Working the Voice
Thanks for your patience as I build a better blog! This is the blog of The Voice Works Studio, LLC. My goal as a voice teacher and artist business coach is to dispel the myths about singing well, and educate my students about technique and business practices to make them huge, shining successes. Or at least to have some fun singing. Explore my qualifications, favorite posts, interviews, and ask me any questions you have.

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The Artist's Resume

Crafting an artistic resume is a broad topic. Depending on the type of artist you are, your education and experience, your needs will be different. It can never hurt to get professional help in this area, or at the very least, have your resume reviewed by colleagues in your field as well as meticulous friends or relatives to make sure you've corrected any errors and not omitted any key experiences or facts.


In general, an artistic resume for performers should emphasize performance experience first, education second, awards and recognition third. Depending on how impressive the last two items are, you may want to reverse the order. Also, if you have no formal education in music or acting, try not to be discouraged, your on-stage experience is the most important. When a casting director is deciding who to bring in for a role, the roles you already have under your belt will be the best indication of the kind of work you are capable of.

If your goal is to secure teaching positions as an artist, your resume may need to change, depending on the institution. Local private music businesses, schools, or conservatories may feel comfortable hiring someone with ample experience. Public schools require specific degrees and certification. If you wish to teach at the college or university level, without an advanced degree, your performance career will need to be incredibly extensive in order to "stand in" for academic experience. Furthermore, you will need a curriculum vitae, references, and personal statements which indicate any teaching experience, teaching philosophy and/or articles you have may published. I will not cover this extensively, but wanted to just mention the different requirements briefly.

I also want to alert my readers to an interesting school of thought I've seen on blogs lately that states resumes are either not needed if you are good at networking, or if you have a resume, don't worry about the proper format and grammar. I think this is terrible advice, and am not sure why people bother giving it, other than to differentiate themselves among career and resume advice-givers. For every person who sends out a less-than-stellar resume, you can be assured there are many more who take the time to get it right.

Even if you are in a creative career, taking visual risks with resumes is not usually a good idea either. For example, do not use oddly colored paper, fonts that are difficult to read, change paper orientation, or send something other than a resume as a stand-in! (I've heard of people sending paintings, plants, cookies, etc.) 

However, finding subtle ways to differentiate yourself from other applicants can help you stand out. For example, my sister, who has a career in the visual arts, did a traditional resume format, adding a faint graphic alongside one edge of the resume paper, and fashioned her own envelopes out of red and blue velum. The effect was visually stunning, yet understated. (Oddly enough, she got more interviews from the red versus the blue envelopes!) This was a great way to show her creativity without being over-the-top.

Finally - do not lie on your resume. The use of descriptive language to show yourself in the best light is appropriate, but you cannot make up experiences and expect it not to catch up with you one day. The arts world can be surprisingly small, and you never know who is going to be reading your resume in addition to the person you send it to. Consider yourself warned!

A few samples I thought were simple and effective:
 
Here is a sample resume for an actor

Here is a sample resume for a visual/creative artist.

Here is a sample resume for an opera singer.



Possibly Related Posts:
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  • How Often Should I Practice Singing?




    Want more singing or acting advice? Email me directly for personalized advice, or subscribe to Working the Voice for ongoing tips and instruction!
  • Artist Interview: Kate Hinote of The Blueflowers

    Every once in a while as a voice teacher, I have the chance to work with a student who walks into my studio with a naturally great voice looking to perfect and polish their music. That’s what I found when Kate Hinote came to my studio with her beautiful voice. You can read the review of her latest album, Watercolor Ghost Town on my personal site, but for my readers I wanted to offer insights into the vocal and business life of a working musician.

    WTV: Thanks for sharing with my readers! As a natural talent, tell me about the advantages/disadvantages you feel you face vocally?

    Kate: Well, that’s incredibly kind. Natural talent…I like it! I never think of it like that, but I guess that’s accurate. I am a firm believer that you have to have some natural ability to be able to sing. You can’t take someone that flat out can’t sing and turn them into a singer. 

    With that said, I’d say the greatest advantage would be the ability to sing in key and having a pleasant tone. However, because I have to sing in loud, smoky bars and am susceptible to nerves, singing in key and not over-extending my vo
    ice (resulting in a husky, not so pleasant tone) is a constant battle at live shows.

