misc music and Question for singers who accompany themselves

[d_trektone_w]

I'm looking forward to getting Tori Amos' new album, American Doll Posse. Releases today.

Lately, I've been listening to cacie's CD, Dialtones. I really like the way her voice was recorded. It doesn't seem like all that long ago she sang "Mommy, Can I Have a Spaceship" to/for me.

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Bf2007 really likes American Idol. It was fun watching him and debmats talk about it over dinner last week. How many more months before it's over?

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During my stress-out the last few weeks, I made a note to myself to go back and read telynor and peteralway posts about learning and playing the mountain dulcimer. Back when I was with Lewis, we went spent a weekend in Mendocino, up the coast from San Francisco. At a music store, Lark in the Morning (that now has a shop in SF), I ended up buying a dulcimer. Without any actual instruction I learned to play Cyndi Lauper's song, "Fearless," after watching/rewatching her videotaped performance on the RuPaul show. Bought a couple of books, but never got around to learning. I don't like traveling with my guitar these days and, especially after the guitar-killing event I don't plan on borrowing someone else's. Hey, additional incentive to learn a new instrument!

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First off, I don't consider myself an instrumentalist. I do like to sing and while in recent years I haven't felt like singing a lot, I'm starting to want to again. I'll probably do a separate post about my desire to join a chorus. This bit is about choosing an instrument to accompany myself/oneself.

When I've bought guitars in the past, one of the things I've done is sing and play before I make the purchase. Mostly, I want to make sure the blend sounds/feels right inside my head. However, I also believe, somewhat semi-arrogantly I suppose, when I'm singing on a regular basis I can make tonal/timbre adjustments to voices and instruments around me. Of course, it probably sounds different to listeners. And with the myriad modifications that can be made when amplification occurs ...


My questions to you singers who accompany yourselves:

How much do you care, if at all, how your voice sounds with the instrument(s) you choose?

What do you do to make sure voice/instrument fit together?

How do you make peace with what you hear inside your head (voice/instrument) with what you hear in recorded playback or comments from others? Is this significantly different from recognizing/liking your recorded voice?

Comments

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

Short reply due to life (tm):

I do care how my voice sounds with instruments but I can usually blend as needed.

In the case of my wolf dulcimer which was the first time I had an instrument made specifically for me I just trusted the luthier. I gave him a recording of CO (which admittedly is a YOUNG sounding mew now but hey) and also had spent some time hanging and singing with him. He knew I wanted a baritone but I think made it warm and yet bright enough to compliment my voice.

I care more about what kind of mic I use. I learned from first the OCP days and then more with Thor and then LSP and the occasional other recording I've done that a mic can make a WORLD of difference. But you know this.
I guess my voice sounds different to me on recordings but... not much these days.

I've gotten intensely lazy because Ed is so good at arranging so that things sound great with my voice when I take the lead (which is more than him since we are still working on his voice and his main instrument is piano but mine is assuredly voice.)

Does that help? And - Joey! Dulcimer!! I'm lovin it!!

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Have you experienced singing with an instrument or instruments where you felt the tones were simply not matching up? I know a few vocalists who mostly care that their voices are in the forefront of whatever accompaniment is happening. It doesn't seem to matter as long as they can hear themselves.

I did try some nylon string guitars early on, but at my skill level at the time the sounds, though nice, didn't have as much variety as steel, to me.

We'll see about the dulcimer. :)

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

Not surprisingly you'll find that there are a wide variety of sounds you can get out of a dulcimer. Lorraine is amazing at that. She bows, she uses a slide, she picks, finger picks, uses finger picks, uses a noter, chords... and developed a capo for dulcimer.

She used to ride me to make sure I strummed over the sound hole area when I wanted a full sound. The dulcimer will vary a lot too - my Jeremy Seeger, an excellent little dulcimer itself, is much sweeter and warmer overall but my wolf is a bit flashier and brighter. I think both sound nice with my voice but each feels different to me. I hope I get to the point where I am playing both more regularly!!

I haven't done much playing with the type of strings I use though - that's one thing I haven't done yet.

let me know what you find out.

Oh - and to be honest? I can't remember a time I felt my voice really wasn't working with an instrument. Maybe that's because I so consciously try to blend my voice with what and whomever I am working with?? I dunno.

The biggest "voice/accompaniment" epiphany of recent years for me was discovering what a JOY it was to sing with Ed playing piano. He plays a lot of instruments well, but he plays piano in a way that just lets a singer float on top without any worries. It's like he just knows exactly the right thing to play to support but not overwhelm the voice. It's really fun. I love when we work up a new voice piano arrangement. Mind you it is cool to try to work up dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, recorder, drum, guitar etc, but voice piano is the BEST! :-)

hugs