Beginner's Safe Space 2022

Hey Bob, that was good! Song sounded great, I know the song. Makes me think I should learn it.

Playing looked great, strumming great, etc!

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Hi Bob, great job posting your first recording. It is a big step, but will be really rewarding. I thought it sounded good for where you are in your journey, so encourage you to keep posting, and keep growing.

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:clap: :clap: :clap:
Bravo, Bob. Well done on making and sharing your first recording.

Your playing is looking solid, right on track for where you are in Gr2. So that is about smooth, rhythmic strumming, clean chords, making the changes. And you did well on all that, looked relaxed.

Camera angles can be deceptive, but looks to me on the D and G chords you could get some of the fingers up a little closer to the fret. That helps with requiring less pressure to make the note ring cleanly. Might need some slight adjustments to your hand position, perhaps getting the palm to be closer to parallel with the neck. Not a major thing, just perhaps take a look and experiment if the observation is accurate.

Your singing sounded full of promise from the little I could hear. Getting good balance between voice and guitar with a single mic is challenging. As you said, try playing with mic position. Also over time sing out with more gusto, which comes with practice and confidence in the playing.

Eventually you may want to explore interfaces and two mics, assuming your guitar is a straight acoustic without built-in electronics. But for now I’d say keep doing what you are doing. Lift the mic up to the level of your mouth, sing as loud as you can, and take it from there.

Look forward to your next.

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Hey Bob, that was a fantastic first AVoYP post. Nice steady strumming, clean chords, playing without looking and to top it all off singing as well. You can be proud of yourself for that first entry into your AVoYP catalogue. @DavidP made a good observation regarding positive finger placement (he picked me up on it too :wink:) which is definitely worth checking out when you review the recording to analyse your own performance.

Well done on taking your first steps in recording and posting your performances. I look forward to hearing more from you. You done very well mate. Keep up the good work.

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Congratulations on over coming your own hurdle @BobW72 and recording / sharing your first ever upload.
Bravo.
I would recommend a few steps now:
Introduce yourself: Introduce yourself ... - JustinGuitar Community

Start a Learning Log: Learning Logs - JustinGuitar Community

Browse the recording section (maybe start a topic if you don’t find what you want): 💻 Hardware, Software & Recording - JustinGuitar Community

As to the playing - all seems good, steady and even. Nicely done.
:slight_smile:

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Well done Bob. Vibes from me for posting your first AVoYP.
In addition to what the others have said, I’d say try adding a bit more dynamic into your strumming, at the moment it’s a bit ‘samey’. By that I mean perhaps change the strum pattern for the chorus or bridge. Perhaps strum a bit harder for the final verse. That sort of thing.
As for the vocal/guitar/video frame position balance it’s a matter of experimentation to find the right mic position. You also just need to throw yourself into the vocal and sing louder. :smiley:

Well done. I look forward to more in the future.

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I am kind of taken back by these comments. Thank you so much everyone, loving the positivity and will have a look at the finger positioning as advised. I’m going to try the mic placement too, I’m a bit limited with space and items I can fix the boom arm to, but I think there are options.

Basically though just wanted to get something out there and see the reaction. It’s kind of hard to gauge yourself at times when you’re learning in this way.

I would encourage other learners to go for it. I am not a hugely confident person but have managed to cross the bridge. I will post more when I get time. Many thanks for the encouragement.

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Good on you Bob, playing and singing is a big leap as is getting your post up, thank you for sharing. Not much for me to comment on that hasn’t been said already other than I also look forward to more from you, congratulations! :slight_smile:

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Hi Bob that was superb, well done on your first recording you did super good! I know the song very well and you definitely did it justice, clean changes (even though surprisingly as David pointed out your fingers on some chords are bit far from frets), good rhythm, vocals were clean as well as a bonus even if a bit quiet.

As for recording kit - you should be able to improve your sound by just playing around with mic location. Check Gordon’s aka @sairfingers recordings he is just using his Iphone mic and it sounds very good, with your USB mic it should possibly be slightly better quality wise.

And if you want to start investing in recording kit I recommend Scarlett 2i2 interface assuming your guitar can be plugged in as well or if you want to use 2 microphones - one closer to guitar and the other to your mouth. All the best!

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Followed the early discussion Bob and was pleased to see you posted.

Well apart from the vox gtr balance, it was instantly recognisable and like @jkahn said one to learn. Thought you played it well and some good vocals despite the levels. As others have said for a simple set up play around with positioning to bring the vocals up and you’ll be good to go but an impressive first post. Well done.

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

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Thank You. I did check out @sairfingers doing Norwegian Wood and that was really well played and very good sound too. I had a quick look at the Scarlett 212 and that doesn’t look like an unreasonable amount of money. Going to move the Yeti mic around first, and see how that goes. Thanks for the advice @adi_mrok

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Thanks Toby, the singing part is like learning another instrument at the same time. Again it’s practice isn’t it? I’m never quite sure how to pitch my voice (lots of variables around song choice too) but I enjoy it and it helps me bookmark my progress through a song.

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Hi Bob. That was great. I noticed your 3rd finger lagged behind the others on the D chord just like mine did. All of a sudden and quite unexpectedly that finger just learns it’s position and keeps up with the others. Well done!

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Well done Bob and congratulations on your first public recording. You’ve achieved a lot of good things here.

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Congratulations Bob on your first video post. You did very well mate. A proud milestone.
Particularly liked your steady rhythm. Crucial skill.
Regarding the guitar/vocal balance, as a starting point, try putting that Yeti (using the cardioid pattern) at around the 12th fret, and (vertically) about halfway between the fretboard and your chin. Maybe 8 inches away. Experiment from there.

Again, well done mate.

Cheers, Shane.

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That was great Bob and what a great tune to cover. Playing was very good and your singing also sounded good.

Some great advice there form David.

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Thanks @sairfingers. Really good practical advice there. I’ve only been playing Resolve for a week or 2 so was just trying to keep it steady. I would possibly look to mix it up a bit once I got more confident with it.

It was also probably the most usable clip from my recording session.

I watched your video of Norwegian Wood. Very good nice job :+1:

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Sounds great to me. Clean changes and a steady rhythm which is the backbone of rhythm guitar. I’m about at your level (minus the guts to film myself), so this is more of an observation and question for the other experts out there:

Wrist vs arm movement when strumming? You seem to be mostly arm movement. I wonder if a bit more wrist would be recommended? Personally, I’ve been trying to angle the pick (as part of trying to use my wrist more) as it strums across the strings.

And congratulations on a great job.

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@barker7

Mitch, that is a good recommendation, something to work on over time. All the while ensuring that the action is relaxed.

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I am going to post another. Really pleased with the reaction to Resolve and have tried to take on board the advice given. This is ‘It’s Easier’ by John Grant from the ‘Queen of Denmark’ album. He mostly performs this on piano and it’s stunning but I found this version where he’s got a guitarist with him. I think with John’s voice it wouldn’t matter if he had a kazoo player with him (not slagging off kazoo’s!)

I just decided to put the mic on the desk just out of shot and it was probably less than 2 ft away from guitar and mouth. Much quicker to set up than fiddling with the boom arm and I reckon the sound is a bit better than the previous video. It’s all open chords except for a F and Gm in the bridge which I substituted for a Fmaj7 and G7. Hope you like it and all comments welcome.

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