Professional Opinion
David,
Being my online instructor and all, I'm curious if you could take a listen to a piece I did and (at my wife's insistence) posted online:
Clearly I copied a number of licks from Jerry Portnoy's "Blues For Big Nate" (which was my inspiration for the song) before going off on my own. Hopefully I gave sufficient credit in the description.
I suppose this falls into the category of song composition, self-accompaniment, and application of music theory. Lyrics are mine (of course) and probably not to everyone's tastes, but I'm interested in your opinion on composition, technique, etc. The harp and vocals are me recorded. Harp has just a bit of reverb. Vocals has chorus and reverb. The rest (bass, piano, drums) is just midi that I "programmed" (don't have my own band) with my limited knowledge of music theory to give the song better backing.
SUPER! Thanks for the feedback. I do have an (online) vocal coach, which was the other reason for doing this song, to get feedback on his forum (just be thankful you didn't have to hear my earlier work :) ). Personally, I highly recommend that harmonicists work with a vocal coach, at least a little. There is plenty of "crossover" in terms of training and regulating breath and (surprisingly) tongue control.
I agree with the vocal crowding. I struggled with fitting in all I wanted to say into a blues format Need more work on that. It didn't exactly follow the standard blues formula, so I had little room for fills.
I'll take the drum advice to heart. I don't drum, so I had no idea what to do with it. I just did a bass on the 1,3 and snare on the 2,4.
Appreciate the bend advice. The 3 will continue to be a tricky beast for me. The 3' is a subtle tweak of the tongue, and used to be I could barely hit the 3", appears now I'm "good" enough that I can overshoot it to 3'".
My pleasure, and thanks for the crossover tip for harmonica students to work with a vocal coach.
Hello jonbouriaque. I normally only review study songs at BluesHarmonica.com, but since this is basically Blues For Big Nate, let's give it a listen. I'll focus on form and harmonica playing, since I'm not a vocal coach. Anybody that's interested in singing I recommend they work with a vocal coach. Just like learning the harmonica, there's a lot of technique involved, and they can really help out budding vocalists like yourself. Just something to keep in mind.
For the vocal melody, it's a bit crowded, so I recommend that you cut back on the amount of vocal melody (words and long holds). This will give your music more space, and also a place to play harmonica fills if you wish.
I recommend you drop the volume of the drums down, and use the ride cymbal more constantly. Usually a cymbal caries the eighth note rhythm (slow shuffle rhythm in this case). Having it be this sparse, sounds a little too piecemeal. I understand that you were going for just a coloring of the drums, but it sounds a little too sparse right now.
Nice job learning Blues For Big Nate and incorporating it in your music. Bend a little bit deeper for your 3" in the pickup to the IV Chord in the first solo (2 3" 2 2+ 1+), right now you're closer to 3'. In two places in your turnarounds (3:57 is one example) you bend the 3 too deeply, playing 3'''... this note is very dissonant in 2nd Position, so be careful that you don't bend any further than 3". Your turnarounds start too early, this is why your last two bars seem to drag on so long... start those turnarounds later in time.