SingWithPiano.com

Singers Who Can’t Sing

Taken from the original article here:
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/getback/53773/singers-who-cant-sing

Everyone is still having a fit about Kanye West’s SNL performance of “Heartless” the other week. Did he lip-synch? Didn’t he? The debate misses the bigger issue: Kanye can’t sing.

Truth be told, ability is not always the most important thing when it comes to singing. The proper amount of attitude, charm, and self-deprecation go a long way to replace actual vocal chops. Ask David Lee Roth and Bob Dylan, two dudes who can’t sing a note but make up for it with sheer chutzpah (and in Dylan’s case, an ungodly amount of lyrical prowess). Singers who know they can’t sing are always forgiven.

Kanye, however, broke the cardinal rule of bad singing. He stepped outside of his preapproved vocal zone.

No one expects Kanye to sing. In fact, no one wants Kanye to sing, because we know he can’t. Write an insanely catchy melody? Yes. Continue to be the biggest ego on the planet? Yes. These are the things we want from our Kanye. But when he begins to think he can pull off a ballad by actually singing it? That’s when he’s gone too far.

There are two kinds of bad singers in the world: the ones who kid themselves into thinking they’re good (Kanye) and the ones who try too hard — all the time. These are the Mariahs, Beyonces, and Christinas (although Ms. Aguilera is learning; her Nina Simone tribute on the Grammy nomination show this month was remarkably restrained). These performers wring the last bit of life out of every note. Just because you can sing every octave perceptible to the human ear doesn’t mean you have to. These singers don’t know when to hold back. They are perpetual vocal grandstanders, sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.

Here are some other legendary bad singers. I’ll avoid easy targets, like Yoko Ono and Michael Bolton. Yes, she inspired the B-52s. Who cares? And Bolton has received his punishment for butchering so many songs by being relegated to “Where are they now?” status. Time has passed him by, and we won’t be hearing from him again.

These folks are ones who won’t go away and, worse yet, won’t learn to sing. Know your enemy, my friends. Protect yourselves.

Tags: 自弹自唱, learn to sing, 学唱歌, 弹钢琴

My music performance experiences last October #2

The next music performance was held in my company’s main lobby, where I was asked to play some Mandarin songs while the other group played some English songs. It was more of a relaxed one, comparing who the audience were.

Some of my experiences and preparations I had were:

- Since these are the songs I always play and sing at home, the chords and lyrics were easier for me.

 
- Whenever I touch my piano, I always go through some of these songs repeatly, ready to use it anytime.

 
- As this was a solo performance, I never really played together with the other band. They too never seen what I was gonna play.

 
- I picked 4 songs, 2 of which were from Jay Chou, and the other 2 for the sake of other older generation, as i suppose they only know some of the “popular” or “classic” songs ?

 
- There were no score sheets, no nothing. Just me, a slightly OK keyboard, a centrally connected microphone, and my voice. Basically I have chosen songs of a easier to remember chords. Now I know why in Jay Chou’s concert, he picked those songs for his piano singing too, due to easy to remember nature.

 
- For the singing of lyrics, I have long already memorize them, though I had some difficulties with some words. Anyway, chords were more important because humans hear them very well.

 
-Finally on the actual day, I had a chance to try the keyboard, the sound system check, a run through of my songs once (I really enjoyed the first part because while I was testing out the sound check, as it was lunch time, many of my colleagues had a glimpse of what I had for them.)

 
- That run through all of the chords in the songs, and any other errors. Well after that I had about 2 hours break and I had ran out of voice! Perhaps due to poor warm ups, I sang straight away. Oh yeah, I’ve too chosen songs that were easy to sing.

 
- Ok on the actual performance, there were so many factors that were different from playing at home.

 
1. The microphone wasn’t sensitive, so I had to stay as close as possible to the microphone.

 
2. The pedal of the stupid keyboard kept moving, so I had a 80% time sustaining the notes, where 20% of the time I had to press the key to hold the note.

 
3. I adjusted the microphone slightly to the right, and my keys were playing near to the left!

 
4. I had a very funny chair height and a keyboard with books at the bottom. Which means I am almost standing upright to sing.

 
5. The microphone was unable to be held at an angle as it was too heavy. Instead, it was rested on top of the keyboard’s score stand, and then the angle of the microphone head pointed in a strange angle. So I have to project my voice downwards.
 
 

Well disasters… but I guess I did it pretty well, after practising so hard at home, the results wasn’t that bad. I was lucky I had a good voice that carried it through.

I hope my experiences are fruitful for those who are preparing themselves for performance too.

