Recording Challenge 82 -🤩 "A little special"☘️

[Nutty 1 340]

Hello Everyone,

This months Recording Challenge topic was chosen by Wim VD1 🤩"A little special"☘️

Wim said 

"The challenge is to record a song that has something special.

"Special" could be the use of a specific technique like bends, hamer-ons or pull-offs, slides, octaves or harmonics.

"It could  also be the use of some chords that go beyond major or minor triads like sevenths, 2 chords, sus chords, chords with color tones or anything special you can come up with."

So get recording everyone and give us something to listen to!

Best wishes

Mandy

1. NeilES335 playing "Mon Cheri Amour"

2. Nutty 1 playing "Edelweiss"

3. Wim VD1 playing "This is my Father's World"

4. Skip Russel playing "All the Things You Are"

5. Eracer Team Doug_H playing "Guitar George"

6. Slaphappy playing his own composition "Wasting Time in A Major"

6. gotto and grandchild playing and singing "I Love Rock and Roll"

7. Muzikluvah Mike playing "The White Pass Trail"

 

Edited July 31 by Nutty 1

[NeilES335 815]

I happened to be working on a song that contains octaves, slides,  Maj 7th,, Sus chords  and Dom7th ... So to kick things off I offer my version of Stevie Wonder's very popular hit, "My Cherie Amour"   I hope you enjoy it. 🙂  I uploaded the Lead Sheet in the Downloads section if you'd like to have a go at it! 

 My Cherie Amour is an album by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder released on the Tamla (Motown) label on August 29, 1969, his eleventh studio album. The album yielded a couple of major hits, including the title track and "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday", as well as Wonder's takes on the 1967 hit "Light My Fire" by The Doors and "Hello, Young Lovers" from The King and I. 

[Nutty 1 340]

Excellent playing @NeilES335 and a lovely tone too. A very beautiful song.😎👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Edited July 6 by Nutty 1

[matonanjin 796]

Really nice job Neil.  Great playing.

[Wim VD1 434]

On 7/6/2020 at 6:25 AM, NeilES335 said:

I happened to be working on a song that contains octaves, slides,  Maj 7th,, Sus chords  and Dom7th ... So to kick things off I offer my version of Stevie Wonder's very popular hit, "My Cherie Amour"   I hope you enjoy it. 🙂  I uploaded the Lead Sheet in the Downloads section if you'd like to have a go at it! 

 My Cherie Amour is an album by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder released on the Tamla (Motown) label on August 29, 1969, his eleventh studio album. The album yielded a couple of major hits, including the title track and "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday", as well as Wonder's takes on the 1967 hit "Light My Fire" by The Doors and "Hello, Young Lovers" from The King and I. 

Neil, now this is exactly what I was hoping for! When Mandy asked if I would come up with a theme for this month, I wanted to choose a challenge that would suit a jazz tune (hoping you would have one ready), but also the fingerstyle song I am currently working on. And it worked out well 😁.

Your rendition is very enjoyable and well played with good timing.

Thanks for sharing,

Wim.

 

Edited July 14 by Wim VD1

[NeilES335 815]

9 minutes ago, Wim VD1 said:

Neil, now this is exactly what I was hoping for! When Mandy asked if I would come up with a theme for this month, I wantëd to choose a challenge that would suit a jazz tune (hoping you would have one ready), but also the fingerstyle song I am currently working on. And it worked out well 😁.

Your rendition is very enjoyable and well played with good timing.

Thanks for sharing,

Wim.

 

Hi @Wim VD1  I'm glad you enjoyed the tune! I figured too that you'e be working on another tune along these lines, so great. I'd like to hear you have a go at this one also.  I look forward to yours! 

Btw... in case you're wondering,  played the song as per the lead sheet in the Downloads section. My recording is a bit short vs the original, which has an long orchestral intro, and a 3rd verse with a key change up a half step to Ab from Gmaj, plus an outro. 

[Eracer_Team-DougH 569]

@NeilES335  yes it ended in my in box probably same time you posted ,

good playing and balance between lead and rhythm 

[gotto 437]

Very nice recording Neil. playing, tone and quality of the recording. Great stuff coming from Ontario! Loved it.

Greg

[Skip Russell 39]

@NeilES335 Great recording and playing.  Where you creating sonic space in this recording by emphasizing left channel melody, and right channel rhythm, otherwise, it probably was my aging hearing.  Great job. 

[NeilES335 815]

1 hour ago, Skip Russell said:

@NeilES335 Great recording and playing.  Where you creating sonic space in this recording by emphasizing left channel melody, and right channel rhythm, otherwise, it probably was my aging hearing.  Great job. 

Thank you @Skip Russell for the kind remark. Your hearing is fine... Yes, I did intentionally pan (separate) the melody and rhythm tracks left and right in this stereo hd recording. It was also "double tracked" for a total 8 tracks. It sounds best on good headphones, stereo speakers or studio monitors.

[NeilES335 815]

@gotto @Eracer_Team-DougH @Wim VD1 @matonanjin and others  Thank you for you complimentary remarks. I'm always open to any suggestions as I try to improve on both playing and recording. 

Let's hear what you've been working on🎸😊.

[Eracer_Team-DougH 569]

10 hours ago, NeilES335 said:

@gotto @Eracer_Team-DougH @Wim VD1

Let's hear what you've been working on🎸😊.

Your ears wouldn't want to hear what I've been working on 😪

[Nutty 1 340]

Here is my first go at a song using percussive techniques "Edelweiss". 

 

[Fretless 194]

Mandy, you make it look so simple. Well done!

[matonanjin 796]

Mandy!  Nice playing. Nice singing.  Nice percussion.  You did make it look simple.

