Rudi

Singing style. There has been a change in the way people sing. It’s been evident for some time but the change seems almost entirely complete now. You can hear it not only in pop songs but in the way children sing hymns & carols too. The change is this. Everybody now is using a ‘lead in’ to sung notes. I’m talking of the first note of any sung phrase (& some within it too). Instead of going for the correct note straight off, singers will now precede it with a small rising tone. Do you know what I mean? It that fleeting note that begins about a semitone down from the desired note & slides up (like a rapid portomento) to meet it. I suspect we all do plenty of this. I do, but having now recognised it, I often try now to nail the note first go. I don’t know if this technique has a name or not, but I will refer to it as the ‘Seeking-Tone’. Starting to sing using a seeking-tone is much easier. You know the note you want to sing, so you begin it slightly low and then home in on it. Unless you are an accomplished singer, this makes for better pitch (more accurate). It also adds a sort of percussive edge to the sung note. I strongly suspect that this technique is of American origin. I hear it used by some pop singers of the 40’s at least. Frank Sinatra used it a lot, so too does Michael Jackson. All modern day ‘soul’ artists seem to use it exclusively. It’s a fine invention, but it’s quite overused now. It sounds awful used in a choir music.

OK heres mine. Its a Jackson Soloist XL Professional I traded in my Fender Strat (which i thought I would keep always) for this. The fretboard is the widest I have ever seen on an electric guitar. I prefer this for fretting. Its also handy for fingerpicking (such as on 'Brown Eyed Girl' on stage). The middle pickup may be single coil, its quite clean anyway. The sound is lush. Also all string volumes are perfectly balanced at all settings. It has 24 easily accessible frets due to neck profiling and the absence of a 'bolt on' heel. It doesnt lose its tuning due to the locked down strings at the nut. However, the Floyd-Rose bridge has the same inherent problem as all floating bridges. The set up is a pig to do! I have wedged a piece of wood under the back plate to fix it in position. This disables the tremelo, but its worth it. It’s the 2nd most comfortable solid body I’ve ever played. The most comfortable was a budget priced Charvette (Charvel) which weighed next to nothing and had a beautiful action. All this was at the expense of sound quality though. If I were to lose this. I would scour the country for another (I have played another. It was surprisingly consistent in feel).

It connects to me. Its detachment. She wouldnt describe it as life. Once the pain is over, there is emptyness. The pain was the only connection to life remaining. However, it isn’t quite accord with the angst of the main body of the poem. Such as: This is still full of pain & resentment. It might be more in keeping with the mood, had it been written from within the same empty mood “How I once clung to hope, confidence…” or “Why did I cling to…”

Hey ta! Just tried it out in the bar. Had to remove a dynamic something or other from text, but then it worked fine.

Everbody feels that way early on. It may take a long time to get over. Try to concentrate & isolate the little things that you like. What is are your favourite parts of your favourite songs? It may be brief melodic phrase straddling two chords. Which chords are they? Whats their relationship to the melody? If you do this often, you will find these patterns re-occuring from time to time, even though the music may have a different feel. Once you understand how the things you enjoy work, you can make informed choices about how to employ them in your own music. Sifting through music you like is like panning for gold. It takes time but its worth it.

Hello Joni, Thats right, dont listen to the one called Steve. Listen only to me, only to me, to me, me. You will write your best ever lyric so far within the next fortnight. Post it so we can see….

Hello Scott, missed you 1st time around I think. Pull up a chair, take your shoes off.

Welcome to SS from Portsmouth.

Michael Glabicki (& Liz Berlin) of Rusted Root. http://www.rustedroot.com/ Michael can sound like a fine rock artist, but he likes to do strange stuff too. Some of the tribal sounding warbles sound wonderful over the percussion pieces Rusted Root do.

I suppose you need somewhere online to make these pics available from huh?

Bite my fingernails down to the elbow. I dont know. It would be tough. I might try to find a good adventure game maybe? One thing would be for sure. It would take me a further 2 months of practice to get my form back.

