General Music Chat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76kVOdjL_8U

I guess you can say im pretty green to the music world so I need some insight

Thanks for listening

Good song.
Work on vocals and I'd say you have something there.

im not a singer but i had to because i don't have a talented singer available... i guess i should consider taking singing lessons :/ but thanks for the comment

Lyrics please

Its getting late
But I don't want you to go
I tried pushing away
But you keep on taking my soul

And you put it in
Its place
Now my heart it has a home
And you look away
Please stay
'Cause I have something I want to say
to you my dear

I guess you can say
That I'm just a little bit afraid
I guess you can say
That my methods are out of date

And you put it in
Its place
Now my heart it has a home
And you look away
Please stay
'Cause I have something I want to say
to you my dear

don't go acting like you don't know
don't go acting like you don't know

And you put it in
Its place
Now my heart it has a home
And you look away
Please stay
'Cause I have something I want to say
to you my dear

Pretty good start. It would be nice to here the vocals some more, as well as the piano-I really liked the keys at the end, and would like to here more scattered around in there. Vocally, it's not strong, but it's not bad. Singing isn't always about range or screaming power. It's about the feel of the song, and I think you nail it pretty well.
The one suggestion I would make would be to work on the intro and the outro. Your lyrics don't start until :36-that's WAY too long to wait (I thought it might be an instrumental for a moment). Near the end, you stop. Then, a few seconds later, the music comes back in at roughly half-tempo, and remains that way for about six bars. To put it simply, come back in sooner and keep the half tempo thing down to two (or maybe three) bars. These are just my opinions, though.
Overall, it's good stuff. Good job.

Thanks, that helps a ton - ive been listening to it and i felt something wasn't right, so ill definitely try what you recommended

I think it's a pretty good start as well. Everybody has to start somewhere.

If you can find a singer, then cool. But I think you should still try to learn to sing regardless. It seems like you can recognize what key to sing in and that's half the battle.

So then it comes down to mechanics. I'll give you a small tip to work on a little.

Think about it like this. There is a valve at the top of the back of your mouth that allows you to breath through your mouth, your nose, or both. When you sing, you obviously need to be singing through your mouth. So when do you use your nose?? Not a whole lot actually.

For example:

I'm just going to grab some lines of your song here. I'll start here.

"Please stay"

Small line, but it's a good start in explaining this. While singing those 2 words, no air should be coming through your nose at all. Sing them to yourself while purposely blocking your nose. Pinch your nose if you have to with your fingers. That's how it should sound.

But not everything is so cut and dry. Now take this line.

"To you my dear"

Obviously, if you keep your nose plugged it will sound like "to you by dear". That's where that valve comes in. "to you" should be sung with nothing through the nose, let air through your nose only to allow the "M" sound, then plug it back for the "Y" sound and the word "Dear". It works that fast. It's a very quick reflex.

That line will allow you to understand how that valve generally works in singing. It's still just the tip of the iceberg. But a start.

Another example would be the word "own" (not in your lyrics, but for the sake of explanation). That's an iffy word. In some cases, you can have it fully nasal, in others you would want to start by keeping the valve closed for the "O" sound, and slowly start opening the valve to end with the "N" sound (or maybe even quickly depending on the situation of the song). Kind of like using a clutch and gas pedal on a car. Learn how to smoothly make that transition.

Now let's take another line from the song.

"Now My heart it has a home"

That'll get the valve workin'. Start by just using your nose for the "N" to sound, shut it off for the "OW". Back through the nose for the "M", back off for the "Y" and the "heart it has a" and the "H", then slowly open the valve to smoothly end with the "OME" (clutch on a car).

Practice using that valve of yours and I think you'll be a little more confident in what you can do. Because I'm not really hearing so much of a pitch problem in your singing as much as just basic mechanics. Eventually this will all feel like second nature. Just like practicing anything else. When you write a song. Go through it line by line this way, and figure out an approach. It might sound a little choppy or not very smooth at first, but eventually by practicing, it will get much smoother and second nature in time.

Give that a shot and let me know what you think ok.

The song is good. The instrument choice is limited by what you play, I'm guessing.

The intro would probably work better as an instrumental bridge, right after the "Don't go acting like you don't know" lines. Then you can drop it all out, for the cool dynamic effect you seek.

I'm liking the lyric a lot, & the piano should be more pronounced, esp in the chorus. Little twinkly tinkles on the keys throughout the verse would be nice, too.

The intro line, being used as a bridge, could be played on a bass, with the other instruments falling into place as it builds. Just thinking off the top of my pointy headbone.

It needs some serious arrangement work, & yeah, your voice may be a little weak, but it works for this piece. You're writing for your own voice, which is a wunnerful thing to do. To balance it out, you could have some b/u voices echoing your lines, like, a beat behind your own. That would fill it out, & emphasize the lyric.

I can hear this, in my mind's ear, starting off very simple, but building & building throughout until it's almost a big production piece, then, at the outro, returning to the very simple, in the slower tempo.

It could be beautiful, overcast. Well done!

what you have there is what I call an idea tape.
It is the skeleton of a song.
It is very good and now is ready for development.
Use your brother, use your musical friends, use
ideas you hear from other songs and find the
finished product. It will come together for you
naturally because you have natural writing talent.
You can hear the song in your head with the
instrumentation so just make it happen. Don't be stubborn
about intricacies, that can be a stumbling block.

Learning how to develope a song is as important as
learning to write one.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong! Start all over...


juss kiddin

Our vocal team (especially Ray) have been using an audio training program that Ray acquired over the net somewhere.
It has made a huge difference in his practice sessions. I don't recall the name of the program but if your interested you could contact Ray through our band web site, which has links to all of our members.

See link below.