    One disadvantage would be that I never felt the need for proper training and I’ve spent years taking my voice for granted, which resulted in a semi-disaster last year and ultimately led me to finally seek out some proper training, and then I found you.

    WTV: Talk about bit about your vocal troubles, what happened, how you recovered, what you learned from formal voice lessons that you feel was most helpful.

    Kate: To keep a VERY long story short, in March of 2008, I had a terrible upper respiratory cold and because we were in the process of writing for our latest album, I sang a great deal one particular day on an unhealthy voice and blew out about three notes of the high end of my mid-range. I didn’t discover it until weeks later when we were beginning rehearsals for a charity event, and we ultimately had to cancel because the notes were gone and I couldn’t find a way around the problem. 

    It was terrifying. Even though I had recovered from the cold I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I saw two different ENT's [ear, nose, and throat doctors] who told me it was acid reflux, and I even tried some reflux medications, but not for long. I couldn’t believe that after all these years, all of a sudden, acid was going to make three notes of my range vanish. Let me clarify here by saying that those three notes did come out every now and then, but on those occasions, I sounded like Chewbacca. 

    Anyway, after a month or so of the different reflux medications and doctors, I was prescribed vocal therapy. This was an enlightening experience. I saw charts that diagramed different parameters of my voice and where it was going “wonky”. I did the vocal therapy for about two months, which included as much vocal rest as possible, a low-acid diet, and speaking quietly all the time. I was supposed to avoid real laughter and shouting. I did pretty well with this, but I’m not gonna lie and say I was perfect. I’m married and live with three cats and a dog. Sometimes there was shouting and sometimes there was laughter. At the end, I had learned a lot about taking better care of my voice and the charts and diagrams said I was better. At that point, I eased very carefully back into singing and looked into voice lessons.

    I don’t think I could have found a better match in a voice teacher, as far as what I was looking for at that moment and I’m so glad I found you. Learning to sing without straining and focusing more on just letting the sound out, rather than pushing it out, was essential at that time. I noticed a HUGE difference within a few lessons. While it took some time for me to gain confidence in that part of my range again (note: I’m still not entirely comfortable and we eventually cut a song from the set that had caused me the most trouble during all of this), my consistency in pitch improved greatly and I learned the importance of warming up. I was a fool that didn’t do vocal warm ups. Now I know how important they are and I’ve actually seen how they help and protect my voice.

    To me, the moral of this story is 1) NEVER sing when you have any sort of upper respiratory illness, and 2) ALWAYS warm up, and not just the day you are going to sing.

    WTV: I don't know if I ever heard Chewbacca sounds, but we're always harder on ourselves as singers. : ) Tell me how you approach song-writing as a singer? Are there challenges you have had to overcome? How do you collaborate with your band members?

    Kate: Well, considering I haven’t been doing it very long, I can’t say I have a definite approach. So far it’s gone like this: Tony writes a song (the music) and puts it in the public drop box on our computer. Then, when I feel some sort of inspiration or Tony asks me repeatedly to “work on music”, I sit down in front of the computer, listen to any tracks that he’s left in the drop box for me, and just keep listening. 

    Considering that he writes three or four songs for every one I finish, it’s safe to say that he’s far more prolific than I am and songwriting comes more easily to him. The melody always comes to me first, and fairly easily. It’s the lyrics that give me a hard time. I don’t claim to be a poet or lyricist, so that’s what I’ve struggled with more than anything over the years. 

    I’ve managed to come up with some stuff that I’m really proud of, but I can say that we’d have more material if lyrics came easier to me! Generally though, I’ll get one phrase or line that I really, really like and then work my way through the song around that. I’m confident this is not a normal process, but it’s gotten us three albums and an EP that we’re incredibly proud of, so I’m sticking with it (for now).

    As for the other members, they don’t contribute to the writing, but they add their own “flavor”, for lack of a better word, to their parts. Tony does all the recording/engineering/producing, so it’s easy for them to sit down to record, tweek, and experiment with different things. This album, Watercolor Ghost Town, was the most collaborative effort Tony has made since I’ve been in a band with him and I think that shows in the finished product and it’s, at least for me, part of the reason I’m so proud of it.

