How To Become A Professional Background Vocalist: The Do's & Dont's of the Music Industry

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is MJ and first of all, I want to say thank you so much for coming to my class. I am a professional Grammy Award winning background vocalist. I've been pretty much singing all my life, but I've been in the industry for about roughly 15 years now. I have sang behind many stars and legends over the years, some of your favorite celebrities artists. I worked on many stages, television shows, award shows with artists like Stevie Wonder a few times Aretha Franklin before she passed, Nick Jonas on the American Music Awards, Snoop I'm Janelle Monet on American Idol and many gospel artists such as Kirk Franklin and many More. I've also got a chance to sing on many major albums, such as Lucas Graham's the Purple album. I've done two of Kanye West's albums, one of which won a Grammy. I've also sang on Shallows album and like I said, more than I can't even name off the top of my head. I've gotten a chance to do a lot of great things and the list goes on and on. I'm grateful and I'm humble. The resume definitely goes long. I've been blessed, so I'm grateful for that. I've always gotten messages in my DMs, like, Hey, MJ, how did you become a professional background vocalist? How did you get this gig? How did you do that? People were literally flocking to my page at one point, a couple of years ago. I don't know why. But I was getting a lot of questions and I couldn't really answer them all. I got to the point where it was a bit overwhelming. What I did, I started workshops where people were coming to the workshops and I was giving them the information. Well then I took it to YouTube. I took it to YouTube when I first started my channel. I'm still new to YouTube, but at this time, I was very new and this one particular video blew up and I got so many emails, so many comments and questions and people were coming to my Instagram page, like, Hey, I found you from YouTube and everyone's like, Hey, MJ, where's Part two? This was such good information. Where's Part two? This is why I started this class. It's so much you need to know before you get into the industry that I wish I would have known. But I didn't really pursue it, which is why I didn't know it. It fell into my lap because of who I knew. So there was a lot that I needed to learn. I'm here to educate aspiring singers, aspiring background vocalists on the music industry, and how to become a professional background vocalist, not just any old background vocalist, but a good one because being a good background vocalist is not just on how well you can sing. There's so many things that go into it, which is what I'm here to teach you. It's a lot I had to learn on my own, that I wish someone would have told me. But again, I didn't pursue it and fell into my lab. But I'm glad it went that way because I got a chance to learn a lot and what I learn will not go in vain. I'm here to teach you guys about the business part of it, the dos, the don'ts, and the ugly, how to even get in the business at all. I want to help someone. I want you guys to know from the very beginning, from the very start, what I didn't know. You need to know what to do when you get into those big rooms, those spaces, when you meet the right people, and when you meet the wrong people. That's what you're going to learn in this course. I've been there, I've done it, so I'm going to break it all down for you step by step if you stay. 2. Class Final Project: For you guys, this project, I want you guys to get creative. I want you guys to get out of your comfort zone, which a lot of singers that want to pursue singing, they don't realize how important it is for other people to see them. This business is all on who you know. What I want you guys to do is to record yourselves or pull a singing video if you don't want to record yourself. Just a video of you singing by yourself. I want you to get a video at least 30 seconds long. Post on Instagram or if you don't have an Instagram, a social media page, something similar to Instagram, where you can showcase a video of you singing that's at least 30 seconds long. It doesn't have to be deep, it doesn't have to be fancy, anything like that. You can be in your room, you can be wherever. But a part of becoming a great professional background vocalist is people seeing you and people knowing that you can sing the right people seeing you. Put up a camera, record yourself, get out of your comfort zone. This is really all on getting out of your comfort zone. And getting to know your voice, letting other people get to know your voice and just putting yourself out there. I did this. Lots of pretty much probably every background vocalist you know has posted videos of them singing online at one point, at least when they first started out. A lot of people don't necessarily do it anymore, especially if you've gotten to a certain point in the business. Many singers started out this way. Many singers like Ella May started out on Instagram singing, Kiana Lada, many other great singers that you now know that have sang on television. Get out of your comfort zone, post a great video of you singing your favorite song or whatever you want to post. Yeah, let's see what you have. 3. How to Get Into Background Singing: How to get into background singing? How do we even get into this business at all? My first point on how to get into the background singing business at all is to start singing. I know this seems like such a simple answer and you're like, What are you talking about? But a lot of people don't realize you actually have to sing. You cannot sit around and say, I want this to happen, I want to do that, and you don't make a move about. Join local groups, let me tell you about me. I started off in a small group. I would not be successful to this day had someone else not seen me singing with these small groups and had the right people not been in the room. There are many instances. Matter of fact, all the instances I was ever in, I didn't even know those people were in the room. I didn't know those people were even hearing me sing. There's so many ways that you can get discovered or known in this business, but it's not going to happen if that person does not know you can sing. So you have to get out there and actually sing. You have to get know, you have to put your face out there, join choirs, go to open mics. Oh, my gosh, the choir thing. Something my father told me before he passed away was to never underestimate small beginnings. I will never, ever forget that saying and I will always live by this, never underestimate small beginnings. You never know who you are standing next to. There are many people that I had small gigs with or big gigs or was just in a choir with that turned out to be huge vocal contractors, you guys. And I'm going to get into what vocal contracting is all about. That's how you get but there are so many people you will sing next to, especially in a choir, that you have no idea who they are, or that choir director could be someone or the people next to you could turn into someone. Join groups, guys. Sing you have to get out there and sing somehow. Even if you don't want to do the group thing, do the open mic thing. I was not necessarily an open mic type of girl that just wasn't my thing, but some people do great with open mic, so make sure you get out there and somehow you put your voice out there. My next point, network Network Network. Go to music events, introduce yourself, talk to people. One thing about me is, I do not really like going up and talking to people. I'm going to go ahead and be honest about that. But I always somehow attracted other people. People were drawn to me, which was such an advantage to me. If that's something that you don't think works for you, let me give you a good way for it to happen. Wear a great outfit. Wear a great outfit. Make sure you look nice. Looking great goes a long way. Not just in the beauty industry, not just in fashion. Looking Greg goes a long way, even in the music industry, especially in the music industry. When you walk into those rooms and you network there are so many other people with great voices, so many other people, what else do you have to offer? Trust me, looking Greg goes a long way. Those people will walk up to you and start talking to you about your outfit or start talking to you, how much they love your swag or just simply love your shoes. Don't ever underestimate that. When you meet those people, make sure you keep the relationships with the people that you meet. This is very, very important. There are no auditions in this business. Very rarely, sometimes there is, sometimes there is, but very, very rarely in the music industry are there auditions. It's all on who you know. Please listen to me and understand. It's all on who you know, so you have to keep those relationships. Even if you're just sending a happy birthday on their birthday, or you like their picture on Instagram or you saying Merry Christmas. Just make sure you keep those relationships. It's up to you to make your music career go to where you want it to go. It's up to you. Other people can't do this for you and anything in life, but you have to make them you have to do what you need to do. So make sure you keep those relationships. Then all of a sudden, when they find out, Hey, girl this girls a nice girl. I hear from her a lot. She also dresses nice. She also has a great personality. If you're recognizable and there's something that comes along, people will start coming to you. They will start buzzing about you and then all of a sudden you start getting those referrals. They'll start referring you. They'll start referring you and bringing up your name in a good way in rooms that you are not in. But this all starts with networking and getting to know the right people. Starts with singing, and it starts with networking. My last point is take all the small things you do serious. You never know who's in the room. Treat everything like a job. This is so important. I've always treated the small things like they were jobs and it always worked out to my advantage. Do not walk into the room like you are bigger than that room. No matter what the gig is, no matter what the job is. Even if you're not being paid in the beginning, sometimes you might work for free or you might work for 50 to $75. You never know who's in those rooms. Always treat everything like everything is a job, even when you're going to church. This is something I've always done. When I go to church, when I go to rehearsals. When you're in rehearsals, rehearse. Do not fool around. You can have a good time. That's something having a good time is great. That's something you have to do, especially in this business, but you have to make sure you stay professional, treated like a job, treated serious. I don't care where you are. There are always eyes on you, especially when you're pursuing something like this. There are always going to be eyes on you. 4. How to Make Singing a Career: How to Get Booked & Busy: How to make singing a career? How do we stay booked and busy? How do we get booked and busy? First and foremost, you know, referring back to my first lesson, when you network and you go to those open mics and you sing, make sure that you're able to sing. You know, this has to be said. A lot of people sometimes just don't really understand that, you know, make sure you're actually able to sing, make sure you actually have the skill. Um, even though there's so many aspects that goes into background seeing, you still need to make sure you have the skill. As I mentioned before, make sure you are professional. You never know who's in those rooms. Have a good time, laugh, kick it, but also make sure you are professional. You never know who's watching you. There are always someone watching you. Treat everyone with respect. You never know they can hire you or not. Like I said, you will sometimes rub shoulders with people that you don't even know are huge people are related to huge people, even if you guys are doing a free choir gig or something, whatever the case is in the beginning. You never know who those people may turn into, so make sure you always treat them with respect. You're never bigger than the next person next to you. No matter how good you can sing, no matter if you think you are the beyond or Whitney Houston in the room or you're better than the person next to you, treat the person you're next to with respect because I guarantee you if you treat them a certain way or he try to bully someone in the room next to you because you think you can sing better than them, that person's going to be able to say yes or no in a room that you come in one day. Treat everyone with respect. I know there's not a lot of auditions in this industry. But in some cases where you may have to audition or you may just have to be seen by someone, or they're just there in general and can say yes or no, or they're friends with the person that's doing the hiring. You guys just never know, make sure you treat everyone with respect. Stand out. Don't come in the room timid, if you are timid, make sure that in some way you are still standing out. But don't overdo it. You don't have to overdo it. When I say stand out, your style, like I said, come in there dressed. In this industry, a lot of people think it's just your voice. It's not just your voice. Come in there looking nice, come in there dressed, come in there treating everyone with professionalism. Come in treating everyone with respect and being professional. Your style goes a long way, especially during times where vocal contractors or people hiring you are looking for singers