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You're doing very good Igor. And understandably it is difficult since this is a second language. I have all to do just to memorize a song as is. I can't imagine also having to think about each words new pronunciation in a language foreign to my own! Believe me, you're doing well. It's a small trade off to be trying to get words right compared to how well you sing man. Your voice wins as anyone would be happy to sing like you. I was at a Piano bar and the singer is from an Asian country. He is excellent and a good piano player also. Very entertaining and we have sung together, my vocal and his piano playing. I was so pissed off when a woman was laughing and teasing because he sang "reever" for the word river. As well as he sings he still mispronounces a lot of words. I really pay no mind to it because, like you, he sings great and his pronunciation for the most part is good. But people are turds sometimes and this woman just thought it was way too humorous. I didn't.

I mean the spoken word "in" as pronounced in English has a sound as you are using in the word "serenity." at 3:20. But in some places you are making the i into "ee" and it becomes eet like eat. From that point how you shade it is up to you if need be during any particular song. I'm not speaking about shading though; only the spoken English. Which even in singing "it" would never be "eet." (as far as English goes). Maybe eh if it needed modification. But these again are minor. I just (unfortunately for you I guess ) have got into the habit of listening to your pronunciation of English because I have heard it improve. Some really good singers have come through here posting songs but, at least in imo, have taken away the quality by poor English.

I heard the new version first and I really liked it. I thought your voice seemed comfortable and no strain. When I listened to the older version I thought it was also good. But if I had listened to it first I would have left it at that...yes it's good. But after hearing the new one first the old one now seemed a little timid. I want to say weaker. Less support? The new one seemed to have just a bit more punch. Also on the old version there seemed a little bit of strain or uncertainty on the higher parts while they were comfortable on the new one. I know your vocals by now and if you are used to my comments then you know that I can always pick on your English It's very good. Just very small points. It's funny but it seems you pronounced the word "in" better in the old version!

We might be doing the original version of "One Way Out" next. Not sure. Not the Allman Brothers but the original by Sonny Boy Williamson II. He was one of the forefathers of Blues harmonica. It's a little different than the Allmans version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Aqgo5BU-k Yea, Linus (Pistolkatt) is good on that Blues harp. And he has only been playing less than 2 years. I met him on a harmonica forum and he was good already even after 6 months. He just keeps getting better. This song that we just did is more something that a harmonica player or a real Blues fan would appreciate more than the average music lover. It isn't getting the good response we got from our last video "Mojo." When I showed that to people at work or friends they were jumping and singing and dancing. Everytime i ran into someone they started singing it to me! For this one, some are walking away before the video is over Oh well. It's hit and miss isn't it? Thanks Felipe. :)

I'll stay away from any technical critiques but rather just make a general comment. I like this song and I sing it at times. I have thought about recording it and I have also considered doing it live at a piano bar where I have a chance to sing once and awhile. What makes me hesitant is that it is very low and for me it is all chest voice and low toned. What that does, for me, is makes it difficult to get the right feeling into the song and the lines. Not the correct interpretation or at least not to my liking. When I listened to your version I felt it was way too low. I felt, much like what I explained above; that it was preventing you from getting the feel of the song down and thus not relating the song to the audience. I suppose that effects pitch also. The surprising thing is that you are playing guitar right? You can just raise the key. Why didn't you just play it in a more comfortable key? So that's my 2 cents based on my own dealing with this song. :)

Thanks George. :)

Here is a collaboration done with the same harmonica player with whom I did Got My Mojo Workin" This is an old Little Walter Tune called "Key To The Highway"

I thought you sounded great. :)

