Daily Inspiration: Meet Thomas Appell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Appell.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My training works. It’s important for you to know why. Here’s my story. I’ve always been fascinated by singing and music. My mom told me that when I was a very young child, if we walked past a music store I would freeze – star-ing at the guitars. At age 11 I audi-tioned for a professional children’s group called the Choralaires and sang soprano. In 1967 I recorded a record album with the Choralaires released on Cornerstone Records and started play-ing guitar. As a teen I continued singing and playing guitar in local bands.

When I was 22 I formed a band called US101 named after the highway going up the California Coast. I also began tak-ing voice lessons with Martin Greene, a choral instructor at Citrus College in Glendora, CA. so I could eventually front the band as a singer. The drummer for US101 was Tommy Lee who later went on to form the group Motley Crue. Tommy and I played about a hundred gigs together and I still credit the time I spent playing with him as an impor-tant step in my ability to produce great-sounding drums. I had always wanted a career in music but my parents wanted me to get a college education and a real job so I went that route and graduated from California State Poly-technic University Pomona with a Bachelor of Science de-gree in Civil Engineering. In 1978 I got my first job as an engineer working for a firm in Rosemead, California.

In 1981 while working at the Rosemead engineering firm I was about to experience the defining moment of my life. I was at my desk when the phone rang. The secretary was out to lunch and all of the other engineers were out of the office so I answered the call. It was a former employee that wanted to speak to Henry Groff, the president of the company. Mr. Groff was in the general manager’s office having a meeting. I walked to the office door, knocked three times and stuck my head in to say, “Adrianna’s on the phone and she would like to speak with you.” Mr. Groff whipped back, “Just tell her I’m not here.” I replied back, “I can’t really tell her you’re not here, because you’re here. But I can see you’re having a meeting so I’ll be happy to tell her you’re unavailable.” As the words were coming out of my mouth he got up from behind his big oak desk and stormed around the corner. His face was purple he was so mad. He stopped about an inch from my nose while pointing his long boney finger at me and screamed at the top of his lungs, “I COMMAND YOU TO TELL HER THAT I AM NOT HERE!$#%&!! I looked him right in the eye and said, “I can’t do that. I can’t lie” I walked back to my desk and told Adrianna, “Mr Groff is in a meeting right now. You’ll have to call back later.” As soon as I hung up the phone he stuck his head out of the office doorway and screamed again, “I’m not going to for-get this.” And you know what? He didn’t. A few weeks later I was fired.

I knew when I refused to tell that lie I was kissing my job goodbye and putting a serious blemish on my career as an engineer. But I wasn’t worried. I knew that lying was wrong and when you do what’s right God always blesses you. I was thinking about applying for another engineering job and although I was skilled as an engineer, it wasn’t my passion. The thought popped in my head, “What if you could do anything you wanted to?” I said to myself, “Well, it wouldn’t be engineering. If I could really pick my life’s course I would choose to be a vocal coach. By that time I had trained with some of the best vocal coaches in the world and I knew that lifestyle would be a good fit for me. Solid guitar and music production chops, piano and songwriting ability, voice lessons, tons of live performance experience and my college degree with an empha-sis on science and music theory made me a perfect candidate for being a vocal coach, but I wanted something to offer the singers I would train that would set me apart from other teachers. I picked up my bible and it kind of just fell open to the 28th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. I started reading. Here’s what it said: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all na-tions of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto.” All the light bulbs went off in my head as I read this. Especially the last sentence.

So I said this simple prayer to God, “Lord, you know I just got fired for following one of your commandments. It says here that you’ll bless all that I set my hand to do. I want to be a vocal coach. But not just an ordinary vocal coach. I want to be the best in the world at training singers and nothing less will do. Either take me to that level or not at all.” I began researching vocal physiology and with God’s help just a few days later I had the epiphany of a lifetime when I deduced how high notes are produced by the vocal folds. 50 days later I gave my first voice lesson. During those 50 days God helped me understand the secret of how to sing high notes without straining. God used my engineering knowledge plus what I’d learned through re-search to help me deduce why anyone with a healthy voice can learn to sing high notes. That was my ticket. I needed an edge – something that would set me apart from all other vocal coaches and that was it.

