Still Rockin' In Dennis's Basement

Last week, we had spent several days bouncing ideas around for this song "We're Still Rockin.'" I wrote the blog about it, and got some interesting responses on our facebook page.

One reader, David Walker, suggested we come up with a "Hard Day's Night" sort of mystery chord, to begin the song. That's a chord that fascinates Beatles fans. There are numerous youtube studies of its components, and theories about its ambiguous tonal quality. We've done our time studying it ourselves. 

I thanked David for the creative suggestion, without thinking it would have any application to our song, which starts with a drum solo. But the creative process is full of surprises. 

We were working on guitar parts for the song yesterday, with me playing my Line 6 Variax through the POD HD 500, with David making suggestions, and getting excited when I landed upon this or that guitar sound. 

"We're Still Rockin'" is in the key of A, which opens up certain possibilities on guitar. In last week's blog, we talked about how, after listening to Mellencamp's "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." we got inspired to try a simple flailing rhythm part, which lets the A string ring. There's also an historic model in Peter Townsend, who plays a lot of Who songs in A, and loves the power of that sound, built over the ringing A string. 

The chorus is in a different key, but it concludes with an A chord, which rings as the drums pick up the groove. As a variation on that chord, I slid one note, on the D string, up to an A, letting it ring along with the low A, to reinforce the sustaining root note. That was my intention, but my right hand was sloppy, as I hit the B string, along the upper E, at the same time. 

David's ears perked up, and he smiled. "Yes!" he said. "That ninth on top!" My mistake became his harmonic treat. David is a great explorer of guitar possibilities.

He got that look on his face and said, "You're probably not gonna like this…." which is always a sign of a fresh idea brewing in his mind. He liked the sound of that chord (with the added ninth) so much that he wanted to use it as a new intro to the song, preceding the drum solo. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. Dennis was up for trying it.

So we went to the intro, played that ringing chord, with the B added, and then used a different guitar sound to play a supportive chord on another track. We were adding notes, building a mystery - almost exactly like the way the opening chord functions in "Hard Day's Night." 

So we were arriving, with no intention of going there, at a place that someone had suggested in response to last week's blog, which had seemed totally unlikely at the time.

Meanwhile, Nathan added some piano parts, finding an upper range pattern that resembles the piano from Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman." That classic record was recorded in Nashville, so we were reaching for influences close to home. 

David had started the week recommending that we buy a drum software program called Trigger, which would allow him to use "world class" drum sounds to replace his own drums after he recorded them. He then had a conversation with Gary Dales, our mix engineer, who convinced him instead to buy new heads for his drums, which would help improve the quality of the original sound. 

David has a home studio, and a drum kit set up, with microphones to record the whole kit. Typically, he listens to a song - minus the drums - on his headphones, then records his drum part, and sends the audio files to Dennis, where they're added to the song being mixed. That's been our way of operating, which saves the time and trouble of bringing the drums to Dennis's house, setting them up, recording them, taking them back, etc. 

Dennis has a separate room for recording drums, along with a practice set in the main room where we rehearse. It's the drum kit that Ryan learned "Come Together" when he was ten, which is featured in an earlier blog and video. 

Here's that link: http://youtu.be/5HnGmE-nfZs

It's the kit seen in our special clarinet video, for "When I'm Sixty Four." Here's the link: http://youtu.be/w_dFoTOYq_0 

It's been very useful to us, since David can come to rehearsals without bringing his drums.

But now we're in a new era of working together on our own album, and we want the maximum opportunity for group interaction and group effort. Yesterday David stopped at Fork's to get new heads on his way to Dennis's, then took his time setting up his nice Yamaha kit, tweaking the heads, using WD-40 to remove squeaks, tuning each drum. He spent hours on it, and came out saying his kick drum had never sounded so good.

                 David putting new heads on the drums

                   The kit assembled in its new room

Now the plan is to get a batch of songs ready for David to play drums on. We have "Now We're Rockin'," the high energy song David's already played on, but which will have a new track, featuring a new surprising guitar chord at the beginning - unless we change our minds.

