Ongoing vocal journey (going for a stretch)

[EuroAussie]

Hi there,

 

As some of you know every few months Ive been posting updates on my vocal development - here is another one.

 

I gave myself somewhat of a stretch this time trying to do Thom Yorke, which I know istant reaction is probably ..... are you mad ?

 

But this song sort of sits right in my range, so I gave it a go - its recorded together with the LG-2 directly into the mike, no processing, so nothing to hide behind.

 

Would love to get your feedback, be honest now, as you have been in the past.

 

Is it ready to roll out to the public, supported by the lovelly reverb and delay that I can run my new Play Acoustic ? (which does give the voice probably another 50% extra tonal depth)

 

cheers,

EA

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_zWHlwU968

[MorrisrownSal]

Your range. Awesome LG2. Play it out man. Love your persistence and how much you have honed it... You're there.

[blindboygrunt]

Bit of red light fear maybe?

If you missed the note (and occasionally you did ) it wasn't because you couldn't get there , as you hit higher notes elsewhere .

Two pints of beer first and its a hit i think.

 

 

 

Major improvement aussie.

 

Fair play to ya.

[Buc McMaster]

If you missed the note (and occasionally you did ) it wasn't because you couldn't get there........

 

Pitch. It's about "getting there" at the right moment in the melody.

 

Kudos for putting it out there, EA..........that alone takes cajones many don't have. You're singing in your throat which can damage your pipes. I can hear it in your tone, your phrasing and power, and I can see it in your face: the pinched up forehead is a sign of strain in the throat when singing, straining for a place you can't quite get to. Got to sing from below the throat, from the gut, the diaphragm. In addition to being the source of vocal power, singing from below also gives you breath control..........a single inhale can last a lot longer when pushed from the gut. And enunciate better. "Wha choo" should come out as What you........hit that "t" to separate the two words.

 

All in the spirit of advice to one that really wants to improve, as you obviously do. Work it.

[blindboygrunt]

Haha,

Buc comes crawling from the darkness.

We all thought you were dead ;)

[AnneS]

Agree with everything already said- sounding very good!

 

In addition to breath control, using an in-ear monitor while practicing can really help with pitch and with the shaping of tone, especially for the beginnings and endings of phrasings, where we rookies tend to lose focus. Hearing yourself, in your ear, contemporaneously as you sing is great feedback. You'd think hearing something a fraction of a sec after singing it couldn't make a diff, but oddly, it does. I am always surprised at how instantly self-correcting it can be.

 

Carry on- I do love the sound of that LG-2, btw...

[aerohead]

1453486346[/url]' post='1733264']

Agree with everything already said- sounding very good!

 

In addition to breath control, using an in-ear monitor while practicing can really help with pitch and with the shaping of tone, especially for the beginnings and endings of phrasings, where we rookies tend to lose focus. Hearing yourself, in your ear, contemporaneously as you sing is great feedback. You'd think hearing something a fraction of a sec after singing it couldn't make a diff, but oddly, it does. I am always surprised at how instantly self-correcting it can be.

 

Carry on- I do love the sound of that LG-2, btw...

 

I think I might try this advice myself Anne! I hope the in-ear monitors won't break the already broken bank.

[EuroAussie]

Firstly, thank you for the great and honest feedback, really apprecaite it.

 

I just wanted to step in and make a couple points, because I think they are valid, in the context of the feedback.

 

When Ive been working on this track I was actually singing through a mike (through the play acoustic toy i got for Xmas) and I was also standing up.

 

Those two things made a big difference.

 

Firstly, i find standing i can sing much more freely from my diaphram - when i sit it feels squashed and then my tone defaults more to a head / throat voice - as Buc noted

 

And also I can hear myself when singing through the mike, and yes, absolutely makes a difference as I can fully hear myself and pitch issues are mino - plus a little delay and reverb are a treat and make us amateurs punch a bit above our weight. (although id love to have a proper in ear monitor, that would be a real treat - maybe its worth investing in one .)

 

And yes the LG-2 - it is sounding great isnt it ? Ive been playing this guitar a lot as Ive been learning new songs and really giving it quite a beating .... and his guitar just reponds and loves it, almost like it goes to sleep when i dont play it and after a good session it wakes up and remembers its life from the past 80 years.

 

Thanks forr all the comments .... keep em coming, I do take the feedback seriously and act on it.