that are going to be on camera. There are times many times in this industry, you're going to be on camera. Looks are going to matter. So make sure that your style looks nice, your swag, be different, make people want to work with you. Social media, this is a huge one, huge huge, huge one. You have to post on social media. You have to post on social media. Now, things have definitely changed. It's 2025 now back when I started getting these DMs and stuff back in maybe 2016, 2017, 2018, everyone singing on Instagram, especially during the pandemic around those years 2019, 2020. It has died down now, I will say, but you still never underestimate it. And when you think about it, because it's died down, means if you're doing it, you're going to stand out the most, especially if you're great at singing. So make sure you post something about yourself on Instagram. And even if it's something you don't want to leave up, maybe post in your story and make a highlight. That's what I've done. You know, I used to post singing videos and harmony videos so often. I used to try to do it every week. I I wasn't doing it every week, once every couple of months or so, it was really a thing on my page, and I really enjoyed it. But that has definitely slowed down now. But I make sure that when you go to my Instagram, in my highlights, there's a whole highlight. Of me singing solo by myself in performances, and there's also a highlight called Harmony, where you can see me doing all my harmony videos because that's what I specialize in. I specialize in harmony. So some ways I can direct someone to my page. This has happened to me before. When I moved away to St. Louis, Missouri, a couple of years after my father passed away, I got auditions when I was in St. Louis, and I didn't have to necessarily be present in Los Angeles because this was for a national television show and I was able to direct these people to my highlights on my Instagram page to hear my voice. I was able to direct them to My highlights to hear my harmonies Don't ever underestimate being able to direct people to your social media. People are being discovered on Instagram every day. Even though it has slowed down, people are still seeing people sing. There are still pages dedicated, I'm still seeing them. Like I said, not as much. There are still pages dedicated to people singing on Instagram, especially if you're good at not just Instagram, but TikTok as well. People are still seeing these people sing. With all the challenges and stuff out nowadays, especially with TikTok and all these different challenges, it's starting to pick back up a little bit. Never underestimate who's going to see those videos because people are still getting discovered or just seen in general, no matter how many likes you get, it's still important to still post. One thing we were all taught, a lot of us millennials are a huge saying in life, a closed mouth don't get ft, so you have to let people know, let your singer friends know, let your musician friends know or the people that you meet that you actually want to sing. It's okay. It's okay to let people know. Because you just never know who can hire you one day. The friends that you make can surprisingly hire you one day or pass you along to someone else. It's all on who you know. Perfect your craft, perfect it even at home. At home is the best way to perfect your craft. Always look for ways to get better. No matter how good you are, there's always someone probably better and there's always room for growth. No matter how good you think you are I've been in so many rooms and so many situations where people come into rehearsals and they think because they were good, that they didn't have to go over the song because they can sing good or they think because they can sing, they don't need to go over their part or harmony isn't important when you are background singing. That is so important. You still need to perfect your craft, and that turns people off when you do that. You walk in the room, and you don't know anything, no matter how good you can sing, that person is not going to want to hire you. Make sure you go over the music. Listen to the music at home. You're never too good to learn the song at home. You're never too good to learn you're crabbed at home or perfected or try at least. You're never too good. Invest in your career and take it serious. There's so many things singing apps on your phone. Make sure you try to perfect your ear. The harmony videos that I used to do, there's apps on your phone doesn't do anything to your boys, but there are apps where you can make great harmony videos. It makes it easier for you to sing soprano here, sing Otto here, sing tenor here. There's so many different things to make sure you do your research and invest in your career. Investing does not necessarily mean money, also mean time. Put time into it. Say memorable. That goes back into when I was saying, when you meet the people in network and treat them with respect, don't let the people you meet forget about you. Like I said, there's happy birthday girl or your outfit looks nice or holidays. You think those small things don't mean much, but they absolutely do. So stay memorable as much as you can. Collaborate with music industry figures that are bigger than you or they don't have to be bigger than you. But collaborating with other people can work. If you have a musician friend that knows how to sing, ask, I'm like, Hey, can you play this song? Let's make a video, you play this song, and I'll sing to it. A lot of your friends may have been in the industry longer than you, so they may have more skills than you. You guys can bounce off of each other and help each other out. Having huge friends that work with huge figures can be a blessing to you because eventually they may want to recommend you to other people. So never underestimate that. This is why I say collaborate. Let your musician friends know that you can sing or that you want to sing. Because eventually, they may want to recommend you to someone and get you in front of their audience if they see that you're talented. It could also be the opposite. How's your attitude? If they know that someone's hiring, they may not want to recommend you. If you're not a certain way, if you're not up to par, if you're not taking it serious, but if you are you never know that could be a gig for you one day. I've given gigs to people. That's how the industry works. When I moved to St. Louis, I gave my gig to someone else an ongoing gig that I had. So stay connected, don't lose touch. And last but not least be patient. Be patient. This does not a nothing happens overnight. Now, in some cases, people may have that story, but be patient with yourself. Don't give up. If something doesn't happen today, tomorrow or the next week or the next year, just keep going. Take these tips into what I'm telling you, eventually something could come along. 5. The Strengths of Being a Good Singer/Background Singing & What It Consists Of: Background singing and what it consists of. What comes along with it. Have a USP. What is a USP? USP is a unique selling point. What's different about you? What's unique? What's going to make you stand out? Differentiate yourself from the crowd? What's noticeable? Again, when you're trying to be a background vocalist, there are thousands of other people sometimes when you're trying to network or when a contractor is looking for someone new fresh face online. There are thousands of people, and Instagram and TikTok is sometimes very huge for those things. What actually makes you different that would want to make that person call you for that gig? Especially if they don't know you personally? What is it about you that's going to make someone notice you? What is it have something different that's from the norm. This next one is very important, even if you don't think you're the better singer than the one next to you, and even if that's a fact, even if you do what you do at a much higher level than everyone else, you will be the one that gets the job. Let me repeat myself on that. Even if you are not the better singer than the one next to you, if you do what you do at a much higher level than the person next to you or everyone else, you will still get the job over that person that sings better than you. Trust me. They may not be looking at the person next to you because of your unique selling point, because of your energy. Unique selling point can be so many things. It could be your energy is great. It can be your positive person and that your aura just speaks so much when you walk into a room and people want to be around you. They love the way you're dressed. You're inspiring to them. You get what I'm saying. It's so many things. You inspire someone by the way you look, by the way you walk, by the way you talk, by the way you act, the hugs you give. All of those things can be so many different unique selling points on top of you having the skill of singing. Listen, if people don't recognize your unique selling point at first, it's okay to put it out there. I'm not saying all in their face about it, but it's okay to put your unique selling point out there. Throw it in a conversation. If you have a website, make sure you have it on your website or in your bio or on your social media somehow from time to time. Now, don't be thirsty. But it's okay to put your unique selling point out there. Don't be afraid to talk about your skills. It's you and it's up to you on how far you get. Put yourself out there and talk about your skills. Don't let anyone tell you that you're doing too much. No, put yourself out there. Again, now I'm telling you, don't be thirsty. There isn't such thing as doing too much. But when you're genuinely putting yourself out there, bring it up once or twice in the conversation. Oh, yeah, I'm pretty good. I'm great at harmony. So if you ever need, look how easy that was. I'm really good at harmony. So if you ever need someone, let me know, I'm really good at blending. I can blend with anyone. Boom. I've had people tell me that I have a blendable voice. One time I was singing with someone and when at the beginning of my career and I didn't know what she meant, I was like, Oh, she was like, you have such a unique blendable voice. No one ever told me that before and she explained it to me. She said, You can literally blend with anybody. You can blend with anybody. It doesn't matter what kind of She said, This is why I call you. It doesn't matter who's singing and what kind of voice this person has. If you're singing with them, it's always a blend. So I'm able to throw that in conversations when I talk to people. Now, that's if I'm trying to sell myself, you know, if I were starting out, you know, I'm like, you know, I was told I have a pretty good blendable voice or if you know it for a fact, I'm pretty good at blending with people. I'm actually great at blending with people more than others. So, you know, if you want to call me, I have a really blendable voice. I've been told all you have to say, record all your rehearsals. Record all your rehearsals. You're never too good to not record. Stop going home and not having anything on recording, and then you want to be the best in the room, or you want to come back and think that you're just going to know everything off the top of your head. You're not You are not that good. Let me tell you Your memories are not that good. Now, can you memorize stuff? Yes, I can learn a song in less than 5 minutes. Like, if you really have the skill of music, singing, harmony, and you have an ear, you can really learn a lot of things that the average person doesn't know quickly. But I'm telling you now, you are never too good, and you are never good enough not to record your rehearsals. Stop going home and texting your friends, like, Hey, send me the recording. That is too much for people to send you recordings, but other people to send you recordings, and we were all in the same rehearsal, no, you should have recorded yourself. You're not Beyond junior as much as you think you are. You're not Whitney Houston junior. Record your rehearse. Go home and rehearse on your own, and your leaders and the people that hire you will notice. They will always notice when you come in and you know your work, trust me, especially when you know it over other people next to you. And they will also notice when you don't know it. When they have to set and teach you stuff and go over and over stuff, they hate that. Go home and rehearse and learn stuff on your own. Don't be that straggly singer or that person that's annoying that's going home and asking all these people to sing you this stuff because you weren't paying attention because you didn't press record on your own. Listen, this all goes into being a good background vocalist. This is not a person telling you, trying to treat you like a kid or no one's even going to tell you to do this. I'm telling you this, I'm telling you what I've learned and what I know. When you get music sent to you, listen to it at home, and when you're in rehearsal, record that dag on rehearsal you can stop bothering other people to send it to you. Do you know what it takes a lot to send a voice memo to someone, a voice memo that's 15 minutes long? Don't make people do that, okay? Don't be a good listener to your leaders, be able to follow directions, whatever they tell you, even if you disagree. If you do disagree, make sure that somehow respectfully, if you disagree or if they're wrong because a lot of time leaders are wrong. They are sometimes. A lot of times background vocalists sometimes have more skills than their leaders. I'm just going to be honest. But when they're in leadership position, they don't need to