vocalist - and we did!

"When I started teaching, I thought it would just get me by when I wasn't working live. But the deeper I got into it the more I realised that I had to learn about it in order to explain what the voice does, how the vocal system is set up. I had to go a lot deeper into it than I expected. So I took about 2 years to study it.

"I went onto every website I could get my hands on. I read every book written by vocal teachers - guys like Seth Riggs, Jeffery Allan - two Americans - between them they coach just about everybody: from Stevie Wonder right through to Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Al Jerrod - you name it. Their techniques, and mine, are basically to just elevate the tone from your speaking voice into your singing voice.

Swanee Playing in Adelaide

"I was pretty lucky because I was doing the right thing unconsciously. And I didn't know it at the time which was a great thing for me because I didn’t have to adjust. As I went through I found that all the techniques that I was trying to get my students to do, I was doing naturally."

Students

"My students are interested in different music styles from classical to rock. Some use too much falsetto and not enough chest voice. Most don't like the fact that their voice separates - their tone doesn't connect the way they want it to. I start with the basics of how it works physically and then take them on a journey to practice technique and refine their own style.

The Physical Workings

"Your voice is made up of air and vibration. When air is blowing up from the diaphragm through the vocal chords it takes a great sweeping passage right around the top of your head to the mask - the bone around the eyes, the nose, the cheeks - and bone is where the resonation comes from. In the mask, being the top end of your voice, we get all of that brilliance from the tone. All of your bottoms and mids come from your sternum and your rib cage. The air blowing through that is taken up into the mouth. The biggest problem that I find that most people have is the blend of those two.

"To solve that you need to use the whole instrument instead of the parts. Don't close down the back of the throat. If you drop your jaw and allow the opening of the throat to become a little bit bigger, it allows the tone to drop from the head voice down into the mouth, and the tones from the chest voice to be blown up to the mouth to be equally distributed. I think the shortest was to look at it is that you want to get the largest amount of air you can get into your mouth. Your projection point should be about 6-8 inches away from the mount like a reverse megaphone.

"From then own it's your own special gift.

"Some people think [singings is] a great difficulty. My hardest thing is to convince them that singing is the easiest thing in the world. It's much easier than talking. All you have to do is stop looking for something difficult about the process of watching the path that your voice takes. Keep the air constant. Keep the flow open through the throat. Don't restrict the throat.

"And practice, practice, practice so that singing comes naturally."


Practice and Progress

Among a host of traditional vocal exercises, John uses and recommends scales that keep the air flowing consistently through to the end of the note. He also talked about another exercise that is anything but easy.

"There’s a thing called messe di voce; it is a classical exercise and people say it's the highest technical exercise for singing; and it's just one note. You just sing one note for 20 seconds and increase the volume. You start off softly and get louder and louder without any breaks or wobbles - just a pure note. And then you go up to 30 seconds. And then you vary the volume between soft and loud."

From The Gnome: I tried to do this exercise. I worked on it for over 30 minutes and recorded myself. I never made it to 20 seconds and, when I listened to the recordings, I found wobbles - not in pitch so much as in strength - but wobbles nonetheless. I have every intention of doing this exercise until I can do it for at least 20 seconds. Go on! You try it. Let us know how you go.


How do you know how you’re doing? To expose strengths or weaknesses, record your voice alone. Sing into a separate channel so that you can later take out all of the other instruments and expose just your raw voice.

Personal Style - Interpretation

"Get the basics right first. Bring me a note perfect rendition before you bastardise it and distort it into something that you want to call "your interpretation." Just give me a pure tone first; then take it to where you want to. As long as you can show me where it comes from and you can give me a pure note and the note doesn't pitch all over the place, you can then add the gravel to it, or add the blues sound, or you can take it to a falsetto - in a softer voice, but still with the bottom end to it."

John recommends that beginners start with simple songs that have really nice melodies and pure tone; songs like Better Be Home Soon (Crowded House) and Yesterday (The Beatles); songs with nice open ended melodies.


To become a great vocalist - listen to great vocalists

John Swan - Bright Lights

"Some people are really fortunate and they are blessed with a good voice. Well, I don't think it's that they are blessed with a good voice, as much as that they listened to the right people who have good tone, good technique, and they prefer that style of vocals. I think Mossy (Ian Moss) is one of those voices.... You know there're a lot of them around. You hear Jimmy (Barnes) singing some soul stuff and you can hear all the way back to his roots - from Sam and Dave back to the early stuff that we listed to. I was listening to people like Etta James, Nat King Cole, Pavarotti, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder... a whole bunch of different types of artists.

"Go back in time to tested and true vocal greats to look for inspiration and style. And then go back some more. Pick anyone who does it well with good tone expression and soul. Listen to the greats like Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight...."

Lessons

John has a lot of people come to take lessons for about a month to get their voices into shape.

"When you go to a gym it doesn’t matter how big you want to get, how fit you want to get, how strong you want to get - to be a lean, keen fighting machine you still need to train as hard. Just not with big weights. So I would get them to do exercise and lighten the exercise to what they want to do.

Practice is the Key to Great Performances... Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

"If someone is serious about it they need to practice everyday. This is a repetition thing. If you think you've done it too many times, do it once more and then come back to me and tell me about it. Because repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.... It’s the key to a great performance.

