Sometimes I sing for cash!
Yup…sometimes I do sing for johnny cash..and sometimes I sing for real cash… In my career as a voiceover artist, I was asked to sing a couple of times and I worked as an agent for an ad that required the voice actors to sing. I don’t have a Johnny cash’s voice but singing jingles don’t usually require you to be so, rather than being able to match up with the music or the beat that is being played in the ad.
Listen to me singing Johnny cash for fun
In this article I would like to share with you one major difference in singing projects based on my very minor experience in this area to get you prepared if you are up to work on a similar project anytime soon.
There is major difference between singing something that is totally new -which means that the music and lyrics are composed from scratch- and signing a song based on an existing song but you are only changing the lyrics to fit the product or the service.
If you are to sing something that is totally new, you will have the chance to sing the way you and the creative director/music composer see fit. You both will have the space to create and you will sing based on what you both feel is best for the product and the created melody. But if you are singing this new song based on a well known song or music, make sure that the way you sing fits the way that this song was originally created. This includes when to start singing and when to end and stretching some words which is usually reflected on the music and accordingly you need to match it in order to stay in tune.
One of the problems that I have encountered as an agent was when a client asked me to let the hired voiceover artists sing a small jingle in a script based on a well know melody of an Egyptian folk song. She didn’t mention then that the music of the original song will accompany their singing. We asked if the client needs the song to be synchronized with the music but she said that they don’t need to. accordingly, they sang based on how they recall the melody but not abiding strictly to the specifics of melody as it was not required. Then for some reason the client decided to add the music to the song, and off course it wasn’t matching well with how the talents sang the song.
The only solution that we had to avoid rerecording was to decrease the volume of the background music to a level that doesn’t cause an interference with how they sang the song, so it gives you the feeling of the melody when they aren’t singing, and doesn’t cause any problems when they are singing.
So next time you are up to singing a jingle for an ad that is based on a pre composed song, make sure you are being guided with the original melody to ensure that you are matching up with it..and off course to avoid any rerecording