I have to play/practice in order to keep a minimal performing standard up. I havnt tried to adhere to any formal practice for 30 years (Ive been playing for 36 years). At all times I have personal projects in mind. Here are two examples of what is ongoing presently: Technique: Speed pick string separation using the lower D, A and E strings. This is a technical project. This is using the pick rapidly on the string (like the mandolin fanning technique). Crossing from one string to another is something I cracked a long time ago, but only with sequential string crossings. In other words A to D to G etc. Now though, I’m trying to smoothly cross from E to D and back (missing out A). I can make the cross OK, but end up missing the optimal down/up strokes to make it work best. I think my chances of succeeding are about 60% in favour. I’m using the bottom 3 strings because they are easier to use this technique on initially. Aesthetics: Composition/Soloing project: I have finally understood intellectually what I’ve understood intuitively for years. That keeping notes close together tonally = drama! In other words CHROMATIC PHRASING. Obviously you need to find ‘excuses’ to do this, otherwise it will sound at odds with the music you are using it with. I have lots and lots of excuses. A simple one is to use key changes of half a tone. A more useful one is to find the half tones that chords have in common. These work best at the moment of the chord change. So in the key of B when changing from the chords B to F#, play the notes B and A#. These are separated by a half tone interval. Over the B chord they are the root ( and the major 7th (A#). Over the F# they are the 4th ( and the 3rd (A#). So using these at the moment of the chord change (within a more involved melodic phrase of course) will add poignancy. So when practice-improvising, I work this and many other similar examples into the ongoing practice. These are just two of the little ongoing projects that inform my playing (or will do if and when I get them right). At the moment I probably have half a dozen further ones on the go as well. Over the months and years they change or metamorphosise. Occasionally I have to give up and drop a project, once I’ve convinced myself that they are either 1/ impossible or 2/ I can’t do it (the more likely). I believe that this sort of thing is great for developing an individual style.

Interesting to read the 'tapping' style history on that site. I had no idea it went back 50 years!

This is the 1st time Ive seen this tapping technique used on an accoustic. It usually relies on lots of distortion to pick up the (normally) quiet notes. This fellow looks as if he may have adapted the technique to include a slide. Maybe that is why its properly audible. Ive never tried to aquire this technique for aesthetic reasons, but this sounds pretty good. However, its a lot easier to get away with the hands-off & purcussive thing when you are using open tunings as this man is.

Tried twice to hear/see this but gave up after 10 minutes of waiting to load. I may try at home later.

Welcome. Im sure you will find help & encouragement here. We are all enthusiasts of all levels here. Rudi Portsmouth UK

Hello Mark Welcome from Portsmouth UK

I havnt given this too much thought yet, but here are a couple of ideas: 1/ What chord do you finish on? The root & third of the chord is most likely the key (ie: if its a F# minor, that will be the key, if its a B major, that will be the key). 2/ How does the verse/chorus resolve? Chances are you are singing one of the 3 notes that comprise the chord of the key. 3/ Examine the chord structure of the tune. A typical 3 chord trick will have the Root (tonic), Sub-Dominant (4th) and Dominant (5th) at the heart of the song structure. Im not suggesting that your songs are this but its a good rule of thumb to go on. Examine the scale of each of the chords in your song and find where the other chords relate to them. Most of the time you will find a 5th is the root of one of the other chords, and much of the time a 4th is the root of another. So if your tune is in C, the 5th will be G, and the 4th will be F. Show us the chord pattern of a song & we can have a guess!

The subject of repitition has brought to mind a song by Kevin Ayres during his 'Kevin Ayres & the Whole World' days. They did a 'song' comprised of nothing more than a repitition of the title, and the title was 'I Did it Again'. 'I Did it Again' was repeated not so much like a mantra, but as a vocal riff. It was in unison with the bass line (Kevin was a bassist). It was rather more than just some endless riff though, as the the chords would shift underneath it & eventually build to a climax and a cadence, before restarting once more (not unlike computer music 30 years later). Kevins excellent idea was to turn the song form on its head and have the vocal fill (& support) the role of the bass, and give the harmony (keys) an (almost) leading role. It has to be one of the most memorable tunes Ive ever heard. I last heard it 30 years ago, and its still fresh in my mind. A little over half way through, the trance element would kick in (for me anyway) when every time Kevin sang 'I Did it Again' sounded as if he was refering to the last time he sang 'I Did it Again', a cycle of about 1 second continuously updated. Very unusual, highly effective.

hello hello Good that you joined us. Hope ya like it. Im sure you will find something useful hereabouts. Rudi Portsmouth UK

Worked for Ray Charles too. I don’t have a problem writing them (any more than others), but tend to do as John said, start with the rhythm, or at very least incorporate the rhythm into my starting point, be it a snatch of melody or a chord pattern. As for arrangements, there’s lots of fun to be had there. I’ve never played it live, but I re-interpreted ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ into an up-tempo 2/4 song. It sounds like sing-along pub tune that way & disrespects the sentiment of it enchantingly. There is a local young punk rock style band here in the Southampton area called ‘Stout’. They do a storming high-speed rendition of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ that is so far removed from the original, that many people can’t even recognise it.

Welcome from Portsmouth UK Lee. Hope you like it here.

Hi & welcome from Portsmouth Jasper

Greetings Skies, keep going for what your aiming at. Welcome.

Welcome to SS from Portsmouth UK Jeremy.