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A song out of thin air

12 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by annfeld in blog, music Tags: blog, music

Driving home last night, I was caught in a torrential downpour that led me to drive no more than 55 mph on the highway. Even going a mile over that felt unsafe. Unfortunately, rain usually equals heavy traffic, especially with all the tunnels in my area. Hampton Roads is connected by bridges and tunnels, and you’d think that people would finally learn how to drive carefully tunnels, as in not immediately slowing down while going through tunnels causing everyone else behind them to slow down too. But I digress.

So I got caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic about a half a mile from the tunnel. I had to go from a comfortable 55 mph down to a snail’s pace for about thirty minutes. Just to go half a mile. UGH.

At least I had music to keep me company. Just in the last thirty minutes I sat crawling along the highway with all the other cars, I had two songs that randomly came up on my iPod that had to do with water and rain. “Flood” by Jars of Clay, and the obscure 80s song “Wildwood” by Trees, a song that begins with the sound of rain falling. My iPod must’ve known what the weather was like at that moment.

One song in particular really caught me amidst the random music mix. It was the song “All This Time” by Sting, a song that I enjoy very much but haven’t played as much as I’d like. Just haven’t been in much of a Sting mood lately.

Since I had nothing else to do except let off the brake every few minutes to crawl another fifty feet to the next car in front of me, I sat and listened intensely to the song. This was the first time I really listened to the lyrics and music other than just singing along to the chorus as usual. For all its peppiness, the song is actually quite thoughtful. There are different layers to the lyrics that really intrigued me. For one thing, I’d heard that the song was written about his father’s death like most of the album it was from (The Soul Cages). So there’s the element of the narrator dealing with his father’s death and wishing he could give him a simple burial at sea instead (“if I had my way, take a boat from the river and I’d bury the old man/I’d bury him at sea.”) Then there’s the obvious element of the cycle of life going on and on like the river he mentions in the song. (“And all this time, the river flowed endlessly to the sea”).

And now for the song itself:

So during the song, I began to get an idea for a song of my own.

It started with a line. In times like these, I grab my phone and type out the line before it floats away. Later that evening, I began fleshing out the idea for these new lyrics. Earlier today, I perused through Logic for any random snippets of songs that I began but never finished, and I found a song I started with a simple drum beat and piano riff, but put on the shelf for some other time.

As I played the song fragment through my tinny computer speakers, it hit me. I have to use this song background for these new lyrics. It’s pensive and thoughtful. Perfect! Even if I do have fifty thousand of these different song fragments sitting here on my hard drive, it’s a good thing I keep them all for times like this! Then came the vocal melody that I practiced while puttering around the house for about an hour, then recorded in my studio. A minute and fifty-one seconds of musical bliss, with an intro, two verses and a chorus, all recorded.

So by dinnertime tonight, I had half a new song done, when only twenty four hours before, I had nothing. Talk about creating a song out of thin air! I’d had days before when I’d record most of a song. However this was different. Not many of my other songs have ever come out this fully formed in such a short period of time. When I let my husband, who is essentially my producer, in on what I’d recorded, he told me that other than the chorus (which admittedly does need work with the melody), he absolutely loved it and I should keep going with it! He even suggested that I keep the demo vocals since they fit with the sad subject matter.

So we’ll see what happens with this one. :)

Pitch Perfect or Not?

02 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by annfeld in blog, music Tags: blog, music

Last night I reviewed a song for which I’d recorded a full vocal and piano part about two weeks ago. It’s a song whose melody came to me a few months ago in a burst of inspiration as I sat at my keyboard one day. The lyrics had been sitting on my computer drive since sometime before Thanksgiving 2010 but I hadn’t done anything with them yet.

It’s a song that I played on one of my previous videoblogs, which you can view here called “That’s Why I’m Here,” which you can view here:

I was revisiting this song and when I listened to what I’d recorded, I was unsure of my vocal. I was flat on some notes in the chorus and first verses and another part sounded like I was trying to sing too many syllables in too little space. My husband was sitting next to me on his computer as I played the song and partway through the first chorus, he sat up and watched my computer screen as the Logic project played my song through my tinny laptop speakers.

He then told me that I should consider this song done and keep this song the way it is. Listening to some of my flat notes, I wasn’t so sure. I asked if he was sure and he nodded with his eyebrows raised.

“I’ll be honest. You’re not hitting every note on this song. But that’s fine because this is an emotionally raw song. You’re singing something that comes from a deep emotion, and if you hit every note, it wouldn’t sound as sincere.”

