vocals Archives - CRAIG WESTWOOD

Vocals complete (I think)…

Craig — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 10:37:00 +0000

Audacity is finally completed. Had a great session over at Matthew’s last Friday afternoon, and the final double-tracked vocals slotted into place after our usual warm-up beforehand.

We had a bit of time to review a couple of the other songs too, in particular I wanted to add more seriousness and weight to the arrangement on Daytime. I’m concerned that because I’d chopped it and speeded it up slightly (to make it shorter, on Matthew’s advice, and more commercial) that it’s lost it’s impact. My original ‘demo’ version, recorded at Rick’s (Rooster’s) used a droning synth bass (Rick’s Yamaha TX81Z), that I’d like to try and recapture somehow. I have a TX81Z, so I’ve asked Matthew to send me a mix track without acoustic bass to try out the TX with the new arrangement.

Reviewing all the mixed material at home, I’m still wanting to tweak the backing vocals on Nonsense Song. Again I’ve asked Matthew to send over a mix with an isolated track of the backing vocal so I can try some ideas out over here.

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Still recording…

Craig — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:50:00 +0000

I was over at Matthew’s yesterday, putting the backing vocals onto Audacity. I had elected to multi-track the backing vocals, a three-part harmony that I’d worked out, but to double-up each vocal to add some fullness to the backing, and to add more potential for a wider stereo spread in the final mix.

We got most of these done in the hour-long session, though my voice was straining a bit towards the end, and I’ve had to defer the last harmony to another session next week, as my throat was getting really raspy by the end of the hour. Seems I’d left the hardest part till last, the middle harmony, which just touches upon that part in my range where it begins to go into falsetto.

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Second Singing Lesson

Craig — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 16:39:00 +0000

Firstly, I made sure I’d remembered as much as possible before going across to Leeds. I went through my notes again fully, and had a little practice of the exercises that Matthew had covered with me a few weeks before. I have been practicing Ng warm ups and stretching exercises anyway prior to singing, and ended up doing these driving across there in the car.

Again I think this has been an enlightening session. We went through an exercise where I was asked to sing a minor or major third above the note played. Last session I couldn’t manage it, this time, though hesitant, I nailed every one. However my long held note, last time was 28 seconds, fell to a rather short 19 this time. I am suffering from hayfever right now, perhaps that is a factor.

We also talked about rehearsal for my open mic night coming up soon, and Matthew has given me a few techniques to help me remember my lyrics in particular. He’s also given me a song to learn for next time… not a song I particularly feel comfortable with, but it’s within my range: Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love. Maybe as it’s not a Presley song I like very much, a little too ‘old-time’ for me, but I’ll have a go at it and see what I can do with it. The idea is to put across the meaning of the words within the song. At my first shot at it, I really tried to sing it like Presley, American accent and all. So, the idea now is that I go away and personalise it…

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First Lesson

Craig — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 21:52:00 +0000

Had my first singing lesson today… Didn’t get off to a good start, as basically I have the beginnings of a cold and a bit of a sore throat. So – bad decision even to turn up and try singing!

Anyway, after a talk on how to look after the voice, Matthew got me learning to do some warm-up exercises. he was also testing my music knowledge along the way I think. I realise I have a lot to learn about music theory, but that’s why I’m here!

To finish up with, we went through Matthew and Andrew’s top 5 of my songs. Of the 13 I gave them, they like:

The Nonsense Song
Get Out of This
Watching the Rain
Golden Mean
Daytime

Quite a surprise to me, as there was only one present of the initial five I submitted. Along with that, they want me to cut Daytime down to 3-4 minutes, as it is currently 6m 13s, and much too long to be commercial. As it’s a story (and a very deliberately heavy and laboured one, a murder story), I can’t see how I can succeed with such a drastic cut. I asked if they had picked a ‘reserve’, as I’m not sure I want to cut it down by that much.

However, reading between the lines here, I have come away from this session already feeling that a great many of my songs are too long. Many are approaching 5 minutes or even over this, and many have long intros. To make them more suitable commercially I’m going to have to edit them down.

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