I was really broke at the time and only had $110 to my name. I took all $110 and used it for a stack of flyers advertising my new vocal coaching business. I took off on my last tank of gas to hand out flyers. If this didn’t fly i wouldn’t have money for rent, and wouldn’t have money for food and I refused to ask my parents or anyone else for help. I figured, “God got me this far. he can certainly inspire people to respond to my flyers.” and I wasn’t worried at all. By the time I got home I already had a call from my first student. And just for fun, I set my starting hourly wage at almost double the hourly wage of the gut that fired me! Now that was sweet!

But it wasn’t all a bed of roses. I was engaged to be married at the time and my future father-in-law was a professional opera singer. When he found that his future son-in-law with a Bachelor of Science degree and a solid engineering job was ditching his engineering career to become a vocal coach with not a shred of experience training singers he thought I was absolutely crazy! Ha ha but once again, I wasn’t worried at all because I knew I was going be successful at training singers. After all, I was the only vocal coach on earth who knew how to extend the vocal range of any singer with a healthy voice. I would get better at presenting my knowledge, but that gem of info was my ticket and I knew it.

I was booked almost solid after about two years and getting better and better at teaching. Singers were leaving my studio with a range they could only dream of before training with me. One day the phone rang and I’ll never forget this call. It was Mr Heath, my father-in-law. “Thomas…” he said, “I’ve been struggling with some of the high notes in some new pieces I have to sing and was wondering if you could fit me in for some lessons?” I almost dropped the phone and of course I started training him and like almost everyone I trained he got the notes he wanted.

After 10 years of training singers I decided to write my book, Can You Sing a HIGH C Without Straining? That’s when my career took off like a rocket. The book was available worldwide and I would get calls from singers from all over the world wanting to train with me. They would fly to my studio from Japan, England, The Netherlands, France, Austria, Germany, India and from all over the United States training 2 hours per day six days per week and staying from on to four weeks at a time. One girl I trained from India picked up an octave of full voice range after flying from India to train with me for a month, went back to India, got the lead part singing a cover of a famous Indian song “Laila Main Laila” that was used as the soundtrack for a major motion picture and now has over one billion views on her YouTube video of that song. I trained Noodles from the popular band The Offspring. he extended his full voice range by 7 notes after only two lessons and was so grateful, he put my name in the credits of the band’s hit album Americana which sold over 10 million copies.

So not a bad start ha ha! But yes only a start!

One day I was teaching a student named Bob Coissant and he told me he wanted me to write the music for an original song for him using lyrics he wrote so I said OK the next time we meet up let’s do it so at his next lesson he walked in and had some lyrics and I said OK bob I think it’s kind of customary for who’s writing the music to see the lyrics and then he started getting kinda angry and shouted “you said you were going to write the music and I was gonna write the lyrics” so I of course want to keep my client happy so I said OK what style do you want and he said, Gothic and I said OK here comes Gothic now keep in mind I am playing the piano and he has no idea what I’m going to play and I have no idea what he’s gonna sing so this is next to impossible but I started playing and the craziest thing happened the first thing that hit my keys was magic this song sounded really good so we went to a 24 track recording studio and recorded it and Bob’s on a high now and was pumped at having a good first song so now he wants to do another one but now he’s been in a recording studio he’s been with a producer I’m thinking surely he’s gonna let me see the lyrics this time but nope he made me do it again playing blind and once again the first thing that hit my keys was magic we went back to the same recording studio and recorded the second song and everybody loved it

I was just flipped out that I had this talent I didn’t even know about that I could just come up with music instantly from scratch complete improvisation and it sounded good I was blown away so I had another client who wanted to do a whole album and wanted me to write the music for it so she walked into her lesson with a whole notebook full of lyrics and I asked “could I see the lyrics” and she goes “of course” I thouhgt Thank God I get to se the lyrics!!

