Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with singing

Like Breathless Mahoney, only not, you know, terrible.

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:18:34 -0800

If I want to be a lady lounge singer, in a restaurant/nightclub, draping myself across a piano in sequins and a smoky spotlight, what are the classic vamp songs I should learn, first?

Singing in the Car

sonicbloom — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:34:44 -0800

How can I set up a mobile singing booth in a friend's car? I have a friend who likes to sing, and I think it would be a great gift to be able to make her car a mobile singing booth. I previously gave her a small home setup with an amp, an Alesis reverb box (great for reverb and 'space' effects) and a microphone.

I was wondering if a setup could be created for mobile use. I'm thinking something involving a microphone and an FM transmitter, probably something like a Mr. Microphone (do they still exist?), preferrably without feedback, and preferrably with some effects. Something that plays through the car's speakers.

Any suggestions?

Is this singing real?

daveyt — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:43:39 -0800

Is that real, non computer aided singing in "In Praise of Bacchus"? In this song (SLYT) - "In Praise of Bacchus", by Type O'Negative, at the 7 minute marker, the singer sings in a pitch that makes my speakers rattle. I've never heard anything so low. Is it real? In the morning when i wake up I'm a bit rough, but i cant fathom getting ''down there".

Are there other pieces of music that feature this sort of thing? I like the whole latin thing as well. I imagine i could get in to some choral/chanting music - as a secondary question - does any one have recommendations? I know carmina burana, and I like that, but have never ventured further.

(and yeah yeah I know, goth rock, I am *too* old but it helps me work sometimes!)

Learning to sing

frankly mister — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:56:46 -0800

What's the best way to learn to sing? I want to learn to sing. But I want to have a sort of natural, un-classically-trained sounding voice. I listen mostly to indie type rock, and that's also the kind of stuff I play on guitar. So I don't wanna sound anything like Freddy Mercury.

What's the best way to go about it: take lessons? And what's a reasonable amount of money for the kind of singing lessons I'd want -- $20 an hour? Or should I find some voice-training DVD set or something? I'm well aware that it's not the lessons that make you get good, but rather the practice time; so assuming some DVD set or whatever knows what it's talking about, maybe I'd save money in the long-run that way.

What do you think?

Thanks!

If Sting can do it, I can too!

freshwater_pr0n — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:22:31 -0800

Can anyone offer some good advice on how to sing while playing bass or drums? I play bass, but it seems like advice from drummers would be in tune with what I'm trying to do. Even if I can play the bassline in my sleep whilst not singing, and sing the words backwards and forwards as long as my hands are empty, I just can't get it together. "Just practice it a lot" isn't working for me.

My suspicion is that it's the singing part that's stumping me most, not the playing. Are there tricks that will help me use less brainpower when I sing?

Why are you singing that way?

knave — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:20:51 -0800

Curious about a certain phenomenon in music, where someone sings the same notes that he's playing on guitar... It seems to be something that jam bands might do, or some kind of blues/jazz thing, but I never was good with categorizing bands. One example off the top of my head is Sublime's "Under My Voodoo" (here's a crappy youtube version), not that Sublime falls into any of those categories.

Where did this come from, and is it supposed to be showing off some kind of skill? I don't completely get it, as from a musical point of view, usually different voices complement — rather than copy — each other. I'm genuinely curious what this is all about.

No more tinny synthesizers!

StrikeTheViol — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:54:20 -0800

I'm for looking non-karaoke instrumentals to sing over, preferably free. Ideally someone just playing an acoustic guitar or piano with no vocals, limited frills and high recording quality, either jazzy standards or pop. It's actually pretty hard to find all three at once on youtube and other such sites, so I thought I'd give Mefi a shot. Somebody must have a collection...any ideas?

They couldn't have asked us LAST week?

cereselle — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:02:33 -0800

Wedding Music filter: My sister and I (both mezzos) have been tagged to sing at our cousin's wedding. This Sunday. Please help us find a song that is a) a duet, b) that we can both hit the notes on, c) is something we know or is easy to learn, and d) is not stupid. Does such a song exist?

