Posts Tagged ‘Training’

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User Manual is Here!

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

We are thrilled to have compiled a very comprehensive and user-friendly manual documenting the latest version of Velvet Singer! Sink your teeth into these 100 pages of information and you will know all there is to know about working with Velvet Singer.

You can download the user manual directly from our website. It is also included in the latest installation package inside of the Documentation folder.

The user manual will help you gain a basic understanding of how to use Velvet Singer. You will learn how to create records, navigate between modules and print reports. We guarantee that if you make even a moderate commitment to working with this powerful tool, you will quickly gain proficiency.

We have compiled your questions into this manual. So it can also serve to answer Frequently Asked Questions about installation, registration and navigation.

Customer service is our number one priority so please do not hesitate to contact us for help. We welcome calls, emails and instant messages. We help many of our new customers over the phone ranging from the initial installation and setup of repertoire to more advanced topics such as configuring your email or calendar sync. We are here to help!

Table of Contents

Introduction

  • Welcome
  • How to Contact Us
  • Operating System Requirements

Installation

  • Download
  • Move the Zip File
  • Unzip/Extract the File
  • Folder Orientation
  • Launch Velvet Singer

Initial Setup

  • Expand Pop-Up Windows
  • License Agreement
  • Enter Customer Information

Setup Steps

  • Audition Repertoire
  • Resume Data Entry Form
  • Professional Contacts
  • Lessons and Coachings
  • Reports Preview
  • Tutorial

Navigation

  • Main Menu
  • Module Layout Toggle
  • Dashboard
  • Go To Related Records
  • Four Standard Layouts

Working With Data

  • Editing Data
  • Adding New Records
  • Deleting Records
  • Working With Data In Portals
  • Finding Records
  • Sorting Records

Modules

  • Journal Module
  • Auditions Module
  • Repertoire Module
  • Contacts Module
  • Trends Module
  • Email Module
  • Finances Module
  • Projects Module
  • Events Module

Initial Close

  • Weekly Opener
  • Alias / Desktop Shortcut
  • Usage Logging
  • Backups
  • Restore From Backup

Registration

  • Purchasing A License Key
  • Enter License Code
  • Two Computers
  • Two Singers Sharing One Computer
  • Lost License Keys
  • Transfer to New Computer

Administration

  • Main Menu Buttons
  • General Settings

Email Settings

  • Gmail Settings
  • Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail
  • Check Mail
  • Check Email Timer

Calendar Settings

  • Google™ Calendar Syncing
  • Account Activation
  • Enter Settings
  • Sync Events

Appendix

  • Glossary of Terms
  • Speed Keys
  • Reports

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Roosevelt: Topics for the Professional Singer

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

Dana Brown‘s graduate seminar is one of the finest courses of its type across the country. As I travel around to many music schools, I schools I inquire about how they handle this business of singing material. Few have as good of an answer as the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Dr. Brown developed a two-semester course specifically designed for singers and required for graduation from the Master’s degree program called “Topics for the Professional Singer.” He continues to keep his material on the cutting-edge by involving outside guests and tailoring assignments to the needs of the class.

“Topics for the Professional Singer is a graduate seminar designed to help the aspiring singer make the leap into professional work. Topics are chosen in order to cover the musical, physical, psychological and business aspects of being a professional musician. This course includes teaching by guest artists.”

We were thrilled Roosevelt University decided to directly involve Velvet Singer Software into their curriculum as required “Courseware” purchased through the school bookstore. With this relationship, we are able to accomplish so much in such a quick amount of time. This represents a huge victory for the singers.

  • Now we can reach those students that might otherwise not engage with this material. Organization and planning is for everyone — especially for those that are naturally less gung-ho.
  • We can “teach a man to fish.” Dr. Brown’s assignments now come alive. Rather than asking only singers to prepare a repertoire list, we also leave the students with a dynamic and powerful skill set to keep their repertoire list updated throughout their careers!
  • We are able to introduce new high-technology elements into the curriculum. It is not a paper world anymore and Velvet Singer Courseware helps schools take the leap.

