Direvus - July 2022 - Landslide + Take It Easy + Sound Of Silence + Californication + R U Mine + Swinging On A Star + House of the Rising Sun

Hi Brendan, I came to this from your most recent post of this song. Steady strumming. Your tempo is very good and you were able to sing it! and record it! I dont’ see problem with your vocals. Once you play it more times and get more confident you can venture into trying to go more expresive and boost your volumen, but singing in time and intunated is a good start.

Thanks for your kind words Andrés

Pretty happy with how this one came out. Although I only realised after recording that I had set up my camera with most of the guitar out of frame :roll_eyes:

Apart from the dumb camera angle, I think this recording setup works better. The video is lower quality but the audio comes through much better, which is a tradeoff I’m very happy to make.

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Your timing is good and your chord changes are fluid. My comments on your video of Sounds of Silence are applicable here also.
It will be interesting to follow you on your journey.

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Looking good, Brendan. Strumming sounded smooth, hand moving, clean chords, smooth changes, and your voice sounds full of promise to be explored when you are ready to really let rip.

On the recording, the quality was good though the overall recording level is really soft (27dB lower than the YT normative level). That’s not a major problem as I just turned up the volume my side (just a problem for me when I forgot to turn it back down again and got deafened :rofl:).

I also suggest you turn your guitar up just a little, just get it to be a little louder relative to the backing track. I’d not be fussed if I couldn’t hear the backing track at all. Your guitar and voice alone would be fine, while you play and sing over the BT.

Well done, keep moving on.

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Hi Brendan,
Everything David says ,and I can only add one thing… my cat also just had a stroke when I turned the radio back on… :grimacing:
Greetings,Rogier

Thanks @ChasetheDream @DavidP and @roger_holland, fair point about the sound levels, I will try to get that sorted out for next time :+1:

Hi Brendan I can’t add to the useful comments already made. Keep up the good work.

Steady playing there Brendan, well done you are doing great!

Hi Brendan,
Great song and good job covering it. I think DavidP covered the lack of volume pretty well. Not sure of your recording rig, but do check into bringing up the levels in the future.

Thanks for sharing and all the best!
LB

Thanks @LBro. I had been using a smartphone to record previously and while the video quality was pretty good I was not happy with the audio. For this recording I tried a Macbook. The video is pretty grainy but the audio capture quality seems better to me. When I listened back to it before posting, I did notice it was quiet but didn’t seem too bad to me. But then I was using full-can headphones with the volume up a bit. Plus my hearing seems to be a bit more sensitive than most people’s (if only that came with good relative pitch!).

For next time I will see if I can increase the microphone volume on the Macbook, or maybe just tweak the levels before I post.

Nice performance again Brendan, well done! The strumming looks lovely and smooth and changes are clean and timed well.

As others have noted, I think your vocals are nice with lots of potential. I’d give the same advice that others gave me in my first few AVOYPs which is to try and let your voice go a bit. I feel that with a little more oomph it will shine even brighter. It’s a weird mental hurdle, give it a go when you’re not recording, just make it feel like you’re shouting!

I’m noting to turn my volume back down now however :rofl:

You’re doing great and looking forward to your next post already! :clap:

That was a great cover of a great song Brendan. Nice, steady strumming, clean changes and I know once your confidence in your vocals is there we are in for some tasty treats.

Great work Brendan. Nice consistent strums with controlled chord changes. Keep it up man… slow and steady wins the race :+1:

Well done Brendan. A fine cover of a classic Eagles tune. Clean chords,and a relaxed approach.
I commend your steady, rhythmic playing. Super important.
Locking into that rhythm of the music early on is going to help you out immeasurably as you advance into more complex strumming.

Cheers, Shane.

Nice work Brendan. :smile:

Sounded solid Brendan and the strumming sounded consistent despite the camera angle.
Lots of good words expressed, so nothing extra from me. Good progress.

:sunglasses:

Really appreciate all the kind words from everyone who responded. I played around with the input volume last night and I think I have that sorted out now, so hopefully my next post will not cause anymore volume blowouts for you all :slight_smile:

In regards to @DavidP and @Notter suggesting I need to put more power into my vocals, that makes sense but I think it will take some time to get there. Right now it still feels embarrassing to crank it up. I also feel like I have more control when singing quietly. Maybe because all my singing practice over the last few years has been trying to get my kids to go to sleep. I will try to get some loud vocal practice in while nobody is around.

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Hi Brendan,

Sounds good - nice clean playing and mixes well with the original.
Hats off for singing and playing together.

Digger

This is a new one for me, I’ve been working on it for a few days. I haven’t got much experience playing off a chord sheet with no backing track, and I think I fell off the rhythm a few times there. And not gonna lie, it is more than a little intimidating to take a swing at a song as epic as this one. But anyhow, I’m pretty proud of how this is shaping up.

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