know that. You have to just let them do their job. You have to be respectful and if maybe you want to pull them to the side, or maybe raise your hand and say something in a really nice way, but do not embarrass them. Do not make them feel low. It's not your job to talk back. It's not. I've had to learn this too because I Listen, I'm admitting this, am I have a really good ear. I probably I have an above average ear, I would say, for a singer. Like, there are people who I can stand next to, and I think they have great voices, but they're not catching the note. Like I can catch a note really quickly. I have that skill. That's also what comes into making a great background bogus. That's what I saying as far as going home to perfect your gift, try to learn things, try to perfect your ear. If you don't have that skill, try your hardest to get that skill because there will be times where you are going to know something and you might need to help your leader out. Again, there's a respectful way to do it, if it comes to an instance where you do have to help your leader out until your leader like, Hey, that's not the note or that's not what you told us yesterday there's a way to do it. There's a way to do just make sure you're respectful, which goes into my next point, give feedback only when it's necessary or when it's welcome. Goes back to being a good listener, letting the leader lead. Even if you know you have you know, the note more than your leader, make sure when you give the feedback that it is welcomed and that it is necessary because there are some cases, let me tell you everything I tell you I worked with good leaders and I work with bad leaders. I work with leaders with great professional attitudes, and I've worked with the opposite who didn't want you to tell them a thing. That does not make a good leader. I'm just going to tell you, Leaders can be wrong. That does not make a good leader. If you don't want to welcome feedback when you have a good singer under you when you have a good background vocalist, a good background vocalist ought to be able to help their leader. That's why you have backup. That makes a good leader, you would think. But let me tell you from a background vocalist point of view, singing behind an artist that may be difficult or behind a leader that may be difficult, sometimes it's not welcome. So make sure that you give the feedback when it's welcome and when it is necessary, not every 2 seconds when it's not necessary. Be able to work well and get along with others. That is almost self explanatory, especially in this business. You have to be able to shake it all off. You have to be able to go sit in a corner. You have to be able to shake it off if something goes wrong. As a background vocalist, you're not going to be working on your own. That's just bottom line. You don't have to be if you're not a people person, go sit in the corner, you know, between recordings, between takes, you know, keep a smile on your face, but go sit in the corner because a lot of people don't understand introverts. I'm an introvert. There were a lot of times on gigs. I know, I was friendly. But sometimes that can be misread when you are an introvert and you do go sit in the corner, but and there are times where you might have to sit in the corner because something happened that pissed you off. That's the case a lot and you have to be able to shake that off. You have to be able to find a balance on when you were just disrespected or someone looked to you and said, I hate your voice or you're not singing that note right when the singer next to you has an opinion and they're not even the leader, that's going to happen a lot. There's going to be a lot of singers that talk way too much, way too much, and you don't have to shake it off. It's okay. Happens to all of us. Just go stand in the corner and shake it off, go sit in the corner for 10 minutes until it's time to come back, or politely, just excuse yourself and you have to shake it off. You have to shake it off. Know your strengths. But during the time of a group setting, have the mentality that you guys are on the same level. No one's gift is better than the other. Put your ego to the side. You guys are on the same level. As a background vocalist, we are one band, one sound, one band, one sound. You know, it is not your job to sing over anyone when you guys are trying to blend and you guys are all singing together. If you are hearing yourself over the person next to you, that means that you are too loud, so you need to come back because again, we are one band, one sound. So your gift is not better than the other. We're all in the same room, we're all doing the same thing. Put your ego to the side and understand that. Be able to take constructive criticism, get an honest opinion of someone you really trust or you know is skilled. You really trust and know the skill. You don't need everyone's opinion. Okay? You don't need everyone's opinion. I'm saying that. You know, it's okay to get constructive criticism, but get it from the right people. You don't need everyone. Everyone's not skilled. Everyone's not skilled as they say. Make sure that you get it from credible sources. And just like you're good at things, there're going to be things you're not good at. So be aware of what you're not good at and don't do it. Just don't do it. If you are not a good lead, or you don't want to sing by yourself, you feel like you're better off singing with group, then don't lead. You know, it's okay to say, you know, I just rather, you know, I think I'll be better at all of singing or whatever the case, be aware what you're not good at when it comes to singing, when it comes to music. You don't have to be good at everything. It's okay not to be good at everything. What you do need to be good at knowing your note and carrying your note on your own. But if there are certain things or certain aspects or running a great example. A lot of singers do all the running and stuff, there are a lot of people that cannot do that, and that is okay. Ala never really ran when she sang. T Bs. I mean, think of different singers. I'm just using those as an example, but when you think of someone with a beautiful voice that sing straight, I think of Ala. Ala really didn't do a lot of the runs. A lot of the Jasmine Sullivan does runs. I use her, for example, Jasmine Sullivan or Kim Burrell gospel singer. They do amazing smooth, beautiful runs. Everybody should not try to do that. Everybody can't do that and everybody should not do that. That's not everyone's forte. You get what I'm saying? If you can't do that, it's okay. It's okay. Just sing the song. It's really okay. As a background vocalist. They don't necessarily prefer you to do all that fancy stuff anyway. So it's okay if you're not good at certain things. Do vocal warm ups before rehearsals. In the car in the shower, whatever the case, this really goes a long way, especially if you're a soprano like me, poor us. Make sure you do vocal warm ups, make sure you open up your vocal chords because this really goes a long way when you get to rehearsal because when you get to rehearsal, you start chirping, you don't know where that came from, but it came from those warm ups in the car. Trust me, that goes a really long way. 6. Hearing Musically, Having a Good Ear!: Have a good ear. This is such a very important section. Have a good ear goes into a lot of the things that I've already been saying in my previous lesson. It's so important as a good background vocalist to be able to hear musically. You have to be able to hear the music, the piano, the keyboard, but you also have to be able to hear good notes. You also have to be able to hear bad notes when you're off key, when the person next to you is a little off. Not necessarily your job to say that all the time. It just depends on the environment, but you need to know when you're off and good background vocalists know when they're off and they call themselves out. I am one of them. If something happens and a lot of us do it. A lot of us good background vocals like, Oh, that was me, my bad or you know, just know I'm off, I'm off. You'll know when you're off when you have a good ear. That's really, really important. Be honest with yourself. Call yourself out before someone else does. Singing inquires, which is also different than seeing in a group. Singing and inquiry with a bunch of people that really a bad note or two you can get away with, to be honest, because there's so many of you versus a small group versus like six of you, three of you, eight of you, nine of you, if it's three, three and three, two, two and two or 11 and one, especially, you can't get away with that really. Especially if it's 11 and one, you have to be able to call yourself out and know when you're not on the right note. Hearing is so important. Besides being able to sing, hearing is probably the second most important thing as a background vocalist. You have to be able to hear, you have to be able to carry your own note. You have to be able to hear that piano and know that they're playing your part somewhere. And you have to be able to know good notes and bad notes. Be a good listener musically. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Be a good listener musically. Oh, my gosh. Being a good background vocalist does not mean you just listen to the person next to you or you just know the music. Knowing the music also means knowing the music. Let me repeat myself. Knowing the music also means knowing the music. When I say the music, I mean the keys, the piano, the guitar. What does it sound like? All of this goes into being a good singer. You got to be able to hear the keyboard, not just know the note. Listen to the keyboard as well. When you get to the point where you're able to sing, know your note, and hear the keyboard, you're going to be unstoppable. There are a lot of times where we may rehearse one note and then the keyboard starts off on another note. You got to sing what the keyboardist is playing. You ought to be able to know where your note is when you hear the keys playing. A lot of people can't do that. But this makes a great singer. And this goes into the intro when the pianist is playing, when the keyboardist is playing, what are they playing? Listen to it. And when you're listening to that and you hear it, then you should know what to sing, whether it's to note you rehearsed at home or not. If you didn't rehearse that note at home, but they're playing the wrong key, you better still sing what they're playing. This all goes into learning music musically, not just singing. You're a singer, you're a musician too, in a certain instance. They consider us musicians as well, a lot of the times because there's so many skills that singers have to know just as much as musicians do. Now, you don't necessarily have to know if they're playing in the key of A or the key of B, sharp or something, but you have to be able to hear that music. This all goes into hearing and perfecting your ear. Let me say this. The musician is always playing the song. Hear me when I say what I'm saying. The musician is always playing the song. For instance, if you're a great singer, but you're not the best at carrying your note, listen to this is really important. Listen to what they're playing. Listen to what they're playing. Now, if you're singing a capella, good luck, if you can't find notes. But when you are a background singer and you're just not one that's good at getting your note, a good way of hiding that is simply really paying attention What the keyboard is playing? What is the pianos playing? What am I hearing on the piano? That's always your note. That's your note. Listen. Listen musically, so important, which goes into my next point, be able to hold your own note. If you cannot hold your own note, you cannot be a background vocalist. You can't. If you cannot hold your own note, if you cannot catch certain notes when you hear a certain note on the piano playing, if you cannot catch on, you will not make a great background vocalist. I'm sorry, some of you might click off this video with me saying that. Some of you might not want to keep going, please keep going. But I'm just being honest with you. If you cannot hold your own note, Listen, as a background vocalist, especially if you're on tour, there's only going to be three of you in most cases. Now I'm talking about tour wise, not a choir, not a group. A lot of times it's two, two, and two, but in a lot of cases, you're the only person singing your note. We're talking about background singing now. We're not talking about necessarily choir and stuff. We're talking about background singing. You want to go on tour, right? You want to sing behind this artist at this event. You want to sing at these huge festivals and you're soprano, you better know that note. You better know your soprano note. This is why we rehearse. This is why we pay attention to rehearsal. This is why we record our rehearsals. If no one else is there, you are the only Auto. You are the only soprano, you're the only tenor. It's just you. And believe me, the person that hires you going to know, you can lose your job for this. You can lose your job for this. It will irritate the living daylight, not only out of the person that hired you, but the people next to you that know their note. So you have to be able to hold your own note. That's just bottom line. You have to have that skill. Leaders would prefer not to spend a lot of time teaching parts. If they don't have to, they would love not to. They will love you for this and you will get a lot of jobs. Trust me, they will love you, love you, love you, love, love you if you're able to carry your own note. They will love you till