OK, perhaps not exactly those words, but that was the basics of what he told me.

Within five minutes of tweaking some EQ on my vocal (lower some of the very high frequencies and balancing the lower end) and a few other mastering tools, I had a completely new song that I was very proud of! One of my best songs too, if I do say so myself!

Hearing my husband tell me to keep my slightly imperfect performance in the song got me thinking about things. Is it better to have an emotional song sound absolutely perfect, with every note hit dead on and every bit of legato and rhythm not even a touch out of place? Or is it better to have a vocal that cracks and falls sharp or flat because of underlying emotions, so that it goes better with the subject matter?

When I think about this, I’m reminded of a very popular song that I heard a LOT on the radio as a child (and I know this dates me!). It was hard to escape Celine Dion’s version of “The Power of Love,” between my parents playing her album with that song at home and in the car (on a cassette player) and hearing it on the radio wherever I went. You know the song and if you don’t, you’d recognize it if you heard it.

“Cause I’m your laaaaadyyyyyyy, and you are my maaaaaannnnn…..”

Celine Dion was not the first person to sing that song.

The song was originally written in the early 80s and first recorded by Jennifer Rush, someone who’s not too well-known on my side of the world (strange, since she’s American; seems she had bigger success elsewhere). Then Air Supply did a version for one of their albums and was released around the same time as Jennifer’s version. Then Laura Branigan sang it.

Some years after hearing Celine Dion’s rendition, I became a fan of Laura Branigan, who sang a version of that song some five years before Celine Dion took the song to the top of the charts all over the world. Her version is not as well-known but ultimately, I think her version is the best for the sheer emotion that she shows in her voice. It was only a minor hit, I’m told, without even a music video to promote it.

I’m not denying Celine Dion’s vocal abilities (I wish I could sing like her, but then again, don’t we all?) but her version feels too polished. While she hits the notes well and belts out the higher notes with gusto, I don’t feel much emotion behind the words as they come out of her mouth. There’s no quivering of the notes to sound like she’s scared but willing to give in. I feel like it’s sung as words on a page.

“The Power of Love” is a vulnerable song. A perfect vocal performance on something like this just doesn’t feel sincere to me. Laura’s voice cracks and she’s definitely off on a few notes. Her voice quivers in fear and it sounds like she’s on the verge of tears through the latter half of the song. Her version absolutely grips me in a way that Celine’s song doesn’t.

As a side note, some years after becoming a fan of Laura, I saw her sing live at HersheyPark and I couldn’t believe how raw her voice still was. Never mind that I was one of the youngest people in attendance who was there to hear her! After the show, I had the opportunity to meet her (there’s a picture of the two of us standing together, but I unfortunately can’t find it) and even told her that I wish I could’ve heard her sing that song because it was so emotional and I loved it. She signed my CD and said, “Maybe next time.”

Of course there was no next time, since Laura Branigan died a few years later of a brain aneurysm in her sleep.

For comparison purposes, here’s Laura’s version:

And the world-famous version sung by Celine:

Back to the subject at hand.

I believe the answer to my question is that it depends on the song. Light and happy songs should be as perfect as they can be because the sour notes would ruin the song and mood. But for songs with emotional and pleading lyrics, like The Power of Love, an imperfect main vocal is more sincere and fits the song better. Singing is more than just stringing together notes. Singing is about telling the story of the song, like playing the part of a character in a movie or play. You want the audience to feel what you are singing about and to get into your song.

Take another one of my own songs called “Harbor.” That song came to me from a deep place through constant soul-searching and looking for God. For years I’d been on the edge of becoming a Christian but never went fully over the edge into it. I wasn’t ready to completely give myself up to God and Jesus. Then I came to a dark time in my life a few years ago where I realized that I needed something else in my life, something to show that I wasn’t the only one alone in this universe and that someone was looking out for me besides my family and friends.

I had tears coming down my cheeks as I sang that song in my home studio. And I know because of that, I went flat on some of the notes. When I played it back, I almost deleted those takes with my voice cracking and falling off the notes in places. But I didn’t delete them. Instead, I left them in. And I think it sounds all the better for it. My imperfect vocal take fit the subject matter, where the narrator is at first scared but finally gives in. Giving yourself up and placing your trust in God, or anyone for that matter, is a difficult thing to do, after all.

Well, this post ended up being longer than I anticipated. Almost 1300 words!

More Happy New Year wishes to everyone, by the way! :)