4+20 with vocals

[jayswett]

I created this on Sunday after having been annoyed all day about my struggles with singing and playing simultaneously. This is a song I learned in February, and the chords are now fairly automatic, so I again tried to sing. I had attempted to do this back in February as well but technical issues got in the way and the result was suboptimal. I managed to find a recording system that seems to work reasonably well (for now).

[AndyT]

I really like that Jay.
What are you using to pick up your voice? I'm guessing the guitar is plugged in.
Really nice sound, good picture.

Your singing was good. Really nice, but you never really looked at the audience. I know, your not on stage, but at the backyard BBQ Jams this summer, people are going to want you to look at them. LOL

I was enjoying it so much I forgot to look for technical things to comment on, other than the excessively long thumb many of us suffer from LOL! I'll leave that for the next poster.

[suziko]

Well you aren't going to get technical comments from me, either. I think the point of this video was to show the progress you're making on playing and singing simultaneously. And you clearly succeeded overwhelmingly here. You took a song you know well, which helped of course, but it's hardly an 'easy' song. It's not a campfire-strum-song that you're playing here. And you did a great job. Your voice sounds nice and very melancholy (which suits this song).

Congrats, Jay!

[jim56]

Bravo Jay! well done,

That was outstanding what did you use for a mic?
I noticed you anchor your pinky while picking, I do that also. Its a hard habit to break.
Excellent vocals, sounds like the original.

Jim

[neverfoundthetime]

Outstanding! Jay this is proof that you are ready for your open mike performance. I'm not sure how you could improve this performance. Singing and playing is excellent. really well done. loved it! My thumbs are pointing way the hell upstairs.

[Lavallee]

Hi Jay, very nice result. As Neil had mentioned, ideally if you can play the song with your eyes closed (which ou obviously can with this song), then you can focus on singning at the same time. Where the head phone for listening at the song at the same time?

Marc

[haoli25]

Excellent, Excellent, Excellent Jay! What a pleasure to watch and listen to. As always, your fingerpicking is very strong. (And at least for me, that is a difficut song) Your singing was also very good. As Andy said, I think it would help to look at the camera (audience) more as if you were telling the story to your listener. You should be very proud of this video, all of your hard work has surely paid off. Thanks for sharing it.



Bill

[jayswett]

I recorded this with an external (directional?) USB microphone that a friend had given to me. The microphone was sitting on a chair just in front of my right knee. I have been playing around with it for a couple of months, and I think I finally managed to adjust the settings to allow for a reasonably good sound. This video seems to have a more robust, deep sound to it relative to the Don't Think Twice video, which sounds more thin and "tinny" (I had recorded that with my guitar plugged directly into my computer. I continue to wonder if the micro BR thing would help me with the audio quality of my videos). As before, I used Audacity to record the audio and used the "noise reduction" feature to refine it. For some reason, that noise reduction feature causes those odd sounds heard at the beginning. I have no idea why that is, but would love it if someone could enlighten me. Anyway, I am wearing the headphones so that I can hear the click track without the microphone picking it up.

This is the third time I've posted this song, so if I could disable all comments, I would. TG members have already spent alot of time helping me with this song.

[jayswett]

jim56 wrote:

I noticed you anchor your pinky while picking, I do that also. Its a hard habit to break.

Jim

I thought I had broken that habit. Guess not. Just goes to show that when I am focused on something other than the guitar (i.e. singing), I revert back to bad habits.

[wrench]

Jay, you're out of control. If I were going to attempt a first try at simultaneous singing and playing, I would look for the simplest campfire strum I could find, but not you. No, you go for a fingerpicked, alternate tuning deal. And nailed it. When you book your first gig, see if you can arrange to have it webcast live to TG!

Your tech sounded really good, too. I'm thinking Audacity should be more famous than it is.

Dan