I can haz name for music nightz?

sully75 — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:24:52 -0800

I want to start a night where a variety of local musicians cover the music of one musician with a large repetoire, or cover songs from one particular period/style of music. I'm looking for a good name for the (hopefully monthly) event and feedback on my ideas and "rules". A lovely local bar/bistro has had a continual problem with Tuesday nights. Presents the opportunity to try something cool to bring people in.

My idea: Repetoire Night. Basic idea, get local musicians in town to come and do two covers of a song by that months chosen artist.

These were my guidelines, aka "the rules":
1) Each solo artist does 2 tunes, no exceptions.
2) Tunes have to be either by the artist or famously covered by them.
3) Duets and trios are highly encouraged. They get 3 tunes as long as one tune has a different vocalist.
4) instrumental and improv versions are highly encouraged.

The basic goals would be:
Goals would be
1) Have some great music
2) Get musicians of various scenes in town to meet each other
3) Make Tuesday nights rock

Some theme ideas I was thinking of (reflecting, of course, my tastes)
Tom Waits
Willie Nelson
Bob Dylan
Joni Mitchell
Elvis Costello
Bluegrass Covers
Old Blues Covers
Jazz Standard Night
Aimee Mann
Nick Lowe
Gillian Welch
Elliot Smith
Cat Power

So my questions are
1) What should we call this? I'm looking for something classy, not web 2.0ish. I want to avoid anything like Pecha Kucha Night, which is embarressing to say. I thought of calling it Jukebox night, but that would sort of indicate that we would be doing music by different artists, which we wouldn't be.
2) My guidelines/rules: makes sense? Overbearing? Underbearing? Am I missing anything?
3) Not sure if we should provide a simple drum set and amplifiers, or keep it acoustic. The place is small, the stage is smaller. They can get a band on stage but it is cramped. But it would be cool to have little bands get up on stage. I was thinking one amp, and a really stripped down drum set available if someone wanted to use it.
4) Does this sound like a good idea? What would make you want to participate?
5) What are some cool themes I'm missing? I'm looking for things that would appeal to a large variety of performers, that would be adaptable to a wide variety of styles of playing, and have a quantity of music for people to choose from.

Thanks

Figaro! Figaro! Huh? Who?

geekyguy — Sun, 04 May 2008 10:23:21 -0800

I am a big fan of theater of all types and it one day occurred to me while I was watching an opera that at least some of my enjoyment comes from the fact that opera is very organic; opera singers sing without wearing microphones, they just project. I recently saw the Sacramento Opera performance of Tosca and during a scene in the first act between Mario and Floria they are very close while singing with such great projection. My question is, how do they do this with out hurting or even damaging the hearing of the person near them?

The Boss and concert stuff....

griffey — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:31:54 -0800

What was Bruce Springsteen taking during the show in Atlanta? My wife and I just saw Springsteen play in Atlanta (freaking amazing) and were seated behind the stage. Because of the vantage point, we could see a number of "backstage" sorts of things happening, one of which was that at 3-4 points or so during the concert, Bruce would come back to an area beside Max on the drumset and take/swig/squeeze something into his mouth. The procedure looked like this:

Take a drink of water.
Pick up what looked like a tube of something, squeeze some on his finger, and rub it around his gums.
Take the tube, put the tip in his mouth, and squeeze more directly in.
Take another drink of water, head back to the microphone.

My wife noticed that it sometimes coincided with playing the harmonica, and her theory is something like Ambesol for pain. I can see how playing would be hell if you had a sore...but he was putting a TON of whatever it was on, and it seemed to me a completely numb mouth would be bad for, you know, singing.

So: singers out there, or anyone with a clue: WTF was he doing/taking?

Did your family sing together?

arcadia — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:47:04 -0800

Did your parents sing to or with you? I would like people to post how old they are and whether their parents sang to or with them when they were kids. I'm curious about whether this was common, and whether it's becoming less common due to the ubiquity of electronic entertainment. I was born in 1963, the youngest of 5 children, and remember my mother singing to me when I was very young, and our family singing in the car on long trips. I don't have much memory of singing together other than in the car.

If you did sing together, what songs?

