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Paul Gilbert - Down To Mexico

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Im a guitarist/piano player, never considered myself a singer but thought what the hell I'll have a go. On this track I played the guitars, did the mix and sang. I have absolutely no technique and Im quite surprised I managed to hit the right key a few times. So please enjoy it and dont rip me too much. I am also quite willing to make backers for any of you singers so you can sing over

Down To Mexico

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tony - nice to hear you Bro! Everyone - this is Tony, a fantastically talented multi-instrumentalist who did the instruments on a few tracks with me which I posted here, notably the Iron Maiden covers.

So.. here goes:

It's in tune, which is good.

Watch how you finish the word "Mexico" at the end of lines in particular, you are dipping the pitch down at the end of that word (sort of vocal equivalent of a trem bar dip) , and adding a little "w", sort of "Mexico...w".

Also if you are serious about giving the singing a go you should learn work on "vowel modification" and "dipthongs", which would help the vowels in "Mexico" and other words sound better (such as "soul", "know").

Also, I can hear you picked a fairly easy/safe song to share, all down in "chest voice" with no sustained notes. It would be interesting to hear you tackle something higher, in "head voice".

Also, you are singing each word as a separate unit to help with pronunciation, and clarity, and 'cos its the natural way to do it. It's hard to do the faster phrases that way though. I used to do that way, until someone on this site explained to me a better way. You should keep the underlying vowel sounds going through a series of fast words and sort of supermipose the consonants on top, to achive the fast phrases well.

Give me a call to talk about some of what I said if the terminology is new to you, or my explanations are jibberish :)

It's a good initial effort here, and kudos for sharing it with us, as some of the people here are dauntingly good. I lurked for a while before posting my first things.

George

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I think George was spot on. Articulation, you can soften it a bit and not lose the lyrics in a blur of legato. This will also help the few pitch wobbles that I heard. You were mostly "on pitch" something I certainly expect from a stellar musician such as yourself. But I think some of the hard consonants pulled you off center to get that. So, soften those and let them be momentary.

In fact, if you want, you could even pronounce Mexico like a mexican, which would be meh-hee-co. X has two main pronunciations in mexican spanish. Beginning of a word, an s sound. In a word, h sound. On does not find x at the end of a word, in spanish.

Anyway, welcome to the forum, properly, rather than just a guest of George. So, do you do the post-recording editing, as well?

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I got such a "live" feeling when i listen to this song, a very "naked" mix. I liked that, it felt natural. Regarding vocal technique the others explain that better, but i thought your vocals sounded good here. Keep up the good work, Tony!

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Thank you very much for your great comments, I will never consider myself as a singer but its fun too try.

I think you are taking it too hard. I think you are a better singer than Mick Jagger. He ain't hurtin' for cash.

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