"If you are panicking. If you are uncomfortable. If you are having an anxiety attack. (Which I do have - since getting sober and getting up on stage - it's a different person that's up on stage.) But I can dig deep into my well of "been there that many times" and pull out something that is not really there. That's what the human spirit can do.

How does a teacher or a coach help?

"I'm going to invade your comfort zone and make your comfort zone as uncomfortable as I possibly can. And stretch you right to the boundaries. Where you may be flustered with me. I'm going to push the limit of your comfort zone to stretch your boundaries. When it's no longer uncomfortable your comfort zone is bigger - and then we do it again.

"It's not the number of notes that come out of your mouth; it's that every note that comes out of your mouth is disciplined."

Gnome Links:

• John Swan has a website where you can find out everything going on in his career. http://www.swanee.com.au
• John mentioned Seth Riggs - Seth has an exceptional reputation for his speech level singing training program. You can find out more here: http://www.sethriggs.com/.
• John also mentioned Jeffrey Allen - Jeffrey is also on the top of the list when it comes to improving vocal performance. Here is his website: http://www.vocalsuccess.com/

Gnome Recording

By Doug Lloyd

In our last issue, we discussed how to get started doing home recording (see Gnome Recording - December) We talked about the equipment needed and threw in a few pointers about recording technique. In this issue we continue that discussion with more examples and pointers.

Now that you have all the equipment (for a list of all equipment required, see last issue - we're using the Tascam 414 - see photo), you've probably played with it a little to discover how it all works. If you haven't, you should. Do some recordings that you don't care about at all, just to understand how the equipment works. Let's go through an example.

Pick an easy song, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," that you can play easily on guitar or keyboard and that you can sing and even harmonize to.

To keep this discussion simple, we will assume that the final result will be monaural (aka, mono - we'll talk about stereo another time) and that acoustic guitar and vocal are the only things to be recorded.

For starters, just plug the mic into channel 1, play and sing while adjusting the level so that the loudest part of the song just barely clips (goes above 0db, or into the red, or however your recorder indicates the input level). During this adjustment, also adjust the volume in the headset to be comfortable. Then just hit 'record' and play the song (and sing). When you've finished playing and singing, hit 'stop'. Rewind the tape and listen to what you have recorded. Can you hear both the guitar and vocal? Are they balanced? Is there any noise on the tape that you did not expect or want? You can repeat this several times trying different mic positions, level settings, or any other variations, like your location in the room. Find out what this kind of recording can do - then we'll try some things that should make a difference.

Keeping it simple, next we'll record only the guitar on a single channel (you can use any channel on the recorder - from now on we'll just call this the guitar track). Again, position the mic to pick up the guitar (much more on positioning in a later issue). Try a position about 50 cm from the hole and slightly above the guitar (not directly in front of the hole). Play the loudest part of the song and adjust the level as before. Now, when you start recording the two most important things are: 1) don't make any sounds other than the guitar, and 2) play the song in a way that you will remember again later. Using written music is one good way to do this, or simply remember the number of verses and chorus' and the order.

Now that you have the guitar track recorded, we'll record the vocal track. First disable recording on the guitar track. Plug the mic into a different channel, adjust the mic physically for your singing comfort, and then sing while adjusting the record level on the channel and if necessary the headset volume. Now play the guitar track and adjust that playback level to your liking so that the 'mix' in your headset when you sing sounds good to you. You may or may not record the vocal track while making this adjustment. It doesn't really matter, you're going to record over it anyway. If your recorder has separate level controls for record and monitor on each channel you can play with both the guitar level and the singing level for the headset mix. But the record level should always be set as before - just barely clipping on the loudest passages.

Now you're setup, so go ahead and sing along with the guitar track while recording the vocal track. When you're finished, listen to your result. You will probably need to adjust the headset mix again to balance the vocal and guitar tracks. You can also play with 'pan' to separate vocal and guitar between left and right ears, but for now it's probably best to just leave pan set in the middle. How does it sound? Compare it to the first technique, where both vocal and guitar were recorded at the same time. Is the balance good throughout the song - did you remember where the soft passages were, and where the loud passages were? Want to try again? Easy enough! Just go back to the beginning, set all levels, etc. Use a checklist, and don't skip any steps. You'll find that writing things down (and reading them again later!) will help avoid a lot of simple mistakes that usually require re-recording.

When you have the guitar track and the vocal track like you want them, try recording a harmony track! The process is the same - protect the guitar track and vocal track from being recorded on, plug the mic into a third channel, set record level, set headset mix levels, and sing away. How is your harmony? Play it back and find out!

It's really easy and fun, once you get the hang of it. Let us know if this has been helpful. For a bit of play-by-play, watch the Musician's Forum. In there we've set up a thread just for Gnome Recording and we have a guinea pig using these articles to set up a home recording session. You can offer our guinea pig advice, share your experience, tell us about your frustrations, or just read and try it yourself.

GET OUT THERE! and give it a try. Until next time....

Products on The Metro Gnome

NAMM was an absolute spectacle - with thousands and thousands of products for us to see, touch, and hear. The trade show is exactly that - a place for sellers and buyers to get together to trade goods. With the January NAMM Show being the largest in the US, if not the world, a lot of the sellers launch new products at the show. There are 4 products I found in my NAMM adventure that want to tell you about in this issue.

