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LIFE AFTER IDOL

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Daniel Mifsud is a Sydney based jazz and soul singer, who was playing professional, gigs around the circuit long before Australia got to know him as an Idol contestant. Despite being a vocalist in the 'hipper' end of the industry, Daniel says he wasn't worried about any perceived backlash about 'selling-out' because he did his homework before signing up for the show.

"Before I auditioned I spoke to people from a vast variety of genres, including guys like Tim Firth and Jonathan Schwartz. They pretty well all said, 'it's an opportunity to gain exposure' and that whatever happens in the competition that type of profile could take a lot of years to build on your own. They saw it was a great opportunity to put myself in the minds of people that would otherwise not see me. I guess also, deep down, a lot of the musos probably thought, 'well if he wins there's going to be a lot of gigs going so...'" laughs Mifsud.

And in Mifsud's case at least, it seems they thought correctly. Since leaving Idol he has been gigging regularly including tours with the likes of Ricki Lee and sitting in as a special guest with the Australian tour of the Headhunters. Up until recently he was also signed with a management company and label, which unfortunately recently folded just as Mifsud was about to release his new album.

"When we did the tour with the Headhunters the album was at a stage where my management and label were about to shop it around to Universal or Warners but then they folded. I had written all my tracks but the recording part of it got put on the back burner, so I decided to do some gigs to see what I thought about the songs live. Last year when I was writing them there was a lot of pressure to do tracks that would be palatable to the mass market but after I did those shows I wasn't really satisfied with them as there was something missing - so I took a break from gigging to clear my head. I always write on the piano but towards the end of last year my dad bought me a guitar and it really changed everything so I spent months at home doing nothing but playing and learning guitar and listening to Neil Young. So the stuff I'm writing now is totally different to the stuff I was writing last December. It feels like it's in a better place because I feel in control of where I'm going."

Mifsud is philosophical about the loss of his management and while he acknowledges that he would not have had management without being on Idol, he also understands that the show has left him in a much better position to fly solo.

"When my management folded at first I freaked out and spoke to a few different managers about re-signing. Then I spoke to my cousin's husband who manages sports people and asked if he thought I should look for another manager. He suggested that before doing that I should see how far I could get on my own using my contacts and the contacts I'd made through Idol - so I did that and all of a sudden I'm in a great position."

Apart from playing regular gigs, the one-time Idol is now set to launch a career in television which will no doubt boost his profile again - and cleverly, he's also making sure he gets a little musical kick-back from the move to television by putting his hand up to compose his own score.

"I wrote a concept for a TV show which is a socially based reality TV show which looks at helping a disadvantaged section of society," says Mifsud. "That's been a really long process, it started at the end of Idol when channel 10 were interested, then a station in LA was interested, then we finally worked out the best place to pitch it was to the pay TV network. We're waiting to sign off on the deal but if it all goes ahead hopefully I'll get to produce the show, host it and write the music for it. The show was just an idea that came through my connections on Idol. During Idol we were on a break and I was having a conversation about there not being enough good television shows and that I had this idea for a show. One of the women there said, 'wow that's a really good idea', she turned out to be the assistant director of Australian Idol and it literally went from there," says Mifsud. "That's one of the best things about that show is that I'm still getting invited to really cool things and to meet cool people. I must have been fortunate enough to make a good impression."

Apart from the contacts that Mifsud made on the show, he believes that the longevity of his career to date and the amount of ongoing opportunities he has been able to leverage since the show has definitely been helped by the fact that he was seen as having had rungs on the board beforehand.

"Part of it was that I'd paid some of my dues in that I'd studied my Bachelor of Music and been gigging a fair bit," says Mifsud. "Around the time that Idol came along, I was just starting to make a living picking up session vocal work and gigging, so I don't think anyone could begrudge me for that. The jazz people I played with in the scene also knew I had this pop sensibility to my playing so I don't think any of them saw it as a cop-out."

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Of course it is much easier to prove what was actually agreed to if it is all written down and signed, that is why people use written “contracts” and why using them is a good idea. There are, however, other forms of evidence that could be used. In your case the emails are evidence of the existence of a contract. A statement by you that an agreement had been reached verbally would also constitute evidence. If you had a witness to that verbal agreement the evidence would be stronger still. Of course some forms of evidence are stronger than others but you should never dismiss the situation as hopeless based solely on the absence of a signed document.

Uncle Terry

Dear Uncle Terry.

We need assistance getting paid for a gig but a lawyer would cost more than the gig is worth. We’ve looked at the Musicians’ Union website but they charge money too. Why don’t they help musos for free?

Cheryl

Dear Cheryl,

I strongly advise you to contact the Musicians’ Union and ask to discuss your problem. My experience is that they will always help you out with at least some initial advice. They don’t actually charge for their service, they charge a fee to be a member. The reason they do that is because that is how they get enough money to keep running. The only reason they are there is because musician members are prepared to pay their somewhat modest membership fee. I recently worked out that fee at about the cost of one beer per week, considerably less expensive than any alternative on offer.

Uncle Terry

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So the notes in an 11th chord will be 1st, 3rd, 5th, flat 7th, 9th and 11th degrees of the major scale.

If you are confused, I suggest you go back and re read the last installment

Let's look at them now in both letter name form and in musical notation.

“Eleventh” chords

We've included a couple of the alternative names and chord notes, eg: Db11 is really the same as C#11. Remember that all chords, like all notes, can have a number of different names depending on the circumstances. The actual notes will, however, remain the same.

Here are all 12 eleventh chords in musical notation (with the alternative note names in brackets):

The thirteenth chord 

Last time you were asked to try to work this one out, let’s see how you went. We’ll start with our rule:

“Extended dominant chords include ALL of the odd numbered notes in the major scale built on the chord name up to the numeral indicated AND the seventh is flattened.”

So, lets try a “C13” chord. The number indicated is 13 so all the odd numbers up to it are:
1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. Now we flatten the 7 to get:

1, 3, 5, b7, 9, 11, 13.

In the C major scale these notes are:

C E G Bb D F A

So that’s the C13 chord, let’s look at it in music notation:

Remember I told you that the unaltered 11th is rarely used in dominant chords? (Check back on last time if you don’t). Instead what are often used are the sharpened 11. For example C13 with a sharpened 11 would be C, E G, Bb, D, F# and A. The 11 is there but is raised by a semitone. This is indicated in chord symbol notation by what we could call the WYSIWYG principle (borrowed from computer land). The letters stand for “What You See Is What You Get. We simply add, usually in brackets, a further instruction indicating any alteration to the chord. The altered 13th chord we just spelled out would look like this:

Confusingly some musicians actually mean for you to play this chord when they write C13 while other musos mean for you to play a 13th chord without an 11th at all when they write C13. This is why I strongly recommend using the 13 (#11) symbol since it removes any ambiguity. Notation is, after all a means of COMMUNICATION, not some obscure cypher! If you do not want an 11th at all WYSIWIG can come to the rescue again:
C13 (no 11)

Simple ha?

OK, get to work on all twelve “13th” chords for next time. Spend some time digesting the other stuff too. Email me if you get stuck (musicians@aol.com).

Bye!

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