    WTV: I'd agree with that assessment. The album is great! The production, instrumentation, and musicianship of the entire band shines, along with your voice. I'd like to ask you about "the business." Can you talk about keeping a band going? How do you manage multiple schedules and needs of members? How do you handle financing projects and payments for gigs?

    Kate: I’m not certain, but I think our band is more laid back than other bands. For starters, we’re not that young (with the exception of our bass player, Erica, who is still in her 20’s) and we all have day jobs. In addition to that, all the boys in the band (Tony, Marvin and Dave) have been playing in bands, and in “the scene”, for 20+ years. I don’t want to speak for them, but I’d guess they’ve seen their share of things and are doing this more for the creative aspect and the camaraderie. 

    Other than a brief stint in the late 90’s, fronting a band for what was the equivalent of 30 seconds in this industry, this is my first band, which makes me pretty excitable and hopeful. None of us are quite as optimistic as Erica, which brings a great vibe and just enough seriousness to keep us motivated. In short, we’re not doing this to “make it” so much as to make good songs that people (including us) want to listen to or can relate to in some way. It’d be fantastic to get paid to do what we love, and to get any sort of recognition for it, but we’re certainly not banking on it.

    It’s fairly easy to keep the band going because we’re all friends, we maintain a light rehearsal schedule and we’re very accommodating to each other out of mutual respect and understanding that we all have lives outside of this band, and more importantly, lives that pay our bills.

    We haven’t really gotten to the point where we’re bringing in money, so finances haven’t really become an issue yet. Because Tony and I get all of the songwriting credit, so ultimately any credit with ASCAP, most financial stuff falls on us, but we’ve gotten some help when needed. Specifically, Erica finances our involvement with Sonicbids, which is a website that helps bands find gigs and promoters find bands. We’ve been able to get a couple cool gigs out of it, but for bands that have much more flexible schedules, it’s a great way to get into (or at least apply for) some festivals and bigger shows.

    With regard to CD sales, since we produced/financed the album ourselves, without the support of a label, we haven’t broken even on the album yet. I’d say that’s the hardest part about not being backed by some sort of label. But we’re available for download on iTunes and Napster, and we sell our physical CD through CD Baby, so we’re definitely available, but so are a million other bands. That makes it hard to get noticed without someone behind you, rooting for you, believing in you and trying to get your name out there, and basically…trying to make money off of you. 

    When we get paid for a live show, we split it as close to five ways as possible. Ultimately, I think placement in commercials and TV shows is an ideal way to get attention at the moment. We’re looking into our options there and that’s something we’re fairly optimistic about.

    WTV: A big part of having a band is the branding/marketing aspect. I'm interested to know why you recently changed your band name?

    Kate: Tony and I began in late 2004 as Ether Aura, with our friends William and Bret and we were writing shoegaze/ethereal/indie-rock and having an awesome time. We released Crash in February 2005 and got a lot of positive feedback. I was new to writing, so we sort of stumbled upon my penchant for writing in the whole alt-country/Americana genre. Those came to me naturally, I guess you could say. In addition to that, we had just discovered Neko Case and have always loved Patsy Cline and Tarnation. So, we added a second guitar player, Alex, and a tiny bit more alt-country flavor to our second album, Before We Could Sing, but it still came out pretty indie-rock. 

    After that release, both Bret and William decided to do other things, and we released an EP, Semblance, with a few acoustic type covers in the Americana/folk genre, along with an original we’d written. Shortly after that, we replaced our rhythm section with Marvin and Erica and dove into writing again for what would be our third release as Ether Aura. Throughout that process, as we kept writing, we felt like the direction had changed enough that we started to feel like it wasn’t fair to keep releasing albums as Ether Aura, knowing people would expect the same noisy, ethereal, reverby sound they’d been drawn to. It didn’t help that I got several personal e-mails from fans saying they wished we’d go back to how we used to be. By the end of the year, Alex had left the band and was replaced by the fun-loving, goofball, Dave, who brought a light and fun vibe to things. So, really, we felt like an entirely different band and decided to leave Ether Aura in the past and become…The Blueflowers.

    WTV: I'm thrilled Kate decided to share her vocal and band history with us. Despite her considerable modesty - she and her band are light years ahead of many people who claim they want to be singers and band members. I think the key with pursuing music, whether you are banking on making it big or not, is consistency and stick-to-it-ness. Kate and The Blueflowers have that for sure. 