We have "If We Knew Then," a mid-tempo song that came from a set of lyrics Dennis wrote five years ago, during the early WannaBeatles period. We have "If We Simply Love," David's inspirational ballad. We have "Bristol Lights," Nathan's song about his home town in Vermont. 

We have "In '63," a rocking reminiscence that Dennis has assembled especially for a gig this summer we're playing in Virginia Beach, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. We may have a few others. But time is growing short. We have a deadline, and we need to get the tracks recorded so that we can mix the songs and get the record finished in time to release it before our Crockett Park show on June 23.

This process is really the part of our adventure we've been dreaming about for years - being in the studio, creating music together, and knowing that it will sound good and make people happy.

Maybe that sounds overly optimistic. We're not four lads from Liverpool with nothing else to do - we've all got wives, children, responsibilities. But we're aware of how their creative accomplishments inspired so many others to follow that dream, and we're glad to be this far into the practical reality of realizing it.

We look forward to sharing the results with you in about six weeks. Let the music do the talking.

Bloggin' Bryan 3May13

Rockin' in Dennis's Basement

The WannaBeatles are getting serious about our new album. 

Not that we weren't serious before, but now it's taken on a more intense quality, as we scrape away normal items from our schedules to make room for the real nitty gritty of bouncing ideas back and forth to find out how our own group-written songs will go.

There's a sad but revealing scene in the movie "Let It Be" where Paul and George are seen working together in the studio, somewhat listlessly, and George says, calmly but with a lingering hint of bitterness, "I'll play whatever you want me to play." 
What happened to the Beatles, psychologically, creatively, emotionally - as they made their way from charming pop idols to world-weary professionals - is not without its sobering lessons. 

While the Beatles may have inspired millions of us to become musicians, to embrace the dream that being in a band was a uniquely exciting prospect, it's also true that they broke up, went their own individual ways, and became very different people from the inspiring characters we first met in '63 or '64, if we're old enough to remember. 
And although they were a band, they were also individuals who exerted their own individual visions, or, by nature of the dynamics between them, imposed their visions on each other. John and Paul were the driving forces, writing most of the songs and determining the overall musical course, even when it dispersed into the "home movie" informality of the White Album. George was basically an unappreciated younger brother, until nearly the end, when his songs on Abbey Road, "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun," established him as an equally valid contributor. Ringo was never in the band as a writer or singer; his role was to serve the creative expressions of the others, which he did cheerfully and patiently.
The group was presented and viewed as four guys, but the musical output was overwhelmingly dependent upon the energy, style, and ideas of John and Paul.

With us, there's no obvious imbalance. We're all four qualified and experienced, to varying degrees, as writers, singers, players, arrangers and producers. What's unusual is the process of embarking upon a songwriting effort where four minds - all loaded with ideas, but coming from various stylistic backgrounds - attempt to coordinate the intricate process of putting songs together.

We've been humbled, and challenged, by realizing that our assumptions, and skills, were not enough to prepare us for the complexity of making something that we're all involved in and feel excited about.

It's a great lesson in relational dynamics, and the nature of creative work. 

The most recent example is "We're Still Rockin'," which started as an idea from David, who wanted to do a fast number in the manner of "Good Lovin'" by the Rascals. We had recently learned and performed that song, and came to appreciate its energy and simplicity. David, being Cuban and very conversant with Latin grooves, helped us see the roots of Dino's drum part, which was largely the Puerto Rican presence in New York. (Check out "West Side Story" or "Spanish Harlem" for other signposts of this major cultural influence in pop music history.)

But our influences are far too rich to take one song as a model. Another one David mentioned was "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." by John Mellencamp, which is not quite as fast, or rhythmically complex, as "Good Lovin'" but equally powerful and simple. 
David presented a rough draft of his song a couple of weeks ago. 

Dennis got a hold of it and put his own New York spin on it, changing the order of the words in the title, to rephrase the melody. I took Dennis's version, and made a rough demo, rearranging some of David's chords in the pre-chorus to allow four beats on an F#minor chord rather than two. 

