Never Been to Spain

[MDEW]

I had a few days to myself this week and thought I would try this. I am not trying to Copy 3 Dog Night. I am working on my passaggio. Any comments appreciated.

[ronws]

I liked it and you have the right voice for this song. It sounded a smidge flat on the word matter and I think that is because of the vowel. I always liked this song.

[MDEW]

I liked it and you have the right voice for this song. It sounded a smidge flat on the word matter and I think that is because of the vowel. I always liked this song.

FLAT! just kidding. Good call. I kept rocking between Matter and Mattah. I am surprised that I was not flat more often on that high note. It is a G#4 but most of the time I lose it on G4.

[ronws]

Vowels would trip me up, too.

[MDEW]

I thought this one would generate a little more feed back. Either someone slamming me because I ruined their song or someone liking the flow of this.

Tone is something that I struggle with and with this song the Tone can make or break the feel. Any thoughts or advice would be helpful.

Opinions, good or bad, are welcomed. :cool:

[Olem]

I think it sounded good overall. Take my advice with a grain of salt i am no expert. But the tone in some places is a little too quacky - maybe you could try and replace some of that quackiness with more of a crying sound to get you through the passagio. At least i had some success with that.

[analog]

MDEW,

you've got a great tone for this style of music(and one of my favorites on this forum) you just need more work on the upper notes. You're still closing down the sound WAY WAY WAY too much. G# is still "relatively" low in range so you want to keep vowels wide open. Think EH/OH/A depending on word. If you shout out "Hey" to someone in the next room or across the street, you'll be getting closer to the sound you need for this song.

If you're working on your own, that's about all I can recommend. Would love to hear you get a few more notes hammered out and situated, so if there's anything I can help you out with, let me know.

[MDEW]

Thanks guys. I thought this thread was dead.

Olem, Analog. So far this is the only song that I can sing a G#4 with any kind of fullness. I tried this with a darker/wider tone but I was not happy with it. I think this is a good song to work through that area.

Thanks for the advice.

[MDEW]

I rerecorded the lead Vocals on this. For some reason Sound cloud increases the volume on recordings. Turn your speakers down before starting.

I have noticed that my recordings are a little voice heavy so I tried to keep the vocals lower in the mix. I may be too quiet this time. :/

[ronws]

This sounds way better and I don't mean just the recording or mixing, which is really good. Your pitch was good. And it let me think about memories, rather than analyzing technique and other assorted minutae. Did you also do the guitars and bass? Absolutely well done. And dropping your voice into the mix gives it more of a live feel and less of a karaoke feel.

My friend, Lee, was born in 1947 in a little turn in the road in Oklahoma. Then was raised and went to school in Great Britain. Brits graduate early. So, he joined the Belgian Merchant Marines. When he was 17, he got his father's permission to enlist in the US Navy. One day, aboard ship, he saw a notice for what he thought said special services. Turned out later that it was special forces. So, he became a SEAL. And did 3 active combat tours in Viet Nam, stationed out of Da Nang. His specialty was remote detonation of enemy camps, usually with C4. Though he also had 9 confirmed sniper kills. Not bragging, that was just the job he was there to do.

Then, he came back to the "world" and assimilated just fine, except for a bad bar fight in New Orleans that almost cost him his dearly won freedom. But that is a whole 'nother story.

Thanks for sharing this, MDEW.

[MDEW]

Yes, I also played the guitars and Bass. I found a long time ago that whatever consists of my "Style" good or bad is usually worse when I try to match the beat of someone else.

I played Bass for a Country/Rock band for several years in my younger days. I should have learned to sing back then but no one was willing to Help. They already had 3 singers so it was easier for them to keep me concentrating on Bass and they were already competing with each other for the spotlight.

[ronws]

Yes, I also played the guitars and Bass. I found a long time ago that whatever consists of my "Style" good or bad is usually worse when I try to match the beat of someone else.

I played Bass for a Country/Rock band for several years in my younger days. I should have learned to sing back then but no one was willing to Help. They already had 3 singers so it was easier for them to keep me concentrating on Bass and they were already competing with each other for the spotlight.

And now, it's your turn. Ain't nothing like outliving, or at least, outlasting the competition.

[Gneetapp]

Hey MDEW, I listened only to the 2nd version, so I can compare, but I liked your tone throughout the whole song. Of course, you can still smooth it out a few spots to sound your best, but it is good overall. Have you tried practicing with the cry sound, as Olem suggested? I think you could really benefit from it. I know it helped me a lot. Cheers!