Theory of Karaoke Lesson 7: Find Your Style
Jason Burchard

This lesson is one that may sound like it’s mostly geared towards the people who want to make a living singing. True as it may be, this lesson can also be an entertaining one for the rest of you. The biggest part of this lesson is to choose songs that you would sing if you became an artist. I’ll explain further some steps you may want to take if you’re more serious about this fine-tuning.

First off, let’s pretend you have been discovered. It’s your big chance. Let’s also pretend that your first album is all cover songs— even though we know that would never happen. Sounds easy enough, right? You can have all kinds of fun making a list of songs that you like and that you think you could perform well. I want you to pick out ten songs for your debut album of covers.

Selecting your ten songs may prove to be more challenging than you thought. You may love a ton of songs. How can you limit them to only ten? One way of narrowing your songs down is to define your style. Are you going to be a true hard rocker or a country rocker? Will too many love songs or ballads cramp your style? Eliminate songs that you may adore, but just don’t fit you. For example, in my own list I would exclude any songs that have any references to personal drug use. I have never done any drugs and would not want anyone to think that I ever have. It’s not to say I don’t like Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine” or Tom Petty’s “Last Dance With Mary Jane”, but they just wouldn’t fit my style enough to be a song I could perform.

How many slow songs are too many? What about love or party songs? I might throw in a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and maybe Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman”, but would use more rock songs for the remaining eight selections. I enjoy those two songs, but wouldn’t want my style to be too soft or slow.

Don’t be afraid to get very creative, after all, music was an art form the last time I checked. Change the genre (rock, country, etc.) or the gender of the song. Do what you think is necessary to get your top ten songs to fit you. Keep everything in the realm of possibility for what you can actually pull off. At the extreme, if you’re a Weird Al wannabe, pretend you’re making a parody album and change the titles.

Have fun finding your songs. Maybe you can even create some album cover art or include how you would change up the song or what some of your videos would be like. Send me your ‘album’ information and I may include them on the KAM website. I’ll get everyone started with my album details, visit www.karaokeaddiction.com/album.html.