Hey All! I’d like to share a song I’ve been working on recently 
Wolves by Selina Gomez & Marshmello
The original song is very digital production-heavy song (think DJ style), but I found a nice acoustic cover on Youtube and thought I’d try my hand at it.
I am currently in the early part of Grade 4 and still working on playing & singing at the same time.
Please give me your suggestions for areas of improvement!
That’s a very tidy cover Mukund! Well played and sung in tune, way to go!
When playing these heavily-produced pop songs on just acoustic guitar you can really play them as you want as there is no benchmark on the recording. Pop songs often have a simple and repetitive chord progression and a lot of “drama” comes from changes in dynamics. So my suggestion to you would be to think if and how much dynamics you want to add to your performance - with just an acoustic guitar you can’t add more instruments, but you can vary things up using palm-muting, or switch to picking individual notes, or you mix things up using different chord shapes (open chords v barre chords v triads up the neck). You have already started to do that in the middle of the song where you switch to single strums and then back to a fuller strumming pattern. Try adding more of these variations, go real quiet for verses and then dial it up again for the last chorus. Experiment and have fun with it 
Mukund
Well played and well sung. There is scope for improvement with your singing: try to inhale more deeply using your abdominal muscles to more fully inflate your chest and abdomen. This extra reservoir of air will help with the projection, range and quality of your singing.
Brian
I agree with @MollyT that dynamics is important and a good thing to focus on.
Well played and sung Mukund. I agree with the others re introducing more dynamics to give more depth to the song.
Wow never made it to grade 4. Congrats on that milestone. I think you’re doing very well. Maybe add some volume and contrast to your singing. One thing that helps me is recording myself just singing without guitar first then adding in the guitar skill afterwards
This is coming from someone who is no expert by the way. Just trying to help.
Loved the performance
Jeff .
Hi Molly, thanks so much for the feedback. I appreciate the specific examples of techniques I can try to spice my songs.
Those are all definitely things I’d have to practice, haha. It took me some time to even get confident coordinating basic strumming patterns, singing, staying in time, and staying in tune 
I’m thinking a manageable next step would be do this same song finger style so I can start out with a simple pattern, then switch to strumming in the first chorus. Then vary the strumming volume and pattern for the rest of the song.
I’m not sure how I’d incorporate triads into this type of song (solo acoustic rendition). Could you think of any examples of this sort of thing?
By the way, I totally LOVE your recent Green Eyes cover! I cannot wait to start learning those folk finger style patterns.
Thanks again!
Mukund
Thanks for the suggestion, Brian!
I only started singing 2 months ago so I’m pretty happy to even be able to make it through songs without getting out of breath, lol.
Point taken, I can definitely get back to breathing and vocal exercises. Easy way to kill time when in my car 
Mukund
That was super Mukrand. I enjoyed your playing and singing. You have a very nice tone to your singing voice. Very well done, a great foundation to keep building on.
That’s a very worthy recording Mukund. I don’t think I’ve heard better vocals on this platform. The guitar sits nicely and unobtrusively underneath supporting the whole piece. Great dynamics employed throughout.
Thanks @Prof_Thunder @sairfingers I hear yall on the dynamics lol. I’ll try to make that my next area of development.
Oh yes, switching between fingerstyle (or picking individual strings with a pick) and strumming will create a great contrast between sections of the song! And you don’t have to use different chort grips or complicate patterns to have the benefit from the variations. If you have never done this before in a song it may feel awkward initially to change your right position in time to find the correct strings - back to strumming is always easier. It took me a while to get these changes to a level I was happy with. So give it some time and patience, I’m sure you’ll get there! (And thank you for watching and liking my covers! 
)
@Alan_1970 @Willsie thanks so much for the compliments on the singing! The guitar journey has been going on for a while, but the singing journey is brand new. Glad to hear that I might be going in the right direction
Molly, I tried some of your suggestions yesterday. For example, switching between straight strumming and then a groovier pattern with backbeat hits on beats 2 and 4 for the second verse using a pick. It sounded super sloppy 
And with finger style, I can do a simple pattern for verse 1 and switch to strumming later on… however I struggle to keep the vocals in time during the finger style pattern. It’s tough!
It’ll take some practice to incorporate even a few of these techniques with singing well enough to make it through a full song. Patience and practice for sure. 
I thought you did very well. This is a pretty song done acoustically. I love your vocal tone too. There is some great advice from the earlier posts. They are good reminders and incentive for me to work on too! Good job!!!