I didn’t make it past the first page I just took a look at the first set of lyrics she had and started playing I said how do you like this and she goes I love it and that was it she wanted me to do the entire album so I said well Cathy you know if you have to pay for me and the recording studio that’s gonna be a lot of money but if you wouldn’t mind paying me upfront for the whole record I can just go out and buy a recording studio and you’ll get the entire project done for half price. she went home and talked to her husband about it and came back with a big fat check and I went down to the guitar center and I bought every piece of equipment I ever dreamed of having and I completely launched my recording studio from nothing to the top of the line equipment in the world whith this first gig and then once I had my recording studio operational and knowing this new skill I had that allowed me to instantly write music for any lyrics sitting in front of me I was off like a rocket producing music for all the singers I trained. I did a lot of originals and wrote music for people and since my guitar skills were at a professional level and my keyboard skills were at a professional level. I found that like songwriting, I had a real gift for producing music. I ended up buying a top-of-the-line DW quilted Maple collector series drum kit spending $20,000 between the drum set the microphones in the preamps for my drums but like everything I do if I’m gonna do it at all I want the very best. My wife thought I was absolutely crazy. She said “you don’t even play drums” I know but I just can’t sound the sound of fake drums on the music I produce I think this is really going to pay off for us and it did. I hired Ross Garfield who set up all the drums for Michael Jackson’s album thriller to set my drums up in my recording area I hired Josh Freese to do three songs so I could find out what my drums would sound like Played by one of the best drummers on earth and then once I had these live drums available for my clients I got even busier because now my producing quality was just off the charts good. So looking back I’ve made millions of dollars, I live in a really really nice home and I got to do all this pretty much having fun I mean I know what I do is technically work but it usually doesn’t feel like it, and all of this just because I refused to tell that one little lie. So my message to all of my students is it pays to tell the truth it pays to be honest especially in little things God notices and we want him to bless what we’re doing I want him to bless what I’m doing and he has so I am very very grateful and.

A big reason why my teaching works so well is because it’s not coming for me it’s kinda like the God that created heaven and earth is my grandmaster whispering in my ear which chess moves to make I’m there playing the game but I’m getting heavily help and I wouldn’t have it any other way

God has given me understanding in how to train singers and produce music and my students reap the benefits. The reason it works so well (and if you have any doubt please take a few minutes and visit my website www.appellvoicestudio. com and watch the videos of my students and video testimonials) is because the real instructor in my studio is the One who created your voice. This all started back in 1982. For more than 40 years I’ve been teaching singers how to hit high notes and applying the same pioneering zeal that I had for discovering how to sing high notes to many other facets of vocalizing. I’ve personally developed my full voice range to way beyond tenor high C. The average range increase for singers who train with me is seven notes. Many get 12-15 notes of full voice range increase, and this book tells you how to do it. The potential you can unlock in your voice by applying the training in this book is only limited by your desire to achieve. Think big! Dream big! The rest of the book holds the key. All you have to do is open the door. If you want to watch me tell this story, this YouTube video is for you! https://youtu.be/QDmU8F9BqaY?si=_3V6YFYs7Eef1O6q

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I can still remember being terrified of playing a wrong note on a piano scale or arpeggio during a lesson. I knew what I wanted to teach, but for the most part I learned how to play piano training singers so those first few months were scary. Now, after 50,000 hours of training singers and producing music my piano skills are at a pro level and I get hired over and over agin to record original piano tracks for clients, but it was tough at first!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have a YouTube playlist “Music produced By Thomas Appell for Singers Trained at Appell Voice Studio.” There are well over 100 songs in that list. I produce the music, shoot and produce the video and train the singers. The quality level is very high and it’s a great place to see the results of my work. Most vocal coaches teach you how to sing. For me that’s the starting point because after someone has a great voice they always need music and I can write and produce it for the at a quality level as good or better than anything they’ve ever heard.

My drum sound is as good as it gets on this earth, and my primary studio drummer is as good as the best in the world, so anything I produce with live drums typically sounds phenomenal.

It’s nice to have helped singers become really successful like Noodles from the Offspring extending his full voice range by 7 notes after his first lesson, Lyric and Landon from Raised Wrong getting to over 2 million followers on TiKTok, and Pawni Pandey getting 1B views on her YouTube video. Stuff like that gives me the motivation to keep rocking!

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
If you’re going to go in a direction dream big, go 100%, burn your bridges, go all in, work late, get up early, do whatever you have to do to be the absolute best, be 100% honest, ask for and acknowledge God’s help and clients will be able to tell that’s your mindset and miraculously the lucky numbers will come your way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.appellvoicestudio.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomasappell