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Jerry Duncan doesn't encourage people to become pop stars.
Shows like "American Idol" make breaking into the music business look like a breeze. In real life, musicians' hard work leads to heartbreak more often than success, he said.
Brandi Mummert, 14, wanted to be a mix between Taylor Swift and Ashley Tisdale, but a consultation with an agent left her lost.
Jasmin Bain, 17, hoped to become a cross between Alicia Keys and Kanye West but had her demo returned.
Instead of quitting, they went to Duncan's North York studio on a recent Tuesday evening for direction.
The session started with tough questions.
"How would you promote yourself?" Duncan asked.
"What makes you different from every other singer out there?"
"What would you do if someone heard you sing and wanted you to sign a contract?"
Mummert and Bain stared at him, wide-eyed. He told them they'd find the answers in his Idol Maker class - a five-week crash course about the music industry. He was just getting warmed up.
"How much do you think you could get to open for P. Diddy?" he asked Bain.
"$1,000," she guessed.
"You're not going to get it. What would you settle for?"
Bain mused for a minute.
"Would you settle for $200?"
"I don't know."
"At this point, you could play
Bain nodded. The questions kept coming.
"What do you think about luck?" Duncan asked.
He turned to Mummert first.
"You shouldn't rely on it," she said.
Then it was Bain's turn.
"I think you should rely on blessings and not on luck so much," she said.
Duncan told them luck hardly ever factors into how musicians get discovered.
"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity," he said.
Duncan said he'd provide preparation by assessing goals, critiquing performances, discussing legal issues, developing styles and recording demos.
He also promised to be honest about their voices.
Bain belted out a few stanzas of "With
"You have a vibrato in your voice," Duncan told her.
"Is that bad?"
"No, it makes you identifiable."
Mummert sang a portion of "Our Song" by Swift.
"You have pretty good pitch, but you have to relax a little," Duncan said.
Duncan wasn't critical the whole session. He shared anecdotes and jokes to lighten the mood.
Mummert and Bain, who had been strangers an hour and a half earlier, walked out the door with a shared love of the Jonas Brothers and a homework assignment to write a paragraph about their performance style.
"I think the class is a great opportunity," Mummert said.
"I think I'm going to learn a lot," Bain said.
emccracken@ydr.com; 771-2051
'IDOL' WINNERS LOSE
Jerry Duncan offered singers a dose of reality about the music industry in his Idol Maker class. Even "American Idol" winners can fall:
· Season five "Idol" champ Taylor Hicks was dropped from his record label in January. Runner-up Katherine McPhee was also dropped from her label.
· After poor sales of his third CD, "Idol" season two champ Ruben Studdard was dropped from his record label in 2007.
· "Idol" season six runner-up Blake Lewis was dropped from Arista Records in June.
'IDOL' LOSERS WIN
· Jennifer Hudson finished seventh on "Idol's" third season. She went on to win an Oscar for her role in the 2006 movie "Dreamgirls."
· Chris Daughtry finished fourth on "Idol's" fifth season. His first album sold 3.2 million copies and became Billboard's top-selling album of 2007. He returns to the York Fair this year.
· Elliot Yamin finished third place on "Idol's" fifth season. His self-titled first album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, making it the highest debut for an independent artist in SoundScan history. It became the best-selling independent album of 2007.
Season eight of "American Idol" will air in January on Fox.