* The SpinSlide®
* The Fender™ G-DEC®
* The Piano Wizard™
* L Benito Guitars

The SpinSlide

I like this idea so much that I want to bring it to Australia - and I very well might! The SpinSlide is a modified guitar slide. The big functional benefit is that with a simple movement you can move from slide playing to finger playing. There are a couple of slides like this on the market already, but I like the SpinSlide better. Why? Well, for one, the SpinSlide is as narrow as a typical ring when you are using finger side of the slide. That means that I can bend my fingers naturally when I place them for chords. Second, the SpinSlide has a soft padding inside the slide side which makes it easier to "grip" and much more comfortable to use. Third, because the slide is effectively only a half slide, my knuckle doesn’t hit the other side of the cylinder and, therefore, doesn't get bruised (it also gets air and doesn’t get as sweaty). And fourth, the SpinSlide comes with 4 different sized rings, so I could choose the size that fits my finger best. I always had wanted a smaller slide than the standard, but hadn't gone through the effort and expense of buying one.

So my pick of the slides is the SpinSlide. There's a demo online of how easy it can be (see www.spinslide.com), with a little bit of practice, to spin it around with one hand and without interrupting play. Have a look! If you want one - let me know.

The Fender G-DEC

Fender G-DEC

G-DEC stands for Guitar Digital Entertainment Center - but I call this little ditty "karaoke for the guitar." Now, before you get offended by that, read on.... When you play the electric guitar, you have to have an amplifier and speakers to hear it. And when you're learning the electric guitar, you're probably practicing alone in a bedroom or a garage. Well, this unit is a great upgrade from a standard amp, because it has inbuilt bass and drum sounds that you can play along with (you can turn one or both off if you want to). And, cooler than that, the unit also has effects built into it that modify the guitar sounds to match different styles of music. And, even cooler than that, you can isolate the standard effects, modify them, and save them as your own custom effects. But the pièce de résistance is that the G-DEC can take MIDI and MP3 inputs to bring real songs to life for guitarists.

Personally, I think the G-DEC will give people who are learning how to play the guitar more reason to practice (and more satisfaction when they do practice) as well as a greater understanding of how the guitar player fits in with an overall band. But even seasoned players can use the G-DEC to learn and practice new songs so that they come to rehearsal they can be ready to go! It's fantastic.

The Piano Wizard

The concept is simple - when you learn your native language, you start by hearing it, then you speak it, then you read it, and then you learn how to break it down into it's structure (nouns and verbs, sentence diagramming, etc.). And everyone knows the best time to learn a language is EARLY. You actually start learning it right from the beginning, because the sounds you are exposed to even before you can speak are really important in your development.

So why wait to learn a different language? And why change the natural path to learning a language? Well, we shouldn't!

And the language of music is no different to any other language. Here's the path. First, expose your child to music from the beginning. Some people start when the little tyke is still in the belly. Let them hear music. Then teach them to play music... and start early. And this is where I introduce you to The Piano Wizard.

The Piano Wizard is essentially software (included) that works with a midi keyboard (included if you need it) connected to your personal computer via a midi-USB cable (included). But don't let that technical description scare you - this looks and feels like a video game that can be played by anyone from about 3 years of age. You start by putting some removable colour strips onto the keys of the keyboard. Those colours match the colours shown on the keyboard shown across the top of the computer screen. When you start the game, coloured icons move up the screen toward the coloured note and the player hits the note when the icon crosses one line but before it crosses another. If the player plays the right note at the right time, s/he scores points. You can control the speed of the game (the tempo), the complexity of the song, and the precision of when the note needs to be played. Once the song is over, the game reveals the score and asks if the player wants to play again.

Once the player is ready, the game level advances so that the icons begin to travel from right to left across the screen to the keyboard. This begins to give the player exposure to reading music, by making them work out how changes in notes vertically (on screen) are interpreted horizontally (on the keyboard).

I cannot possibly give the game complete justice here. But I have a demo version of the game available to show to parents, schools, music teachers and, well, anyone who is passionate about getting kids to play music and like doing it. Consider this a teaser. Let me know if it's piqued your interest. (Oh, by the way, the piano is just the start!)

L.Benito Guitars

L.Benito Guitar

The wood is what drew me to these guitars. Meeting Lito Benito, the luthier, and the really friendly team of people at the L.Benito display kept me interested. Playing the guitar for 20 minutes in the soundproof booth was fantastic and gave me even more reason for hanging around. But, by far, the best thing about my NAMM experience with these guitars was listening to two exceptional guitar players just sitting down for a jam. I just couldn't leave until they took a break.

Great Wood - Great Design

L.Benito acoustic guitars are made in Chile. Although they make guitars in traditional woods, too, the wood that caught my eye (and the one they're most proud of) is from 3000 year old Chilean native trees: Alerce. The wood has a rich, deep colour and beautiful grain. The harvest L.Benito uses was cut in 1973, so it has strength and age that make the resonance absolutely beautiful. The trees are now protected and so the world supply for guitars is fixed - what L.Benito has is all there is. The quality of the guitars is further enhanced in the workshop; to give you an idea of the instrument quality we're talking about here, Lito honed his craft at none other than Taylor Guitars in California where he eventually worked his way up to head luthier - not too shabby. The quality of the wood combined with excellent design and craftsmanship makes this guitar an absolute stand out in the world of acoustic guitars. The uniqueness of owning one in Australia would just make me the envy of all guitar enthusiasts. I will continue my lessons so that I might one day deserve to own this guitar.