Then Dennis came up with an alternate lyrical concept, which was called "Now We're Rockin'." This version doubled the length of David's original pre-chorus section. 

Two days later, we were at Fox 17 to do a promotional appearance for Fabulous Females Fighting Cancer, a benefit show we're doing tonight, and Dennis took the opportunity to gather us in the break room, where we looked at the song in its most recent form. That's when Nathan came up with the idea of changing the key for the chorus, giving the listener a real surprise. 

So I went home a made another demo trying out some new chord changes for the chorus. Dennis responded in an email, suggesting that the new key be extended for four bars, rather than two. 

Meanwhile, David took Dennis's suggestion of "surprising us" and changed a chord in the pre-chorus, making it sound, as he said, more like Philly - one of those sophisticated Gamble and Huff productions from the 70's. 

After all these versions and trials, we still weren't finished. We spent much of Wednesday looking at lyrics, and trying out chorus structures. David had made a new demo, and added another surprise: a whistle solo. This was totally unexpected - even to him - and we loved it. 

As we continued to quote other songs and ideas, I commented that the process was "an idiomatic picnic," where an abundance of treats were available to us, like treats in a picnic basket, and we kept reaching in to taste this or that influence or sound or approach that had caught our attention through the years.

We tried playing the song together, first just two of us. I had Dennis's acoustic guitar, and David sat at the drums. As he played the Latin groove which he conceived for the intro, I found a simple little guitar lick that went along with it - primarily echoing the changes we'd already established, but with some variation in the chords. We were starting to move from "La Bamba" changes to something a more like Steve Miller's "Living in the U.S.A."

At this point we started to record in our "home" studio at Dennis's basement, taking David's rough demo and importing it into a new ProTools session. We played it together as a foursome, with me adding some guitar fills and Dennis trying out an acoustic guitar with a capo. All the way, we're looking, trying out parts, finding bass lines, experimenting with chords and sounds. 

It was in rough shape, but ready to put some ideas on tape (so to speak...) Nathan played a bass and keyboard part, and David sang a scratch vocal. I tried putting on some guitar parts, but when we listened back, Dennis thought it was too "safe." 

David pulled out his iPhone and located Mellencamp's "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." for reference. What was it that made that record kick so hard? My impression was guitars not necessarily distorted, but rather played with ferocious intensity - strummed with total abandon. Although, of course, total abandon has to have rhythmic accuracy. Otherwise, it's chaos rather than groove.

But it was a clue to a different approach. I switched to a simple, and relatively unrestrained, rhythm part, letting the A string ring, while the upper strings traced the chord changes. 

Dennis and David smiled - they knew we had something. Gone were the polite guitar fills. Now the verse was just the simple lick, under the vocals, alternating with ferocious strumming, to fill those spaces. David said we'd found the key to unlocking the song.

Another part of what we're doing, as we create this way, is encountering the durable dichotomy between thinking and feeling. We've done plenty of thinking, as we've studied the Beatles songs, and determined exactly what parts to play. That's an important part of being a musician. But the feeling part is equally important. And it's hard to do both at the same time. 

What we were experiencing as we played "Rockin'" as we were trying to learn it, is that it lacked energy. It was not inspiring. We were too involved with the intellectual process of learning the song to enjoy it.

But when we simplified it, and Dennis and David encouraged me to try a wilder approach, I immediately found something that felt good, and that helped the whole song come alive.

We still aren't at the finish line, but we're discovering a lot as we work to put these things together.

I know it's at least a little like what the Beatles went through. But in some ways, it's better. Being four guys who're all creative and all willing to listen to each other is harder than being two leaders and two followers, but we're willing to do the work to be who we are, and we're looking forward to other people listening to the results.

I'd be inclined to show examples of the rough drafts of the song to illustrate the process, but out of respect for the other members of the team, I will restrain my impulse, and ask you to wait for the album to hear "Now We're Rockin'" and a big bunch of other songs I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Believe me, it's a lot more fun to hear it than to read about it.

