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Bob Elliott
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6/5/2009 10:12:57 PM
The Song You Need to Sing
For all you who can sing just about anything put before you, this will have no resonance, but I'm not that way. I have to get the right song in the right key...
a lot of things have to be right for me to be any good, even the lyric, it seems.
Or let me back up...probably a lot of you have heard Dylan's stock answer to why he started writing songs: he always says he started writing songs when he couldn't find the ones he needed to sing, and if he'd found the ones he needed, he probably wouldnt have started writing.
I always took that as one of Dylan's theatrical interview phrases, I didn't really put much significance to it, but after about six months of trying to do a demo of covers (to get more work) and throwing every take out, I start to see how it's really best for me to sing the song I need to sing.
See, I couldn't fully nail any of these tunes, but instead in the process my mind would rather write up new tunes for me, and I nailed all three of those in 2 or 3 takes. You know, I tailored them for me, and they work easily.
And then I started having a little more success with covers as I left my set list and went after different songs I had never played before, but they just fit me much better.
The process of trying to make a demo is radically reinventing my show.
You gotta go after the song YOU need to sing.
So in a way, like Dylan, some of us have to write the songs for ourselves we need to sing.
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Otis and the Professors
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6/6/2009 2:37:51 AM
I totally agree, it's why we rarely if ever do covers. Singing is all about passion and feeling, the words have to come from you, or be completely understood by you. Then, even if you aren't a great singer (like me) people can still connect with your song.
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Tom O'Brien
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6/6/2009 2:54:04 AM
Of course there are a lot more songs you WANNA sing than that you can sing. I remember once in the middle of a set, someone saying, "Your voice sounded really good on that song." And of course I thought, "What about the other twenty songs I just sang?" And then I realized that what they were saying is what you are saying: your voice sounds better, your dynamics are better when you have that certain song in that certain key. I've tried to cover people with voices that sound nothing like mine and in my own head they sounded just fine, thank you very much. But people listening probably thought, "Well, that's a weird take!" It's hard to hear our own voices sometimes, which is why recording is a handy tool. It takes experience to know what your own voice is capable of.
I've written a few songs that were not good for my own vocal style and range. They never last, and pretty soon I just stop playing them. Writing for your own voice, style, and temperament is always going to give you the best sound. We learn to sing by copying others, but once you know your own vocal instrument you realize that you're unique, and I'll take a unique voice any day of the week.
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