下次音乐表演是在我公司的主要大厅，在那里我被要求参加一些国语歌曲，而另一组发挥一些英文歌曲。这是更宽松的一个，比较谁是观众。

我的一些经验和我的准备工作是：
-由于这些歌曲我总是弹琴唱歌在家，和弦和歌词是对我来说更容易。

-每当我谈谈我的钢琴，我总是通过一些重复的歌曲，准备随时使用。

-由于这是一个独奏，我从来没有真正发挥与其他波段。他们也从来没见过什么，我一定发挥。

-我挑四首歌曲，其中2人来自周杰伦， 2为其他老一代，因为我猜想，他们只知道一些“热门”或“经典”的歌曲？

-目前还没有评分表，没有什么。只要我稍微确定的键盘，中央连接麦克风和我的声音。基本上我已经选择了歌曲的容易记住和弦。现在我知道为什么在周杰伦的演唱会，他挑选那些歌曲的钢琴唱太多，因为很容易记住的性质。

-对于歌唱的歌词，我早就已经记住他们，但我遇到了一些困难与一些话。不管怎么说，有和声更加重要，因为人类听到他们的声音非常好。

，最后的实际一天，我有机会尝试键盘，音响系统检查，一个贯穿我的歌曲一次（我真的很享受的第一部分，因为当我在测试健全检查，因为这是午餐时间，我的许多同事已经看到我了他们。 ）

-贯穿所有的和弦中的歌曲，以及任何其他的错误。之后，我已大约2小时的时间休息，我有失控的声音！也许因为穷人温暖起伏，我马上唱。噢是的，我已经太多选择的歌曲，很容易唱。

-确定的实际表现，有这么多因素，不同于在主场作战。

1 。麦克风不敏感，所以我不得不留在尽可能靠近麦克风。

2 。踏板的愚蠢的键盘保持运动，所以我有80 ％的时间维持注意到，那里20 ％的时间我有新闻的关键举行的说明。

3 。做着调整麦克风轻微的权利，我的钥匙附近玩耍的左侧！

4 。我有一个非常有趣椅子的高度和键盘的书籍在底部。这意味着我几乎站立直立唱歌。

5 。麦克风无法举行，一个角度，因为它过于沉重。相反，它是依赖于上方的键盘的评分立场，然后的角度指出麦克风头在一个陌生的角度。所以，我有项目我的声音调低。

以及灾害…但我想我没有很好，在如此艰苦执业在家里，结果并不糟糕。我很幸运，我有一个很好的声音，通过开展。

我希望我的经验是富有成果的那些谁正在准备自己的表现了。

Tags: how to prepare for music performance, Music performance difficulties, music performance experiences, music performance preparation, performing music problems

5 ways of playing music

In my experiences of choir singing and a year of beginner training in Classical Piano, I have listed out with 5 common methods of how humans beings, prefer to play music. It may be playing it with the volin, piano, singing, etc etc.

This credit also goes to the PhD Choir teacher who also shared her views. Read more about my profile on the link at the top of the page.

These are the 5 methods we usually prefer starting off with the most uncommon:
 

1) Perfect Pitch
This is where a musician listens to the music, and is able to immediately recognize the notes, the scale, its rythem, dynamics and any harmonization that were involved. This requires a very high level of talent, practise, and music proficient to perform this. For example, an orchaestral conductors.

 
2) Photographic view of music scores
The musician or performer must be of certain level of music proficiency, in order to use this method. He or she should be able to picture an imaginary view of the scores, including all the minor details printed on the score like dynamics, rythem and any special ornaments. For example my choir teacher, who can capture all details without referring to the scores.

 
3) By ear
In this method, the performer is able to “remember” the music and then try to play a similar set of music, that may or not be identical to the original piece. Some improvisations may be use here, but it depends on how the musician or performer interpret the music. For example, any pop or jazz piano musicians, including myself.

 
4) Sight read
This is also probably the next harder way after the 5th. The performer will have to read ahead on the score to play or sing the music out. He or she needs to have a good sense of pitches, and fast sight reading skills. It would be very hard at first, but after some reading, the performer should be prepared on how it should be played, especially long and difficult pieces.

 
5) Memorising music
This is the most common among classical piano pieces, where the music produced must be identical to the printed scores. The performer memorizes the music, by repeatly playing the same pieces, till it reaches a point of muscle memory. This means the fingering of it is so fixed, that it no longer requries ear and sight read, just pure mechanicalized method of playing music.

In Singing, we have lyrics in songs, and we only sing 1 melody, that makes singing easier. As for Piano, it is slightly harder as it requires both hands to play.
 
 
So…

For a very long piece of music, some musicians or performers prefer to memorise, and some would like to sight read, depending on each person’s abilities. Sometimes, a mixture of abilities are used for a piece, but I have never used the first 2 methods, probably it is not my preferred way of doing music.

I am sure it is good to be able to do any of the 5 methods, perhaps there are even more ways in music, which is what I will discovery along this journey.

Hope to hear your valuable comments !

Tags: beginning piano music, learn piano music, Memorising music, music tips, musicians performers, online piano lesson, Perfect Pitch, Photographic view of music scores, piano fingering, piano music lesson, piano music lessons, piano music notes, piano music practice, play by ear, read piano music, Sight read