My name is Jeff and I am from San Diego, CA. I have been with Justin guitar for about a year and a half. When not rocking out I manage a patient assistance program for serious illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. In December 2021, I gave it a go at playing while singing. Here is my attempt to play a favorite of mine from Paul Stanley of Kiss. I’m working through the playing without looking module. Richard of Justin guitar gave some advice for a smoother transition from B minor. I’m not great with technology so hope this posts.
Well done on posting a first recording, Jeff. I think you are doing well, getting all the moving parts working together … forming chords, making changes, and strumming plus singing along. All is coming along nicely.
To continue to improve you may want to explore adding a little more rotation in the wrist along with the arm movement in your strumming. That may help to bring more smoothness into the strumming.
I think this may be the first time I’m meeting you here, so welcome to the Community and to the band of hat-wearers.
We do have this area in which you can post up an introduction #community-hub:introduce-yourself. You did give us a brief intro here but may be nice to flesh that out a little and add a little more of your guitar story and aspiration.
Ah, working now, Jeff
I like the way you take care to colour-coordinate your outfits to match your guitars (nice blue Fender btw).
I don’t know the song, but am able to imagine it from your rendition, which is good.
The same points @LievenDV made about strumming apply here too.
Find the beat of the song and keep your arm moving steadily up and down constantly, not hitting the strings wherever appropriate. (You do this at about 58 seconds in, although at a slower pace) Once you have the strumming and chord changes down so you can do them without thinking, you can concentrate on remembering (or reading if you must) the lyrics. It will make your singing much less tentative and be a huge asset.
Practice
Play
Post
(Oh yeah, some shades would look super cool too )
A super first post, Jeff. Cool playing and cool look, although I was a little distracted by the Amazon box for a micro sec think you have a bit of Dylan in your voice. No bad thing in my mind. Bodes well for great song delivery.
Hi Jeff,
Good job and a nice listen. Thanks for sharing your rendition of this Kiss song. I had not heard it as I guess I know more of the mainstream Kiss. Then too, if your “cover” were rocking on an electric, who knows? Maybe it never was an electric song? I have no clue there.
Keep rock’n and enjoying what you do. As that is the name of the game!
EDIT: Since I had never heard of this song, I looked it up and was surprised to find this had a lot of acoustic guitar in it. Certainly different than the Kiss I know of. For anyone that is curious, here is an original version: Kiss - Every Time I Look At You (Official Music Video) - YouTube
LB
https://youtu.be/PWv1x4JC5HI This is the version I watched when I learned the song. Paul did a live video from home when the pandemic hit. I played in a different key than he does because it is all I know how to so far. I really appreciate everyone’s feedback on my practice demos. The main takeaway is strumming will move me to the next level. I am still a work in progress and will get better. I am sure none of us are ready to be an opening act for a high visibility band yet. Take Care
Hi @SDKissFan I think you have a voice with potential
but
you need to work on your strumming.
The timing is off and you need to divert too much of your “brain processing power” to that strumming part. That leaves you with little processing part to focus on your vocals.
A core principal you’ll need to get down is to get that strumming arm going up and down in a constant motion with an evenly paced rhythm. The clue is, while you are playing, you will hit the strings and miss them on exact the right moments, creating the space between strums.
When you work on that, you’ll develop a “motor” that runs on auto-pilot, giving you a solid, even rhythm AND it will free up more of that processing power to focus on chaord changes, singing etc…
Hi Jeff,
I was half-expecting you to be wearing Paul Stanley makeup, playing that song we couldn’t access.
Congrats on posting where you’re at.
You look comfortable performing in front of the camera.
Guitar and voice sound good.
Listen to @LievenDV and you’ll be flying
Any singing I start to learn I stick with guitar parts I’ve got down automatically, but I wish I had started earlier practicing singing and playing together. You’re on the right path.
Thank you for the feedback. What is the secret to strumming while singing? I will review those tips for strumming. Some look familiar. I can strum more complex patterns but not while singing.
Thanks for the tips Lieven. I have some work to do. Off topic, are you from Holland?Your name looks Dutch anyways. I love Holland so much. It has been 25 years since I have been there. I still love “Het es Een Nacht” by Guus Meeuwis. I think I could learn that one (I saw him playing an E minor in there), but my Dutch isn’t the best.
I am not a big strummer, but as Lieven said. You need to be consistent with your strumming hand, that can be a challenge for many in the start,it sure was for me. A metronome is your friend in the start to achieve even/consistant strumming.
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think you have a bit of Dylan in your voice. No bad thing in my mind. Bodes well for great song delivery.
