Payphone by Maroon 5 (first cover of the year)

[Bay_Harbor_Butcher]

[ronws]

Really well done and as good as the original. And this is where your voice and style really shines. Melodic ballads about romantic themes because you have that crying sound in your voice. For example, it might sound odd if Ronnie James Dio tried this. Just as an r&b singer might sound odd doing "Man on the Silver Mountain."

 

I was listening to this and remembered a movie I watched last Sunday. I rented for the wife and myself "Begin Again" with Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, and Adam Levine (yes, the singer from Maroon 5 can act.) And this is the kind of music that movie celebrates. Watch that movie, not just to see and hear Adam, but to gain inspiration and guidance to what you should do, next. It's fairly new, so I don't know if it is on Netflix or Hulu.

[Bay_Harbor_Butcher]

Really well done and as good as the original. And this is where your voice and style really shines. Melodic ballads about romantic themes because you have that crying sound in your voice. For example, it might sound odd if Ronnie James Dio tried this. Just as an r&b singer might sound odd doing "Man on the Silver Mountain."

 

I was listening to this and remembered a movie I watched last Sunday. I rented for the wife and myself "Begin Again" with Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, and Adam Levine (yes, the singer from Maroon 5 can act.) And this is the kind of music that movie celebrates. Watch that movie, not just to see and hear Adam, but to gain inspiration and guidance to what you should do, next. It's fairly new, so I don't know if it is on Netflix or Hulu.

 

Thanks Ron.

 

Begin Again has been on my queue since November but I didn't get around to watching it. I'm still trying to catch up with a lot of films contending for the Oscar's which I must finish before the nominations announcement later this month.

 

BTW, what do you mean by crying sound? 

[ronws]

Thanks Ron.

 

Begin Again has been on my queue since November but I didn't get around to watching it. I'm still trying to catch up with a lot of films contending for the Oscar's which I must finish before the nominations announcement later this month.

 

BTW, what do you mean by crying sound? 

I don't necessarily mean the technique of cry, I mean the emotional content. Your interpretation can make people cry with you. Sometimes, that makes people separate themselves from their hard-earned cash to buy your recordings.

[KillerKu]

This is a good performance. I think you're really onto a style that can go pretty commercial. Ronws was talking about the cry, and I got a bit of that in my vocal style so I might be able to help you out.

 

For technique I've got a place to isolate in this performance for polishing. On the 'oh' vowel where you say, "I'm on a pay phone trying to 'go' home" this part was unstable throughout the first few repeats. It was stabilized during one of the latter sections. The go would flop down, flop up, went a bit flat once.  

 

Looking at it, and picturing it in my voice, I think I can see why as it's something I've done. The 'oh' vowel is a very shouty, chesty kind of vowel, which can make it a bit difficult when singing a softer plaintive style like you're doing here. What further complicates things is you're dropping immediately down from a falsetto passage (above a bridge area) directly into a really chesty vowel and stumble for a sec finding your footing. 

 

If you were to tuck the 'oh' vowel into a bit more 'uh' it wouldn't be as pure of a vowel but it might help you stabilize, as 'uh' is a lot more friendly for this kind of plaintive style than 'oh.'

 

On another note, what kind of software are you using to record? Audacity? I'd really like to see if I could get you a decent reverb of some kind, cause if we could pull the dry out of your voice it would really help a lot. You sing poppish RnB a lot and you'd sound great with a bit of production. Anyway, overall it's a great job, not an easy song.

[Bay_Harbor_Butcher]

This is a good performance. I think you're really onto a style that can go pretty commercial. Ronws was talking about the cry, and I got a bit of that in my vocal style in my vocal style so I might be able to help you out.

For technique I've got a place to isolate in this performance for polishing. On the 'oh' vowel where you say, "I'm on a pay for trying to 'go' home" this part was unstable throughout the first few repeats. It was stabilized during one of the latter sections. The go would flop down, flop up, went a bit flat once.

Looking at it, and picturing it in my voice, I think I can see why as it's something I've done. The 'oh' vowel is a very shouty, chesty kind of vowel, which can make it a bit difficult when singing a softer plaintive style like you're doing here. What further complicates things is you're dropping immediately down from a falsetto passage (above a bridge area) directly into a really chesty vowel and stumble for a sec finding your footing.

If you were to tuck the 'oh' vowel into a bit more 'uh' it wouldn't be as pure of a vowel but it might help you stabilize, as 'uh' is a lot more friendly for this kind of plaintive style than 'oh.'

On another note, what kind of software are you using to record? Audacity? I'd really like to see if I could get you a decent reverb of some kind, cause if we could pull the dry out of your voice it would really help a lot. You sing poppish RnB a lot and you'd sound great with a bit of production. Anyway, overall it's a great job, not an easy song.

Thanks for that insightful critique. I did notice that my voice got out of control in the intro and as you said it is not an easy song. It requires proper breathing technique to stay on key among others. Levine sang it effortlessly so it's a big challenge to at least sound like one despite it being a difficult song.

I am using Audacity .

[ronws]

 Levine sang it effortlessly so it's a big challenge to at least sound like one despite it being a difficult song.

 

No, you THINK Levine sang it effortlessly. But you don't know that without being there. I am not saying he did or didn't. But you are making an assumption and assumptions can trip you up. Every song has a challenge and every song is one that you can do, all at the same time, very zen, I know, but, too bad, that's the way it is.