Mahesh

Awesome work you guys! Add me to David's bunch.

Hey Justin, Good choice of example that is one of my most favorite treasures on the hard drive. I think I can only speculate on what the artist is logically trying to do with the set list when I watch them. I want to have a solid and confident thought. It does help though. Tom, all originals. No covers. Possibility one cover sneaking in. Just one.

I have come to be of the opinion that the selection of the songs, deciding their order and feel; creating the right set list is an art. I've regretted too many times when I did not give enough attention and thought over this and then ended up not having a good time on stage at all. The transition between songs in terms of emotion, energy and playability has to be just right. I'm having an opening set day after at a local venue and I'd love some general advice on how to go about getting the set list right. I've noticed the key changes between songs has a good impact on how well I connect with the song. At the same time, having too many songs on the same key (especially when it's a singer songwriter acoustic set) makes for a stale or stagnant output. Your views on this would be just great. Thanks

Cupid - Sam Cooke Love the song. I heard the Johnny Nash version the first time. Takes me to a different era, one which I was not born to

Daybreak - Chet Baker

Taking an entirely different route for the kicks. Moving Mountains - Usher I do love his range though RnB is not my thing, but something bout some of Usher's few songs.

Awww, I think you sing beautiful Jan. And I don't even have to listen to you to say that

My method is to have a metronome going while practicing vibrato. Set it at a suitable bpm and sing two consecutive notes on a chromatic scale. When I feel comfortable at that tempo, I increase the tempo by just 1 or 2 bpm, so that I (or my voice ) don't find much difference from the previous tempo and I patiently continue the process. I've learnt that this tricks my voice into improving in a much better way. Another way that I find super effective is to emulate or sing along to a song that has some good amount of vibrato. Every now and then, I play a Sinatra number on the laptop and I sing along and I find my vibrato much more controlled and prominent. Since I've never had a vocal teacher, I find it easier to adapt to not so common methods of learning. I've heard some pretty unconventional methods of improving vibrato such as pressing and releasing your tummy constantly while singing lol never done it though.

Yeah, when done with the right technique, it feels exhilarating to reach such range. I follow the methods of Speech Level Singing so there is a lot of compression involved. But I wonder how people like Steven Tyler and Axl Rose reach those high notes. It seems like their natural range is in that area.

The Shoals of Herring - Ewan MacColl

I can go upto a D above high C ( or is that the middle C on the piano? I'm talking about the C on the 8th fret of the high E string). Used to belt to an F a couple years back. But I've stopped practicing lol P.S Let us know if you are male or female so that your answer makes more sense

Haha Thanks Dave. You always know what to say lol I'm glad you liked it my friend. But really, America sure is something I've been thinking about though. Even a few local gigs there would be great for me. Someday. SOME...day.

That's me my man Thanks

Aaaaaah, I missed this so much when I was away!! Lol not quite hehe

huh? lol When did that happen? no intention on promoting or critique lol Have I been away for too long now? s**t P.S I suspect you pulling my leg there Justin lmao

P.S I would have done quite a few changes mix wise but we were on a deadline so went with the sound engineer's version. Might do those changes sometime in the future. ( De-essing is one big priority ) P.P.S The narration was not done by me.

Heya. So this was the theme song for my annual college fest. The theme was theater and we decided on a story line with many musical elements including Indian Classical to be on the song and this is what we came up with. I composed the western parts for it and am doing the vocals. Lot's of Indian classical music in the track so i hope you don't mind that. Anyways, just a casual share if you are interested Hope all are doing well. I've not been much active on the forums ( though I plan to be from today) due to a lot of academic pressure. I have been working though on Songstuff's secret plans in the background Cheers to all of you.

lol I agree with you Tom lol It would be a pretty illogical decision to shell out so much money for something you are not sure of on the long run while you already are comfortable with your DAW. Let's see how it will do. lmao on the cubase reference David I'm pretty comfortable with Reaper myself at the moment but it sure can't take a heavy load of plugins. ( It might be my laptop too but it seems fine with Cubase on. )

