Livelounge Style Covers

[PollyGoPop]

Hi All,

I'd love some feedback on my livelougne-style covers:

www.soundcloud.com/monroeband

Any comments welcome!

Polly.x

[devaitis]

You are good singer. I like your style of singing.

[jonpall]

I was digging it. You're obviously a very good singer. Great job! I suggest that you don't change a thing. What did YOU think about your singing there? Often singers have a very skewed view of themselves.

[gno]

Polly - those are awsome performances - I love the way you sound. Fantastic singing. Can you tell us about how you progressed as a singer? Lessons? How much you practice? I think it would be interesting to hear what you did to reach your level.

[PollyGoPop]

Wow guys, thanks for the lovely comments.

Guitartrek, I've been singing properly (as opposed to just belting Aretha songs in the shower

!) for around 8 years. I studied vocals for a year at college, where I picked up some of the more technical aspects such as breathing and control, but I have gigged regularly in live bands for the last 5 years and I think this is where I've really got to know my voice and how it works.

To me, the most important thing about singing is knowing your own voice. I think a lot of singers focus on trying to emulate their favourite vocalists, but finding your own voice and exploring as getting to know it's capabilities is so much more rewarding both for he singer and the listener!

Thanks again for the feedback guys, feel free to visit back to the soundcloud page - Im trying to keep it updated regularly

Peace.x

[gno]

Polly - thanks for your bio on singing. Yes - you can't beat "on the job" training. You don't need to change a thing. Do you have any desire to develop other vocal techniques like adding some distortion or a little harder edged rock tone? Is there something here on this forum you'd like to bounce off of all of us?

[ronws]

I liked them all but especially "Jenny, Don't be Hasty." I could totally see you doing a mix of reggae, r & b, ska, calypso. And before anyone says, "Ron, what do you mean calypso? That's a special market."

Well, Men at Work went around the world a few times on what was mostly a Calypso sound in the midst of the Heavy Metal onslaught. The Clash was huge and, to me, they were more vaudeville and theatrical.

Many styles are represented here and I am fan of pretty much all of them and most of us are head-banging freaks from the 70's, including those who weren't even born when I started playing guitar. Their hearts and minds appreciate the music as much as if they had been there.

Your voice is technically accurate. The only thing we could offer is stylistic differences, hence the reason for the questions of whether or not you would like to add distortion or edginess to your voice. Actually, I can hear a little edge in your voice and it totally suits the songs you are singing. And doing a Ronnie James Dio growl would be totally inappropriate for the music that you sing. Which is not to say that you couldn't learn it, anyway. Some of the greatest innovations are from going against type or providing stark contrast. Alice in Chains is typified as a grunge/hard rock band but Layne Staley was singing the same as he would for opera, but with some distortion added here and there, for effect.

So, yeah, you could do a bouncy little jazz number with some reggae rhythm track and lay into it with a Louis Armstrong rattle and it could work, as a new piece of art. And anything "new" on the music scene is actually the same old stuff, presented in a new juxtaposition. The cord progression for "Don't Stop Believing" and "With or Without You are the same, but in different keys, for example. In one, you have the screaming guitar aesthetics of Neil Schon, in the other, you have the celtic bagpipe sound picture of the Edge.

I have found that the main site, with your profile page is a good place to showcase, though you don't get as quick a response as here in this thread. Nor do I think everything has to involve a critique or instruction for you to "fix" something. The section title includes the word review.

[devaitis]

Could I download your clip "Mercy" and enjoy listening it? :)