hi Beachbum: I finally got a chance to give your music a closer listen. Your musical style is quite different than what I do, but I really appreciate what you're doing. I can tell you have a lot to say. Intense poetic ideas, especially considering this is your very 1st album. I really like the atmospheric moods you created. Did you utilize the PSR2000 entirely on your album? Your album dispays quite a variety of grooves and moods.

Though I appreciate your emotional vocal intensity, at times it's a bit painfully harsh (and I'm concerned that you might be damaging cords as it appears that you may be uncessarily straining at times). I do really like your lyric writing, but it's sometimes difficult to make out without a lot of effort. My suggestion is seek out a vocal coach in your area who's experienced working in the rock genre. Considering you live in the progressively hip music city of Austin, Texas (btw: one of my personal FAVorite US destination cities), A good vocal coach & music teacher should be pretty easy to find, and can help you develop a solid vocal technique foundation to maximize your rock style vocal abilities, yet insure that you don't damage your chords, and help you improve your vocal 'diction' as well. A lot of people think that pro rock/pop singers never had a music lesson or saw a vocal coach in their life. That's actually only what they WANT you to think to give the illusion that they were just born with raw talent. Looking forward to hearing more from you as you proceed down life's musical path. - Scott

Scott,
... concerning vocal coaches, obviously I never had one, but I'm curious to know if anyone else other than you here has.
DonM

Thanks Scott,
If this were more than a hobby I’d consider a vocal coach. Anyway, I went through the music finder on the 2K and would start to play around and a song was born. All Styles and sounds are from the 2K. Yeah there is a few times my voice gets a little harsh. As my mixing progresses I should be able to harness it in the CD to come.
Thanks again Scott… Once in a while I go back to here your coffee in Brazil song… Good stuff

DJ

Hi BB,
Apologies for not replying sooner! I listened to your songs earlier in the week but have not had much time to get online properly this week.
My faves were 'Gone' which I found very haunting and unusual. This track is (to my ears) so very different to all of the others and I love what I heard. Very nice indeed.
I also loved 'Carry me home'. I have to agree with Scott in that sometimes the vocal is hard to catch / follow on the first listen but it is totally worth the effort in that your lyrics are 'substantial' and meaningful. I think you write 'intelligent' lyrics which is something I find difficult. I know what I want to say but the translation to paper always seems to diminish the message in my songs. In your writing you manage to convey exactly what you want to say.

Very nice work and I lok forward to CD #2
All the best
Tony

Don,
I studied Music Ed at Temple and had a few voice "lessons" there, but it was more of a diction class than anything else. To be honest, the best thing I ever did for my voice was learn the clarinet. Just like Mr "S", the wind instrument taught me to breathe, phrase and make music out of the notes. That's hard to teach with just words.
You played trumpet, didn't you? That probably taught you more about breathing than you knew !

I was always a strong swimmer, never smoke or drank either. All those things help the pipes !

Tony,
Thanks very much for your response…You, my friend have such a unique sound… At least every time you open up your mouth to spout vocals someone’s not saying… You sound like Sting.. I’ve worked pretty hard on this for the last 5 months…. However, it wasn’t the song creation or the lyrics I found difficult… It was recording and mixing… I wish I could make up tunes and sing and let someone else worry about the levels and want not… And the different sounds you get while recording… On my system everything sounds good. On my work computer the vocals are too loud. However, I took the CD to my Neighbors house where he has a proper stereo system…. And while listening I was struck by the fact that I created these songs and like what I heard… And that’s why we do it, we are creating and that made it all worth while…
Thanks again Tony and FIX YOUR WEB SITE!!!!
DJ