Simply put; Trust No One in this business.

That sounds awfully harsh, but it is for your protection that I say it. This is a cutthroat business. Many people are in it for the money and the power, and they don't care who they have to cheat, lie to, and steel from to get them. That, to some degree, is the business world in general. There is one thing that makes the music industry different though, from most other businesses. The music industry -- the entertainment industry as a whole -- is overflowing with happily naive and vulnerable people. They are naive and vulnerable simply because they are not business people. They don't want to be business people. They want to entertain; to sing, dance, play, or act.

That having been said, know that there are a lot of fine people you will meet. They will help you toward your goals with no thought of advantage for themselves. Others will deal with you because it is good for them. That is okay, as long as they deal with you fairly and honestly. You will learn to trust some of these people. Some of them will actually deserve your trust.

This is the key; learn to trust them by their dealings with you and others. Let them earn your trust. Don't just blindly trust everyone until they burn you. (Been there, done that, hurts a long time.) Always keep a guard up. Never agree, even verbally, to any business deal until you have it in writing. Even then, unless it is a very simple agreement, written in plane English, don't agree until a lawyer or other knowledgeable person, has reviewed it for you.

If I am advising you, I will try to watch your back in this respect. I will be happy to review agreements for you. When I think it prudent, I will recommend that you pay a business attorney to go over it with you. In order to make this work, we must have open and complete communication.

Speaking of trusting no one; you don't know and have no reason to trust me. This is why we have done our best to write the entire Singer Help site in plane English, and why we tend to explain things a bit more deeply than some would consider necessary. This is why we ask that you have someone else look over our site before you contact us. This is why we insist on parental participation, if you are under eighteen. We will do our best to earn and deserve your trust but, as they say, it is better to be safe than sorry.

You are never too young to sing. You can, however, be too young for vocal development. Pushing to develop immature vocal folds can cause them permanent damage. It can be very hard, if not impossible, to learn to compensate for that damage later on.

That’s right; compensate for, not recover from. Damage to young developing vocal folds can leave scar tissue that will cause a permanent dead-zone in the singer’s tonal range. Some cases may be helped somewhat by surgery, but most will endure.

The best age to begin developing the voice is the mid to late teens. By that age, the vocal folds will be nearly matured and boys voices should have changed and become more stable. That having been said, careful and conservative vocal training could be very good for younger children.

By “conservative”, I mean that there should be no effort to develop the vocal range, to shape, or to build the voice of a child. There should be no effort to make a child’s voice go beyond its natural, comfortable range. A child should also not sing particularly loudly.

Vocal training for a young person should consist of singing in their natural, comfortable range, while being coached in maintaining good posture, breathing techniques, and good general and vocal health. They can practice matching and maintaining pitch, harmonizing, reading music, playing an instrument, and a number of other things that play a part in being a good vocalist. They should, however, not try to develop their voice.

Singing, for a child, should be fun, natural, and relaxed. It should not be work. The child should sing age-appropriate songs and should sound like a child singing. They should not try to sound like an older vocalist.

Children, who enjoy singing, should be encouraged to join their school’s Glee Club, their church or synagogue children’s choir, or other community children’s choral group. Be careful though, that the director is not trying to push the children into other than their natural and comfortable voices. A choral director will want to fill out the vocal parts of his choir and natural Basses and soprano’s can be rare in children.

So, will I automatically refuse to advise anyone under fourteen? No, but I may be hesitant, and I will expect a great deal of parental involvement and monitoring. I will be very unlikely to agree to advise anyone who is less than ten.

American Idol, is an entertaining television show. It has singing, drama, excitement, costumes, music... I recommend that anyone interested in a vocal career, particularly in Pop Music, watch it.

American Idol is a program that falls into a category we call "reality Television". I consider this to be a rather deceptive name for the category, as there is little real about reality TV. This is not to say that American Idol is fake or dishonest. It just that there is much more to it than the simple search for great, new talent that they would have us believe.

Idol does not reflect the reality of the very vast majority of fine, talented young people who are trying to break into the music industry. A lot of people believe that all you have to do is sing well to get onto A.I. While that is a great help, the reality is that many, many excellent vocalists never get past the paper application process.

In the first couple seasons, the show seemed to be looking for amateurs. The application process actually eliminated anyone who already had a Manager or had any kind of recording contract. Not so now. The majority of the contestants are already, to one degree or another, professional vocalists. Several of them have had recording contracts with small, independent labels.

Because A.I. is a television show, with the main purpose of providing entertainment, vocal skills are not all that is looked at. Ever see an unattractive person on A.I.? There are thousands of 'less-attractive' people than you see on the show, who sing very well. Why don't we see them? How many contestants have you seen who didn't have a story, some sort of a gimmick, or a quirk? Don't they all seem to have something going on that makes them just a little more interesting?

The selection process is all aimed at finding contestants who will entertain the audience, in various ways, and to allow for a bit of controversy. Entertaining the audience keeps them watching. The larger the audience, the more the network can charge advertisers. A bit of controversy is a wonderfully effective way of generating some free publicity. That publicity leads to more people watching, which gets back to more ad revenue.

If one is lucky enough to make it to a preliminary audition, the expenses can be great and the odds of advancing are horrible. If you don't live close to one of the few cities where auditions take place, the travel lodging, meals, etc. can easily amount to $1,000 or more, and the odds of being selected to go on to the next round are astronomically against you and the probability of being disappointed and becoming disillusioned are great.

What I am getting at here, is that there is a lot more going on with A.I. than finding promising vocalists. It is not a good resource to concentrate on to try to get a "break" with your career. I am not saying that I would not help a potential candidate to apply and prepare for the interview and audition aspects. I am only saying that it is not something to concentrate on as a primary goal. I will try to discourage you from it, especially if you don't have time and money to burn.

Some people both smoke and sing. Some of them sing really well; even while they smoke right on the stage. Most, if not all of them, could sing better if they didn't smoke.

Smoking decreases your vocal range. Smoking decreases your lung capacity and efficiency. It causes coughing that damages your vocal cords. Smokers tend to eat less healthy and get less exercise than non-smokers, and have poorer general health. Smoking is the leading cause of laryngeal cancer and several other diseases.

Secondhand or "passive" smoke is nearly as bad. Spending an hour in a place where smoke hangs in the air can be equivalent to your smoking a couple cigarettes in that hour. If you can avoid spending a lot of time in such places, both socially and as a performer, you will be doing your voice and your health a good turn.

That is all assuming we are talking about cigarette smoke. Health studies indicate that smoking marijuana is from ten to fifteen times more damaging to your voice than cigarettes.

If you want to have a career as a vocalist, my advice is not to start smoking. If you already smoke, please, really consider quitting. Not only will you feel better and be healthier; you will be able to reach higher notes, hold those notes longer, sing longer between breaths, and have a higher overall vocal quality.