[MissouriPicker]

I like the advice given here. Really helpful ideas and things that should be commonsense to us, but often are not. Especially the breathing and using our diaphragm. Using your lungs and stomach muscles will make your performance stronger as you more easily stress certain phrases and words and avoid those times we barely get a word out because we're out-of-breath.......Beyond that, I don't care if a few notes are missed. I hear this as a raw and human performance. I can identify with it. If it were perfection, it would only be because it was electronically enhanced and likely performed at least several times in a studio to reach the point where enhancements would get it to whatever it is we call "radio quality." For me, the kind of performance you give here is far more appealing than most of the commercialized sounds I hear on the radio.. Doesn't matter what genre it is. It's the realness of the performance that attracts me. Competently and sincerely performed. This is what I enjoy listening to at coffeehouses and restaurants.

[flatbaroque]

Yea I will always encourage you EA.A few duffer notes but the percentage is always getting better each time you post.I think you have a good ear and the more you practice the more it will become ingrained to hit the note.

LG-2 is good!

[62burst]

A tall task, no doubt. Seems to be perfectly suited to a Gibson, though. Liked the stripped down version here. As far as delivery of the lyrics- as you say, this was all into one mic; vocals would come up a good bit with a separate mic. Yes, some spots are tough to hang on to with that serpentine melody line in the chorus, but your "barely hanging on to it" there actually suits the vibe of the song. That very tough lower and softer register in the chorus ("This is what you'll get...") could really be differentiated from the verses if you wanted to, just before it, vary the intensity... the Banner LG-2 could certainly take it, and almost seems to be begging for it.

 

Thanks for putting that up.

[cody78]

I gave myself somewhat of a stretch this time trying to do Thom Yorke, which I know istant reaction is probably ..... are you mad ?

 

Nice version I liked your vocal better than Thom's as I could actually tell what the words were for once. Thom Yorke always kind of mumbles and groans when he sings. In terms of vocalists he's not in the league of singers like Ella Fitzgerald or Elvis IMO. I do like to Radiohead to an extent, but Thom's vocals grate on my ears a bit. Johnny Greenwood's film score music interests me more, but then he's no Krzysztof Penderecki either. Anyway, good job and love the LG-2.

[Fullmental Alpinist]

plus a little delay and reverb are a treat and make us amateurs punch a bit above our weight.

 

They make even the best pros punch a bit above their weight. It's a rare person that sounds good without them (and the myriad of other things that are done in the studio).

 

Your singing was good enough to get Buc out of hiding! And I must add myself to the list of those that dig your guitar.

 

Keep working on your singing: you're living the dream I always wanted to. (Something about when I was a kid and would start singing only to hear my parents yell at me to shut up....)

[blindboygrunt]

[quote name='Fullmental Alpinist' timestamp='1453522803' post='173343

(Something about when I was a kid and would start singing only to hear my parents yell at me to shut up....)

That never ends. Just last week we were playing , while i was heading for the toilet , a guy askedmeto stop the racket theres football on.

 

So i hit him with a bar stool.

 

 

 

 

Kidding. About the stool

 

 

 

 

Better than thom yorke aussie. Bet you didn't see that coming.

 

Have you tried the pitch corrector on the new pedal thing?

I'm guessing that you'd see such a thing as sacrilege , but i just wondered how good a toy the helicon thing is.

[EuroAussie]

Yeah Ive been getting to know the play acoustic for the past couple of weeks. A bit daunting at first as the manual is 70 pages long with some many option it felt like managing an A380 than an effects unit. But after a few days and much simpification I felt I got the hang of it.

 

Overall, its very good, and makes any singer who can hold a tune punch way above their weight.

 

It essentially a more complicated version of the GX-T with many more options. HOwever Ive tried to simplify it and have a few dafaults now. Main one is I tried to find the right 'default' setting for me for my normal singing tone which i apply for most songs. In addition there are basically two harmonising effects i use, octave up and high / low, but sparingly. The good thing now is that you can do a lot of tweaking with each voice / harmony so you can get it specifically according to your liking.

 

There are also some presents like Pink Floyd,Stone Verve and I have to say when you sing a tune the voice does resemble qualities of mick or dave or richard, even though its still you. So i use those also on specific songs.

 

The more disappointing aspect are the guitar effects, its basically chorus and reverb ... and the really screwed up thing is that you cant use a pedal to activate them during a song. For some silly reason you can only have a guitar setting on the default, so to me it was a completely useless. I also thought for a moment about returning it and getting the play electric, whiich has all the vocal features but much more guitar effects.

