Queen - Don't Stop Me Now - Technique Snapshot

[KillerKu]

My current audio setup has a quarter second delay on the audio loopback, ASIO drivers are misconfigured and I can't be bothered to try fix, so I haven't been recording for weeks, but was thinking about this quote:

 

Best practice is small amounts of time with perfection, than a long session where it is halfbad/halfdecent.

 

So I decided to take a song that is a bit out of my league and comp a couple of tries per section. 

 

https://app.box.com/s/fsrb6rwio0zh6tf5c8z8eperikxgp30t

 

This is probably a current snapshot of where my technique would be going if I had less error in live performance.

 

I've been thinking snapshots like this might be useful for singers to see where they are currently headed in training and how this direction might change with experience/education.

[Jeremy Mohler]

Not too bad man, this is definitely a hard as %#@! song but it definitely seems well within your grasp.  Just keep working through each line slowly and focus on each and every detail of the original recording.  Beyond that I am not really in a place to give any technique tips for where you're singing this at.  The only thing constructive I can say technique wise is to try and keep your lines more legato so you get that nice flow to lyrics.  I think that's the only thing keeping parts like the really heady stuff on the beginning from sounding professional.  

 

Anyway, nice job man keep up good work.  Was a cool listen for sure.  

[KillerKu]

Not too bad man, this is definitely a hard as %#@! song but it definitely seems well within your grasp.  Just keep working through each line slowly and focus on each and every detail of the original recording.  Beyond that I am not really in a place to give any technique tips for where you're singing this at.  The only thing constructive I can say technique wise is to try and keep your lines more legato so you get that nice flow to lyrics.  I think that's the only thing keeping parts like the really heady stuff on the beginning from sounding professional.  

 

Anyway, nice job man keep up good work.  Was a cool listen for sure.  

 

Legato wasn't going to work very well delay on my vocal feedback. I had to stop singing to even hear the music clearly. I probably shouldn't even had it monitoring at the same time given the feedback but the other choice was no monitoring and headphones, and I always push with that.

 

I guess it's not quite the best snapshot of technique if you consider timing and phrasing. But it was more the coordinations used for throughout the range are how I currently apply things given my current knowledge. I'm interested in seeing how they change. Like how would I sing an A#4 in the future compared now.

[KillerKu]

Ambitious there, Killer! One day I hope to sing some Queen. Think I'll tackle something a little easier though  :-)

 

Its funny Jeremy wrote what he did, because I think you were a bit breathy at the beginning. You tightened it up when the bass and drums came in and I liked that a whole lot better.

 

I wanted to include breathiness as well, as that is part of my vocal technique. I tried to apply every bit of my vocal technique to the song. Full voice, breathiness, raspiness, highs, falsettos, all that stuff. I want to see how it changes in application. I have about 20 different techniques I currently apply to convey different things. Seeing how things change in application will be very interesting.

[KillerKu]

Yeah, I was pretty sure it was intentional. If you could keep that breathiness but add just a little more edge to your sound it would be perfect IMO.

 

Yeah, I could quack it just a little. I think I'll take this concept further, and even use this song specifically as a metric for my voice.

 

It seems to allow me to employ virtually everything I regularly do. I'll hopefully have the timing problem fixed sometime soon and will be able to incorporate both of your advice while making a more artistically viable version.

 

Edit:

 

Awesome, I fixed the latency. It says it is only 10 milliseconds round trip now. I tried drumming to a metronome and it actually sounded right for once, so I hopefully won't have anymore major tech problems moving forward. I might even take another shot at this song tomorrow.

[lurex]

i do a lot of queen covers and what really helps me is to listen to freddie's isolated vocals tracks: 

 

not to say it shouldn't be your own take on it, but it REALLY helps to hear the intricacies of his voice and how he approaches it.  they don't call him the best for nothing, so i find it really helps to study how he would handle certain vocal runs/notes etc.  you'd be surprised how much detail is lost from freddie's beautiful vocal takes by putting instrumentation over it.

 

me and jeremy were talking about your cover and we agree you gotta work on more legato and delicate phrasing.  i find it helps to first sing the song softly at a more comfortable volume and once you have all the interval leaps and runs down, build up the chest and gradually turn it into a real vocal.

[KillerKu]

Those are good ideas. I've been training the opposite lately to reduce unintentional scooping. A clean onset into a note usually more difficult for me than bending between notes so thinking of it like throwing darts at a dartboard is something I've been training. When I first started singing almost everything was a slur.

 

So the two things I've been training are note teleportation at faster speeds (melissma) and clean onset to exact pitch, for a smoother sounding legato slowing it down and connecting more might help.

[aravindmadis]

i do a lot of queen covers and what really helps me is to listen to freddie's isolated vocals tracks: 

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not to say it shouldn't be your own take on it, but it REALLY helps to hear the intricacies of his voice and how he approaches it.  they don't call him the best for nothing, so i find it really helps to study how he would handle certain vocal runs/notes etc.  you'd be surprised how much detail is lost from freddie's beautiful vocal takes by putting instrumentation over it.

 

me and jeremy were talking about your cover and we agree you gotta work on more legato and delicate phrasing.  i find it helps to first sing the song softly at a more comfortable volume and once you have all the interval leaps and runs down, build up the chest and gradually turn it into a real vocal.

Thanks for sharing. What a genius Freddie was. I am trying to cover this. maybe in another month or two before am confident of posting some acceptable version of the song

[aravindmadis]

Killer I tried this and posted a wip version. This is a crazy difficult song. Your version is quite good. If you keep at it you will certainly improve your quality. I think to sing this like Freddie there is a brute strength quality that I fell may require strength building in addition to actual practice. As awe inspiring as Freddie was, he had nodules and I am not sure he could have sustained this.

[KillerKu]

Killer I tried this and posted a wip version. This is a crazy difficult song. Your version is quite good. If you keep at it you will certainly improve your quality. I think to sing this like Freddie there is a brute strength quality that I fell may require strength building in addition to actual practice. As awe inspiring as Freddie was, he had nodules and I am not sure he could have sustained this.

 

Thanks. I agree, there is a kind of balls to the wall approach to what Freddie did. I'm glad someone posted the acapella instrumental track. My practice regiment for this song was literally

 

1. Listen to the song one time to get it in my head

2. Record for 2 to 3 takes

3. Post.

 

I think a really hard song like this could benefit from some very specific and isolated practice rather than just winging it. I'm the king of winging it, but a really hard song like this could really benefit my technique to train more seriously.

 

So I'll be joining you in training it. Maybe a couple months down when you're ready, we can compare notes and help each other out.

[lurex]

i forgot to post this earlier but yeah this is what i was talking about with starting light and slow to practice legato you're welcome thanks for commenting on my thing as a prize i'll show you one whole line from don't stop me now one day you can sell this link on ebay to my fans for a $million$ dollars http://picosong.com/Vpws/

[Pekka]

Killer that was very good