the cows come home. Time is money. Time is money, and them constantly telling you a note and telling you a notes wasting too much time. If they send you a song before you get to rehearsal, listen to the song and learn as much as you can. They don't expect you to come. Now, in some cases, some singing gigs are like that, where they expect for you to know hands down. But this is why you go over it. You're still going to go over it. When they sing you a song, listen to the song, you guys. Don't think that you can just Skadad over, especially when you're being paid, it's your job, when you're being paid and go over the song, listen to it. Time is money. This is why they why they send you the song because time is money and they don't have the time. They have the time that they have. But when they sing you music, be polite. Be a good singer, be a good background vocalist, be a good person on your leader and listen to the music. There's an incredible benefits in this business to having a good ear and when it's recognized by people that may want to work with you. When you have a good ear in this business and people find out you have a good ear, that's going to go so long with you. It's so important to have a good ear. One thing about it is there'll sometimes be instances when they can't be in the room. They may hire you to hold it down for them when they're not there or they may have to be late. You may get the call to finish the contracting for them. You may get the call to actually do the contracting for them because they may have another contracting gig, but they trust you. This has happened. This happens every day, you guys. When there's a huge contractor or he's working on a huge gig or he's out of town and he's on tour, and he gets a call. He's going to pay you to contract. He could pay you to contract for them. As if you can hold it down, you have a good ear and he knows what you can do. This goes a really long way. Make sure that you do something with that ear of yours. If you want to be in this business, perfect that ear. There's a way to do it. Now, it comes natural to a lot of us, but there is a way to where again, this all goes to perfecting it at home. Listening to music at home. When you are sent music, listen to it in your headphones, listen to the other keys. What makes sense or what doesn't? Realize that singing is thinking. Singing is thinking. I remember when that was first told to me and I was a little confused about it, but once I got more deeper into the business, I started to realize what they were talking about when they said it. Singing is thinking, lots of thinking, and when I say thinking, it's not complicated. If you're gifted, you're gifted, if you're good at it, you're good at it, but singing is thinking. While you're singing, this is let me give you an example. As a background vocalist, this is what I mean when I say singing is thinking. Just the same tips I gave you guys before. Okay. What are they playing? Is this the note? Where's the note? There's my note. There's my note. What are the people next to me sounding like? Are they singing out, they singing back? Is the music loud or is the music loud? If the music is not loud, I do not belt out. All of that is things that you think about when you're singing. If the music is soft, you go with the music. You do not belt out and sing full voice when it's not the time for that. Think about how does this song go? What are singers next to me? Are they belting out or if they're not? If they're not belting out, I need to come back if I only hear myself. What are the notes? Am I on the right note? All of this goes into thinking, you guys. All of this goes into being a good singer. What it consists of thinking, thinking, thinking. If you're good, they will see it. If you're the best, they will see it. You don't have to prove yourself, you don't have to go over and beyond, just do your job, and they will 7. Discovering Your Key Strengths In Music & Highlighting Those/What Are You Best At?: Cover your key strengths in music and highlighting those. What are you best at? What are you best at? What do people compliment you on the most? You in most cases, know what you're best at before anyone else does. Ad libbing, as we talked about earlier, are you good at ad libbing? Are you not good at it? Do you have a great ear? Having good energy, your voice strength. Are you a good lead singer? Are you a great group singer? Can you play an instrument? Highlight what you're best at and know what those strengths are. You could be terrible at one thing, but you could be great at another thing that will still get you in the door, that will still keep you in the door once you get in the door. You may not have the greatest ear, but you may be a great lead singer. A lot of great lead singers do not have a good ear because a lot of them don't belong in the background. Do you get what I'm saying? A lot of background vocalists are not good leaders. That's a huge thing. A lot of background vocals like, Hey, I'm great at background, but leading is not my thing. That's knowing your strengths. That's knowing what you're good at, and that's highlighting it. For example, I'm a great background vocalist. I can blend with anybody. I have a great ear great with harmony. I always know my music, but I do not want to lead. I do not think that I'm a great lead singer because it's just certain aspects and different things that come with leading that's different from background. Can I lead? Yes, I have led, but I do not prefer leading and I don't think that's a strength of mine. You get what I'm saying? But I think a great strength of mine is everything that comes with background. I will always be great behind any leader. That's what I'm good at, I can highlight that and say that because I'm aware of that. A good way that I highlighted that, especially in public on my social media page is I may harmony videos all the time. I may hire me videos that were live. I recorded and save them live. I was not in the studio. I did that on my own, no one was there teaching me parts. I was not studio that a lot of people have cheated and tried to do. I actually can teach parts. That's another thing. As far as people knowing your strengths, you knowing your strengths and a good contractor leader knowing what you're good at or hiring you, they know you can teach parts when you have a good ear. When you have a good ear and you can pretty much catch on anything, you can teach notes to other people. When you know that other people next to you are all and you can help your leader out, they know that you can teach parts, so many positive things that can come into being great at one thing, but not necessarily the greatest at others, and that's okay. But just make sure you're aware. What you are good at and what you're not good at. Once you realize what you're good at, concentrate on that thing and learn it and perfect it. Once you perfected it, you are unstoppable. 8. Using What You're Best At To Your Advantage: Use what you're best at to your advantage. Now, once you perfect what you're good at, what you're best at, and then you recognize it, start to highlight it as much as you can. Like I said, in my previous lesson, I started to do a lot of harmony videos on Instagram and social media, which got people knowing how great at catching Parts I was and that I was able to pretty much always know my note, which made them want to hire me more. Make videos of it, post it online. Another thing I want to highlight that a lot of singers are not doing. I don't know a lot of my senior friends. I did not know until maybe way later than a lot of my singers can play instruments. If you can play an instrument, play that instrument in some of your videos. Do you know how oh my gosh, so many singers and wish they could play an instrument. I could play the guitar a little bit and I started to play, especially during the pandemic and I actually put it online. I started to learn music at home. I did take guitar lessons, but I don't think I'm good enough to put it on my videos. But if you're really good at playing an instrument, put that in your videos, put that in there. People would absolutely love to hire a singer that can play that would just be such a good highlight. If you have a website, it doesn't have to be social media. If you have a website, put it on your website, make others aware that you're good at these things. Once others are aware of the strength, when they are looking for this strength from a singer, they will think of you and they'll start to refer you to other people and pass jobs onto you. All of this goes in you guys starting to see how this all goes into play with getting jobs because of who you know? All of this plays such a huge part. All of this plays such a huge part. Highlighting your strengths, having a good ear, and having the people to hire, you see that. All of this plays a huge part in being hired by people you know. 9. How My Strengths Worked For Me, What I Specialize In & How I made It Pop: Strengths worked for me and what I specialize in. How did I make it pop? What I specialize in? I'm great at vocal harmony, blending, and I'm a great group singer, and I have a great ear. So I'm good at hearing really well musically. When I realized I had a good ear and groups I was a part of, is really when industry, people started telling me. Now, this is when I first started out when I was sort of unaware. But when I started realizing it is when I was in groups with other people. And I was realizing what I was doing and they weren't or I was realizing what I was hearing and other people were not hearing. This is how you learn. This is why I say get into groups to start singing with other people. You will learn your strengths as you go along. I started to learn a lot of my strengths as I went along. Singing with other people was a huge way that I learned a lot about singing dynamics, when to pull back, blending, et cetera. I learned as I went. Once I started to get the compliments from the huge industry people is when I really started to realize I was like, Wow I'm pretty gifted. When you get around other people, other people will recognize your gifts. Other people will start to recognize it, even if you don't put it out there as much. But when you are good, this is when I say if you're good, they're going to know you're good. Having a good ear is what made me good at everything else. This is what I going back to that ear, having a good ear is what made me good at everything else. Having a good ear is how I was able to blend because I was able to hear everyone next to me because I was able to hear what are the chords that are being played? Having a good ear is what did all of that for me. How did I use it to my advantage? I put myself out there. I started putting it out there. I started making videos of the things I was good at. Like I told you guys, I started making the harmony videos. I started posting the stuff online. That was my strength. When I made the harmony video, that let everyone know about my ear, about the blending, about the harmony, all that stuff because I have to blend with myself too. The video still help people as far as knowing how great I could do three part harmony by myself without anyone teaching. Because of my strengths, I've now over the years been asked and hired to help other people to teach parts, to vocal contract, all that stuff. 10. Getting Noticed: Commanding The Right Attention Without Looking Like You Are: Get notice, command the right attention without looking like you are. Once they've noticed you, you're always being watched, always. This can be really to your advantage if you work it right. If you want to be a background vocalist, you want to be noticed, you want them to see you. The only reason they're looking, which they should be looking is to see more of what you've got. Now these are people. We're talking about people that want to hire you. Not singers next to you, being a hater, anything like that because that's in the business as well. You're going to be watched, especially if you're good, anybody's going to watch you. But your whole focus should be who's watching me that can help me? Who's watching me that can hire me, who's watching me that can get me in that next room with those people that I want to be in the room with. When you walk in that room, command the attention without being thirsty or having people necessarily notice that you're commanding the room. One thing I will say about me, I am F ten, I used to be a model. I also work in the fashion industry, so I will have outfit on anywhere I go I'm putting it on. So I think a part of me commanding the room the way I do is because I'm tall. I think that's number one. So I think one thing that's to the advantage for me, I command a room when I'm not trying to. I've gotten attention all my life because I was tall. That's what I think. Okay. I'm tall, you know, so I'm kind of striking. So when I walk in a room, I get a lot of attention. And so I don't have to really do much. I don't have to really be thirsty. I have on you know, the right I'm always dressed because that's who I am. I went to fashion school and I'm a fashion girl. So, you know, all that can go into commanding the room, but not just the physical, but your personality, you know, your smile, thrown on the right, heels or shoe, they're watching for many reasons. You know, they can be watching for many reasons, but they're going to really be watching you now to see if you know your note. When you come in and you're striking for any reason at all, whether it's physical or your personality, energy, your aura, it's just everything. Now they're going to be watching to see, Okay, she physically got it and I want