    And as a performer and voice teacher, I know that it is only with that kind of consistency that the artistry can be developed to make great music people want to listen to - and The Blueflowers have that too!

    For more Blueflowers, check out their awesome indie Americana sound at their upcoming shows and be sure to follow them on Twitter for ongoing updates! @TheBlueflowers

    May 8th at AJ's Music Cafe in Ferndale
    July 5th at Cityfest 2009 in Detroit

    You can also purchase the album at CD Baby or on iTunes.


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  • Musicians: Diversify Your Business Skills for Success



    Want more singing or acting advice? Email me directly for personalized advice, or subscribe to Working the Voice for ongoing tips and instruction!
  • Building a Music Library

    When it comes to building a collection of music, I have to remind everyone that copying music can be illegal without express permission from publishers or for educational purposes. Just make sure you check dates and copyright information on anything you intend to copy, so you don't inadvertently break the law! 

    I know it may seem unfair because of the costs associated with buying an entire book if all you want is one piece, but I hope you can look at the benefits of building a music library instead of just the cost. A well-stocked library is essential for every serious musician. You can look at it as a trade tool and an investment.

    Think of how useful a growing selection of music will be as you progress through your career. I have never regretted buying a single music book - there is always more to learn and listen to, and no book is a bad purchase! As a teacher, I have so many books that my students can explore right in lessons, it is a time-saver and education tool as well.

    Plus, as someone who does own many photo-copied pieces of music, they can become tricky to keep track of unless you are extremely organized!

    I thought I would create a list from Sheet Music Plus of wonderful books I believe every singer's library should have. This is just a beginning list, and any purchases should be tailored for your voice type and needs. Feel free to email me at milena@workingthevoice.com if you have specific repertoire questions.


    Look inside this title
    Vocal Method, Op. 31 - Complete - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    Vocal Method, Op. 31 - Complete By Mathilde Marchesi. This book contains simple, progressive vocalises that the beginner can use to grow with or the advanced singer can keep "fresh!"

    Look inside this title
    24 Italian Songs & Arias of the 17th & 18th Centuries - Medium High Voice - Book Only - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    24 Italian Songs & Arias of the 17th & 18th Centuries - Medium High Voice - Book Only The quintessential beginner's aria book. Everyone has one, and for a good reason! Do not skip this book because the songs are overdone - they should be mastered.

    Look inside this title
    24 Italian Songs & Arias Of The 17th & 18th Centuries - Medium Low Voice - Book/CD - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    24 Italian Songs & Arias Of The 17th & 18th Centuries - Medium Low Voice - Book/CD Same book as above for low voice.

    Look inside this title
    Bel Canto: A Theoretical & Practical Vocal Method - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    Bel Canto: A Theoretical & Practical Vocal Method By Mathilde Marchesi. For Voice. Textbook - Choral / Vocal. Dover Edition. Book. Published by Dover Publications. (6-223159)
    See more info...


    Look inside this title
    15 Composizioni Da Camera - High Voice - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    15 Composizioni Da Camera - High Voice Lovely Bellini songs and arias, often overlooked, but make wonderful audition pieces.


    Look inside this title
    15 Composizioni da Camera - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    15 Composizioni da Camera Same as above in low voice.

    Look inside this title
    Complete Folksong Arrangements - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    Complete Folksong Arrangements 61 Songs for High Voice. By Benjamin Britten. This is one of my absolute favorite books of art songs. Britten realized traditional folk songs with the singer's voice in mind. Genius.
    Look inside this title
    The Purcell Collection - Realizations by Benjamin Britten - sheet music at www.sheetmusicplus.com
    The Purcell Collection - Realizations by Benjamin Britten 50 Songs High Voice. By Henry Purcell. Arranged by Benjamin Britten. Another Britten work of genius. He realized Purcell's most beloved music in a fresh light, keeping the integrity of the original works. Great audition music.




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  • How Often Should I Practice Singing?




    Want more singing or acting advice? Email me directly for personalized advice, or subscribe to Working the Voice for ongoing tips and instruction!
  • Milena Thomas
    Voice Teacher and Business Coach
    milena@workingthevoice.com

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