This is a tough song for me to critique With some songs, the original is so distinctive you just can;t erase it from your mind. This song is so strong they even use it in a commercial. To me, it has a s signature sound and most every cover I've heard pretty much sticks to that. In this case it is sort of like selling your home. They say first impressions count and you should dress up the path to the house and the doorway/entrance. Spruce up the garden in front and plant some attractive shrubs. Well the key to this song, the entrance if you will (at least to me) is the opening. "This is a man's world!" I put an exclamation point there. Why? Because it is making a statement and to me, it is setting up the rest of the song. That is a classic opening to a song and it is recognizable and it is drawing the listener in to listen to the rest of the song. "What does he have to say?" Unfortunately, at least for me, when I heard the opening note of the song, I was expecting the booming "THIS IS A MANS WORLD! once the vocals kicked in. But instead I got a meek unsure laid back "this is a mans world" Really? I felt let down. A song shouldn't do that. You may have been hurt by the original in this case. Or the standard since it seems that for this song at least, it has become pretty standard to at least stick to a certain theme even in personal renditions. Your singing isn't bad but it needs a little more pep imo. I think some more support would be in order. It's sounding a little weak. But pitch wasn't bad and it seems you can do a few things with your voice so maybe you have some control. Tone was good. Just needs more oomph. Some better pronunciation, support and amplification.

Maybe "Still Got The Blues." We'll see. No time soon though. Believe it or you know What led me to sing this Creed song? I wanted to do a rock song as a change of pace. A song that I swear I sing great is "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters. But I have recorded it before and quickly erased it. Wow! To myself I sound like I nail this song. Once I hear it recorded ...yikes. Bad, bad, bad. So it's been awhile since my last attempt and like I said, I felt like Rockin' so let's give it another shot. Same result!! No good. I had so wanted to do it live and that is why I recorded it last time. I was testing it and giving it a practice for a karaoke performance. I wasn't even going to test it first because I thought I sang it so well Wow, good thing I checked it out first. In the trash!!!! So after Everlong didn't work out yesterday I figured I'd try Creed and then call it a day.

I may have to do a Gary Moore song. Oddly enough I am in the minority when I say I am not really a big fan of Gary. To make matters even worse and put me even more in the minority; what I don't like about him is...get ready for this....I am not a fan of his guitar playing! Yea, yea I know. Hey what can I tell ya! :D

That's the second time you've said I sounded like Ozzy. Out of anyone I would never think Ozzy. I don't hear that Not to mention his voice is higher. But hey I'm getting used to being compared to people so I'm just gonna go with the flow man. I've even had someone compare me to Randy Newman !! :o

Ha ha. Even if that were possible I think it would still be imposable. (what the hell does that mean?) What I mean is that I'm a pain in the ass. I complain a lot and I don't like change, I don't like technology and I don't like any one telling me what to do. And I don't care about money (as much as I don't have any!) Hey, I lived on the streets, if not for my family I can do it again!! So with that said. Like I said. When I make recordings here, as you can hear, they aren't perfect. What they are is me singing as close to live as possible but "recorded." I don't (can't/don't know how) fix the mix. I don't even do any mixing at all. They are raw and they are me. So I would be hard pressed to make a "perfect" album with a manager. Autotune? Yea right. They'd have a fight on their hands. I don't dress up my stuff. Tommy doesn't "wear makeup." (so to speak) It's warts and all baby!!! Yea... I'm a strange one. My wife can't figure me out. :/

There sort of a jingle at the end also that freaked me out when I heard it. I thought someone walked in the room (I was home alone at the time) or phone rang or something Thanks for the listen. I was kidding though....could've been me off pitch. Just to clarify. What I mean by this is that I'm not into recording. Don't know how, don't really care. I'm into singing live. So I record as practice yes. But I don't mean practice for a better recording at some point. I mean I record because it gives me practice for singing live. I make mistakes, forget lyrics, I've sung lines backwards, the computer screws up etc. So I end up doing the song quite a few times. Sometimes maybe 25 times!! So this gives me practice and it helps me really memorize the lyrics and the ins and outs of the song. It's practice for live performance. So When I get done I save it, post it and add it to my list. I really don't care much about the recording. I'm not cutting albums! :D

A track that has the original vocals? It was a karaoke track with no vocals. Well the only place there were any vocals were the cheesy backing vocals on the chorus. Any pitchy spots must have been in the chorus and it was that backing vocalists...not me!!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! :D

My Sacrifice (Creed) cover http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=12015679&q=hi