her in the room more because I love the physical. I love the energy. I love the energy. Energy is huge. Energy is very important in this business. But they're going to really be looking. Okay, she knew her no. She's stumbling the whole time. She really have it? Or are we asking questions every 2 seconds on repeating the note? Again, they're going to really be watching for things like that a lot. Always dress well, even if it's in rehearsals. I've been saying that really this whole time in all these lessons. You never know who's in there. This really should be a given. Now, I say always dress well, not just for attention, but because you need to present yourself right. It really has always irked me. On any job, to be honest, in any field. But this can be in any field. When you're walking in a room, you don't know who's in there. Let's really talk about music since that's what we're talking about right now. You don't know who's in that room. Why are you in pajamas or slippers? Why are you wearing here what you slept in? Does that really make sense? Is that how we really want to present ourselves in the music industry, and we want to be a background singer or even in public at all? Why are we presenting ourselves this way? Don't do that, guys. Put it on. Put on the right outfit, dress well. It doesn't matter if it's just a rehearsal. Trust me, trust me, trust me. You never know who's in that room. You never know who's in that room. That may want a stylist. They may want you to model. You never know. So much goes into the music industry. So many people are in those rooms. You never know. Put your skills on a platter without them knowing about it. I whatever way you can think of and whatever way you're not being thirsty, put your skills on a platter. Show them your personality. Be attentive, on point, smile, even if you're not in a good mood. Many times I was not in a good mood. Many times I was in rooms, to be honest with people I did not want to be in rooms with. A lot of people are really rude and jealous in the music industry. You know, you got to still put on that smile as much as you can. Because any job can really mess with your mental health and the music industry is definitely one of them. I'm not going to lie to you guys at all, but try to be on point as much as possible. If you can't smile, at least try to be on point and know the music. Be enjoyable and easy to love. Not really hard. Again, as long as people are not jealous of you and haters, which this industry a lot comes along with it. But when you're enjoyable in your easy to love, the right person, the right person is going to see it. If you're easy to love and if your energy is amazing, you will get the job over the person next to you. Even if someone is a much better singer than you. That person that's hiring black, Hey, she's dope. She has a great smile, love her energy. I want her in the room. Even if your strengths are not as strong as the people next to you, the vocal contractor, the leader like, Well, she blends well, though. Right now I need someone that can blend well. I need someone that knows how to pull back and not sing loud or sing hard even when the music is soft. Everyone doesn't want that. Everyone doesn't want those kind of singers. Trust me, you guys, everyone does not want the same thing. That's why it's important to know when to belt out and when to pull back. 11. You Don't Have To Be The Best...To Be The Best: Don't have to be the best to be the best. You don't have to be the best to be the best. You don't have to be the best singer. To be the best in the room or to be recognizable or to be hired over the people with better strength stick. There's a lot of other things that can come along with you that can make people want to work with you and not someone else, not just your voice. It could be a lot of other things that come along with you. As we've discussed, your energy, your aura, the way you dress, the way you carry yourself. All of that is so huge. There are plenty of famous singers that are not the best singers. They were not the best singers back in the day, but they were still in those rooms for a reason. They were still there for a reason. They still were able to put the music out for a reason. Something got them noticed. Something got them noticed. I know a lot of you know. Certain singers that everybody says it can't sing. She can't sing or she can't even see. He can't even seeing but they're famous I don't know what. They got so many different albums. They're Dagon legends now, but they didn't have the best voice. Why? Why is that? We're not talking about a lot of people trying to make things up about how someone got to the top. None of that involved. Let's be realistic and let's be honest about how did these people get to where they are without having the voice. Sometimes they don't even have to look to be honest. How did we get here? Energy was great. Their or was great. They were great to work with. All of these things matter, you guys. Being able to hear, being able to work well with someone, being able to listen musically, being able to work well under people. All of this goes into why someone would want to work with you over the best or the better version or the better person where you think they would have hired the other person, but they didn't. They hired you. Eventually, it will take notice to other people. Why this huge person in the industry wants to keep working with you. Unfortunately, people are followers, especially music and they're going to start to notice you and wonder, why does this person keep hiring this person? What is it about this person that they want to hire? Well, let me hire this person too. It works. You can make up with all of your weaknesses, with your image, your branding, your marketing, and your attitude. Your image, your branding, your marketing, and your attitude will take you so much further than you just being the best singer in the room. Trust me. 12. Vocal Contracting: Vocal contracting, how it works and how it works for me, what is vocal contracting? Vocal contracting is super, super important. Vocal contracting is pretty much the people that will hire you. I've been using that term a lot in all of my lessons. Those are pretty much the people that will hire you. When there are no auditions and producers from TV shows or events or musicians. They will call these people to call singers that they know that can sing, and that's how the background singers get jobs. That's what vocal contractors do. They are the go to guys to hire singers for all these huge events, awards shows, et cetera that you see. It's always a vocal contractor behind them, because the reason it's called vocal contracting is literally because it's a contracting job. You know, this is not a nine to five. You're literally hired on demand, pretty much, Senior on demand. So that's what vocal contracting is. It's the way a lot of singers get discovered. A lot of singers get discovered because a huge vocal contractor hire them for the right gig or a huge gig When I was saying earlier, you know, you never know in my first lesson, when you're out networking and you meet people in those choirs or those groups, and you think it's nothing. This is why I say always treat people with respect. There are a lot of people I'm so proud to say this. A lot of people that I started out with on gigs that we might have been paid maybe $200 are huge, huge, huge vocal contractors now, vocal coaches, well known that work with huge people, huge celebrities, huge people that I literally rub shoulders with, you never know who you know that's going to be up here one day that you think that started down here with you. Those are the main people that you really want to keep the better relationship with. You do want to keep your relationships in the industry, but you don't want to let other singers discourage you because it can happen. You just need to be careful when it comes to who you want to give your trust to, who you keep in contact with, whose opinion really matters. This is a really cut throat business and you have to have a thick skin in the music industry. You want to make sure that you have trust and you listen to the right people. There are bad vocal contractors out there that are not trustworthy, that are just not good people, and there are some great ones. So you just have to weed them out and these were things that I learned and unfortunately, we all have to learn it. You really going to have to learn it yourself as well. But I'm just making you aware. I don't want you to get in and think that you can't be done dirty by someone who hired you because you can. It happens. But yes, anytime you see an award show, a concert with background singers, someone hired those singers. In most cases, it was a vocal contractor. Vocal contractors are some of the main people that see your skills, notice your skills before anyone else sometimes notice your skills before you do. So those are going to be the big guys that you want to really I guess, pay attention to or get feedback from, and then they're the ones that can do the hiring. You know how it worked for me, I met one vocal contractor, got my first job, then I got this job, then I rubbed shoulders with other singers as I was discussing earlier. Then those other singers turned into vocal contractors and eventually got me other jobs and more jobs, and more jobs. Contractors are always looking for new singers. They're always looking for new singers. This is why it's important to keep a good look, a good attitude, brand yourself properly, and care about yourself. This is why that's important. You never know who will become a contractor once you met and worked with someone. 13. Television Work: Television work. Let's talk about television. This is probably one of my favorite subjects in music because I've been so blessed to be on televison so many times with great, great people. Being on set is probably the most exciting but hardest jobs in singing. It's very long days. Sometimes can be really uncomfortable, but you just have to roll with it. They are very long days. Most of us who have done it a long time are used to it. I'm also a costume stylist on TV sets, and I also sing on television. My first experience on TV at all was music. And that's when I experienced how long television work is and how it can be like 12 hour days you're there. You can be the last person to sing. This always happened to me for some reason. When I did award shows a lot, we were always the last act for some reason, in a lot of the cases, and I was there all day. We would have to be there at the top of the morning, but I would be there till the end. So it's normally an all day thing. It's a lot of hurrying up and waiting. You just have to you just have to roll with it. It can be hot. It can be chaotic, cold, you just have to roll with it. If you're cold, go find a blanket, go find a warm spot, if you're hot, you have to just roll with it. But television is one of the top paid in singing, I would say. Tours also are huge, it's huge money. Tours and stuff. But when we're talking about background singing and gigs and television, a television gig, one television gig, is it's pretty well paid in most cases. Most are union jobs, which is Sack after anytime you really see anything on TV, like TV shows, et cetera, all that goes into this as well. You have to it's a Sag after job, probably, which pays a lot. I am a part of the union Sag after union. Eventally I have to just get a part of it. I have to do so many union jobs. And eventually the union workers are like, Hey, you need you're not in the union. What's going on here. So another huge thing if you want to do these TV gigs, you have to stay healthy and physically fit as much as possible if you want to do TV. That's just the way it is. That's TV. You have to try your hardest to just look the part. Now, television is different from background singing, just doing a gig. Television, you are working with producers, casting directors, all these people that your vocal contractor would have nothing to do with. There are a lot of times where during a gig, if you are pre recording, which is also part of TV, that the producer will talk to somebody else in one ear and the other person will get somebody else's ear and then come back to your contractor and they will move you. If you don't have the look they want or if your energy is off, all of energy, the look, et cetera, all for what they're looking for, they will switch you and move you around if you are in certain camera view, they may want you in certain camera view. They may not want this person in certain camera view producers, ask contractors for a certain thing or a certain kind of singers or a certain. That's how singers come about on television. And that's how things are produced, and they'll ask, Oh, we want all Black choir, but they all need to look a certain way. We want a choir, but they can't look like this, they can't look like that. Television producers have a big say so and who the vocal contractors hire to sing. Keep who you're working with confidential until the right time. This is very important and something I had to learn on my own. Yeah, I had to learn that on my own. No one told me that. So you can't go posting about it until after it happens. You can't post, Hey, I'm singing with Janelle Monet. Oh, I'm at rehearsal with her now or like, take a self and she's behind you. You have to be silent about it until after it happens. Most of the time, you probably signed an NDA when you did your paperwork and you didn't know it. There's a lot of NDAs involved. There's a lot of contracts, and you're just not supposed to disclose it. To be quite honest, I do not know why. I think