Powerful Homework Assignment

With Velvet Singer Courseware, we were able to create a homework assignment including submission of these five reports:

  1. Professional Contacts
  2. Repertoire summarized by Repertoire Type and Status
  3. Audition Selections summarized by Season
  4. Career Journal submissions
  5. Coaching, Lesson and Practice Session Journal submissions

The students truly rose to the challenge and impressed their teacher by submitting far more than the minimum requirements of this assignment. This course (with the help of Velvet Singer Courseware) is one of the most important steps toward organizing and empowering these budding careers!

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Posted in Courseware, Seminars | No Comments »

Northwestern Summer Session is Win-Win

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Voice teacher and soprano Pamela Hinchman does a very smart thing. Before her teaching year starts up at Northwestern, she teaches a week-long summer seminar which is a fantastic win-win.

The singers get geared up for audition season and get loads of new information and experience. It is only a week-long commitment, yet it is a great line on their resumes (which can be difficult to fill while in school). The singers were excited about participating even as I arrived for my seminar on the final day of the session.

And for Pamela and the other faculty, this program is a fantastic opportunity to get to know several singers from their studios before the year starts. The session is also an excellent marketing tool for the school. Holding a week-long summer session (with a simple audio recording application process) is a great idea and I think other schools of music would do well to follow suit.

From Northwestern’s Website:

“In these classes you will learn to audition for an agent, an opera company in the US and Europe, and a musical theater company. We will find three pieces for you that will make you the most marketable and help you to perfect them. Also discussed: How to present yourself most effectively by clothes and grooming; creating a useable resume and bio; advice on the proper picture for your voice type; tax issues. Guest speakers include a New York agent for opera and musical theater, a tax specialist, photographer, stage directors. Class is limited to 12 singers and 30 auditors. To apply as a participant, send a resume and tape or CD of 3 pieces to Summer Session Office, Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, 711 Elgin Road, Evanston, IL 60201.”

This was the first seminar at which I delved into “push” versus “pull” marketing. I really saw some light bulbs go off so I will certainly address this in future seminars.

Push marketing is essential to our business in singing and we do it all of the time. We send application forms, sing auditions and learn excerpts to perform callbacks. These efforts are focused on landing a single gig. They represent short-term strategies targeted toward a specific customer.

In all of the frenzy of applications, pull marketing seems to fall by the wayside. Pull marketing is all about cultivating long-term relationships and working to fill out the value of what you offer. Offering to cover a role for free when you are singing chorus is pull marketing. Soliciting donors on behalf of your home-town regional company is pull marketing. Starting your own recital series is pull marketing.

Even small efforts such as these mentioned can make a major impact on your career. Pull marketing is more that just being a team player and good colleague, it is being a savvy business person and ultimately it is essential toward building a sustainable career.

A giant thank you goes out to Dorothy Byrne for turning me on to this concept and terminology! Among many other talents, Dorothy works with highly-successful singers to refine their marketing strategy. She takes a deep personal interest in helping singers and is a genuine force for good in our business.

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Posted in Seminars | 9 Comments »

We Help You Get Organized

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

I just returned from an exciting weekend Classical Singer Convention 2010 at the Times Square Marriott. This was a giant leap forward for my business (my website hits are way up, downloads are way up, new customers are way up) and a thrill for me personally.

Perhaps more importantly, I think it will go down as a turning point and a new chapter in the careers of many young singers. I am lucky to be a part of that new chapter for so many organized, empowered, forward-looking, “put together” artists.

I was able to meet very many young and talented singers and it was a huge opportunity for me to refine Velvet Singer Software’s value proposition. I am a technical guy, but what so many of you were interested in is not how cool the software is (and it is cool), but what benefit you get out of it.

In short, Velvet Singer helps you do things you already have to do more efficiently and more effectively. For example, you already have to file your taxes, you already have to keep track of what repertoire you sing, you already have to keep track of who you sang for. Why not do these things better?

More generally, recording your development in a career journal helps you feel more in control of this highly-subjective business. And how else will they complete your biography when you are rich and famous?