A new Digital Audio Workstation called Bitwig has recently been released in the market and I want to know if any of you have had the chance to take it for a ride yet. Seems super promising but hey I'm a sucker for these videos lol Let me know what you guys think. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should. http://www.bitwig.com

Californication - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Yup, even in my case, it's mostly instinctive when it comes to songwriting. But I do have a general pattern though. Once inspired, I usually have a brainstorming session with myself as to what I can write about. I talk to myself. That is one of the most important and less spoken about tools I've found. I literally talk to myself like I'm talking to another person (if not out loud, at least in my head ). I ask myself questions and answer it. "What do you want to write about?" "What do you want to start with first?" "What do you think the hook should be". It's the same as thinking but is more proactive and natural. A melody usually follows afterwards (and sometimes before I actually think of the lyrical content). From there the lyrics and the melody go side by side. I know a lot of people write the lyrics before going into the melody or vice versa. For me, once a foundation is set, going in parallel works great. The next would be rewrites . I have to be honest, I do rewrites very rarely these days. That's mostly because of my parallel fashion of songwriting. I work on what I want out of the song in real time. But it sure is a useful tool in terms of honing your skills.

Music has it's countless sources. It comes in the most unexpected ways and sizes. A cat is surely one of the surprising ones out of the lot. The Internet seems to love cats. And of all the thousands of cat videos that roam the internet, this is the one I want to share with you. Nora the Cat is a gray tabby cat that was rescued by their owners from a shelter in New Jersey. Nora developed a curiosity towards her owner's piano when she was a year old and has played ( well, more like tapped ) it ever since. Youtube videos uploaded by Nora's owners became viral because of her musical paws. When Lithuanian conductor and composer Mindaugas Piečaitis found one of Nora's videos, he became very interested in the idea of writing a concerto for one of her "pieces". The consequent result of the idea came to be called CATcerto, the first concerto ever composed for a cat. On 5th June, 2009, CATcerto was performed for the very first time by Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra at the Klaipėda Concert Hall, Klaipėda, Lithuania, lead by Piečaitis. It has been performed by many other orchestras all over the world since. Nora the Cat and the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra were further included in the Guinness World Records for the first ever concerto for a cat in 2012. Personally, I find the piece very beautiful and intricate. Goes to show how we can derive what we love from almost all the things around us if we put our mind to it. Here is the video. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Yeah, pretty sad that we have become too busy to give ourselves a break. And yeah, musicians are different that way. We more tend to recognize good music (or just music ) irrespective of who or where it is. That's a good thing Thanks Lisa. LOL, weird? It's always great to distract ourselves ( even subconsciously ) from the current situation every now and then. Not much buskers here in India but it sure is a treat when I do see one.

The world has become such a busy place. Deadlines, schedules, priorities, it's never ending. In such a time, we tend to overlook things that would have made the biggest difference in our lives. Washington Post conducted an experiment that went on to prove this very point. It was in January 2007 when Joshua Bell , a violinist, performed a few classical pieces on the Washington D.C Subway as he stood there, incognito. Most of the passersby hurried on without noticing the rare event that was unfolding itself. Joshua Bell, one of the greatest classical musicians of modern times, was "playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made" valued at $3.5 Million. The fact that the people passed by without a reaction brings us to an important question. How good is the music really, if people never stop and listen to it? More thoughts that comes to mind are, if the passersby knew who the man at the side of the subway really was, would the reaction to the music being performed be any different? Does the social status of the artist matter for the music to be good, or to even be noticed ? We can only speculate on the answers to these questions but one thing is for sure, if we do not stop, look and listen every once in a while in our daily busy lives, we might miss out on the best life has to offer, or more. Here is a clip of Joshua Bell on the Washington D.C Subway playing along.

Thanks Kel and Karl.