Unfortunately, we can't get any of the above products in Australia today, though rumour has it that 500 Fender G-DECs have been ordered and will be available later this year. But hey, if the SpinSlide or the Piano Wizard or the L.Benito guitars grabbed your attention - just let me know. I made connections with all of them, and I'm happy to introduce you to them.

Do you want any products that aren't available in Australia? Write to us and let us know your story. How did you hear about the product? Why do you want it? How have you tried to get it? We want to know.

nArdo Launches a New EP

nArdo EP - No Sale

On February 2nd, nArdo launched their new EP by performing at The Basement - the location, all by itself, usually a testament to the quality of the band. The Metro Gnome was invited to attend the launch. We got a copy of the EP and listened to it first - and the CD sounded really nice. So we accepted the invitation and made our way to the venue.

The Support Act

Well, we promised that The Metro Gnome would be a place where you could get an honest review, an honest opinion, an honest piece of advice. So here, in the 3rd issue, it's time to ruffle a few feathers. Because to make this an honest review, I just have to complain. But not about nArdo - and not about the Basement - no, I have to say that the opening act, Mick Hart, left a lot to be desired.

And that doesn't come out easily - The Metro Gnome is about telling people to GET OUT THERE! So asking Mick Hart to stay home probably seems a bit harsh. In fact, I expect that this little review might spur some negative reaction. Mick seemed to have quite a following at the Basement that night. More than 20 people left after Mick finished and before nArdo even started, which implied to me that they were only there to listen to Mick. Strange. Let me explain....

Mick's guitar sound was tragic. It was harsh to listen to. I couldn't think of another word than "crunchy." His style of playing - not strumming really, more like attacking the strings - only compounded the harsh sounds. I asked my comrades if the sound guy could (or should) fix it and I learned that it was Mick's on stage compression equipment causing the noise. We couldn't believe that he didn't make adjustments. We stood there, bewildered.

Volume seemed to be Mick's special ingredient to add texture to a song. Unfortunately, he didn't have a soft volume though. Loud and crunchy were followed by very loud and very crunchy. The problem wasn't limited to his guitar either, it happened throughout his vocals, too. If we weren't there for his guitar playing or vocals, I thought we must be there for his beautiful lyrics and song writing, but I found no evidence of that, because most of the time I couldn't understand his lyrics. My friend leaned over and said that he must have gone to the "James Reyne school of Diction." Unimpressed, she left and went outside to read the Drum Media until nArdo came on.

And now on to Opening Act Etiquette, Lesson 1. Warm up the audience and set the scene for the headline act's success. (Don't drone on for 14 songs.) Mick stayed up there for 1 hour and 20 minutes! He overstayed his welcome.

I suppose I'm being extra hard on Mick because he was so cocky about it - slyly mentioning that he's played at the Basement many times before - casually introducing each song with an annoying reference to which of his (three) CDs it came off. In his introductions (to every song) he rarely gave the songs any other context - no meaning, just a reference to a CD. He also commented to the audience that he would have played some more ballads, but that the audience was too loud for those songs to be effective. (I think he hoped that that would be a hint for people to stop talking during his performance.) But Mick was right, there was a lot of chatter going on during his set. Interesting.... Perhaps it wasn't just me.

The Headliner

Anyway, let's move on from Mick and talk about the reason we were there to begin with: nArdo. nArdo came on the stage together and started their set well. The song writing, lyrics, and music were enthusiastic, appealing, and emotional; conveying opinionated messages around relationships, politics, and the environment. Sam Nardo (lead vocals, guitar, and namesake) was unabashed in his delivery, often adding a falsetto lyric or an aggressive rap over his melodies to provide dynamics to the strong messages in the songs. And he was quite impressive in a couple of acoustic songs that he played alone on the stage during the night.

Andy, on lead guitar, changed instruments for every song. He brought out a lap steel guitar for a song half way through the set and really added some nice texture to the music. On a song called, I think, The Mountain, the techno effect on the guitar was a great sound against the classical string section. Though, Andy didn't show off his guitar playing very much; I suspect that's due to not being intimately familiar with some extra musicians on stage - more on that later - but, I reckon Andy has some hard-hitting solos hidden in his repertoire. (Bring them out, Andy.)

On bass, Karl added a lot of depth to the songs and, importantly, didn't over or under play his instrument. Evan rounded out the rhythm section on drums and worked well with the rest of the band bringing structure to songs that had complex rhythm changes from section to section. Overall the band had a good feel and good dynamics.

About those extra musicians... nArdo included a string section and an additional band member (keys and percussion) for this special evening. Bands like to do this on their big nights. I prefer to see and hear the pure band actually. Sometimes the special guests add to the sound, but more often than not, they cause more problems than they solve - sound issues, changed stage placement, disrupted personal intimacy, and the like. For nArdo, I suspect the strings would have sounded great, but for the most part I couldn't hear them well enough to tell. And the additional percussion and keys weren't necessary in my opinion - the guitar sounds were great on their own. The keyboard/percussion player also stuck out as different than the rest. He didn't belong - he was extra. He didn't detract from the performance, but he didn't add to it much either. I would have preferred that he wasn't there so I could focus more on the genuine band.