Bloggin' Bryan 26April13

Going Global

Last week, we played in Paris, Tennessee. We stopped for a photo at their 60 foot tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.

OK, it's not Europe, but it's a reference. 

We had a great time playing in Paris April 12.  Here's the photo and caption from the Paris Post-Intelligencer: 

The WannaBeatles perform with the Paris-Henry County Youth Orchestra as they start the second half of their concert Friday night at the Krider Performing Arts Center. The group was assisted in their delivery of classic Beatles tunes by the orchestra and the Henry County Madrigals. The band includes (from left) David Toledo, drums; Bryan Cumming, guitar; Dennis Scott, guitar; and Nathan Burbank, bass and keyboards.

A few weeks ago, we played in Cherokee, N.C., which is technically not in the U.S., since it's owned and governed by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. 

Still, not exactly global. But a clue that we were headed out to larger pastures.

Several weeks ago, (blog 3/28) we reported being involved in a project based in Liverpool called Beatles Global Relay. It was finally released last week. 

We were among twenty bands from all over the world, from countries like France, Japan, Sweden, Australia, Israel, Slovakia and Argentina. We each played our own version of "From Me To You," which was edited together to form one continuous but very diverse rendition of the song, to celebrate the 50th anniversary (April 11, 1963) of its release in Great Britain.

We were proud to represent Nashville. We saw two other American bands in the video (All Together Now from New England, and another called Union Jack.) We were amazed and impressed with the variety and quality of bands from all over the world.

here's the youtube link: 

http://youtu.be/PowillF6CGA 

It's already had about 7600 views. 

What's interesting is to see all the different ways the bands play the song. Each one is on for about five seconds, along with their name and the flag of the country they're from. 

One of the most authentic and impressive, in terms of capturing the flavor of the sixties, was a group called The Backwards. Their slot starts around 1:24. Their footage is in black and white, which helps them look and sound like British pop stars of the early sixties. I didn't recognize their flag, a fancy crest on a field with three horizontal stripes of red, blue and white. After searching the web, I found out it's Slovakia.

One of the most innovative approaches is a group called Getting Better, who sound like they wanted to turn "From Me To You" into a punk anthem. (starting at 1:52 on the video) They're the only band in the video that takes a distinct departure from imitating the parts the Beatles played on the song. Their flag is two horizontal light blue stripes with a white stripe between them, containing a yellow crest. Again, a web search yielded the country Argentina. 

Right after that (at 1:59) is one of the most interesting flags in the whole collection: the green flag of Brazil, with is yellow diamond in the middle, filled with a large blue globe with a white belt around it that suggests Saturn with its rings. The band with that colorful flag is called Hocus Pocus. 

Undoubtedly one of the cutest entries is a group of young teenage girls from Japan, called The Clover (at 2:40) They look like middle school cheerleaders. They do a fine job.

The Beatles Global Relay is a joint venture between the Cavern Club (where the Beatles played in their early days) and The Beatles Story, a museum in Liverpool.

Seeing all those flags from all those countries, and being part of the project,  gives us a thrill. 

It shows that Beatles songs have been heard and loved all over the world, inspiring young musicians everywhere to take up their instruments and go for it. It's truly an earth changing experience, a small sign of how big music is, and how small the world can be when we all come together in a common joyful purpose. 

We're glad to go global. We've always felt that's part of who we are, because music is not limited by national boundaries. Nashville, as Music City, is a global city, and we're glad to be part of it. Music is the language that goes everywhere. With the Beatles Global Relay, we have a concrete example of how that can look. We're happy to join up with all these other bands from all over the world.

Bloggin' Bryan 20 April 2013

One Good Intern Deserves Another

Last October, The WannaBeatles attended the Belmont Internship Fair, which brought us into contact with dozens of bright young students entering the music business. We ended up with a tall dark songwriter musician named Dylan Morris, who's been helping us out with lots of WannaBeatle chores for the last few months. 

We were among about 85 local businesses who occupied booths at the fair, which took place in the massive Curb Event Center. Belmont organizes their intern program so that interns can gain academic credit for the time they spend with local music firms. 