[Wim VD1 434]

On 7/13/2020 at 7:46 PM, Nutty 1 said:

Here is my first go at a song using percussive techniques "Edelweiss". 

 

Hi Mandy, you made your rendition a little special indeed. Wow, you can multitask! I was already impressed by how you could combine singing and playing, and now you add some nice percussion as well 👍.

As always, I enjoyed your song. Thanks for sharing,

 

Wim.

 

[Wim VD1 434]

For this month I chose another song from the L&M Fingerstyle course. This one is from session 6 and it is one of my favorite tunes from the course. Steve has put several techniques in his arrangement: hammer-ons and pull-offs, harmonics, slides, 6ths,10ths, octaves and pedal notes. To make it even more fun, the tuning is drop D.

This is the first song I recorded using my new Focusrite Scarlett Studio Bundle and Reaper as my DAW.

Wim.

 

Edited July 14 by Wim VD1

[Nutty 1 340]

Thank you @Fretless @matonanjin @Wim VD1 now I need to practice it with more complex songs. 😁

[Nutty 1 340]

@Wim VD1 that was excellent! Beautifully played and with the great tone that we always hear from you. 😎👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[NeilES335 815]

22 hours ago, Wim VD1 said:

Hi Mandy, you made your rendition a little special indeed. Wow, you can multitask! I was already impressed by how you could combine singing and playing, and now you add some nice percussion as well 👍.

As always, I enjoyed your song. Thanks for sharing,

 

Wim.

 

@Nutty 1  Good job with your song Mandy 👍 As Wim says, just singing and playing is more than most can do, and adding a bit of percussion is "special" .  You have an nice soft voice too that suits this song.  Keep up the good work. N

[NeilES335 815]

22 hours ago, Wim VD1 said:

For this month I chose another song from the L&M Fingerstyle course. This one is from session 6 and it is one of my favorite tunes from the course. Steve has put several techniques in his arrangement: hammer-ons and pull-offs, harmonics, slides, 6ths,10ths, octaves and pedal notes. To make it even more fun, the tuning is drop D.

This is the first song I recorded using my new Focusrite Scarlett Studio Bundle and Reaper as my DAW.

Wim.

 

@Wim VD1 Beautifully played Wim! The breadth of you ablilty is very impressive... from rock and blues, to fingerstyle, on this wonderful hymn (one of my favorites) you are covering it all.  Your timing, was spot on, and I detected no "misfires" ... Tone very good too. For your first recording with an interface and Reaper DAW, this was very well done  By listening, I gather you used the Focusrite Scarlet mic (that comes with this excellent gear,) to record your acoustic guitar. I have yet to use mine... I do want to try it with my Fender Princeton amp. 

Not intending to be critical, I'm sure you're aware of the string noise. I think the mic accentuates this in the recording. Other than possibly string change I'm not sure how to fix this... maybe a slight change of technique, ie; lifting the fretting fingers slightly on chord changes perhaps.   (This is one of the reasons I like flat wound strings on my ES guitars; no string noise)  On acoustic I struggled with this and found Martin SP strings to be very quiet while still delivering excellent tone. Some swear by other brands of coated strings like Elixer (I didnt care for them... put them on, played them once, took them off)

Anyway Great job as always! Cheers; Neil

[Wim VD1 434]

On 7/15/2020 at 8:42 AM, Nutty 1 said:

@Wim VD1 that was excellent! Beautifully played and with the great tone that we always hear from you. 😎👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

 

20 hours ago, NeilES335 said:

@Wim VD1 Beautifully played Wim! The breadth of you ablilty is very impressive... from rock and blues, to fingerstyle, on this wonderful hymn (one of my favorites) you are covering it all.  Your timing, was spot on, and I detected no "misfires" ... Tone very good too. For your first recording with an interface and Reaper DAW, this was very well done  By listening, I gather you used the Focusrite Scarlet mic (that comes with this excellent gear,) to record your acoustic guitar. I have yet to use mine... I do want to try it with my Fender Princeton amp. 

Not intending to be critical, I'm sure you're aware of the string noise. I think the mic accentuates this in the recording. Other than possibly string change I'm not sure how to fix this... maybe a slight change of technique, ie; lifting the fretting fingers slightly on chord changes perhaps.   (This is one of the reasons I like flat wound strings on my ES guitars; no string noise)  On acoustic I struggled with this and found Martin SP strings to be very quiet while still delivering excellent tone. Some swear by other brands of coated strings like Elixer (I didnt care for them... put them on, played them once, took them off)

Anyway Great job as always! Cheers; Neil

Thanks, Mandy and Neil.

@NeilES335, the string noise is indeed still an issue when recording my acoustic. It is a bit better with the new microphone. I have Elexir Polyweb strings on now and will try out Martin SP when I change strings again.

In this song, there were some slides of full chords, making it hard to avoid squeaks.

Wim.

 

 

 

[Nutty 1 340]

On 7/15/2020 at 7:07 PM, NeilES335 said:

@Nutty 1  Good job with your song Mandy 👍 As Wim says, just singing and playing is more than most can do, and adding a bit of percussion is "special" .  You have an nice soft voice too that suits this song.  Keep up the good work. N

Thank you Neil, you are very kind.😊

[Skip Russell 39]

For this months recording challenge, I am submitting my version of All the Things You Are, a well known Jazz Standard.  This song, written by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein, contains an interesting (or special) intro and outro, which contain b7#9 cords.  Steve has performed and analyzed this song a while back on Live Lessons.  It was a great song to learn.

Skip

 

[Nutty 1 340]

Well done @Skip Russell, that was great.😎👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