We left before nArdo finished their set (and I blame Mick for that because he played too long and frustrated us), but I got the feeling that we only missed 1-2 songs. I agree with the other critiques I've read; nArdo are a good group of musicians and have great potential as a band. Without hesitation, I will go see them play at least one more time to see what they can do when they can run free and just play some funky, bluesy, rocky music without the pressure of the EP launch and all of the pomp & circumstance that goes with that.

The Venue

The Basement remains one of my all time favourite venues for live music. It is small, smoke-free (YAY!), has good sound, and friendly staff. I've reserved seats for dinner and a show and also just shown up and stood in the back. Either way - it's all good. And, as a result, The Basement gets great gigs. Every single headline act I've seen there has been impressive and memorable - including nArdo.

Gnome Links:

To complain about this review of Mick Hart (or to thank me for finally exposing him) write to me.
Nardo's website is here http://www.nardo.com.au.

Artist Interview With Stacey Morris

Stacey Morris isn't new to the Australian music scene - she's been singing professionally for almost 3 decades - but she's in a new genre, with new goals, with her own name on the line, and with a completely new outlook.
In the 80s Stacey rocked the house down. She worked in cover bands like Sydney-based Stormy Monday and toured Australian stages belting out the lyrics of Meatloaf and Fleetwood Mac. Her stage presence and saucy attitude resonated with her audiences; she made the shows come alive.

So it might come as a surprise to some of her fans of old to find Stacey at the Tamworth Country Music Festival singing beautiful country songs from her own recently released CD, Borders and Boundaries. Stacey has created a fabulous mix of songs with American country roots. She selected songs that moved her and that spoke to her own unique style. And her hard work hasn't gone unnoticed: Stacey was nominated for the Country Music Association's Golden Guitar award for top female vocalist - she made the top 10 in that category which catapulted her into a prestigious group that included Kasey Chambers, Melinda Schneider, Sara Storer and Beccy Cole.

The Metro Gnome caught up with Stacey in late January. She was singing at the Bankstown Sports Club on a nice, large stage with a full band behind her and a full audience. But, Stacey wasn't performing her songs from Borders and Boundaries to a room full of devoted fans; she was crooning old standards to a full house of pensioners. Why? Well, there's a lot to learn from Stacey in this interview. Some of her insights and some of the things that she's doing are universal truths for all musicians. We asked her candid questions and she gave us candid answers....

TMG: It doesn't seem like there's a lot of money out there for original work or for people who are performing as original artists. How does that make you feel?

SM: [It] gives me the shits. Because I can come here and sing all of this stuff (cabaret) and get paid $700 to sing for a 40 minute spot and that sort of thing. In some ways you're selling yourself short... but you're not because you're getting yourself out there and you're doing what you love and you're entertaining the crowds - so that's good.

If people don't know your stuff then they don't want to hear it. Don't you think? Original stuff. Unless they know the songs. That's how I felt at the Rocks the other day 'cause I was doing all the stuff off my album, but people seemed to love it because I incorporated a bit of the old stuff into it as well.

TMG: You do one cover on the CD, don't you?

SM: So Far Away is a Carole King cover I do on the CD. But we totally changed the style of it. I actually got a t-shirt from Carole King 'cause she was quite happy with the way I did it. So she sent me a t-shirt. That was nice of her. (We laughed.)

TMG: "I love your work - now here's a shirt."

SM: "Yeah with my name on it - Carole King" (she laughs). Anyway, starting from scratch is hard work.

TMG: You play the guitar when you perform your songs from the CD. Yet you don't consider yourself a guitar player. Can you tell me about the pressure you feel to play?

SM: Well I can play chords, but I'm not a guitar player. With country stuff they want you to be able to play the guitar and play it properly, so you can go out on your own. A lot of the gigs [are] unplugged gigs. Whereas I want to get out there with a band. But on the money side of it - you can't afford to get a band - it's bullshit.

Lessons Learned?

Play your songs. Repetition is important. You have to play your songs over and over and over again to ensure that people start to recognise them.

Promote your covers. Always tell the original artist that you are covering their song and send him/her a copy - see if you can get a response.

Work other jobs. You have to make ends meet in the mean time and that might mean performing stuff that isn't your own to make enough money.

Be able to perform solo. You might not have enough money to pay a band to perform your own songs, so learn an instrument or learn how to sing and take your songs out on the road.

SM: A lot of people are saying, "You've done so much in such a short time," and I think that's got a lot to do with Sue [Stanbridge, Stacey's manager] and her marketing. Everything is happening really quickly. Which is good. But, I think there are comments out there from other performers that have been, well they think..."Oh Jeez, you're getting your name out there really quickly." And I say, "I have been around a long time, you know. A lot longer than you think. It's just that I haven't been concentrating on country music." That's where my passion is and that's what I wanted to do. Sue gave me the dollars to do it, and we said "Let's go for it!"

TMG: How important is the marketing then?

SM: Very important! Marketing is key. And you've got to have lots of money behind you. And someone just flogging you every time you do something - like if I get a bit of chart success or my video comes out or I got nominated for the top 10 female vocalist - a press release goes out. So everybody knows what's going on and they say, "Oh, Stacey Morris!" The ones that ignore it eventually say, "Shit, this chick's getting all of this publicity - we'd better listen to her." But now our strategy is to try and get a major label and get sponsorships. 'Cause that's what I noticed - a lot of the big players - they've all got sponsorships and major labels behind them.

