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June 11, 2012
THE 2012 JRB KARAOKE COMPETITION!
THE 2012 JRB KARAOKE COMPETITION!
It's time once again for the JRB Summer Karaoke Competition! Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!
I did this once before, back in 2008, and to my shock and amazement, I got over 200 entries from all around the world. There were four winners in that contest, all outstanding singers, and they came to New York City to sing with me at Birdland on October 13, 2008. I've kept in touch with all of those winners (and several other contestants as well) and it's been a real thrill for me to see how their lives, careers and voices have progressed in these past four years. (Check 'em out! Natalie Weiss and Jonathan Reid Gealt and Natalie Hawkins and Jonathan Shew!)
And now, to celebrate my having reached 20,000 followers on Twitter, it's time to do it again!
There are FIVE STEPS to entering this year's competition:
STEP ONE: Go to SoundCloud.com and sign up for an account, if you don't already have one. All of this year's entries have to be on SoundCloud to be eligible. A starter account (which is all you'll need for this) is totally free. Once you're all set up, go to GROUPS, search for "JRB Karaoke" and join that group! (SoundCloud is a really cool platform and I suspect you'll enjoy playing around with it.)
STEP TWO: Choose and download the accompaniment track of your choice from the new Jason Robert Brown Plays Jason Robert Brown collection. You have to use one of those accompaniments to be eligible! You can download the individual tracks from iTunes (here's the link for the men's edition and the women's edition), Amazon (here's the men's edition and here's the women's edition) or of course you can just use the CD that's included when you purchase the book. If the song you want isn't in your key, pick a different song; you've got 22 to choose from!
STEP THREE: Record your amazing vocal with the accompaniment track you chose. You should try to make it sound as good as you can, but don't freak out if you don't have fancy microphones or state-of-the-art music editing software – you should be able to do it with your phone if that's all you've got. (Obviously, if the sound is too distorted or the vocal isn't audible, you should keep trying until you get a recording that you feel lets your voice be heard.)
STEP FOUR: Upload your track to SoundCloud, and SHARE IT with the JRB Karaoke group! And you MUST tag your track with JRBKARAOKE or I won't be able to find it or catalogue it!
and finally:
STEP THE LAST: Tweet a message to me with the following information in exactly this order:
So a sample tweet might look like this:
And that's all you have to do!
ALL ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 1, 2012! (And please, only one submission per person. Do one thing and do it well.)
After we've received your tweet, I and a panel of highly-qualified judges will listen to your entries, and we will choose the winner or winners, and we may ask for your help along the way in choosing the best folks.
What will the winner or winners receive? The winner(s) will be invited to come sing with me at a concert either in New York, London, Los Angeles or their own hometown! And while I can't guarantee it, it's very possible that the winner will sing a song on my new album, due this fall!
I've tried not to make this announcement too long because I want you all to get started singing. There will be lots of questions, I'm sure, and we'll figure it out as we go along; leave any questions or thoughts in the comments section below. I'm so excited to hear what you all come up with! Have at it, fantastic singers! And remember to tag your tracks with JRBKARAOKE and tweet me when you're all ready!
I did this once before, back in 2008, and to my shock and amazement, I got over 200 entries from all around the world. There were four winners in that contest, all outstanding singers, and they came to New York City to sing with me at Birdland on October 13, 2008. I've kept in touch with all of those winners (and several other contestants as well) and it's been a real thrill for me to see how their lives, careers and voices have progressed in these past four years. (Check 'em out! Natalie Weiss and Jonathan Reid Gealt and Natalie Hawkins and Jonathan Shew!)
And now, to celebrate my having reached 20,000 followers on Twitter, it's time to do it again!
There are FIVE STEPS to entering this year's competition:
STEP ONE: Go to SoundCloud.com and sign up for an account, if you don't already have one. All of this year's entries have to be on SoundCloud to be eligible. A starter account (which is all you'll need for this) is totally free. Once you're all set up, go to GROUPS, search for "JRB Karaoke" and join that group! (SoundCloud is a really cool platform and I suspect you'll enjoy playing around with it.)
STEP TWO: Choose and download the accompaniment track of your choice from the new Jason Robert Brown Plays Jason Robert Brown collection. You have to use one of those accompaniments to be eligible! You can download the individual tracks from iTunes (here's the link for the men's edition and the women's edition), Amazon (here's the men's edition and here's the women's edition) or of course you can just use the CD that's included when you purchase the book. If the song you want isn't in your key, pick a different song; you've got 22 to choose from!
STEP THREE: Record your amazing vocal with the accompaniment track you chose. You should try to make it sound as good as you can, but don't freak out if you don't have fancy microphones or state-of-the-art music editing software – you should be able to do it with your phone if that's all you've got. (Obviously, if the sound is too distorted or the vocal isn't audible, you should keep trying until you get a recording that you feel lets your voice be heard.)
STEP FOUR: Upload your track to SoundCloud, and SHARE IT with the JRB Karaoke group! And you MUST tag your track with JRBKARAOKE or I won't be able to find it or catalogue it!
and finally:
STEP THE LAST: Tweet a message to me with the following information in exactly this order:
@MrJasonRBrown
Your name
Your current state, province or (if outside the US) country
The name of the song you chose (You can abbreviate as necessary)
The link to your song (You may have to shrink this URL)
#jrbkaraoke
So a sample tweet might look like this:
@mrjasonrbrown Julia Murney, NY Stars and the Moon http://soundcloud.com/jasonrbrown/stars-and-the-moon-julia #jrbkaraoke
And that's all you have to do!
ALL ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 1, 2012! (And please, only one submission per person. Do one thing and do it well.)
After we've received your tweet, I and a panel of highly-qualified judges will listen to your entries, and we will choose the winner or winners, and we may ask for your help along the way in choosing the best folks.
What will the winner or winners receive? The winner(s) will be invited to come sing with me at a concert either in New York, London, Los Angeles or their own hometown! And while I can't guarantee it, it's very possible that the winner will sing a song on my new album, due this fall!
I've tried not to make this announcement too long because I want you all to get started singing. There will be lots of questions, I'm sure, and we'll figure it out as we go along; leave any questions or thoughts in the comments section below. I'm so excited to hear what you all come up with! Have at it, fantastic singers! And remember to tag your tracks with JRBKARAOKE and tweet me when you're all ready!
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