We were growing fond of Dylan, appreciating his help, even enjoying his songwriting, but his time with us was limited. Internships are semester based, so we have to say goodbye this month to Dylan, just in time for Belmont's spring fair, which we attended this week.

                             Our favorite intern - Dylan

We had a booth alongside other music companies. It was mostly labels, management, and publishing companies. We were the only band there. It was exciting to see all the students walking around investigating their opportunities to get involved in this industry. Many are musicians and songwriters, but an even larger proportion of them are studying business and marketing. 

Here are a few of the students we met. Andrew, wearing a tie, is from Colorado. He does live sound and audio production. He's started his own youtube channel, and has already posted 25 videos there. 

                              Andrew Christenberry

Here's a photo of David working the table, talking to Andrew.

Paris Draper stopped by to talk with us. She's pursuing public relations. 

                                Paris Draper

Stephen Roberts is from Dallas. He has a band with some buddies back there, called "Mama Would Be Proud." They've already produced three albums, mostly his songs, although they don't do much live performance. He's taking a course in Recording the Beatles, which naturally interested us. 

                               Stephen Roberts

Caroline Plyler is a former dancer, currently interested in concert promotion. Her dad started and owns a chain of oil change facilities called Grease Monkey, so she's familiar with entrepreneurial work. 

                              Caroline Plyler

There were about a dozen more students who came by our booth long enough to talk a while and leave their contact info. 

It was quite an an experience to see so much young eagerness and talent walking around, realizing that these students will be the leaders, managers and innovators of the music business in another decade or so. It's a treat to have this opportunity to work with them on a personal level.

We've enjoyed working with and getting to know Dylan, and we look forward to all our future interns. Thanks to Belmont and their intern program for providing such fresh energy to our business and community.

Bloggin' Bryan 11 April 13

First Gig Outside the U.S. - Cherokee, N.C.

We left the country. We played a gig this week in Cherokee N.C., which is technically not in the U.S.

It's property owned by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, which also operates a massive Harrah's resort hotel and casino. It's a popular destination, near Gatlinburg, ski resorts, beautiful rivers, and the Smoky Mountains. 

We were hired to play at an employee "pep rally" for the Harrah's hotel and casino. Because the casino never closes, there are employees for every shift of the day. That meant two parties: one at 8 am, and the other at 8 pm. 

They had a sixties theme for their party, which meant in addition Beatles songs they wanted some other classic sixties songs. We were happy to work up songs like The Rascals' "Good Lovin'," The Kinks' "You Really Got Me," and Santana's "Oye Como Va." (Dennis couldn't resist giving that one a new Jewish title, calling it "Oy Vey Como Va.")

The parties were on Tuesday, so we we drove there Monday, and set up that afternoon and evening.

It took about 5 hours to get there from Nashville, in our WannaVan & trailer. Getting into town, we noticed that street signs are written in two languages: English, and some odd letters we didn't recognize. That turned out to be the Cherokee alphabet, one of the contributions from the famous Cherokee chief Sequoia about two centuries ago.

We saw a huge sign advertising an upcoming show by Reba in their event center. It was like a little slice of Vegas plopped down in these rolling Carolina mountains.

We were greeted by our contact Clayton, who explained that the entire hotel operation was run by Cherokee Indians. Their land is legally distinct from the U.S., run with its own laws and legislature. He took us by the security desk, where we traded in our driver's licenses for badges that were necessary as we loaded equipment through a secure area to get it to the room where we were playing. 

The hotel, we discovered, had recently undergone a $650 million renovation. So it was pretty impressive. 

Here's a cell phone photo of an unusual fireplace near the lobby, with flames coming out of small stones, under a rectangular canopy. 

Here's what the elaborate lighting in our bathroom looked like. 

Here's a view of the Soco Creek running along the property, under a bridge between two towers. 

To accent the sixties theme, they had tie-dye designs for table cloths, and peace signs all over the walls. The lava lamps on each table were a treat unto themselves, constantly changing colors, as you can see from this brief video. 

