Mal - September 2022 - Long May You Run - Neil Young

Here is my effort and test playing a Neil Young song.
Feedback welcome.

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That was great Mal. Your vocal suited the song and your guitar play was excellent. There are lot of quick changes in there and your Bm without looking was spot on.

Thank goodness for the hint of a smile at the end. You’re awfully serious. I think you’re staring at a song sheet/laptop as you play. I think if you put that away you’ll relax a lot more.

Well done, really good. :smiley:

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Very enjoyable listen Mal. Your playing sounded really good and your vocals suited that song perfectly.

Hi Gordon, thank you for the feed back. Not sure what to say about my expression, it is not something that one is aware of while playing as concentration is focused on the words, music and all the rest in the correct order. I will take your comments on board and consider them. Pleased you enjoyed the song.

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Thanks Eddie.

Hey Mal, that was a great performance, most enjoyable and showing, as others have mentioned, an impressive mastery of the quick chord changes and the Bm.

“Guitar face” is how I’ve heard your expression described and I’ve certainly shown it many times. Playing in front of a mirror has helped me with it, it’s a challenge as there is so much going on when playing a song that it does take a lot of concentration. I’d encourage you not to worry about it too much. What you accomplished with your performance is something to be quite proud of.

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Tony, thanks for this. A mirror is a suggestion that will be tried, first of course memorise everything, in order :grinning:. Pleased you enjoyed it.

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That’s great, yeah, memorising is key to being able to play in front of a mirror, and it adds to the concentration at first because you then also have to concentrate on what’s the next lyric and chord, but before long it changes the dynamic of the song as you have less to concentrate on.

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That was really good!! Nice job all around! Vocal was good to!

Hey Mal… not a song I’m familiar with… so firstly thank you for introducing me to it… I think @sairfingers took the words right out of my mouth… I think thats your best vocals yet… the song suited you so well… you played very well too… bravo mate

Thanks Byron.

Thanks James. Yes the recording was partly a test of the shiny new Focusrite interface. The balance is much improved. I like it!

Bravo, Mal, you played and sung that ever so well. And the sound quality and tone good as well, so making progress with the Focusrite.

Assessing mic position relative to mouth is tricky on these videos, I know how deceptive the camera can be. It looks to me like you are singing quite significantly off-axis ie at an angle past the mic rather than into it directly. I think singing off-axis is a good idea but perhaps if it is significant as it looks maybe you want to experiment further with mic position, the angle between mic and mouth and maybe also distance (around 20-25cm is a good distance I think).

I really enjoyed that and others said, you sounded really good singing this NY classic. Maybe more NY songs in the future. His songbook is vast and filled with fabulous songs (IMHO).

Hi David, thanks for this. Yes, quite pleased with the balance on this recording, the Focusrite is a good piece of kit. Still not perfect but much improved, me not Focusrite.
The mic is a problem what with the constraints of the room and so on, visual and sound. Will carry on with different positions as you suggest.
This is by no means 100% but there is improvement, I will simply have to record lots more, as with all things improvement comes with the experience of doing. Thanks again :smiley:

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That was very nicely played and sung, Mal.

Even though I don’t know some of the songs you do, I always enjoy what you offer up.

Stefan, kind words sir, I thank you.

Loved it. Great song and you played and sung it so well.
:clap::clap::clap::clap:

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Thank you Ron, pleased you enjoyed it

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I love the song and enjoyed your performance very much. :slight_smile: Your expression to me was “and now you play with me!” :grin:

And so I did. :guitar: I was expecting camera angle to cover all of the guitar neck. :man_facepalming: Sorry for that.

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Excellent, exactly what was needed. Thanks for this.

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