HOLLYWOOD — Just a week into the "American Idol" finals season, the first shock waves spread across the Idoldome — not really for last week's ouster of rocker girl Amanda Overmyer, a delightful personality but ultimately an underperforming novelty candidate more than a serious contender. Far more shocking was the first intimation of many heartbreaks to come with the placement of the Great Irish Hope, Carly Smithson, in the bottom three.

With nine weeks ahead between now and the finals, there will be surprises aplenty, and ultimately, all but two of our warriors must fall before that day. In a season as rich with competitors as this, no one, it seems, can afford even one off week (no one except the Chosen One, David Archuleta).

There were, however, some heart-stopping moments while we watched a stricken Carly wait to hear her fate, and there is good reason to think a major riot would have ensued had the verdict gone another way. As is, we can chalk this up to one of those helpful early scares many go through and that can motivate a singer's partisans.

What did one of the people most responsible for helping the contestants avoid a bad week have to say?

Debra Byrd, "American Idol's" vocal coach and arranger, talked about the ridiculously impossible task of picking, in one day, a song that allows contestants to express their vocal abilities but also stays within their natural range, that shows they can do something different while being true to the original version, one that shows they can pick a great song but not one whose original version is so great that you can't possibly touch it. Asked how she navigates the singers through this minefield, Byrd said with a laugh, " 'Navigate' is the correct word. It really, really is."

Offering a case study, she shared the back story of what has been perhaps the most celebrated performance of the season: Chikezie's rendition of "She's a Woman."

"What you did not see was the agony of him trying to choose the song. He had chosen 'Help!' and we worked on it and he began changing the arrangement. He changed the chords. And I said, 'You can't do that to a Beatles song, my dear. Sorry.' And I said, 'You're going to have to do one of two things. You're going to have to surrender to what the song is or you're going to have to pick another song.' "

Late in the game, not long before the Tuesday show, Chikezie "slept on it, thought about it overnight and came in and said, 'OK, I've changed my song.' "

"When he first sang the song 'She's a Woman,' I couldn't feel it," she said. "I said, because part of it is finding it, 'Is it an R&B vibe? Is it a rock vibe?' How do you see yourself singing it?' And he got very excited and he said, 'Oh, OK! I want a banjo and I want a fiddle!' And I was like, OK, now I can hear it. And as soon as he said banjo and fiddle, then I could hear it."

On last week's other major sensation, Smithson's "Come Together," Byrd revealed that although she had performed this frequently before, the rehearsal time also brought some critical changes. After practicing it a few times, Byrd and Smithson felt that despite the singer's comfort with the material, something still wasn't clicking. It was at this point that Byrd wondered, "With her band was she singing 'Come Together' in Paul McCartney's key?"

"She sang it and I said, 'No, no, no. Let's try another key.' We changed it to a higher key because I like that key better. And you know she was very happy because it changed her vibe. She didn't sound like a guy anymore. She sounded sexy like Tina Turner."

One of the biggest challenges, as the judges complain and Byrd commiserates, is working with contestants to find their musical identity. Although some arrive fully formed, for others it's a grueling process that might not sort itself out until late in the season. Byrd explains, "They have to discover themselves. And what we on the music team do is we help them discover."

For Byrd, her journey with "Idol" began just before Season 1 when, after a long singing career of her own, she was desperate for a job that would keep her off the road. "I was driving on my way to do a vocal demo for a Diane Schuur jazz album that Barry Manilow was recording and on the way there I got a phone call to redo — the last show I did was 'Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk.' So on the way to the session it's like, 'We want you to do the role with Savion Glover.' I said, 'OK, fine, no problem.' ... But I remember thinking, 'Oh boy, that means I have to go on the road again, eight shows a week.' Then, just on my way back from that session, I got another call saying, 'There's a new TV show that needs a vocal coach. You are not performing. It's a singing show and you are helping singers in a competition' and he kept saying, 'You are not performing.' And he said, 'I thought of you first because I love the way you work with singers.'

"And I said, 'Yes, I don't know what "American Idol" is, but count me in.' Famous last words."