    Velvet Singer is organizational software that helps you answer questions like this at the drop of a hat:

  • What active French rep do you sing?
  • How many coachings did you do last year?
  • How did you feel about your last audition?
  • What is your mission? What are your strength/weaknesses?
  • Did you make more money than last year?

I expect that putting a face to the name will help singers look to me for career / technical coaching. I am here to help so please call or email anytime.

Thank you to Classical Singer Magazine for putting on a great conference! As Editorial Director Sarah Thomas put it, the convention is all about making these connections possible. Young singers have many goals and desires. Velvet Singer is here to help.

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Journal Forms

Friday, April 30th, 2010

I am thrilled to have released a new feature in version 2.2: Journal Forms. It is the most obvious feature, but somehow I missed it.

The best part — people love it and it is very simple. That is when you really know a feature hits home. You also know you have a good thing when you walk in the door to do a seminar, and a past seminar attendee approaches you to request the very feature you have ready in your bag! I love that.

So what are “Journal Forms?” Simple: they are pretty ready-made blank forms. For example, here is part of the form for entering a Mission Statement:

I have also built forms for journaling:

  • Goals
  • Strengths / Weaknesses
  • Repertoire
  • Auditions
  • Projects / Productions
  • Voice Lessons
  • Coachings
  • Lessons You Taught

The thing I love about it too, is that it doesn’t require a bunch of prose to get the point across. Simply check some buttons, and score your last voice lesson. Then the next time you have a lesson, you will have a score (for example: 1.2 out of 2.0 possible) to compare with. Here is an example voice lesson journal form:

Then we also tie the forms back into a complete Journal module with reports, list view, and detail views. So you can email parts of your journal directly to your stakeholders. Now your journal is not just a book on the nightstand, it is your business planner!

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COT Seminar — New Workbook Exercises

Friday, April 30th, 2010

I led a very interesting session today as part of the Chicago Opera Theater spring 2010 Young Artists Program. This was a very unique session because I tried out so much new material. We also had a very nice “smart” classroom at Roosevelt on a beautiful sunny day.

I introduced my new workbook exercises which help singers self-assess, develop an action plan, and develop a strategy to recover from time away from planning (a recovery plan).

It was a very nice follow-up to the Self-Management Questionnaire I developed. The questionnaire can leave singers feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of changes they would like to make. The workbook helps singers take that “pain point” and turn it into something usable.

The self-assessment is the most interesting / challenging part of the workbook. It seemed to inspire such deep critical thinking, that it may actually be something I want to email out ahead of class. It may be more of a quiet self-reflection type of activity, less of an activity to fly through and share with the class.

Singers are asked to circle statements that “hit close to home” such as the following:

  • I always feel like an outsider.
  • I’m not sure I can handle this stressful gig-to-gig lifestyle.
  • If I can’t be an opera star, I don’t want to be in music at all.
  • I’m not good with numbers.
  • I hate being seen as a self-promoter.
  • I just need an agent to take care of me.
  • My singing comes first, no matter what – it is hard to find the right balance.
  • I have never been good at sticking with resolutions.
  • I feel nervous a lot.
  • Planning is an art, I try to go by feel no matter what.
  • I just want to be discovered.
  • I get depressed thinking about the future.
  • I’m a perfectionist and that sometimes is not helpful.

Each of the statements is color-coded into four groups. After circling the statements, the workbook directs singers to tally up their answers by color group, which will suggest one possible tendency:

Planning
Efforts
Low High
Singing
Outlook		 High Bohemian Individualist
Low Ponderous Cautious
  • Bohemian – I am an artist first and if I am good enough, I will get discovered.
  • Individualist – I am constantly refining my process and I prefer to do things my way.
  • Ponderous – At most major milestones, I question whether I should be a singer.
  • Cautious – I don’t want to take myself too seriously, I’m not sure I’m ready to plan my career.

The Velvet Singer seminar helps the bohemian find the art of planning, shows new options to the individualist, gives the ponderous the tools to dig out, and motivates the cautious to work toward goals.

It was very exciting to finally put this workbook in play. I have some new ideas as a result of this session at COT and I will continue refining the seminar as I go!

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Posted in Seminars | 1 Comment »

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