We were greatly assisted by our Harrah's crew, Matt Humke and Scott Howe, who helped us load the gear and ran a very nice sound system for us. Matt was a Belmont grad, so it was a bit of a Nashville homecoming to have him working with us. He had worked on lower Broadway for a while, and told us he was coming back to Nashville in a few weeks for the Black Keys/Flaming Lips show at Bridgestone arena.  

Here's a photo with Scott and Matt.

Another extra treat was the parody song which Dennis wrote for their general manager, Brooks. It was a take off on "Hey Jude" called "Hey Brooks," which had lines about his raising goats and chickens and keeping the employees in line. He turned out to be a very nice guy, appreciated by his employees. He gave a pep talk to the empolyees there, thanking them for helping set new records for the number of hundred dollar bills spent in a day at the resort. 

Our stay included two complimentary meal tickets, including the tip. (We had a discussion about whether that meant they paid the tip, and it actually did.) We used our meal tickets on Paula Deen's Kitchen for the morning. They opened at 7, and that meant ordering and eating a massive breakfast before being onstage for the 8 am show. 

In the late afternoon, we indulged at the Chef's Stage Buffet, which offers  dishes from a variety of cuisines, at sumptuous stations with names like Asian, Mexican, Italian, American Comfort, and Dessert. Dennis and David both raved about a broccoli cheese casserole, which sounds like an unusual object of delight when so many other fancy dishes were available, but there you have it.

Here we are in our civilian clothes, after dinner, on the bridge overlooking the creek.

It's a beautiful place, and we were glad to be there. Knowing that Cherokee is technically not in the U.S. makes us feel like we had a genuine getaway. 

And we didn't even need a passport.

Bloggin' Bryan, 4 April 2013

"From Me To You" From Us To The World

We recently heard about a project  called Beatles Global Relay.  According to the email we received from Jo Gamble of Creative Concern, "This will be the first time the world's talented Beatles tribute acts have joined forces to make a single tribute spanning the continents!"

The project celebrates the anniversary of the release of "From Me To You" by inviting bands from all over the world to submit their own versions of the song, which will be used to create a composite video.

Here's an article about the project:  http://www.examiner.com/article/beatles-tribute-bands-sing-from-me-to-you-globally-for-song-s-50th-anniversary

It was fascinating, but we had no way of knowing whether any effort recording the song and making a video would result in our being included in the global compilation video. Still, our fearless leader Dennis saw the opportunity, and found that we already had some good footage of us playing the song from a couple of concerts over the last couple of years.

What we needed to do was to make a quality audio recording of the song, to go with the video. To make sure our performance would match, David did his usual high-tech Sherlock Holmes work by assigning a tempo click to our stage version, which was pretty consistent, but not exact. 

In our study of Beatles songs, aided by David's relentless search for the musical truth, we've found that their tempos would fluctuate. Not a lot, but enough to reveal that they were human, and got their groove by playing together. It never sounds wrong, because they worked so well as a unit. I suspect that's part of their magic, and what made them so irresistible. 

We had to squeeze various commitments out of small increments of available time, but we put it together over a week or so, in successive parts. 

We did vocals at Dennis's studio. David and I harmonized the double lead, and in studying the record again, discovered a few more notes we weren't doing correctly. Nathan played McCartney's bass part on his Hofner, and Dennis put his chromatic harmonica to work. For guitars, I attempted to duplicate John's driving rhythm on my Epiphone, and some of George's lead parts.

Beatles songs hold up really well. This particular one is less than two minutes long. (The time is 1:58) It has a solo, lots of harmony, some relatively sophisticated chords, and plenty of energy. It's pure Beatles, a great example of their early period magic.

After our tracks were recorded, we polished it off with our favorite mixing engineer, Gary Dales. It turned out to be Gary working in Dennis's studio without Dennis there, because the deadline was approaching, and Dennis was already committed to being in Florida this week.

Here's how it sounds with Gary's magic applied.