Ron is correct. When we say sing to a backing track, we mean a track that we as listeners can hear also. This way it isn't just your voice on the recording we are hearing but rather the whole song. Before I had any recording equipment what I did was play a karaoke track from youtube on my laptop while also video recording myself singing. This way the listeners would hear the track as well as me. But that aside. I am going to scold you once again!!! I have given you this advice before but I guess you don't want to hear it. But I think it will help So once again!! Singing is great and it will help you learn. I'm not asking you to stop singing or even making videos. But! I feel too much time and effort may be wasted on posting videos here in this section. While I believe in singing as exercise and that you can learn a great deal by just constantly singing, you need to learn some technique to aid that. I would suggest, as I have before, that you skip this section for awhile and spend more time in the techniques section. Learn some scales and exercises and practice them, then post clips (in that section) of you practicing and then ask questions on what you may be doing wrong in the exercises. Then correct those mistakes and continue. Then apply that new knowledge to your singing. I think that when you train in anything it is a good idea to first break it down into it's smaller parts (details), or the important parts...the ones that make it tick...then perfect them. After that you put it all back together and apply it to the whole. Once you can gain control of some vocal exercises those things can then be applied to a song and your singing. THEN! you can post a song ad ask if you are improving based on your practice. There are exercises for all the small details of singing. Voice placement, nasal/non nasal, breathing, pitch, legato, arpeggio, staccato, volume, high notes, passagio, low notes, whatever. But first you need to know what to practice and how to do it right so it will work in a song. And that needs to be done out of the "Critique my singing" section. It sounds like a joke but I have heard good things about the book "Singing for Dummies." I would suggest getting that. I think it comes with a CD. There are a few books out there that come with CD's which contain scales and exercises along with piano backup. Those would be a great help. But again "you get this information in the techniques section.". :)

For less than that price you could get these. These are what I have. http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-HPS3000-Studio-Headphones/dp/B0002Z82XA

I liked that. I actually recently considered doing this song. I was just thinking about it last week Anyway, I thought you did a good job.

I like the first one better. Just kidding!! Now that was much better (for me). For others maybe not but we all have different taste and likes/dislikes. For me this was the best of the three. I felt that one more and connected with the song more also. I felt more emotion and more texture to your voice. And the last note "die" was steadier and more solid imo. Good job Ron

ohhhh. Ok, that makes it better Rock on brother!!!

I don't usually concern myself with the labels and terms. Only the effect or product. So yea...I really don't know. All I know is that at that moment it felt like it needed that. Also Ray does that (or something like it) at those points. I copied best I could. Whatever it was Say what? :D

I use this http://www.vidtomp3.com/ to convert youtube to MP3. Go to youtube and find a karaoke version of a song then copy the url to the converter and now you have an MP3 backing track to sing to. Breakin is right you need to start singing to a track. You have improved since your first attempt but you still need to sing louder. You still have unused potential there. You aren't "using" your voice. I told you once already. If you had to call out to someone in another room plus be heard over the TV or loud music. That is how you need to project your voice. Take a deep breath low into your naval area. Then open the throat and huff it out. Learn to control that to support your voice and airflow. Get that voice out man!!! You are still whispering most of the song. What you do later in the song is louder but you need to do "that" and do it even louder. More push. And get a backing track. Come on. You're improving but it is in small tiny steps (as is normal). But you have got to push. Now go and do!!! ;)

Good luck with that. I can't even pronounce it :D

Sorry we took over your thread I have one other thing to add. Sort of a curiosity of mine for something I see often around here, as well as some advice (not vocal advice). I can never understand why someone would post something under less than optimal circumstances for critique. To just post a song for the hell of it just for people to listen to is one thing. But to do it and ask for critique is another matter. How can anyone honestly critique something that is not being presented in its true form? You said your voice was screwed up then you also said you didn't have the proper recording equipment with you "currently." To me that means you must have some somewhere. So if someone wants good and honest critique then you would think they would rest up and get their voice back in order, then wait until they are able to use the better equipment and then record. Otherwise it's like asking how we think your basketball playing is when you are playing on a sprained ankle, not warmed up and using a ball with a leak in it. The best advice and critique will come when you show your best. "Look what I can do....what do you think?"