First recording ever: Criticism needed.

[JaDaRu]

Hey everyone....

This is the first thing I've recorded...a cover of Crash into Me. I realize that its not the greatest cover in the world, so I'm basically looking for pointers and ways to improve my playing/singing.

Thanks in advance for any/all advice

Jason

P.S. Its gonna be hard to listen to at times (painful), but please persevere for my sake

Oh yeah...the link

http://www.angelfire.com/alt2/jadaru/crash_jul._31.mp3

[JaDaRu]

Oh yeah, FYI...I've been playing since December and singing since last week

[i-am-me]

Well, to start i just gotta say good job. i htink that the guitar strumming right after the base notes is a little off. just listen to the song a bunch of times. but you got all the chords right! i cant sing to this song at all, so i cant really give criticism on that except keep practicing! the way i got the rhythm of the strumming was playing along on the video storytellers. that helped a lot. just play it a lot! but good job dude!

[Roastbeef]

Hey! I took a listen. Guitar sounds pretty good. Try to be a bit more fluid with your strumming. Play along with L@LC to get the pattern. I think you're hitting the right number of down- and upstrokes, but the timing is a little off. You're hitting all the bass notes correctly though. Also, it looks like you incorporated my Tim fill suggestion from your other thread. Sounding pretty good; just need to work on the transition back into the regular verse rhythm.

As for your singing. Well, it sounds like your matching the vocals to the guitar rhythm which is not actually how Dave does it, if that's what you're aiming for. But remember, this is your cover, you can do it any way you want. This is typical when starting to sing while playing and only practice will make your cadence improve. In fact it's often suggested to people starting to sing while playing to try songs that follow the guitar rhythm closely. Crash doesn't, but the fact that you're singing at all is a huge step forward. Again, this is your interpretation of the song, so perhaps this is how you intended to sing it.

Overall, for someone playing only 8 or 9 months, I would say it's a very good job! Hope this helps!

[JaDaRu]

Thanks for the feedback guys....I appreciate it. I wasn't going for the "rhythm-singing", but I seem to fall into it. I know that I'm doing it as I play, but I can't really help it, just something to practice.

Anyways, the site was down for a few hours because of excessive bandwidth usage. Does anyone know how much Angelfire gives you? How many connections to a 4MB mp3 be?

[I'mWithFatjack]

The strumming is off and a little broken and sounds clutered at times, vocals are a pretty off but for as long as youve been playing its not bad and just like the other guys all i can say is keep practicing, dont be afraid to keep puttin your stuff out here.

[CPTino3001]

It really helped me with playing most any Dave song just to keep my strumming hand moving...

Don't let it stop, or you'll get that jerky strum sound...Just bounce it with the rythm and it will come together...

[JaDaRu]

Yah....along with singing, chord changes, and basically everything else, strumming is my great weakness at the moment. None of my motions are very fluid and I've been working a lot recently on fixing that. Anyone have any tips?

Jason

[DMBFan63]

Yea, your singing gets a bit jumpy at times, and the strumming is a bit fast and jumpy also, but for playing since december and singing since last week it isn't bad.. Your voice doesn't sound fully developed either,imo. And if it is, try and get deeper tones going for crash.. its a deep song. But overall, it sounds decent, my crash isn't much better either, mainly because i can never remember the lyrics.. and I don't like reading while playing.. since I play with my eyes closed..