Hello Guitar Friends,
it’s about a month I started re-working on my strumming fundamentals using the new Strumming SOS Course. I worked on the consistent pendulum-like movement of the forearm and on the pick-angle…in the video you can see how it’s going with both aspects
I love this song and it’s being fun to learn it, I haven’t memorised it yet but I will!
Some mistakes here and there, some running out of breath, innacurate chords, not being able to mute the thickest string on the C chord etc… but hey “I faced it all and I stood tall and did it Myyyy waaayy”
As usual any constructive feedback and advice is very much appreciated!
Hi Sylvia. What a lovely voice you’ve got. There is a very appealing huskiness to it. Mostly clean chords and the simple strum pattern you used worked well.
You identified the breathing issues yourself. I’m not knowledgeable enough about vocal technique to offer advice there.
What I can suggest is that if you’re reading the lyrics, put them over on the other side of your playing position. Your head was swivelling back and forth looking between the song sheet and your fretting fingers.
Better still is to learn the words by heart.
You certainly didn’t play that in a shy way. Well done.
Indeed you did Sylvia, that was lovely to listen to! You can really see the consistency in movement on the strumming so the course is definitely making benefits for you.
The breathing thing is interesting, more recently I’ve been rediscovering the importance of quick and deep breathing for singing. Regardless of how short a following vocal line is or how soft it needs to be delivered, filling the lungs as much as possible is crucial. But the catch is it’s yet another thing to think about! I’ve been trying to start my in-breath earlier than my brain says and to also do it more quickly. It’s funny, I’ve mentioned a couple of times before that I was a church chorister in my youth and these were all fundamentals, yet not singing for so long had made me forget alot of the practical side of it.
Cool,
Great song Silvia. Frank is smiling down as I listen.
On singing you shift from what I call “air singing” with a lot of breath, to more of your robust chest voice, until you went high. I think that chest voice without so much air is your sweet spot. Work on staying in that mode perhaps?
Your strumming is looking good. Keep up the good efforts there as they are paying dividends!
All the best and keep them Frank Sinatra tunes coming!
LB
What a fabulous performance, Sylvia … I confess you’ve brought a tear to my eye.
You radiated your joy in playing and singing from start to finish, which engaged me far more than whether or not the performance was flawless.
And to be clear, the odd hiccup was minor and you played and sang on, which ensure the audience stay with you, without time to dwell on a slight flub.
In terms of breath, much said already. To add, standing up rather than sitting tends to improve things without doing anything different. The trick is to sing with the support from the diaghram rather than the chest. To learn more if you are interested you could sign up for this short, free introductory course from Chris Liepe: Free your Voice Now - Chris Liepe A few of us have sampled it and then gone on to purchase and work on his Discover Your Voice course, which made a huge difference for me, from ‘singing’ to singing, even if I am not likely to be picked up by asny talent scout prowling YT channels
No if I may indulge in an anecdote …
My late father loved Sinatra, and even liked more of the music I like than you might imagine. But when sitting around enjoying a family BBQ on the patio, with me providing the background music, I’d love to prank him by asking if he’d enjoy a Sinatra song. And when he gave a double thumbs up then I’d play the Sex Pistols version of My Way … well just a bit, before switching to Frank.
Hi Silvia,
Funny to see that 3 people replace the i with a y, and I actually want to do that myself (???).
I enjoyed your performance, and you already indicate things yourself and you get good advise, so I say “keep updating this topic every now and then”, because I’m sure there is a lot more in this in terms of vocals and the rhythm guitar has another to win in terms of dynamics.
I played this myself with Elvis as my singer , but alone and not singing along is dull, so i think it`s very good what you do already
Greetings…
Hi Sylvia, another charming glimpse into your songwork. Your strumming was very consistent and the Strumming SOS Course seems to pay off. Your singing was very gentle, I had the impression that the pitch was a little deep in the first part. But I know, it’s difficult to get the higher part later on, if one starts too high already in the beginning. I think breathing it’s only a matter of tecnique and you will solve that in no time! As always, it was a pleasure to listen and I take my hat off to you
Hi Silvia, when I read the thread’s title (without seeing the author’s name) I immediately thought ‘oh, this could be Silvia playing it!’ - and I was right .
I love this song, too. It always brings me to tears, as it’s so powerful and moving .