(click http://snd.sc/YKNlDN

for audio)

The video is basically two different live versions combined. One was at the Alhambra Theater in Hopkinsville KY, and the other was at the Renaissance Center in Dickson TN. The Kentucky concert was shot by a videographer, so there are several good camera angles. The Renaissance concert includes a few audience shots, which may be from some other song, but it's still people listening to us, and having a good time. 

Our old friend Vince Pinkerton, who also did our "Paul" and "Betty" videos, put the video together for us. It opens with a shot of us sitting on the steps in Dennis's house, greeting the camera - which was held by Dennis's son Ryan. 

Click here http://youtu.be/l-IG7zoIUhM to see the video, although this version doesn't contain the finished audio.

If all goes well, we'll be included in a global tribute to the song. The date the final film will be released is April 11, the 50th anniversary of the release of the original record.

It's great to be part of the excitement. Congratulations to all the other bands, and Liverpool, and everyone who's been affected by the Beatles' music around the world.

Bloggin' Bryan 28 March 2013

Our Spring Vocal In-Speck-Shun

It's March 21, and the trees are starting to blossom around Nashville.

Today, we had a vocal lesson with Emily Speck. 

This is an experience that WannaBeatle David has been advocating enthusiastically for several months. He keeps telling us we could be better. 

David is certainly the best singer in the group, and has a teacher's natural ability to explain - although he knows that a more experienced vocal coach like Emily would be able to explain it better to the rest of us. 

David says if we only put in the time to learn a few basics and apply them, it would make a huge difference. So today's rehearsal was the time to move ahead with that goal, with an hour with Emily.

Emily Speck is an experienced and respected vocal teacher. She's just finished a two week run as vocal teacher for Les Miserables, the ground-breaking and impressive production at Belmont. (Ground-breaking in that Les Miz, despite being on Broadway many years, and now a successful movie,  has never been performed at a college or school before.)

Emily is married to Jake Speck, the managing director of Studio Tenn, (www.studiotenn.com) the new local theater company that is making quite a noise. 

WannaBeatle Nathan has been very involved with Studio Tenn, having played on many of their productions. He played for, and even wrote original music for their original staging of "A Christmas Carol," which ran two weeks at the Franklin Theater in December. 

As an indication of how the company is growing, that show is moving to TPAC for this year. 

Emily showed up with a water bottle with the sleek Studio Tenn logo on it. She showed us a photo of their 2 year old twin boys. And after some brief catching up on how good the Belmont students are in Les Miz, we got down to work.

Emily gave us a CD with about 20 exercises on it. David is making copies so we each can have one, and can warm up with it in our cars, every day, but especially as we drive to gigs. 

She ran us through some exercises, and gave us essential tips on protecting the voice. Caffeine is not good for the voice. Cough drops with menthol are not good - the menthol dries out the vocal muscles. Water is good. 

She gave us the fundamentals of breathing, how the diaphragm supports the breath, and how the ribs should expand as we inhale. 

                                                           Emily Speck, at Dennis's studio, giving us vocal pointers.

On one of the exercises, Emily spoke about the pharynx, which is located above the larynx. She spoke of the sensation right before a yawn, or the way your face feels when you open the freezer door and get a blast of cold air. This was her way to show us what the pharynx does. 

And I got it. I could feel that space - for the first time. And I could see (actually feel, and hear) how that space affects notes I sing - making higher notes more clear and full and easy. David was hearing it too, and glad to hear the difference. We had one of several fist bumps of the day.

We tried certain songs that have presented problems for us. "Yes It Is" was one. Emily made suggestions about Dennis's vowel sounds, and immediately we could all hear a difference. 

We sang a bit of "Michelle," where David, Nathan and I do the sweet background parts, as Dennis sings lead. Emily helped us find a warmer "ooo" sound, and even though Dennis already sounds good on the song, he found a new level of confidence and warmth that came out on the bridge.

We are fans of Emily!

And when we get to work on the exercises she's given us, we'll probably become bigger fans of the WannaBeatles, and hope others will join us.

Bloggin' Bryan 21March13