it's a little silly. To be honest, I'm just being honest. If there's an award show coming out, if I'm seeing at the Grammys and I'm behind this artist and everyone knows that artist is performing, why in the world can't I say that I'm singing with that artist? I have no idea. It's so weird. We all know that artist is performing. But that's just the way it is. They don't want anything disclosed at all about the performance, whether it's you singing with them or not or whether they're going to have singers. I really don't know that. Now, when I find out I, come back and I educate you guys on that more. I don't know the reason, but they do not want to disclose. So just don't disclose it. Nothing about television, honestly, do they ever want to disclose? Like, I worked on a TV show. That I still have not been able to disclose now until it's time. I have not been able to disclose that television show, not the name of it. So I can say I worked on TV show, but they won't you guys can't know the name of it until it comes out. So that's just how television is. That's just the way it is. One thing when it comes to television, professionalism, is a must at all times. Producers, casting directors, all of those people in there are always watching you. Not only are they always watching you, but when they are watching you, you never know what opportunity will come from them watching you again. You never know the camera time you will get from them watching you from being professional, they may like the way you look, all of that. TV can be one of the best experiences you'll ever have. You can still have fun on set, but still be professional at all times. Professionalism is so important. You don't want to get there acting you know, this should be a given, really. But you will rub shoulders with a lot of celebrities and you need to treat them like any other person, you know, treat them with respect. Don't be in their face and thirsty. They don't like that. You just treat them with respect. I work in fashion and music, and so I've gotten to work on TV shows. I've styled celebrities. I rub shoulders with celebrities and legends often, and it got to the point where it's just kind of who I am and it's kind of a part of my life and my career. Trust me, we're all human. So if I can be honest, I am a lot of times when I meet these people, I am so stunned, surprised, bubbling on the inside, but they don't see it. I don't show it. I'm not all thirsty, like, Oh my God, nothing like that. Have a conversation, let them know how much you love them if that's the case, you know, but treat them like people and they love to be treated like they're people because they are people. They love to be treated with respect. They don't want to be treated any different kind of way. You know, some of them don't mind, but in most cases, they just want to be treated like people. Do not act starstruck on set. Do not, show that side. Like I said, keep it inside. I've been very starstruck and no one knew it. Until unless I shared it with text my best friend. Oh my God, no one knew it, though. No one knew it. If you have a great attitude or a bad one on set, it will always be remembered. Look good at all times when you're on set for television work. Look good at all times. Why would you want to come not looking good and you're in front of producers and casting directors? This is just look good, guys. Again, when you're up pre recording and you don't know they're about to call for pre recording and it's too late and you're already by the stage, you get up there looking crazy. They're going to want you in the back. You're not going to get any television camera time. Maybe people don't care about that, but it makes the contractor look bad as well, too, guys. You're not just working for yourself. The contractor hired you. You don't want to make that contractor look bad as well. Don't come in in your pajamas, if your camera blocking, all that stuff. You know, no, you're always being watched on set. Like I said, you're always being watched, you want to look good at all time. What is camera blocking? Camera blocking is before the show. This is why it's important to look good. All of this goes with the hurry up and waiting kind of stuff. You know, we hurry up and we wait, then we do this, and then we hurry up and wait again. So camera blocking is before the show. Producers and cameramen already know where they're going to put the camera before the live show starts. So you have to be on point at all times. This is why I'm telling you this. You have to be on point at all times because they're going to put that camera they know where that camera is going to go. Why would you want to be up there and you don't want a little camera time or if you do get camera time, you want to look good while you're on camera. You know what I mean? There's so many aspects. There's just no excuse. Whether you want the camera time or you don't going to be on camera probably in some way, somehow, even if they don't put it on you a lot, you want to be on point, you're on camera, you're on television, you want to be on point, they know where they want to put the camera. Don't come looking a mess, not even when you get there. Oh, this has always irked me. This has always irked me. Unless you just got off work and you had to hop on the bus, you had no way. Do not walk in there. I don't care if we are not dressed for the show, we don't get dressed until later or you're going to do eventually you're going to do camera blocking. Somebody's going to see you. Don't walk in there looking a mess. You want to still walk in there on point. Don't walk in there like you just rolled out of bed because most of the times we did just roll out of bed because our call times are so early, but you don't want to look that way. Your face doesn't have to be super beat to the point where you have on the makeup you're going to wear during the show. No, that's not necessarily the case, but you still want to be on point. You still want to be on point. Most of all, you want to have fun and realize that these celebrities are people to everybody everybody. We're doing a great gig and just have. 14. Having The Right Image/Looking The Part At All Times: Ing the right image and looking the part at all times, dress well. As I've said in many of my lessons up until this lesson, dress well. This will make you stand out faster than your voice will at times because this is what they go for first. This is what they see first. This is what they see first. This is what they see when you walk in a room, when you walk on set, and they've never met you. It's how you present yourself. Are you guys starting to see why this is so important now? Not just trying to impress people, but this goes along with your brand. This goes along with having the right image. Why do they want to hire you? This girl loves herself. This girl carries herself, well, I do want to hire her. Let me call her for this it. As quickly as you're positively noticed, if you do the opposite, they will notice that too. It all goes hand in hand. If they notice something great about you, they're going to also notice that something not so great. Your physical image is also very important. It has a lot to do with people hiring you. Stay healthy and fit. People are always looking for a certain look. If you can sing and you're physically appealing, it's a plus. It's a plus. It is. That's just the way it is. Don't come to rehearsals, set, et cetera, a mess. Just because it's not technically showtime does not mean you're still not being watched. This goes along with when I talked about television work in my previous lesson, when you're on set, the camera blocking, even when you walk in, and not being dressed for the actual show yet, there's still going to be camera blocking sometime during the day and you're not going to know when that camera blocking is. This is why you still need to be on point all the time. This is why you still need to be on point. This is why your hair still needs to be combed. This is why you should not be in slippers. You should not be in pajamas. You should be to the point where you look like a professional and you know in the music industry, guys, when I say look like a professional, we're not talking about necessarily suit and tie. In the music industry, This is what I do love about the music industry and the fashion industry. This is why I'm in those industries because I want to be myself. You can be yourself, but you can still be professional, have your tattoos, have your piercings, but look nice, have on your bright outfit, have on your colors, have on the nails that you want, but still look nice. They love all of that, but you can still look nice with all of those. 15. Branding Yourself: Branding yourself, branding yourself, marketing yourself. Marketing yourself goes along with branding yourself. Who knows that you're a singer? Raise awareness. Do they know that you're a singer? Let them know you exist. Let me tell you something. If I don't know you can sing or if I don't know you exist, there's no way for me to pass the gig onto you. I cannot give you a gig if I don't know that you can sing. Treat your gift serious. Post on your pages, guys, post on your social media pages. Talk network. You have to treat it serious. This if you really want to do this thing, you have to treat it serious. This is not something that oh maybe one day someone will just come. Just asked me if I'm a singer, like, no, it doesn't work that way. You have to make a move. You have to network, you have to make the move. You have to brand yourself, market yourself, put yourself out there. I'm sorry. If you don't sing and put yourself out there, you will never be hired. No one's going to know you can sing. It doesn't work that way. I've had too many singers in my DMs, too many singers that have come to me, very sweet people, but I politely tell them, Hey, I don't know that you can sing. I've never heard you sing, just like with fashion stylists fashion stylists approach me a lot because I can dress, they know they know that I know people, they know that I've done things, and how do I pass a gig along to you you don't even post your work. I think that's strange. As someone who wants to brand themselves. We're talking about branding ourselves outside of your nine to five if you have one, outside of your day job. You have to do that branding, whatever it is, you have to put it out there. You cannot be so timid and afraid to post your work. If you're timid and afraid and you don't want to post your work online, I don't know what to tell you when it comes to, this is the day and age we live in. This is the day and age we live in a part of going to open mics and joining choir is branding yourself and posting yourself. Make people open to listening to you. Maybe sometimes people may not want to listen to them to you, make them open to listening to you. Why should I listen to you? Why should I listen to your video? Let them know that hey, I'm worth listening to. Always have a song prepared for your tone in your range just in case the right person comes to you and asks you to sing. Now, I know this is a tough one because this was not always me and it probably still is. Actually, it is. I have a song, but I had to get to know my voice over a certain time and I sang this song over and over again. I realized I sound really good singing that song. So if it ever comes to a point where someone comes to me, important now, not just any regular regular people, your cousins like, Okay, you please sing? No, you don't have to do that, guys. Well, the right person comes to you or a contractor and they're like, Hey, you sing this song or sing me something really quick because they may think or heard that you could sing. Just try to have one in mind or practice it at home that you know, if the right person ever comes to me and ask you to sing, then I'm going to this is the song I'm going to sing. It's not necessarily the easiest thing to get people to take you serious, but it's possible with the right effort. It can be easy. It doesn't have to be that you know. But when I say it's not easy is you can't just sit back and think people are going to come to you. You have to put yourself out there. That's what I mean when I say it's not easy. You know? Where can we find your work online? If I cannot find a singing video of you online, you are not branding yourself properly. If I cannot find your work as a musician, if I cannot find anything musically about you online, on your website, YouTube video, Tik tot, Instagram, the Internet is interneting way too much nowadays for you not to have any of your work anywhere online if you really want to get far in this thing. If you do not brand yourself or put yourself online, you don't want to go anywhere with this, and that's fine. If you want to purch a hobby, it's all good. But if we're talking about really making this thing happen, brand yourself. You have to be somewhere online. Get a website, have all your work on there. Have a good digital place to send people to see your work. When I share with you guys in one of my other lessons, I was in St. Louis and I had a huge audition for something where I did not have to be present, but they needed to hear me. Have something digitally, where you can send them and they can hear your voice. Sometimes you won't even get because there's not many auditions in this business. When they do come along, you need to be prepared. If you're not prepared and you don't have anything to send someone, they won't even send you the audition. I had a friend of mine that was a vocal contractor that called me and said, Hey, I need to hear your tone now. Do you have a recording or send me somewhere? I sent