Preparing My First Ever Cover

[kickingtone 61]

Over the years, my vocal "training" has basically consisted of doing research and practising through snippets of a cappella. One reason for this is that I have had to fit everything round one huge, all consuming IT project. The project may let up soon and I'm thinking of putting everything together by doing actual covers of songs.

It's gonna take time (I don't even have the right recording equipment yet) but I thought it would be fun to informally "blog" my progress in a thread. So..

My starting point is to pick a song I think I know more or less from memory, and sing it a cappella. This raw vocal should give me a rough idea of whether the song is doable, before I attempt to dot i's and cross t's Then I am going to go away and study all my errors and misconceptions, hopefully with no show-stoppers.

The song I have chosen is Green Green Grass Of Home (Tom Jones)

https://soundcloud.com/kickingtone/gggoh001cv

[kickingtone 61]

Ok, let's face it, it's karaoke -- some of us call these things "covers" so that we can feel professional and for the feel-good factor.

But all I am going to do is slap vocals on top of a backing track -- karaoke.

So...

I got me a youtube video and had a listen, and compared it with my "in-memory" version!!!

I give myself 5 out of 10 for effort!

(I was probably singing a hybrid of a heap of different versions, which is fine for practising vocals, but not fine for karaoke or "covers").

Half of it is sort there, and god knows where the other half came from. So,.... work to do. It's what I expected, anyway. Most of my songs "from memory" turn out like that. No problem.

I am off to make the real version "in-memory" when I find the time.

That will probably mean goodbye to how I have been singing it. (I may have to unlearn that, as I learn a real version).

[MDEW 1,512]

      I lost my internet so I have not seen this until now and I have not listened to it. That does not matter. What does matter is that you are undertaking a project and putting thought and focus on the outcome. This in itself will lead to progress.

      When someone sings a "Cover" of a song or "Covers" a song it is not necessary to sound just like who ever was the last big named singer who also "Covered" this song. As a matter of fact, one thing to do is to listen to others who have "Covered" the song and notice the Differences and not the similarities. This should help break the idea that one has to "Sound" like another when presenting a "Cover" of a song.

       Most of the songs that I play I learned before I payed attention to the originals. Usually I would find a book with the song and see the chord progression and go from there. Maybe later I would listen to AN original and readjust my approach but I would still keep my own inflections. For better or worse it is Me singing and expressing my own interpretation of what the words mean to me.

      Good luck. I hope to be able to listen to your version soon.