Hey, everybody, I’ve been rather busy with everything going on in my life and did not have time to record anything for quite a while. This time, decided to go with a song in my local language (Lithuanian), which was written in 1995. The lyrics are kinda unimportant, because they are none-sense, the gist of it is, if you are feeling down just think about good things and you’ll be fine.
At first, I did not want to do it, but then after couple of days of searching for best chords, I found that someone posted more or less interesting progression Cadd9 G for verses and Em D C G for choruses. Added in a bit of amateurish arpeggiation (which at times is all around the place) for Cadd9 and G at the start of verses, added different strumming patterns and here’s what I cooked-up. Also, decided to go with Capo 3, because I liked the best how the chords sound with it.
You’ve done well, Aurimas. Both left and right hand looked good … smooth, steady, relaxed. The recording of the vocal came across well.
I agree with @Willsie, the guitar tone, particularly the strumming, sounded off. Perhaps share how you made the recording and we may pick something up to help with that. Without knowing it sounded like it may have been recorded with a webcam or laptop integrated mic and the computer doing some echo cancellation or filtering?
That aside, well done, you did great with flowing through those stuck chords.
What I mean by a video-camera is that I used my laptop’s in built camera, but I went to webcamera.io website; recorded everything, downloaded the vid and uploaded into youtube. I’ve done it a few times already (Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory and These Days) in this way. Maybe it was because I use a capo and its in a different key and the sound is lower, and I don’t use a pick on acoustic to strum, maybe that’s why the sound is poor quality, or maybe the laptop was just too far away.
Regarding singing at the same time that I’m playing, yes, I’ve done that in the vid, but since the recording’s audio is in poor quality, you can’t here the strings so clearly. Basically, the sound-cloud is just the guitar part without me singing. I could upload the singing + guitar part within an hour or two.
Thanks for more info. I can’t test that app at the moment. Maybe it is worth trying to use a local app to make the recording. I suggest that because it sounded like the guitar audio was somehow distorted during the recording process.
That said, I recall your other videos and don’t recall the same issue so maybe it was just the laptop position.
I don’t believe the capo and using your thumb would have influenced the sound to cause what we heard in the recording.
Maybe it is worth using a local app to do the recording, removing the dependency on the internet. Many of us are getting good results using OBS. It will work on all the common operating systems.
Meanwhile, when you have a chance, perhaps re-record the song with the laptop in the same position that you used to record the instrumental that you shared.
Ah I see. My bad, I thought the audio only was made with the laptop as well.
Have you tried recording the video of you playing and singing with your phone? If it is a reasonably modern mobile you’ll probably find the camera is more than good enough and the audio sounded great.
I have made some recordings on my phone (not brand new and not top of any range) and then used the share function to upload the video straight to my YouTube channel.
Turn it into landscape mode and figure out how to position it to get a reasonable video composition (head and full guitar is ideal).
Yeah, that can be a hassle. I have a music stand that I use when making videos with my phone. Perhaps you could put the laptop where it was for the video and rest the phone on its side against the laptop screen?
I could, but then I’d have to experiment with distance how much is visible, how much is still hearable etc. Eh, for now it’s gonna be purely on soundcloud.
Hey, guys. So, I decided, since I progressed somewhat more with F barre chord, to put in a simplified version of “Turn Loose the Mermaids” from NW’s seventh studio album “Imaginaerum”. The original song, if my ears does not deceive me, is played finger style, and even though I’ve found on songsterr the tabs for it (sounds more or less plausible), but since that I have yet to make friends with finger-style type music, so I decided to simply go with a strumming. Chosen a simple DDDDU strumming pattern for the whole song.
In this simplified version, the verses have Am - Em - C - G - Am progression, throughout, while choruses are slightly different: F - G - Am, C - G - Am, F - C - G - Am, D - F - Am. There are interludes in between (where in the original there is supposed to be flute music playing); the first two and the last interlude are the same as verses, but the semi-last one is slightly different: Am - D - C - G - Am - D - F - G - Am.
Regarding F barre chord, I found it slightly easier to do, if I just don’t look at the fretboard and just do it (kinda force my fingers to go in their respective places), but still the speed of changes is not as fast as for open chords, but, if compared to my Blaze of Glory vid, I think it is faster (how faster, who knows). There were some mistakes made, for sure, like with the semi-last interlude were when I wanted to form an F barre chord my middle, ring and pinky fingers accidentally meshed in together creating an Esus4 shape
Anyway, I filmed this recording via phone (on phone everything is audible). Played it through on youtube, also audible, should not have any sound issues like the last time.
Hi Aurimas, the strumming is nice and even, for me. I notice that when you change to the F chord your index finger that forms the barre seems to be the last one to be placed. That’s what it looks like to me. I think generally you want to fret the barre, particularly the 6th string on a down strum, first, so that the note is clean when strummed/picked.
Hey, Willsie01, you are correct, I do put the index finger last for barre chords, because if I would put index finger first, then when placing all other fingers the index finger simply slides off the fret. As I mentioned DavidP in one thread, I practised at first with putting index first, but it simply did not work; had to look up alternatives.
Yes, I know. The technique is easier said then done. Do you think you manage to get the F chord ringing cleanly, all of the strings doing it your way? If not, could you just try to fret the 6th string with the first finger initially, ahead of the other fingers? Then the rest of them come down across the neck gradually with the other fingers? I’ll have to check but I think this is what I aim to do with songs where the bottom note of the chord is picked on the first beat, so has to sound true.
Yeah, it’s just that since index is last there is a slight delay and while strumming you get dead note on the first strum, but previously, I’ve gotten two dead notes, so my speed is improving. Maybe in a couple of months there will be no dead notes anymore. Here’s hoping.
Easier said then done, because I used my phone for the recording of instrumental, which is simply sitting on my lap lol.
