– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hi I'm Cari Cole.

I'm a celebrity vocal coach and artist development expert.

And I help artist find their voice, craft their music, and create successful music careers.

I've worked with Donald Fagen from Steely Dan, Courtney Love from Hole, I've worked

with the band Journey.

I'm going to teach you how to be a better singer and performer

So I'm going to tell you a few tips for how to create your signature sound and how to

find your niche as a singer.

For those of you watching American Idol, it's become very clear when a singer is on their

path to finding their niche and whether their singing the right genre, whether they've chosen

the right songs for them or not, and this is crucial in the music world.

There's a lot of great voices out there, there's a lot of talented people, but the people who

tend to pop through are those that have found their niche, how they sound good singing.

So I'm going to just a few tips for that today.

First thing is you want to choose the right material for you and that starts with lyrical

content.

You should be singing stuff that you believe in, that is akin to you, that is natural to

you.

So you want to choose lyrics that mean something to you, you don't want to be singing about

stuff that doesn't mean anything to you.

You also want to find the right genre, and this takes some experimenting.

So one of the things I do with my students when they come to me is we go through a bunch

of different genres of material, and we record them and listen back and see what they sound

best singing.

Sometimes a singer might like a style; it might not be what's exactly perfect for them

and they might not have tried other styles.

Generally it's kind of a hybrid of what the singer likes and maybe a direction they might

need to be pushed in a little bit to experiment.

You want to find songs that the melody feels easy for you, feels good for you.

Songs, different melodies are very different.

Everybody focuses on keys, on how important keys are, and yes they are, they're super

important, but it's not just the key that is right, it's the actual way that the melody

moves, and that has to do with some deeper stuff, like some singers like to hold notes

for a longer time, some singers like to move more quickly and riff.

All of this depends on how that melody moves in that song, whether it's right for you.

So use your own judgment as you're singing something.

You want to sing it at least 50 times.

I know that sounds like a lot, but it's the truth.

You want to sing it for about 50 times to get it in your muscle memory first before

you make that determination.

Other ways I work with people in finding their niche is in song writing, is in helping them

right songs that come from their own lives, the themes from their lives.

And this is one of the things I'm very passionate about.

I love working with artists in this capacity.

We do a lot of co-writing, and helping them pull out the themes from their life and actually

create their branding right there in their song writing.

This is something that we do a lot today.

So for those of you that want to be artists out there in the world and you're not yet

writing, absolutely start writing.

Co-writing is the best way.

So these are some tips on finding your signature sound and finding your niche.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
celebrity /səˈlebrɪti/ B2	noun - the state of being well-known and admired.
expert /ˈekspɜːrt/ B1	noun - a person with a high level of skill in a particular field.
craft /kræft/ B1	verb - to make something skillfully.
successful /səkˈsesfəl/ B1	adjective - achieving the desired aim or result.
crucial /ˈkruːʃəl/ B2	adjective - decisive or critical, especially in the sense that the success or failure of something depends on it.
talented /ˈtæləntɪd/ B1	adjective - having a natural aptitude or skill for something.
niche /niːʃ/ B2	noun - a comfortable or suitable position or activity.
genre /ˈʒɑːnrə/ B1	noun - a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature.
material /məˈtɪəriəl/ B1	noun - the substance or substances out of which a thing is made or can be made.
lyrics /ˈlɪrɪks/ B1	noun - the words of a song.
experimenting /ɪkˈsperɪmentɪŋ/ B1	verb - to try out new ideas or methods.
hybrid /ˈhaɪbrɪd/ B2	noun - a thing made by combining different species or varieties.
melody /ˈmelədi/ B1	noun - a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying.
passion /ˈpæʃən/ B1	noun - strong and barely controllable emotion.
branding /ˈbrændɪŋ/ B2	noun - the process of giving a brand or product a particular image.
capacity /kəˈpæsəti/ B2	noun - the ability or power to do something.

Key Grammar Structures

• I'm a celebrity vocal coach and artist development expert.

  ➔ Present simple tense with 'be' (am/is/are) + noun

  ➔ The phrase uses the present simple tense with 'am' to describe a permanent state or profession.

• I've worked with Donald Fagen from Steely Dan, Courtney Love from Hole, I've worked with the band Journey.

  ➔ Present perfect tense with 'have worked'

  ➔ The sentence uses the present perfect tense to describe past actions with relevance to the present.

• So I'm going to tell you a few tips for how to create your signature sound and how to find your niche as a singer.

  ➔ Future simple tense with 'am going to'

  ➔ The phrase uses 'am going to' to express a planned future action.

• You should be singing stuff that you believe in, that is akin to you, that is natural to you.

  ➔ Should + be + verb-ing (modal verb for advice)

  ➔ The sentence uses 'should' to give advice, followed by the -ing form of the verb.

• This takes some experimenting.

  ➔ Present simple passive voice

  ➔ The sentence uses the passive voice to emphasize the action rather than the doer.

• You want to find songs that the melody feels easy for you, feels good for you.

  ➔ Relative clause with 'that'

  ➔ The sentence uses a relative clause with 'that' to describe the type of songs.

• You want to sing it at least 50 times.

  ➔ Modal verb 'want to' for desire

  ➔ The phrase uses 'want to' to express a desire or intention.

• Co-writing is the best way.

  ➔ Present simple with 'be' for general truth

  ➔ The sentence uses the present simple with 'be' to state a general truth or opinion.