General Music Chat

New video too. SHUHYECK IT OUT!

Thanks. AND HOW ARE YOU!!!!!!!

Die For You - Nice enough. Are you doing all the vocals? The phrasing almost sounds like it. You nailed it well. This doesn't really show your vocal abilities very well, though, especially in terms of range. Is this a karaoke recording?

Honor - I'm sure there's a whole buncha ppl that love this sorta song, but it doesn't do anything for me at all. Once again, it doesn't showcase any abilities that you may have.

Country's Where My Heart Is - These are nice enough tunes, I guess, but I'm looking to see what you can do.

Sometimes I Feel - You have a pleasant voice. Good control. Good vibrato. But I'm not hearing anything very special. Your overall range & tone seem to come across almost in a generic fashion. It isn't bad, it just isn't really presented well by the material, I think. I wanna hear you stretch, gimme some POWER & emotion, rather than just singing a song & hitting all the notes.

I'm in no way trying to downplay your efforts. I'm just looking for something to wow me, & you haven't done it yet.

Perhaps you might step outside your comfort zone, & sing a raw blues or a loud raucus partying thing? Try some jazzy scat? A show tune? Something that pushes you to your limits in range & emotional content would be nice to hear.

Good luck. Keep at it.

Yes, and yes.

Sounds good. Like a good mix of classic and neo country styles.

Not the one to comment any father than that as I am not a fan of C&W music in general.

But I'd really like to feel and hear the emotions your singing about.
Just not getting it.

You seem "controlled" or "subdued" in your vocal expression.

Pleasant voice n all.
Like to hear you really "belt one out".

Best wishes on the project.

I listened to Die For You and it sounds like the song is recorded in too low a key fpr the lead vocals! My advise would be to record up a full step. I think that would bring out the power in your voice. Not putting you down just trying to give helpful advise. Also to many effects on the vocals.

I think you are getting basicly the same
reviews here that you got last time around.
The theme seems to be that you are just
singing nice songs nicely.

I'll leave it to you to figure if that will
take you anywhere.

Hi Melissa,

My favorite song was "Sometimes I Feel."

I agree with the others, you have a nice, pleasant voice, nice vibratto, but that's where it ends.

If you're looking to be a big named country artist, you have a lot of work ahead of you. You're in a field oversaturated with little young things with stronger and more seasoned voices. So as long as you go into the game knowing that, here's how you can combat it.

I believe there is a way to overcome even the worst poker hand if you work it right. You have a nice voice, but you don't have the power behind it and like the fellas said above, you really need to work to convey more emotion into what you're saying. You want people to really feel you moreso than being the perfect vocalist.

Take Sade, for example. She really can't sing that well. However, she developed a style all her own and performs to music that works with her voice. I love the hell out of Sade and I could care less if she can't sing, I love her breathy vocals and how you just want to groove to what she's singing about, but most of all, people feel her. You go to a Sade fan board and talk smack about her lack of vocal skills, her fans will verbally skin you alive.

I'm not saying you need to sound like her, but play with different ways of singing and work on developing a personality that shows when you sing. Find a way to let people know that's you on there.

Just my humble opinion.

Chaeya

what they said... if you really want it, keep workin at it until you develop the necessary tools.

Good Luck!

"DIE FOR YOU" IS AN ORIGINAL WRITTEN BY A FRIEND JAMIE YELLOWHORSE BIRD

It's a good song, but it needs a bit more punch on the chorus. Bigger crescendos on the guitar, & such.

I agree with JH that it should be at least a step higher, so you could put some power into the chorus. It almost sounds like you're reading it off of a page, when you should be very emphatic about the emotion you're feeling, from the lyric.

It's a trickle instead of the waterfall it should be, emotionally speaking.

Yeah having a soft smooth voice is part of my signature sound. Thank you

I love belting it out loud. Thing is, my producer at the moment feels that the key's I'm singing in are best suited for me. He's the boss ya know? I tell him quite often that my key needs to go up. That I need more of a challenge. It's just his way of doing it. He's always got to compress me and bring me down on the mix. The feeling it part? Am I missing something? Or is it possibly because you don't feel the kind of music I feel? Either way. I'm loving all of the comments. I like to know where I can improve. Thank you.

Here I am singing a couple of different genres. Quite silly really. The Norah Jones contest. I remember watching her on Sesame street. Country is where my heart is. I wrote Sometimes I feel when my Momma was dying.

"Fallin" Alicia Keys
http://ksolo.myspace.com/actions/showSo ... d=75656538

"Don't Know Why" Norah Jones
http://ksolo.myspace.com/actions/showSo ... d=75665538

I was reading it off a page LOL! That was the second time I heard it and sang it. We finalized it after that.

I put new music up. If you liked the others and want to hear more from my album. Go to http://www.ReverbNation.com/#/MelissaProctorDejavu

It's also on Amazon, I-tunes Last.fm and more.


Thank you (O:

Your producer isn't doing you any favors.

Btw, the producer is NOT the boss of your projects - YOU ARE. It's the producer's job to bring out that which you hear in your head, & to add those subtle touches to your work - nothing more.

If you're working as a hired gun on someone else's project, I can see how you would follow their lead so completely, but that's the only time you should be willing to do it, & even then, not at the cost of wasting or hiding your talents.

Imho, you should shop around for another producer that will work WITH you instead of having you work FOR him. That's a ridiculous situation.

Your recordings are consistently lacking energy & emotion. If the producer is the cause for this, he's stealing your heart & soul from the music. If anything, your producer should enhance the musical experience, not detract from it by forcing a wimpy, lackluster sound.

Sorry, but I am enraged. He's making you sound like a frightened little girl doing her very first karaoke, when you should be striving for a strength & fire in your recordings.

A soft smooth voice has its place, but not in every song, & the entire arrangements need to be exciting. There isn't any fire anywhere in your work thus far, on your profile. I haven't the time to check out the other stuff, yet, but rest assured that I will, soon, for whatever it's worth.

What Phil, said, minus the enraged part, but I appreciate Phil's passion.

Melissa, you have so much passion to be a singer I almost hate to say what I'm about to. However, you're looking for comments, so I must be truthful.

You're an okay singer, and that's about it. Did you hire your producer? If so, he keeps you singing in a lower register because that's about the best you can do. Alicia Keys's song, you don't have the power or expertise to really put the soul behind it. That's a powerful song and while you can hit the notes and all, you just don't have the "umph." Even Madonna has more power behind her voice than you do.

What would best suit you is to join a band and sing back up for someone because in comparison with all the competition out there, there's nothing about you which would make me keep coming back to listen to you.

Here's one of my favorite indie singers: http://www.aprilsmithmusic.com/music/

When I first heard her, I got shivers down my spine. She has a look, her own style and a nice powerful, sultry voice, and an edge. When she came to California, I drove all the way from Orange County to LA in rush hour traffic to see her. When you blow my socks off, that's what I will do for you.

However, if you truly want to sing and none of us can tell you different, you should go back to school and take a class on Theory, get some voice lessons (preferably from someone who does operatic training) that way they teach you how to breathe and utilize your strength and where to probably sing from because right now, you sing primarily from your throat, upper chest. People with power sing from their diaphram. Once you get that, you shouldn't be relying solely on producers and other people to tell you if it's good enough or not, you'll know.

Good luck to you.

Chaeya

I was reading it off a page LOL! That was the second time I heard it and sang it. We finalized it after that.

If I have any regrets regarding the 120+ songs I have produced and recorded it's that I didn't spend enough time with the song before recording it. Ideally you wouldn't record a song until you've performed it many times and have had time to refine it. Two times just doesn't cut it.