Best karaoke game with unlimited songs?

jjsonp — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:52:51 -0800

Best karaoke for PC? What we want is some program + service which provides a Konami-like interface with a vocal+ musical track, and with (paid) access to _all_ songs, because what you really want with karaoke is to sing songs you LIKE. And that of course changes as new songs come out.

My wife and I have had a blast over the years playing karaoke-style games on XBox, PS2 (and now the Wii). We much prefer the Konami games to Sony's SingStar - SingStar is nice since it has the original artists & videos, but the absolute time-track on Konami's implementation is far superior if you don't know the song well (which is usually the case at parties).

The fatal flaw of both however is that the number of songs you can access is extremely limited. We downloaded all the songs for Konami via XBox Live years ago - about 80 (and cost about $80), 70% of which were lame songs no one's ever heard or would want to sing. SingStar sells separate genre-based discs, with about 50% of the songs being worthwhile.

I can't believe the recording/gaming industry haven't recognized that millions of game-buyers are willing to pay a dollar a song or whatever to have it in their karaoke collection.

What is out there to provide this functionality? Thanks!

"Swim to me, let me enfold you."

mykescipark — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:33:23 -0800

Recommend a voice teacher in Los Angeles, if you please. Where can a idiosyncratic but ambitious songwriter go for some non-American Idol-poisoned singing lessons in Los Angeles/Hollywood?

I recently moved out here from Boston, where the talent pool is a lot smaller and the music scene is slightly less ... well ... insane. Although I'm an accomplished enough musician, my voice (quite good in its raw form) would be amazing with some sustained work. Also, as a self-taught muso, I never learned to properly read music, so I'm starting at a bit of a handicap versus all my conservatory-scrubbed brethren.

Although I generally believe the underlying principles of voice are fundamental to all singing styles, in case you need to know, I will primarily be performing in a sort of Liz Fraser-meets-Joni Mitchell sort of vein. (And, yes, I'm a boy.)

Any suggestions for Voice 101 lessons in my neck of the woods?

Singing teacher

Miss Daisy — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:28:08 -0800

Does anyone have any recommendations for a singing teacher (individual or group) in the mid-Peninsula area? I am not seeking to audition for the SF Opera, but it would be wonderful to be able to carry a tune.

In search of singing opportunities

ClaudiaCenter — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:54:35 -0800

BayAreaChoirFilter. In search of Bay Area singing opportunities. I can start with a church choir, but I'm really interested in small group singing, a cappella singing, early music, folk/country music of all kinds. I'd like to get back into singing. I'm a pretty good choir singer -- I can read music and sing on key, my voice is pretty but also blends in with other voices, I show up on time and follow directions, I can sing alto or soprano. I don't care if there are lots of performances or attention, I just like the singing part.

I'm thinking about joining the UU choir for a year or two to get back into practice (mentally and voice-wise). But I'd like to find opportunities to sing the music I really love (folk music, early music, small group singing). Big barrier -- I don't have the musical background or ability to organize a group myself. In this area, I'm a follower/group member, not a leader.

Good jazz/blues voice teacher in the Baltimore area?

schroedinger — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:01:30 -0800

Jazz/Blues voice teachers in the Baltimore area. Does anyone have any recommendations? I have a little bit of classical voice training, but even my voice teacher from Peabody admits my voice is better suited towards the jazz and blues side of things. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any teacher suggestions. Do you?

Is it worth it to take singing lessons if I am a truly horrible singer?

Melsky — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:57:23 -0800

All my life I've never felt comfortable singing and it sounds horrible. I don't know much about music but it seems like my voice goes flat and I have a hard time hitting high notes. My husband says it sounds like an alien trying to imitate the singing of earth people. I would like to learn how to be comfortable enough with my singing where I could sing karaoke and possibly Irish folk songs. Right now I am very very far from being able to sing in public. Is it possible to get better starting from being terrible or are singing lessons just for people who already can sing but want to get better? I have a beautiful speaking voice and I'm hoping that somehow I could translate that to singing. If anyone has learned how to sing decently when they have started with a bad voice and no confidence I would love to hear them.

Also, would love to hear any recommendations for teachers in the Syracuse area.

Opera Teacher in Dallas?