What a fantastic idea, to play it on the guitar . Your strumming was very consistent. And the way you sang suited very well. The running-out-of-air-problem is very common - I have it as well. As a child, I played the recorder and could hold my breath quite long. But with quitting this hobby, I lost this skill…
Brilliant! I loved this. Because I really felt your emotion and your love for the song. A very apt song because you totally made it your own. You had me hooked all the way through and really moved me.
Great performance Sylvia! I can see your forearm keeping time when you’re not strumming. I wouldn’t be able to keep time like that without a drummer on a backing track! The work you’ve put into that really shows. Congratulations!
Really really nice playing on this song, it’s got some kind of complicated chord changes and you pretty much hit them all. You’ve got a nice steady quarter note strum with the occasional 8th note strum stuck in, so that varied it nicely. I especially liked the pumped 8th note strums on I guess it’s the chorus. You’ve got your own and others comments on vocals but what I would add to that is that you’ve got some nice vocal dynamics at the end. And ending your playing with a smile is perfect
And it really shows! Thank you for contributing this. Its such a contrast with Frank, and of course after having heard some middle aged men destroy it on karaoke evenings, in order not to apologize for whatever mischief they have created, I really like your approach to the song, which is much more introspective and deep. Quite a refreshing take. On the vocal challenges you mention, there is of course no substitute for having a vocal coach, who would help you build up technique, and would work with you on developing your strengths, which is quite a separate journey, for you to take if you so wish. On the strumming its really nice and steady.
That was lovely, and I love this song too. I hear you’ve been practicing strumming, including dynamics. It also sounds like you are focusing on achieving a pleasing tone out of the acoustic.
Very well done!
p.s.: Would you believe that the first time I heard My Way, was Sid Vicious’s cover?
Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen and comment! And for the encouragement and inspiration you always provide! Now I’ll try to find a word of gratitude for each one of you
2 remarks:
I think you might be able to move up that capo a bit more for a slightly “higher” version. This seem quite low.
Also; I see that your index finger is rather curved on the F chord. Are you pressing down the notes on the 2 thinnest strings like that as well?
I was wondering because you might want to review that moving on, making other major, minor and 7th shapes further on the neck. You’ll be lifting some fingers and the index fingers will have more work to do.
@sairfingers I actually know the words by heart it’s the chords I very often struggle to remember…here I wanted to focus on the strumming and I thought not to put too much pressure on myself in the attempt to remember the chords. But surely I should find a more comfortable position for the musicsheet.
I also think it did, sometimes I get lost in complicated stuff and get frustrated because I can’t do it. Re-working my fundamentals also means to work on the effectiveness of simple things, when they’re really accurate. Thanks for your feedback Gordon, I much appreciate it.
@Notter I had my little dance of happiness at this:
It’s actually what I wanted to test myself on…Thank you for the encouragement. On the singing aspect I didn’t put too much focus to tell the truth, except from singing it a thousand times while doing my ironing……there! That’s why I like ironing so much!
@DavidP I’m so glad this brought back sweet memories to your heart…I can actually imagine the expression on you Father’s face just before you switched to Frank!
I always aim to do as best as I can and work a lot on the technical aspects while practicing , but I also try to relax down in my own emotions thinking that people will connect to those, not to the mistakes I make…we’re all here to learn, share and improve so I never mind posting my mistakes too
Maybe thinking how silly of him to declare he hated it eventually…but this happened with the greatest artists and greatest songs…so we’ll be indulgent with him, won’t we?!
I will!! Thanks so much for the encouragement!
@roger_holland thank you Roger for your constructive feedback, I know there’s still a lot of “work” to do… one thing at the time…I also like Elvis’ version and I find playing along a very fun ad useful thing to do…but I played along with Frank
@Helen0609 Thank you so much Andrea for your kind words… and
…this is very encouraging…I just need to find some more spare time for it, which might turn out to be the hardest task
and you already indicate things yourself and you get good advise, so I say “keep updating this topic every now and then”, because I’m sure there is a lot more in this in terms of vocals and the rhythm guitar has another to win in terms of dynamics.
, but alone and not singing along is dull, so i think it`s very good what you do already
.
. Your strumming was very consistent. And the way you sang suited very well. The running-out-of-air-problem is very common - I have it as well. As a child, I played the recorder and could hold my breath quite long. But with quitting this hobby, I lost this skill…
. Keep posting. We love it!
It also sounds like you are focusing on achieving a pleasing tone out of the acoustic.
…there! That’s why I like ironing so much!