Lessons Learned?

Use the press. Repetition is important, part II. A band needs to hit the market over and over and over to ensure that the message gets through to even the most stubborn of people. Targeted press releases are a must for any artist trying to get their name out there. Send your recordings and press releases to record companies to get their attention. Let them know when you are performing and invite them to attend each session. And more than just one. Keep telling people what is happening. Just make sure that it is "press worthy."

Look for appropriate contests and awards opportunities. Find all of the possible awards you could be nominated for and get active in nominating yourself or in having others nominate you. These are a way to get your music listened to by new people and a way to create "press worthy" events.

Solicit sponsors - genuinely. Sponsorships are a great way to raise your profile (and are a good "press worthy" announcement), but they don't get you work - only your music gets you work. Sponsorships are a business proposition between the artist and the sponsor. They are 2-way relationships. The artist MUST bring something to the sponsor and vice versa. Don’t approach a potential sponsor expecting to get something for nothing. Represent and endorse companies and products you believe in to the core and make sure you give back to them as much as you get from them. The result will be a long lasting relationship built on trust.

TMG: How important is singing to you?

SM: (A long pause.) It's my life. That's all I do. That's all I know how to do.

TMG: Who inspired you to start singing?

SM: No one really inspired me. My mum just pushed me out there and made me do it, because she wanted a little protege. So it was basically my mum who said, "Well she's got a bit of talent, so keep it going."

Lessons Learned?

Commit. Commit yourself 100% to your job no matter what you do. You could tell when she got out onto the stage that, even though it was cabaret and not her own songs, she loved singing to the audience and gave it 100%.

Work with children. Inspire children to perform. The benefits of music are immeasurable - music improves attention, learning, math, organisation, and confidence. Did I mention that it's also "press worthy?"

TMG: What sort of advice would you give to people who are just starting in the industry?

SM: Don't sleep with the guitar player. (We both crack up!)

TMG: So what are your goals and aspirations now?

SM: I want to make money out of the album so I can pay Sue back. 'Cause she paid a lot of money.

The Borders and Boundaries film clip came out today (TMG: January 30) on high rotation on CMC - the Country Music Channel. High rotation means that they play it at least 3 times a day for at least 8 weeks. And it's now charting at 29 with a bullet (TMG: now at 23). So it's getting a lot of airplay out in the country.

TMG: When you say that you are looking for a sponsorship or a major label is that to do something else like a new album?

SM: Yeah, I want to do another album, but I also want to do another filmclip because there are 3 or 4 good songs on the album. I want to do a filmclip for Moonlight & Roses, a filmclip for I Don't Know and one for Astroturf. I've got like 3 more that I want to do. And it costs a fortune to do 'em.

Lessons learned?

Be confident and persistent. Be confident in your material and committed to making your current work sell. Even if she gets a major label involved, notice that Stacey's not looking for the next album yet - she's looking to explore all of the possibilities of Borders and Boundaries before she moves onto new material.


Stacey needed to get onstage (Jeff the MC was up on stage singing a rousing rendition of the theme from "The Love Boat" - the punters loved it!) I asked her if she wanted to say anything more.... She only had some advice for me:

SM: Make it honest. Because I find a lot of people don't. They say "Oh, you've got to say you like this one or that one." And I think, "Well that's not my favourite music, I like American country."

Without getting people offside... I think there's no one here doing my sort of country music. Good harmonies, good melody, and good strong stories to tell.

I make money out of doing the cabaret shows and the one man band things. But I don't want to do that, I want to get Borders and Boundaries out on the road with a band.

And I bet she'll do just that.

Gnome Links:

• To learn more about Stacey, look at her website: http://www.staceymorris.com.au/
• To find out how to write a press release (and to determine what information is actually "press worthy") click here http://www.pressrelease.com.au/ 

Picture: Stacey in ~1987 in Stormy Monday - Gotcha! :)

All About NAMM

By Michael Rootes

Telecaster Heaven

Hi All,

This month The Metro Gnome street team hit the road in a big way. Yep, we piled into a plane (never a safe thing for musicians, especially the guitar playing type) and headed to the NAMM Show in Anaheim California.

Well, instead of writing a thousand reviews of every guitar we saw at the show, I'm just going to try and give the layman's view of the event and the experience in general. So here we go.

Welcome to the Line Simulator

It was balmy January day in Southern California - warm for winter, but probably normal for Southern California. We ventured out of our hotel and headed over to the Anaheim Convention Centre to begin the NAMM experience. As we got closer to the venue the crowd started to multiply at a geometric rate. As the entrance came into view so did the line simulator. You see NAMM is a trade only show, no public allowed. You pre-register prior to the show and on day one you rock up (no pun intended) and collect your laminated entry pass. The catch is so do 50,000 other people. As you break into a sweat from overhearing people quoting a 2 hour wait in the line. (For a 2 hour line I'm expecting a roller coaster from hell at the end of it, not just a lousy laminated pass, but that's the deal, get over it, do your time.) Once you do get your pass you have the glorious opportunity of running up and down the line you just spent 2 hours in tormenting the wretched souls who are still in the line. Note: This can be dangerous as some people have no sense of humor.