her somewhere immediately. If I did not have somewhere to send her online or my Instagram page or something like that, I wouldn't have even gotten a chance to audition. You have to be somewhere digitally nowadays. That's just the way it is. 16. Marketing Yourself: Marketing yourself. Now let's talk about marketing. First, we just talked about branding. Now we're talking about marketing, which goes hand in hand. No matter what job you have, if someone asks you what you do, say all those things, but don't forget to say you're a singer. I think a lot of people forget to say that, especially when you're shy or you feel like, Well, I haven't been out there. I haven't gotten a lot of jobs. It doesn't matter. Prove your worth, take initiatives in your own hands, be aggressive, but don't overdo it. Don't be thirsty, but prove your worth. Things into your own hands. No one's going to take things into your own hands and don't be afraid to say, Hey, I am a singer. I sing, this is what I do. Even if you have a day job or nine to five or you work in corporate America, it's still okay to post a singing video. I've been talking about this in all of my lessons almost, post your singing videos. Or if you don't feel comfortable, have a website singing the best you could ever sing. In some way, you have to market yourself. And part of marketing yourself is putting your work out there, guys. That's just the way it is. You have to market, you have to market market market. Thirst is noticeable don't be thirsty. Market yourself, talk about yourself, tell people I'm great, tell people this is what I do. But don't you dare be thirsty. Please don't be thirsty. It is noticeable when you're thirsty. There's a difference between passion and there's a difference between thirst. Know the difference. You can be passionate about something, you can love something and really want something, but do not bother people. Put yourself out there to a certain extent. We're adults. We know what that means and we should, but just don't be thirsty, don't bother people. Don't make it to the point where people don't want to work with you at all, but it is still up to you, it's still your career. You have to still put yourself out there and be passionate about it. Let them see your passion. But don't over 17. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing. This is also one of my favorite topics because this is something I also did for a living. So over my nine to five a lot when I was working in fashion, I was a social media person, social media manager. So I know a lot about social media marketing, social media management. We are in 2025. Social media is now the hugest and easiest and fastest way to market yourself. As a singer or any business person at all. Social media is it. When it comes to marketing, there is no marketing anymore. I don't know what's going to happen down the line, but it looks like we are in a very techy industry. We're in a very techy world now. Everything is technology. Technology has changed everything. I don't see it changing anytime soon. Social media is huge. There is no such thing as marketing if you are not marketing on social media, I don't care what business it is. I don't care what you do. I don't care what you do, especially when you are a singer musician and you're trying to get into business, it's so easy market yourself, guys, on social media. It's so easy. Why aren't you posting the videos of your work? Why aren't you posting yourself? Why aren't you posting yourself singing? 30 seconds? Come on. You're by yourself posted. If you believe in yourself and you believe in your gift, there's no reason why it's not. You're not posting online. Your Instagram page is now your new business card. TikTok is great, but TikTok is still not. People literally send people to their Instagram page. It's literally a business card now where they can digitally. True story, you can scan your QR code now that sends you to an Instagram page. Or when you hand people your business card, a lot of times they have a nap to where it's Instagram page. Instagram is the new business card. And if it's not the new business card for some, it's definitely your digital business card. Be aware of that. Be aware of that. Do not have private pages. Do not have private pages. We don't guys, why is your page private? You want to be a singer? Who's seen that? Your followers, what are they doing for you? Who's following you? How many fills you got? How many files do you intend to get? How many musicians do you intend to ever see your videos? Tell me. That's not going to work. You cannot have a private business page and market yourself as you are now a business. Are you aware of that? You are now a business. As a singer, a songwriter, anything working for yourself outside of your nine to five job or being an entrepreneur, you are your business. You are your business, which means you as your business, you need to be marketing yourself. You need to be marketing yourself. If you're marketing yourself and your page is private, no one is seeing that. No one is seeing that. No one is seeing that at all. Your page is private. Your page cannot be private and you are a business page. You know how are you a business page because you're a walking business. You want to be a background vocalist, you are now a walking business. You are now a walking brand. You have to take it serious. No, you want to be a background vocalist or not? You cannot do that. You have to be active on your pages. You have to be active. Okay? Now, I'm not saying, again, times have changed, so I use a post multiple times a day. Not happening. I don't know. No, we're not doing that. You don't have to do all of that. You don't even have to post once a day. We're talking about singing. Don't be annoying. But put yourself out there. Even if it's like once a week, once every two weeks, maybe not even that often. Again, I'm talking to people because I don't again, I have a highlight, so I don't have to post all the time anymore. I have myself and highlights on my story. It can be once a month, once every three weeks. If you're really trying to get into business, as long as you're doing it, somehow be active on there. Don't get to a point where we come to your page you have not posted since July 2023. That's not active. Now, if that's your case, I don't blame you. A lot of people can't handle social media. A lot of people don't want to do social media, and that's fine. But Again, we're talking to you. I'm talking to you. As a person who wants to be a professional background vocalist, you need to be active. If your profile suck, you aren't taking your career serious because anyone can see your profile. Now, once we take them off of private and you just have pictures of birds, but you're telling me you want to be a singer, that's not going to work. You never know when someone can change your life. This is why I'm saying this to you. There are many singers who were posting on Instagram or social media first and someone saw them. It's a lot of them. I can't go down the list of all of them. LM is one of them. Like I mentioned, I think in my intro video earlier. There are many ways people can see you singing online. Trust me. Even if you aren't getting those likes, someone seeing you. Someone may share it. Even if you don't think you're the best singer, if you're decent, if you are able to get a background singing gig, you can sing. But let's still use our discretion not that we can sing, no. Don't just post and you can't sing. I want to be a background vocalist, you cannot carry a note. Don't do that, guys. Make sure when you do post, you use music hashtags. Music hash tags are very important. Pound background vocalist, pound, background singer, music, pound. You get the gist, okay? I know it sounds like I'm being hard on you guys, okay? But it's just because I really want you guys to get this in your brains because of things that I learned on the way, especially with the social media marketing thing. It may not happen for everyone, but many singers, like I said, do get discovered that way. And not just Instagram and Tekt guys, there's also YouTube, Celebrity will follow you. Celebrities will follow you. I have singing friends that, again, aren't really mainstream, well known like that, but people know them on Instagram and they're getting likes and they're getting recognized from celebrities, a Rihanna and huge celebrities. I've seen it, people I've sing with you guys. So don't underestimate that stuff. Vocal contractors and the people you worked with will follow you. They will follow you. I've gotten gigs from this. I'm passionate about this because I've gotten gigs from posting singing videos, and I've gotten gigs because those contractors that you think aren't thinking of you, they may not have woken up and thought of you today. But when they got a vocal contracting gig, they realized they needed ten sopranos for this huge gig and five to ten sopranos. They scrolled on their page and they saw that singing video. I was like, Oh, MJ is a soprano. Let me call MJ. It has happened to me for a huge gig. It's happened to me, where I was not on that person's mind. I hadn't did a gig with this person. Mind you, I set a gig. It's people I rubbed children's with, not people that I even knew contracted, okay? Or that could teach parts. But people I've been side by side with called me guys for a gig because we were friends on social media. Barely had my number. I got inbox for a huge Sag After gig televised. Inbox DM DMs, it works. Even when no one seems to be paying attention, still posts because they are paying attention. It's your job to build your following. It's your job to market yourself. You never know what can happen. If I get a DM from someone telling me they want to sing, but their Instagram does not reflect it, I do not take them serious. Okay. If you are DME and messaging and emailing vocal contractors and they come to your page and there's no way for them to see anything musically or see that you can sing or go to a highlight, they're not going to take you serious. Be mindful of your post. Do not post naked pigs, When I say be mindful, do not post I mean, do I need to go down the line, guys? Do not post certain things. You are now a professional. After you watch this video and you put my pointers to work, you are now a professional. You are aspiring professional background vocalist. You are now a brand, and you are now going to be marketing yourself as such. After you watch this video, I expect for all of the things to change. The reason I say be mindful is your social media platform can be the reason that you get a job or the reason that you lose a job. It can be. Your platform will be how people remember you and a lot of times will be how some people actually meet you that are hiring. When you post, but they haven't seen you in person in a while, they see your post. If they haven't seen me in two months, three months, we haven't done again five months, what they're going to see is my post. Think about that. I think some of you probably after you take this class will start to realize after I'm saying this, you know, maybe I should change my posts around, if I want to be hired, I probably should take this post down or these last five posts that maybe posted on your story, but not on your timeline. Like, I'm not trying to be the post police, trust me, but I get it. It's just the way it is. It's the way it is, okay? Okay. So your posts will be the only way they're going to see you a lot of times. This has tremendously, tremendously worked in my favor. I have not. And let me say this. I have not sat down and had coffee, lunch, brunch, et cetera with any of those people that have hired me. I have become friends. Now, I have become close to a lot of my contractors. But if I can be honest, we have never had coffee. We have never sat down. We've never gone to brunch. I don't even know if I have some of their numbers. I got booked for the Grammys in my inbox on Facebook. Okay? I don't even think I had his phone number. Your social platform is where they go first. When they get your name and they've never met you and you referred to them, or if they want to hear how you sing, your social platform is where they go first, and this is how you get a job. This is how you get a job, okay? And if it's not your social, it'll be your website. Your website may be the second thing. But I promise you, I promise you I'm talking to you as a social media manager as well. Will go to your social pages first. Anything you do, they're going to your socials. Now you apply for nine to five, the recruiters are going to your socials. It doesn't matter if you're applying to be administrative assistant. They want to know what you look like, how you care yourself and your Instagram, your social TikTok all tell that about you. Sometimes I'll share things and I'll say things that I would never say, but I might think it's funny. But in most cases, when people come to your page, they should be able to pick up on that based on the majority of your posts. I've had to mature over the years as well when it comes to this because I was not always like this, but I've had to realize like, Hey, you're walking business card now, girl. Your page is your business. So understanding. But overall, as much as it seems like contractors and people like me that are educating you guys were like to social media police, we want you to have fun. Have fun on social media, but just always be professional and aware that you are your brand, and so are your social media pages. 