Halfway Home - Jason Mraz Cover

[rich2k4]

i'm no jason on vocals, and there is a clam toward the end on guitar, but i did my best.

http://www.box.net/shared/u8zehbfedx

[ronws]

Well done. And professional. Like you said, there was a botched guitar note and you kept right, as if it were a live performance. Did you record live, guitar and vocal at the same time? Anyway, if anyone asks about the botched note, just tell them that was the "jazz" version.

You've got good tone and I liked the falsetto accents, too.

[rich2k4]

yeah it was all live, guitar and vocals.

i'm still working on trying to get those high notes, i have trouble trying to apply the exercises i do, to actual songs.

[mvrasseli]

It was good well done.

[ronws]

yeah it was all live, guitar and vocals.

i'm still working on trying to get those high notes, i have trouble trying to apply the exercises i do, to actual songs.

You're not alone. Everyone hits stumbling blocks, real or imagined. I am learning covering but I don't always remember to use it in the middle of the song, but I am getting better.

[chele1000]

vowel modification helps ALOT when trying to get the right pitch and also help with higher notes.

Singing "lightly" is harder than just belting it out. It has to have the intensity but the volume is adjusted. Also, lightly doesn't mean it should be sounding 'airy'.

I think you're holding back a bit as well....I mean being a bit shy because you are being recorded. It's hard putting ourselves out there but remember, we want to hear you at your best as the audience.

There are lots of posts on this forum about vowel modification. Do some research on that as we don't sing like we talk. You will be amazed at how much it helps! Relax and remember what story you're trying to get across to the audience. Make the story interesting to listen to.

You are talented....just needs a bit of tweeking.

Cheers!

[ronws]

And yet, Michelle, there are courses on how to sing like you speak.The pointers I got from them was air pressure, in that you don't put a lot of air pressure on when you speak and shouldn't when you sing but there, I think, the comparison ends. For example, the whole process of covering or vowel modification is precisely because you can't "speak" the word at the pitch desired and have to sing it differently than you do speak it. That is, I agree with you and register my misgivings with the foundation of singing like you speak. I sing differently than I speak. My speaking voice is low, raspy, and of low volume, mostly. Yet, I can sing high, with lots of volume and ringing.

[chele1000]

Ron,

I have SS ...from Brett...and the message I got is that Speech Level singing means that we shouldn't have to exert ourselves when we sing any more than when we speak. Don't need to push or do anything weird to get notes out. Sometimes we talk louder than other times but to accomplish that we aren't doing anything different with our bodies physically.

BUT...to sing, we need to annunciate more, hold notes longer (than talking) and find the right vowel modifications to make it pleasing for the listener. If we talked like that, it would sound very strange.

Hope that made sense!

[ronws]

I think you stated it better than I did.

[dannybullis]

very nice man! Good enunciation and the inflection fit the style. I'm diggin your vocals. Good job on the guitar too, i'm also a singer/guitarist, so I know how tricky it can be to learn to play arpeggios or tricky riffs while singing (check out Shawn McDonald - Gravity...a song I did a cover of). Props.

Some critiques and additional comments to what row & chele said...First off, I'm hearing a tendency to hit the notes right (pitch and enunciation) in the beginning and middle, but at the end is where you falter the most. It's just as important how you come out of the notes (like if you sing a word and then rest for a couple beats or a measure). Relisten to the endings of a section (right before a rest), and some of them sound a little shaky, some falter. Follow through. Also, I heard some portions where your vocal runs were a little sloppy, so try to tighten them up or discard them (unless they're part of the cover)...I dunno, my drummer tells me I do vocal runs too much, and I feel that he may be right, sometimes I do overuse them (or just straight up abuse them haha).

As for the high notes, I think you're just being humble :cool:. They sounded pretty good. The falsetto added a nice touch.

As for what chele is saying, for techniques/styles like belting, singing NOT how you speak is important, because if you're screwing your voice up by trying to sing "NEED!" with the hard E vowel, you could resort to "N-AY-D", which is what they do a lot of times in Punk and hardcore and stuff. Stylistic preference for sure. Another trick I do is if i'm singing a hard "A" like "RACE", (the vowel "A", you'll notice when you sing it, many times comes out as "AAEE", with the hard A turning into a hard E somewhere in there). When we (I) get sloppy, I notice I short my hard "A" which is easier on the vox than a hard "E" esp. at higher pitches, so I hold off on throwing the E sound of the A until the last possible moment. If that makes any sense AT ALL. In other words, chele, i know what you're sayin.

Cheers brotha, and keep kickin A

[Nik]

@chele1000: you say it that easy

I once read that you don't have to scream or anything, all you need is good hardware and a good singing technique

but I can't imagine how to sing so soft to not hurt your voice but at the same time make it sound like screaming, or raspy etc

I think I still often sing with too much power

it doesn't hurt or I won't get hoarse as easy as when I startet to sing, so all alone it's hard to find out what is best

at the same time I actually discovered a little rasp recently in my voice, it will disappear after I sing a lot, but it wasn't there a few weeks ago

edit: I forgot the important stuff, lol: I like this cover maybe it's intended, but IMO the reverb/room hall is bit strong, but beside that I don't know what else to say except that I think it's good :o