I'm In, I'm In

Ok, mission accomplished, we are in. As first timers to this event we all had the same initial reaction, it was a simple case of being absolutely overwhelmed by the size of the venue and the number of products on display. To give you an idea, pick up a guitar magazine, see the multitude of adds from every manufacturer on the planet, yep it's at NAMM - all of it. Think of any musical product you may have heard of, seen a picture of... just find that manufacturers stand and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt (or private part if you are of the female persuasion), but I digress (note: happens a lot... Editor).

Paul Reed Smith

We sensibly decided to make a plan of attack, set out our goals, where should we meet etc. Our leader was laying down the law, you know it was the, "We are here on business !! and have the following tasks to complete" routine.

Oops! Too late. I'm off! I've already seen 5 things I'd sell my soul to the devil for (unfortunately I sold this particular item years ago for very little return). My head was turning one way, the legs were going the other, full on kid in the candy store routine happening. Business out the window, The Metro Gnome leader brushed, see ya, I'm off to attack the toys.

Stars on Thars (Just see Sylvester Mc Monkey Mc Bean)

Yep the title is cryptic; it's an obscure reference. (The Metro Gnome is giving away a Les Paul custom to anyone who identifies the reference.... Oh look, Wendy just passed out from terror....)

Let me explain. NAMM has a coloured tag system which is really a just a social structure and pecking order. If you want to get attention get a laminated BLUE tag. BLUE tags = 1 thing. You are a buyer!!!

The Metro Gnome crew had the lowly Yellow Tag, the "Non-Exhibiting Company" badge a.k.a. "probably not a buyer, but maybe, so pay attention to them until a genuine BLUE tag comes along."

We were treated very politely, BUT (and it's a heavy BUT) as soon as a buyer turned up we were discarded like a soiled piece of toilet paper. And at the end of the day, who can blame them?

Toys! Toys! Toys! (Most are Noisy and Some are Pointy... I Like Pointy)

Yeah, as mentioned above it's all at NAMM. Guitars of all manor, electric, acoustic, combinations there of, amps, racks, recording stuff, mics, PA's, effects, standard stuff, custom shop stuff, art guitars, every type of accessory you can think of, drums, keyboards, wind instruments, basically anything you can play or plug in to. Personal favs... electric piano accordions through high gain amps and porno stars. Hey, I saw both at the show, just not on the same stand at the same time... well there's always next year. In reference to the title.... Yeah, flashy stuff is back.

Warning !!! Inserting Subjective Personal Pointless Rant Here!

Proof of Pointy

Ok - we all love Strats and Les Pauls, arguably most electric guitars fall into one category or another (if you disagree, write to me on The Musician's Forum - I'll shoot you down, but I'm open for the challenge). The most apparent thing I saw in electric guitars is that pointy is back. Apart from the standard fare brands and models (you know the ones, well respected, well made and conservative in look) there were a lot of extroverted instruments. Yes, their appeal is selective, but great to see some variation out there for all styles. If by chance you were planning to form a Finnish Death Metal Band, well there were plenty of instruments on display there for you. There was a googleplex of flashy instruments, things that stepped out of the usual box.

Thank God for that, 'cause from 1993 onwards we have had the most regressive (and hey I'll say it) boring guitars of all time have been produced. The 70's and particularly the 80's was a quantum leap forward in guitar technique and build technology. Next thing we know the Stormtroopers from Seattle with their music-to-kill-yourself-by invaded everything for a period of time. Note to Grunge: Good production, playing your instrument well, melody, harmony and guitar solos are a good thing. Ahhhh, I've got to let this go.... My therapist says I'm getting better with every session.

Back to NAMM.

High Level B.S. Scores Tickets

"Hi I'm Phil McCavity, I've always loved your slides that double as condoms, been playing and using them for years for years and would like to get into distribution of said product in Upper Mongolia."

As stupid as this sounds, if you can pull off the lies, welcome to some gigs from hell. Tickets are coming your way and it's free. We are not talking Joe Shit and the Buckets here, but world class talent, in mostly excellent venues within easy reach of your Anaheim hotel.

Important note: Long Beach is no where near Anaheim, and it costs about the same price in a cab to get to and from as the GDP of a small African nation.... Yeah, I found out the hard way, but the gig was free... Woo Hoo!

Distorted by Cabo Wabo

Cabo Wabo

Simple rule, musos need alcohol to live, fortunately NAMM has a bar every 100 feet. Better still all the bars are sponsored by Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Tequila (if you don't know who Sammy is then please leave the site immediately, you have no place being here, you are not a musician, you never will be, ring your local TAFE and register to be an accountant or colostomy bag emptier at your local nursing home).

Cabo Wabo Tequila is a wonderful thing (but don't ask my liver for its opinion). The Metro Gnome team did end up having a specific meeting place: the main Cabo Wabo Stand. We did stick to one commandment, every time we met up, it was to be at the Cabo stand, and a top shelf Margarita must be consumed. This happened 3-4 times a day. As mentioned before we had fun. Sometimes I wasn't sure if the amps were distorted or if it was just me.

We Are All Punters At Heart

Starstruck!

Here's another simple rule, companies have endorsees, endorsees are mostly rock stars and you have many of their albums. By the way they all turn up at the NAMM show.

