Some 80's "hair metal" - Whitesnake "Still of the Night" cover

[berniemcpeak]

I received an invite to jam/audition for a local band. They're a little bit of stretch from what I usually do but they seem pretty laid back and their musicianship is incredible. The lead guitarist sent me a copy of his instrumental cover of Whitesnake's "Still of the Night" in which he plays all of the instruments. I took the track and added my vocals to it this afternoon. It's a very rough cut as I didn't have much time to do many retakes and I didn't have time to do the backing harmonies. I used some heavy reverb and delay to mimic David Coverdale's sound. Metal is not my forte but this isn't screamo or anything so I thought I'd give it a shot. Besides, I was a pretty big metal-head in HS.

The usual please. Hate it or liked it, let me know.

Eric Humphreys

[ronws]

I liked it. You don't have David's tone but I was not expecting, either. More importantly, you got the "dog notes." Coverdale, when interviewed about his friendship with Glenn Hughes, and remembering the time they were co-singers in Deep Purple, said, "We'll keep on going and getting notes only dogs can hear."

Good stuff.

[berniemcpeak]

Thanks Ron I was nervous as the first high note approached. I closed my eyes and had to reach down to the "special place" to get it! ;-)

BTW, I just came across an epic email you sent me a while back about what kind of music "fits" the voice. Sorry I didn't see it sooner. It ended up in my spam folder and I usually don't check that one until I'm ready to dump it. As for the content of that email, I totally agreed with everything you covered in it. Funny you mentioned in it that I usually cover "ballad" style songs, regardless of genre. You're absolutely right about that. I love singing a "musical" song, usually with a soaring melody. I've been venturing away from that lately and experimenting with different vocal styles. This one and my Alice in Chains cover or two examples. I'm glad you liked it.

And yes, I can see you covering Glen Campbell doing "Black Dog" lol

[ronws]

^ Thanks, Bernie. It's just that I noticed that even though some others have noted that I sound similar to Glenn Hughes, I also note that I sound similar to Glen Campbell. Then, I surmised it is because his voice is one of my earliest memories of a singing voice. As a toddler or infant propped up on the couch while my mother was doing stuff around the house, I remember "Wichita Lineman" being on the radio. I can still hear it in my head, right now. I can remember the lay-out of the living room. I was at the right end of the couch, the back end of the couch against a wall on my right. The kitchen was behind that wall. The radio was across the room, a big boxy affair with large vacuum tubes in it. My mom was doing housework, dusting, so she was wearing shorts and a blouse, not wanting to get the nicer clothes dirty from housework.

So, here recently, trying to objectively view my own voice, I realize that I have been subconciously trying to pursue that sound. I can remember the pitch of my mother's voice and that of my father. Neither was very low. In fact, I think they were pitched about the same in terms of speaking. My voice never cracked in puberty. I went from sounding like a boy soprano to sounding like a woman. Answering the phone, when I was 14, the person at the other end, a stranger, would reply yes, ma'am or no, ma'am. But that strong, celtic sense of harmony has always stuck with me.

Even today, when I hear myself in a recorded phone message, I sound like a woman. Granted, I may be a tall middle-aged woman with a long moustache and that should give you an image that is just not right.

Songs that are my favorite to listen to and to sing have huge, sweeping choruses and melodies with strong harmony in relation to the other instruments. Typically, those are ballads, regardless of the style. For example, one of my favorite new songs is "Hail to the King" by Avenged Sevenfold. Simple and harmonically related melody. And a big, slow chorus that inspires an heroic statement.

"Hail to the King.

Hail to the one.

Kneel to the crown.

Stand in the sun.

Hail to the King ..."

A A B A format ballad with a rallentando ending, the difference being the rattle in M Shadow's voice and the timbres of the instruments defining it as "heavy metal."

Clean up the guitars, sing the line more cleanly, it is a ballad suitable for a musical or a movie, somewhere.

And you have one of those heroic voices. You have what I would call a big voice. Not necessarily the range, though you do have that. But the "depth of tone" for lack of a better description. It just sounds big regardless of where you are.

So, for example, I think you could totally knock this song out of the park, regardless of genre, regardless of how you sing it.