Monday 11 July 2016

Why record yourself at home - part 2

Wow, twelve months since my last post. When you are my age time seems to fairly whiz along. Actually I have been concentrating on Facebook and badly neglecting my various blogs - so much to do in real life that blogs are taking a very poor second place.

But I posted a video on FB today which made me think about a similar post on here - my last post which I have now found was in July last year, 12 months ago. so I am now taking time to follow-up on the last post.

If you recall (did you read it?) I was answering a question about why I was posting videos and sound recordings of my self on line. I did not (and do not!) do this to show off, I have no pretensions to be either a good musician or singer. I record myself purely to be able to listen to where I need to improve my performance. The video I am going to upload today, I hope will make this obvious.

I attended a ukulele festival this past weekend and was still buzzing with excitement and found myself singing (and playing) some of the numbers performed by the artists there. One of them, a Bob Dylan number, had a little bit of harmonica in it; an intro and the same piece repeated for a short break. I had access to a harmonica belonging to my son and tried to emulate the performer I had seen at the festival. 

Now, the harmonica was in the key of "C" which meant I had to play and sing in a key which I was unused to, for this number. I had to transpose from "G" to "C" as I was playing. Fine, no problem normally; but of course playing the harmonica, I was concentrating on one too many tricks. The performance I had heard was also sang with a mistake in the lyrics of the chorus which I did not want to repeat; so that was something else I tried to watch out for.

All in all, I wanted to know how well I coped with these multiple issues. So what did I do? I recorded a short video to be able to listen to myself.

I also added a few comments at the beginning (mentioning my problems as above) since I decided to post it on a FB group which is private to the club I play at regularly.

But it is also about enjoying myself and even tho' I made a mess of it, I certainly enjoyed myself. Maybe you will too?


PS, Although I do not often pick up the harmonica (and you cen see why) I will be practising this and may even come back and post a new video if I can get that damn melody out in one piece.

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