The amount of famous musos appearing as endorsees was just overwhelming (I keep coming back to that word). If they aren't officially doing signings and photo opportunities at a stand, then they are just generally wandering around like everyone else.

I saw more famous guitar players on Day 3 (Saturday) than in any other place in my life. Time to name drop (guitarists / bassists on one afternoon only): Joe Satriani / Steve Vai / Marty Freidman / George Lynch / Dave Mustaine / Steve Lukather / Brad Gillis / Bruce Kulick / Billy Sheehan / Peter Frampton / Michael Anthony / Yngwie Malmsteen / Nikki Sixx / Traci Gunns / Glenn Hughes / Michael Shenker / Michael Angelo / Doug Aldrich. (Ed - A free, black, rockin' The Metro Gnome T-Shirt to the first 3 readers who send in the correct names of the four guitar players in our Starstruck picture above. Editor@themetrognome.com.au)

Paul Reed Smith

There were many more but it gives you an idea, if you could be everywhere at once in the venue you would see many, many more but the sheer size of the convention centre just won't allow it.

We saw some other priceless cool stuff, how often can you wander into a stand and see Paul Reed Smith personally demo-ing his guitars to a buyer (celebrity shot - see photo inset). Experiences and surprises like that happen several times during the day.

Strange Things Are Afoot At The Circle K

Ok, This was weird. It's late afternoon, I was trespassing on the BC Rich guitar stand, admiring how such a satanic godless shredding machine can cost US$5000 when it happened. It seemed like almost every member of Ronnie James Dio's band for the last 20 years wandered past me within a 5 minute period. At first I thought, "Hey it's a reunion," but no, just a disturbing coincidence. Yes, you are right most people would not have noticed, let alone cared but for me.... Cosmic.

Then again it was probably just the Cabo. It's my story and I'm sticking to it, I've told about a dozen people and no one has cared or showed interest yet. Feel good in the knowledge you are not alone.

The Big Wrap Up

Perfection

So, in conclusion, what have we learned here about the NAMM show? Probably not a lot, but if you ever have a chance go and check it out, definitely do it, we did 4 days straight and never came close to covering everything. I defy any musician to not get something out of the experience. I sure as hell loved every moment (excluding the fare from Anaheim to Long Beach in the cab). As a guitar player and fan I found the whole experience nothing short of inspiring, and I don't think I could come away with any better emotion. Thanks to my partners in crime: Wendy, Doug, and Sally for making it a week I'll never forget.

Next Month

Learn how to break into Disneyland after drinking close to a bottle of Jack Daniels and sneak on to their biggest roller coaster after closing with the staff. Something not to miss (and yeah... it actually happened, but can't say too much the mouse and his minions are always watching.)

See Ya!

Issue 3... From the Gnome

What an action packed couple of months! All of us at The Metro Gnome have been busy, busy beavers. We made a point to GET OUT THERE! ourselves and play a few gigs around town. And there was a lot of live music for us to see all over Sydney!

We also went to California to see the biggest music industry trade show in the world! As a result, our All About Guitar's section has been superseded with an article called All About NAMM. Don't fret (sorry!), we made sure to include lots of guitar references (and we took lots of photos).

We've had lots of inquiries for stories about vocalists. So our feature this month is in the How To section. We talked to none other than John Swan (Swanee), Australian vocalist extraordinaire, about how he sings so well. Luckily for us, he knew all the answers because he now teaches others about his singing techniques. John provides a great description of how it all works on the inside, and he also provides some tips on how to improve your own voice. Sorry kids, believe it or not, it involves practice.

Calling all novice recorders... our third Gnome Recording article is out! This time we review what we learned in Issue 2 by walking through a suggested session.

Two Sydney artists are featured this month who have recently released CDs: Stacey Morris and nArdo. We interviewed Stacey to get her insight into the music business and how she's working to crack into the spotlight. And in our regular section, What Happened, we reviewed nArdo's EP launch party. Wait 'til you see it - we stirred the pot a little!

In our Products section we introduce the Australian market to 4 products we found at NAMM. Notably, none of them are available in Australia - yet! But all 4 have tremendous potential.

Music. Play for Life

We are happy to announce The Metro Gnome's support for and collaboration with the Music. Play for Life initiative. With that initiative, combined with our ongoing support of Weekend Warriors! we plan to be actively involved in spreading the word to help more people, young and old, get involved in playing music. If you want to know more about these 2 great initiatives, just ask us, we want to help.

Whenever you're looking for a live gig in Sydney, don't forget to check out The Metro Gnome's Gig Guide. We've looked the whole World Wide Web over to find a more comprehensive Sydney gig guide than this one - can you find one? Let us know!

Your feedback for Issue 2 was that it was great (the Ian Moss interview brought lots of great feedback), had lots of good information in it, and it took took long to get through - you want less info more often. So we made an effort in this issue to keep it simple. Most of our feature sections have only one article, and we kept the articles short and sweet - at least we tried to. Thanks for the feedback. And if you can't get through this issue all in one sitting, just bookmark it for later and come on back. Let us know what you think of Issue 3!

If this is your first visit to The Metro Gnome, welcome! You can find out more about our mission and objectives in the About Us section.

Now, GET OUT THERE! Play some music!

- The Metro Gnome