Actor, Producer, Director, Writer Joey Fiero

Becoming a Commercial Singer

Singing on commercials is among the most musically challenging, stylistically varied, and outright fun things a singer can do. Plus, you could have your work heard by millions of people. It’s also a very specialized, competitive business that requires skills beyond those of the average singer. Luckily, in certain situations your personality, uniqueness, and vocal acting ability can shine through and get you the job.

The road to gigs is rarely fast or easy, but there are certain steps a singer should take along the way. Musician referral services, the trade papers, even Craigslist can yield initial small jobs, but to land high-profile work, a singer must come to the attention of a vocal contractor: the person enlisted by a producer or ad agency to hire singers for a recording session. He or she keeps an extensive list of singers and knows what skills each one possesses. So how do you get on the list?

Getting Noticed

Before you start sending out demos, make sure your skills are top-notch. Gerald White, an experienced session singer with a wide range of commercial credits, including Mercedes-Benz and Intel, says he received his best advice from Quincy Jones, who told him, “Your job, until you get the job you want, is to work at your craft every day.” As a result, says White, “I practice every day. I have to.” He points out that it’s not enough to acquire top skills; you also have to be ready to display them at a moment’s notice. “For my biggest gig, they called me 90 minutes before and asked if I could get to the studio right away,” he recalls. “There’s no time for excuses like your voice not being warmed up.”

Once you have the skills, you must create a demo CD, which is your vocal calling card. A demo should be to the point and show a variety of styles. Sally Stevens, who has been a top vocal contractor in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, says the demo should be as short and tight as possible. “Don’t put whole songs on there, but rather 10 to 20 seconds of each style, for about two minutes total,” she says. “Singers should also include anything that’s been broadcast, even small regional jobs. Anything that sounds professional is a plus.”

A successful demo helps the vocal contractor, as well as the singer. “If I get a call for a solo vocalist,” says Stevens, “I will often contact the singer and ask them if they have something in a specific style. They send me an MP3, and I can forward those on to the producer or the music department.”

Sight-Reading Music

The ability to sight-read music can open up more jobs for a singer. “If you want to be able to cross over into all areas of work, you need to develop your sight-reading skills,” says Stevens. And how do you do that? “Put yourself in a church choir or small jazz group where you have sheet music in front of you,” she suggests. “You need to sharpen your skills every day if you want to make this your life’s work.”

Many commercial jobs requires that the singer be able to sight-read. According to White, this is so the production company can get you in and out in 20 minutes and not have to teach you the part. “If it’s a reading session, you’ll get one run-through with the music, and they start recording on the second take,” he says. There are singers who don’t sight-read yet manage to get work, says White, but “these singers have extremely fast ears. They can hear it once and nail it the next time.”

Know Your Styles

For jobs that involve solo singing, the ability to impersonate someone or parody a style can get you work even if you don’t sight-read. In these situations, contractors and producers are often more willing to take a chance on a new singer if he or she has the sound they’re looking for. For example, says Stevens, “There used to be what was called a ‘beer voice,’ with a real gravelly sound.” She keeps lists of singers adept at different styles.

Vocalist Ted Heath has done a number of sessions in which he was called upon to impersonate an artist, from Elton John to Sonny Bono. “I’m acting with my singing voice,” he says. “I mentally get into the artist and really have to think about how they would approach this, phrase this. Even in a studio performance, I try and physically get into the singer. It’s definitely acting.”

The ability to create new characters and voices can put a singer in demand and bring interesting and challenging jobs. Heath once had to come up with singing voices for a whole line of toys, with only a picture to guide him: “I worked with the producer to create a character and voice for each of them. Next thing I know, I’m in a store, staring in amazement at a whole wall of these toys with my voice coming out of them.”

Group singing is more specialized and can require different skills. “This type of session work expects you to blend well, read well, harmonize quickly, and work together as a group,” says White, who does a lot of ensemble work. In a group situation, a voice contractor can’t as readily take a chance on a new singer, because other singers and often a large number of musicians will be working at the session. “For film-score choral music, I look for technical skill, quick sight-reading, excellent pitch, and the ability to blend,” says Stevens, “A solo voice who can’t let go of their ego is not one I like to have in a choir.”

Don’t Forget to Network

At some point, the aspiring commercial singer will need to start meeting other singers, as recommendations are one of the best ways to get work. There are communities of singers in Los Angeles and New York, and they often hold events to bring in new talent. For White, meeting other singers was the key to his success: “During the eight years I was trying to break in, I sent out over 1,000 packages and maybe got 10 responses back. I realized I had to go out and meet other singers. My first job ended up being from a recommendation.”

Stevens uses these meetings as a way to find new talent: “The AFTRA and SAG singers are a very active community, and there’s a lot of networking and sharing. We contractors help each other out, and that helps the singers out. In L.A., AFTRA sponsors a sight-singing class, which is not only a great place to sharpen your skills but to network. A couple of the singers that I’m so happy to know about and use often came from that process.”

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JOEY FIERO

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