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Step 4 in increasing your chances of getting on any vocal reality show should be that you should consider getting getting vocal coaching or vocal training.

It’s really not that difficult. You need to be realistic with your vocal talents. Have you had vocal coaching or lessons? The aforementioned suggestions aren’t essential; however, these tips can be healthy to a career. In actuality, in my entire vocal career, other than the Italian voice classes in college, I can count on one hand how many vocal lessons I had. So, it is not mandatory but can help you develop proper technique and breathing, and give you additional tools in your arsenal.

I advise vocal coaching if you can find someone that is an expert in the field and can help you. Vocal coaching goes beyond just voice lessons; an expert can help you improve your character and bring out the “Rock Star” in you. Keep in mind that few, if any, of the judges for the regional auditions, the pre-Idol judges, have gone through the Idol gauntlet as a singer and/or have spent time on the “other side of the glass” as a recording artist. In fact, nearly all of these regional judges are people with no singing talent at all. However, most do have some sort of expertise in entertainment. So, you must impress the judges in your regional auditions. Making it past the regional judges can be achieved with a well thought out plan and appropriate song choices.

When considering vocal coaching or vocal lessons you may have to go through a half dozen different people. You don’t want to just choose the first coach you meet. Carefully thinking about each coach and consider what they can help you with.

For example. If you are a country singer you may not want to go to someone that is a classical vocal coach. You may learn some tips and tricks from them but they may not “Get” what you are trying to become. Carefully choose your coach, or mentor, and develop a great relationship with that person. Singing is as much about getting comfortable with yourself as it is feeling comfortable with the person you are learning from.

Next week in our series is step number 5 to improve your chances of getting on any vocal reality show. In #5 we’ll go over a couple things you shouldn’t do when auditioning for your vocal reality show of choice.

Dennis Duncan, former vocal producer for American Idol. Learn more about how to audition for American Idol . Stop by Dennis Duncan’s site where you can find his book My Idol Time on how to audition for American Idol and all the nitty gritty.. Unique version for reprint here: American Idol Step 4 of 10 To Improve Your Chances Of Getting On The Show.

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As many people know, American Idol is a cultural anomaly. I know this first hand because I worked on the show during seasons 6-9.

What I am wanting to do is share with you insight on how American Idol works. More than anything, I am sharing with you first hand factual information of how part of the American Idol machine is structured that very few people are aware of.

My job on American Idol was working one on one with the contestants producing, engineering and recording their vocals for the full length downloads. I was also responsible for producing, recording, editing and uploading the Idol performance show ring tones to the Fox/AT&T servers for seasons six through nine that many of you probably purchased. It’s hard to keep track, but during any given week of Idol I played an integral role in about 3-6 Top 10 Billboard & Itune hits every week and selected every ringtone download weekly for every for four seasons straight.

Now, you won’t discover my name associated with many of the top ten hits or ringtones nor will you find my name when they roll the credits from the show. In TV, film and music, there is what they call “above the line” and “below the line”. The big name producers are “above the line” and guys like me fell “below the line”. Many others received credit for my individual professional endeavors. Not a big deal as that is just the way the industry operates and I am okay with that. I was happy to be part of the cultural phenomenon of this TV show called American Idol. I’ll get in to the details more about Idol in later blogs but for this blog I want to share with you my route that lead me to Idol because it was from this path and the experiences as a major label recording artist & subsequent producer that hedged me to work with the contestants. At the cornerstone of my experiences, my path to success isn’t much different from many of the contestants that audition for Idol.

Have I sold millions of records as an artist or a producer? No. Do you know my name? Probably not. But what I do have that very few of the people participating in Idol do not have is that I was a major label singer/artist, songwriter, and am a music producer, among other ventures. And, probably the most important part of this whole experience is that I’ve spent time on “the other side of the glass”. What that means is that I have survived in the recording studio vocal booth recording vocals for many years. I have experienced what it feels like to blunder in the studio singing. I know. I labored when I did my first recording sessions. It’s difficult. I also know what it is like to excel in the studio as, the more I sang on songs in the studio and recorded, the better I got. Quite a few artists are either a decent live singer or a so so studio singer. Not too many are both. I was one of the rare few that was good at both.

So, my experience is through the trenches learning. I know what it takes to write a song, record a song, sing the song in the studio, perform that song live, tour, promote, do phoner’s, videos and interviews, etc. These are the reasons that I related so much to the contestants and why many of them could relate to me. With the exception of being on a TV show, almost everything they were experiencing or about to experience, I had experienced already.

Learn more about American Idol. Stop by Dennis Duncan’s site where you can find out all about the American Idol Audtion and how you can increase your odds of getting on the show.. This article, Seasons Six Through Nine of American Idol is available for free reprint.