Sangermaine — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:57:40 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good opera teacher in the Dallas area (ideally reasonably near Garland or Plano)? The person I'm asking for is a mezzo-soprano with many years of singing experience in choir and other vocal activities, but is looking to learn operatic technique. Thanks a lot for any help.

Help put together my setlist

tdismukes — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:44:54 -0800

Help me figure out a vocal repertoire. A long time ago, I used to drop in at the local open-mike night with my acoustic guitar and sing whatever songs I liked that I could find the chords and lyrics for. My singing sucked, but that was okay because my playing sucked too. My ear wasn't developed enough for me to tell how bad I was, so I didn't mind all the suckiness.

Then I got into a band (not as the singer), and started learning to be a better musician. Along the way, I realized how bad my old solo repertoire was compared to what I could play with the band, so I gradually dropped the solo performances and forgot most of my material.

Now I'd like to start doing a little bit of singing and playing solo again. The difference is that this time my standards are higher. I'd like to perform songs that I could actually do a passable job of singing. My vocal range is fairly limited, and my voice is a bit lower than average. Most of the songs I like to listen to just won't work that well for my range. I've gotten a decent reaction to a recording I just knocked out of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows (my version here). I'm trying to find other songs in this same vein that would suit my voice.

I've got a preference for the folk/folk-rock genre, but I'm open to trying other directions. Other considerations being equal, I'd also prefer songs which are obscure enough so that not everybody will be intimately familiar with the original. (That being the case, links to existing performances of any suggested songs will be welcome, since I might not be familiar with them either.)

I'm a little bit country, but New York's not.

supercoollady — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:45:26 -0800

I'm not a pro (and I don't play an instrument...) Where can I go to sing early country music in New York City? I used to take a great singing/music class ("early country ensemble") at the Old Town School of Folk Music, in Chicago--everyone got together and they'd put together little groups and people played various instruments and sang, etc. and it was just a delight. I've since moved to New York City, and I haven't had a lot of luck finding something like that. The closest meetup I can find is the New York City folk music group, and they tend to sing things more like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, whereas I'm more of a Jimmie Rodgers and Carter Family kind of gal.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I'm not really interested in choral singing, I'm not prepared/inclined to go up and do an open mic thing, and I would pay. Thanks for any suggestions!

Accepting credit card (paypal) payments offline?

cp7 — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:29:11 -0800

My singing group sells CDs online using paypal (accepting credit cards) on our website. We also sell CDs at shows where we perform, and so far have been accepting only cash and check. We would like to accept credit cards in hopes of getting even more sales. I'm having trouble finding/understanding the information on the paypal website. Basically, can we get peoples' credit card info (the chick chunk slider?) and manually enter the credit card info into paypal at a later time? (I don't mind doing this manually, it's 50 transactions at the most.) We are straying away from the automatic machines because 1) we won't always have access to power and phone lines 2)we don't want to sign up with another merchant account. Thanks for the help!

Manhattan Vocal Teacher

captainscared — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:30:20 -0800

I need a recommendation for a Manhattan singing teacher for an actress in a movie. I am producing a short film and need to have an actor sing a short a capella number. She has no prior experience and needs to be on key. I am looking to find her a vocal instructor in Manhattan for a few brief, relatively inexpensive lessons. I know I could pick a teacher at random on Craig's list but I'd prefer someone that comes recommended.

Thanks so much.

Will my neighbors hate me for singing?

freem — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:11:31 -0800

Singers--a question about apartment living. Will my neighbors hate me? I will soon be moving into an apartment for the first time in my life--I've heretofore been a house dweller. How much grief am I going to catch from other tenants about singing? I practice everyday for at least a half-hour. I do scales and exercises, then run through some songs. I belt it out. Will the amount of noise complaints I get depend on the building? Or is this sort of thing just par for the course?

Brooklyn Singing Telegram

josher71 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:09:11 -0800

Has anyone ever used a singing telegram service in New York City specifically Brooklyn? I'm planning for my girlfriend's b'day and I'm wondering if anyone has any firsthand experience. I'm mostly looking for more crazy person in a bear suit type things rather than Marilyn Monroe impersonators and the ilk, but I'm open.