How to cover a Journey song

[ronws]

In your own voice, that's how. Never mind the fact that this guy cannot tear his eyes away from the camera. Listen to his voice. He is not sounding like Steve Perry. Not trying to sound like Steve Perry. He is sounding a lot like David Lyon. And that is a good thing/

[MDEW]

:) I've got to agree Ronws. We fall into traps sometimes covering a song, thinking we need to sound like the singer of the song we are covering. If the singer has a thin piercing voice we may try to get that sound by squeezing our voice to sound thinner. If the singer has has a Thick deep sound we may try to force our voice to be more open and full.

I notice there are some songs that if I try to sound like the singer who made the song famous I fail big time. But if I just sing the song to my liking I have no problem.

Now that we have Youtube, in researching a song that I want to sing I will listen to as many different singers as I can to give me more options on how I should approach the song.

[Owen Korzec]

That was a cool performance.

Yes, his middle range is heavier than Perry's. Who gives a damn, he sang it well.

[devaitis]

Many well-known singers like Perry or Jacskon have their individual sounds, sounds that everybody knows and it is easy to recognize ones by. Sometimes, some singers try to imitate it. Result can be so entertaning.

What I mean is 1.07. Ladies and gentelmans mr Jake Simpson one of the most underrated singers out there. EVER.

[Validar]

I completely agree. I can certainly understand one's desire to sound like the artists in the songs they're covering when they're first starting out, but after a while most eventually discover what a futile and tiring effort it is. Well, if they're not hard headed, anyway.

The best thing you can do is let go of the notion that everyone wants to hear covers that are perfect carbon copy renditions of the original. More often than not, they simply want to hear them done well.

Then the icing on the cake is being on the road to becoming your own singer.

[Jens]

There is only one of YOU, dont try to be like anyone else being YOU is good enough. *throws fairydust and rides away on a unicorn towards a rainbow in the sky*

Ontopic, is that your idea of an original singer? he certainly does not have a unique style or voice, if an other song of this guy came up on radio tomorrow i would never spot it's him.

It's so hard to do something truly original, people that are good and manages to do so are often famous

Dont get me wrong here he is really skilled! I dont consider myself unique either:)

[Felipe Carvalho]

Sounds very nice :)

[jonpall]

The singer in the first video sounds a bit like the singer in Kiss Does anyone else hear that? ... and himself, of course. To echo Jens, kind of - "Always remember you’re unique, just like everyone else" (that's a great motto from some unknown guy) ... and "The swartch is in YOU Lone Star - it's in YOU!!!", from Space Balls . Just kidding.

Btw. how does Whitesnake's "Slide it in" relate to Steve Perry?

Anyway, both those videos are great! Terrific singing, playfulness and pretty ladies :)

[VideoHere]

the first guy that did faithfully has a nice open throat technique...not overarticulating.

[ronws]

And there's nothing wrong with absorbing some style from a singer. If you are a heavy-voiced singer and trying to cover Steve Perry makes you go lighter, with good results, so be it.

And since we've been on a Journey kick, more intense, recently, than most times, I thought it was neat to hear someone doing it who sounded nothing like Steve Perry, at least as much as I could hear.

I also kind of like his cover of Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt." I know I am so supposed to be a light tenor but, at least with low volume, I could swear I was going a little lower than him when I was singing along.

Now, I am tempted, heck or high water, to do a cover of "Hurt", ala Johnny Cash.

I will probably fail big time but who cares, as long as I have fun.

:D

[Felipe Carvalho]

I learned a lot about not putting all my power in at once because then I have nowhere else to go, I focused more on building the mix so that I could save the heavy chesty notes when I really need them for effect. I think doing covers and analyzing your favourite artists is the next best thing to having a private lesson with them.

:)

[Owen Korzec]

I agree with Phil.

Elaborating on his point, IMO there are two ways to be original and every great musician of any kind including singers they are not only both present (they are unavoidable), but consciously embraced.

Number one is just literally being original. Everyone one's voice and mind is genetically different. That's the one obvious source of originality.

Number two is the other little secret catch of being original, the part that Phil mentioned is kind of mysteriously "taboo" among singers.

The trick? Stealing from your favorites. (favoriteS, with an S!). As long as you steal from a large enough variety of them, no one can tell!

And we might as well drop the taboo behind it for good, because the reality is you cannot avoid being shaped by your environment. The key is just to not pin yourself to imitating one or a few people, to not devote yourself to sounding precisely like Steve Perry, unless of course all you ever wanna do is sing Journey cover songs. You want to steal ideas from EVERY singer that you like. And if you claim you aren't doing that already, you're lying, we all do it subconsciously. So you might as well own up to it and consciously embrace and seek out this secondary source of originality. How many bits of qualities of other singers can I combine and mold into my one unique voice? That is the question.

The coolest part about this is, that second form of originality you have full control over. You can shape your voice into whatever you want it to be. You can't do that if you are scared of imitating other singers a little bit, here and there.

Again, great post Phil, awesome wake up call.

[ronws]

Excellent points by Phil and Owen.

[Guest]

Building mix flexibility and THEN actively using those skills to sing a song is just awesome. It's great to see someone apply SKILL to songs and sound good at the same... inspirational.

[VideoHere]

i agree. great posts phil and owen...

and i'll be the first to admit i actually enjoy emulating and i think when you learn to diversify (more artists (male and female), more genres) you inadventently grow the voice even more, more textures, more sexiness, more angst, more soul, more grit, more dynamics, more sensitivity, more emotional platforms in your performance.

in fact, these can be used on days where you're not in particularly great voice.

you sit back and say to yourself, wow, i can sing songs by justin beiber...lol!!!!!

[ronws]

you sit back and say to yourself, wow, i can sing songs by justin beiber...lol!!!!!

Taking your words out of context, totally on purpose. If you decide to cover a Bieber song, you had better post it or I will call you "chicken" until the end of time.

Which is a long time.

:D