 

I didnt like so much the 'body rez' feature as i felt it made the guitar too bright and jangly.

 

I did try the pitch corrector but found it too artificial. And to be honest, these days when i stand up and hear myself in the monitor pitch is not so much the issue, its mainly getting the mix right between my chest and head voice, what Buc was alluding to.

 

In the end I decided i will continue to use my G3 for chorus, delay, boost and looper and use the pay acoustic only for vocals.

 

So, in the end, definittely a worthwhile additions, I reckon it can add another 50% in terms of overall vocal quality beyond a straight mike input.

 

Better than Thom Yorke .... maybe this guy ? ;-)

 

btw: I thought the unwritten rule was that pubs choose to either show sports or have live music ... but never both !

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whjpJEiwhcU

 

That never ends. Just last week we were playing , while i was heading for the toilet , a guy askedmeto stop the racket theres football on.

 

So i hit him with a bar stool.

 

 

 

 

Kidding. About the stool

 

 

 

 

Better than thom yorke aussie. Bet you didn't see that coming.

 

Have you tried the pitch corrector on the new pedal thing?

I'm guessing that you'd see such a thing as sacrilege , but i just wondered how good a toy the helicon thing is.

[E-minor7]

EA - you are still no Plácido Domingo. But you sing and that's the important thing here.

 

Definitely a platform beneath you now and there you draw a sketch.

 

Sing, sing, , , dance and sing.

 

Then sing a little more, Prague. .

 

Enjoy

[EuroAussie]

 

Definitely a platform beneath you now and there you draw a sketch.

 

 

 

 

Yep, thats how I feel about it also. The platform is finally there, now I need to learn how to paint and use the colours a little more ... but looking forward to the journey

[blindboygrunt]

It is aussie , but theres a tv in the little front bar , we play in the side bar.

 

Cant please all the people .....

[Murph]

Sounds fine to me.

 

Different people have different styles, and I never really understood "critics".

 

I mean, off key and bad is one thing, but you sound every BIT as good as people making many buckets of money in the business.......

[EuroAussie]

Sounds fine to me.

 

Different people have different styles, and I never really understood "critics".

 

I mean, off key and bad is one thing, but you sound every BIT as good as people making many buckets of money in the business.......

 

Thanks Murph. But I do feel the comments are valid, and the folks here know I prefer solid critique that i can then implement.

 

Of course, I can always ignore the comments if I feel they are not valid, but Id much rather hear folks perspective, given how many good vocalists are here, then not get anything concrete ... ;-)

[Murph]

Thanks Murph. But I do feel the comments are valid, and the folks here know I prefer solid critique that i can then implement.

 

Of course, I can always ignore the comments if I feel they are not valid, but Id much rather hear folks perspective, given how many good vocalists are here, then not get anything concrete ... ;-)

 

Cha Ching.

 

Hey, you're no Trace Adkins..............

 

 

But, what I meant was some people (not here) are too hung up on perfection, and yet some of the true greats were far from perfect. Willie, Waylon, Cash, Prine, Kristofferson, none of them would be signed today.....

[cody78]

Cha Ching.

 

Hey, you're no Trace Adkins..............

 

 

But, what I meant was some people (not here) are too hung up on perfection, and yet some of the true greats were far from perfect. Willie, Waylon, Cash, Prine, Kristofferson, none of them would be signed today.....

 

Very true. Neil Young is one of my all time favourites, but technically he isn't a great singer (or guitarist for that matter). It really comes down to what sounds good to the individual listener. My comment on Ella Fitzgerald earlier was more about singing from a 'technical' viewpoint. While I enjoy listening to her sometimes, I'd much rather listen to Neil Young.

[Avery]

EA, not one to offer critiques, but I enjoyed that. And I think there's been some great advice given here.

 

What I really want to know: what kind of camera (and mic?) are you using. The quality of your videos is always great.

 

Anyway keep sharing these parts of your musical journey.

[EuroAussie]

EA, not one to offer critiques, but I enjoyed that. And I think there's been some great advice given here.

 

What I really want to know: what kind of camera (and mic?) are you using. The quality of your videos is always great.

 

Anyway keep sharing these parts of your musical journey.

 

Hi, the camera / mike is the Zoom Q4. Great little tool.

[Avery]

Thanks EA