18. Staying Inspired When You Haven't Been Booked in a While or Booked At All: Inspired when you haven't been booked in a while or you haven't been booked at all. This is also very important. As much as everything else going along with being a background vocalist or in the music industry at all is important. This is also important. Mental health is a lot. My first point is to never give up. Don't you dare give up. Everything doesn't happen overnight. This is not going to happen overnight. I want to reiterate that. There are instances where some times it may happen for someone quicker than the other. But in most cases, this will not happen overnight. So make sure you just never give up. Sometimes it can take years to become successful. If some of our favorite singers gave up when time seen down, we would have never heard from them. If some of your favorite singers and artists threw in the towel, we wouldn't know who they are. They didn't give up. Be aware that every singer musician has their ups and downs. Every singer has their ups and down period. All of them. I don't care if, if I can speak with some of my background focus maybe that have been in the business for a while, that can be discouraging when you feel like you have been booked in a long time. It happens to us all. It happens to us all. Just know that. This is just how it works at times. When you are business, I mean look at forever 21. They were in business so long, they didn't think they'd go out of business like this, you know, when you're a business at all, big lots, party city, you're going to have your ups and downs. Before those people went out of business completely, they had their ups and their down times. There's going to be times when you're up and there's going to be times where you're not so up. Those people did not give up. They had their business for years, those stores and eventually when it was time to pull the plug, they did, but they did not give up when things were first not so well for them. There will be disappointments and you will have to deal with it. You have to have thick skin, you will have to have thick skin, you have to be aware that everything is just not going to go your way. People will let you down. You contractors, your friends that you make in this industry, the people that make promises to you, they will let you down. But you learn from it, you take a new path with someone else, but don't let it depress you and don't let it bring you down. There will be times this is very important, where you will be hired for something and will get a call back and you are fired. There will be times where they've hired you and they will call you back and they will cut you. That's just the way it is. Don't let that discourage you, don't forget your talent or your gifts. There's a reason why you were cut and the reason why that you were let go, that probably isn't personal. A lot of times it's budget. A lot of times they realize they don't need that many people or that you might not just be a good fit. That happens. That happens in music, modeling, fashion, whatever. You know, I just big opportunities come and they go sometimes. It sucks. I'm going to be quite honest with you. It definitely does not feel good, but don't let it discourage you. It happens to the best of us, ok? Look back over your career. Look back over your music career and see how far you've come. Lo back over your life and see how far you've come. Look back at times where you've wanted to give up. Look back at how far you've come with your voice, how far you perfected your gift. Look how far that helps a lot when you want to give up. You look back and you see, wow, just a few months ago, I didn't even know how to do that. I didn't know I couldn't even hear other people. I couldn't even catch my a couple of months ago. Now look at me. When you look back over your time, look back over things you've learned that really can help. Look back over old photos of your old bookings, if you are a singer, if you have been in the industry for a while, look back over all those photos and see how you've been blessed to have killer opportunities that other people will die for or how you've been in the rooms with the right people. Look back over all the people you've met that you didn't know a year ago. If you're just starting out, look at seeing videos of you. Look at singing videos of some of your favorite singers that inspire you. That helps a lot. And if you're spiritual prey. Whatever can inspire you, to stay on the right track and to keep a positive mind and mental health in this business, do what you can because this business can do a lot to your mental health. That's if you allow it. So try to just stay as positive and inspired as possible. Just remember your gifts and remember who you are. 19. Do's & Don't of The Music Industry: Dos and don'ts of the music industry. Always be professional. Do always be professional, no matter how you feel, no matter how the environment is, just because you see someone else doing something else on set, it may not resonate with you, may not be the best thing for you to do. Always be professional. No matter what's going on around you, make the decision. Should I partake or should I not partake? Always keep a good attitude at all times. It may not always be the easiest thing to do. You may not feel well, but always keep a good attitude. People you work with may not always be the nicest people. You may be dealing with a lot of stuff when you're on set with these people, but make sure you keep a good attitude, no matter what at all times. Don't be nasty towards others. They will remember. I think the music industry they'll probably remember more than any other industry. I work in fashion and in music, and when I tell you, music and fashion, Music is the most cutthroat out of all of them. I think music has been the most hurtful out either of my careers. If I can be honest, I dealt with the most hurtful things in music way more than fashion, surprisingly. We've always been taut that the fashion industry was such a cut throat industry. I think everyone in their lives just thought the fashion industry was like, Oh my God, so cutthroat. Fashion industry has nothing on the music industry. Trust me when I say this. You can do your best not to be nasty towards others that are probably being nasty to you. You probably have every right to be nasty towards them, but try your hardest not to be. There's a lot of jealousy in this industry when you get a lot of opportunities, there's a lot of jealousy. Just try to keep pushing through it, try to recognize what it is and try to keep pressing through it. Keep a clean social media platform. We talked about social media, we talked about branding. We talked about all that up until now. Make sure your social media platform is very clean. You can have 5,000 posts and still none of them are inappropriate. It should still be appropriate. Still show your personality, still be funny. Still dress whatever way you want to dress, but it should still be clean as far as marketing yourself, as far as wanting people to hire you based off of coming to your page. Don't post vulgar, gross things on your social media. It's your business card. So there should not be picks of I should not I don't want to get into, you know, you know what it is. You know, don't post gross things. Again, your 24 hour story is a little different from your timeline. Sometimes I repost things on my social media that's probably something probably. A lot of the time we post funny memes and things on my social media stories that I would not post on my timeline just because when people come to my timeline, I want them to see a certain thing. I want my post to be a certain way and your stories disappear in 24 hours. Now, keep in mind, though, the Internet is still the Internet, and this is where a lot of huge people, especially celebrities get twisted. When you post something, no matter what it is, even if you post something on your story, you delete it, someone has already screenshot it, be very, very careful of what it is. Just be mindful. We can't police you guys tell you what's right or wrong, but just have in your mind maybe I shouldn't post this. If you have your mind, maybe I shouldn't post this, then you probably should. Don't post who you're working with until after it's done until it's already safe to be put out there, don't post who you're working with. If it's a huge celebrity for television work award show, especially, do not post on social media until after the show or when they say it's okay. If you are unsure, ask somebody. This can cost you your job or your career if you're not careful. I learned all these the hard way and by myself because no one told me ever until after it was done, thankfully, I never lost a job, but I almost did. I'm being very honest. So no one would told me until after it was done. I literally didn't know. So I'm telling you cannot post who you're working with. You cannot post selfies or them in the background. You just can't, a lot of times there are NDAs involved or whatever reason they don't want you to post. You just cannot post until afterwards. You don't want to lose your job over something that's so small, but it's big because this is just how it is, and someone should have told me. Again, I never lost a job, thank God, but sometimes I got a little chewed out by the person who hired me and I'm like, no one ever told me. I didn't know. I didn't know, especially if I did it for years and no one told me for years. I'm telling you guys do not do it. Do network with as many people as you can. Make friends. These people may have the ability to change your life one day. We talked about that, so keep that in mind. Do talk to the celebrities. It's okay. Say hello when you're working with them, treat them like people, but say hello at the right time. Do not bother them. Do not be thirsty. If you take a picture, make sure it's at the right time. All that is okay. All that's fine. That's not being thirsty. You work with them, you get your picture. Get your picture, I am all for that and I've got all of mine and people will be mad about it. I've got all my picks, I've got all whatever. But I made sure it was at the right time. I've made sure I've asked the person, made sure they were calm, and make sure you ask in the right way. Hey, do you mind if we get the picture together? They don't mind that at all, especially when you're working with them. So make sure it's okay. It's okay to talk to them. They are people too, and they're always excited to have seniors work with them. So it's okay at the right time. But don't hound them. Do not hound the celebrities when you see them. Feel them and know when the time is right to speak or take a picture. Do realize that no business is kind to beautiful women. This is a huge one for my ladies. No business is really that kind to us. In certain instances it can be, there are some privileges, to be honest and there are some aspects where you're going to deal with a lot of jealousy, especially if you're a gifted woman and you can sing, if you can sing, if you're multi talented as a woman, just be prepared to have a lot of other women come for you, possibly and be jealous of you because a lot of people just want to spot. A lot of people want, especially when you're getting killer opportunities that start to come in, just be aware of all of those things. Do not constantly hound or go up to people trying to sell your CDs, ask them to lead a song. You know, listen, if you're dope and you're great, they already know it and they're already watching you and they've already seen it. This is what I said before. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there once or twice and throw it in a conversation. If you've gotten to this point and you've seen all my lessons up until now, I have given you correct pointers and correct everything on how to do this without being a hound. They already know it, put it out there one time and let it be the end of it. This is always a negative look in the end for you and others will start to catch on causing no one to take you serious. Hounding them will not make them want to work with you at all whatsoever. Okay, it's not. Again, if you gotten to this point and you've watched all of my lessons in this class up until this point, you know by now what I mean when I say no hounding, but there is a way to put yourself out there in the best positive way. 20. Conclusion/Thank You!: So, you guys, now we are at the very end. And I just want to say congratulations. You guys made it to the end and completed this course. You now know the fundamentals and the dos and the don'ts and all kinds of tips in regards to learning how to become a professional background vocalist, how to get in the business. You know about networking, how to put yourself out there, marketing yourself, branding yourself, social media marketing, vocal contracting, how to present yourself in public, what you go through when you deal with other people. There's so many tips that I've given you up until now, where I pray that you guys take what I've given you take these steps, and I promise you, if you put everything I've given you into action, there's no way in the world you won't be unstoppable. I taught you guys not how to only get into becoming a background vocalist, but a good background vocalist, how to perfect your ear, how to hear musically, how to use your gifts for your strengths, how to put yourself out there in a way where people are flocking to you. There's so many things that comes into this business that's outside of just being a good singer, and you guys now have those tips and those fundamentals. I just wanted to say thank you so much for getting to this point and watching. And I hope to see you guys next time. If you gos any questions, please feel free to message me. And yes, until we see each other again.