I agree with Chas on both points. Great vocals for sure and while I'm not an expert, the arranger backing, well, sounded like an arranger backing that could have been more, but as pointed out by Don, he wanted it plain and simple. Either way, I liked the recording, and thanks for sharing.

The Shirrells while being classified as Motown, to me, were more of a Bubblegum genre. They sure had many hits, and I do like most of them. I heard they still, to this day, do a military tribute with one of their many big hits "Soldier Boy" That's cool.

Side Note: On using correct chords: I never figured out how to add/change CORRECT chords on an arranger AFTER recording a song.

You can use STEP RECORDING as shown in this video to change chords in a recording and many other things, ... watch at 2:37...
I think you'll get the idea.

Donny, you're mixing apples with oranges - I think the recording was a one-shot .wav recording directly from the keyboard's or mixer's output - not a MIDI sequential recording. No changes on a finished .wav file.

Gary

Thanks for the video Don. Step recording is an overlooked feature, something I've used in the past on Technics arrangers, but never attempted on a Yamaha.

Hey Chas,

Points well taken. I see, thanks to Colin's Pdf, that the chords are different from what I did, especially the A7th I needed on Can I[b][believe/b]. Soon as I heard that I had an aha moment.

I normally use as many fills and variations as possible. Unfortunately this style gets way to funky after the first variation. Did this one pretty quick and played what I thought I heard. I posted in an effort to get some feedback on the recording quality because I normally use my digital recorder. I enjoyed having the critique because that is how we learn. I may give it another go with Donny's 60's Pop style suggestion or see if I've got something similar to what Colin suggested. Thank you to all who listened and responded.

God Bless,
Don

Don, been there, done that. I'll think I hear one thing and then I'll see the actual chords and get an 'AHA' moment. Our minds (and ears) seem to automatically gravitate to the simplest chord solution.

The Arranger KB can be a great instrument for accompanying vocals; the problem these days is the huge number of style choices. Sounds like a nice problem to have except that no matter what we choose, we always have this sneaky feeling that there's a better style choice out there. Unlike 'live' accompaniment, the vocalist will likely have to make at least some small compromises to accommodate the rigidity of an arranger style. That's where adding a little right-hand 'color' comes in - doesn't have to be much, just some little 'accents' that you feel the arranger style left out.

The recording itself was excellent; well balanced and crystal clear. Try it again with the chord changes. I think I like your version better than the Shirelles .

chas

Hi Don. Thank you for posting your music.it was enjoyable to listen to. I think Chas has provided some really nice pointers to how you can use your arranger more creatively and add different colours and flavours to the song to make it more complimentary to your voice. I often find that if you strip down the range to just the bass and drums or even take out the drums all together initially. You can then build up the arrangement by simply feeding back in parts of the same accompaniment without playing a different style variation . This effectively gives masses of options rather than just the set four variations that most keyboards come with .

I often listen to different arrangements of songs that I would like to cover just to give me inspiration. I stumbled across probably my favourite arrangement of this song performed by Ollie Woodson from the temptations . This inspired me immensely and I hope it does for you to. Listen carefully to the chord variations and the delicate colours at the beginning of the song and how it builds up into this massive gospel sounding crescendo . Obviously Mr Woodsons voice is off the charts but if you can, ignore his voice and listen to the arrangement it will give you some ideas of the transitional chords used from the main chords that most players tend to stick to

http://youtu.be/VUzrwBrm8zU

I always liked the Four Seasons version..

See the similarity between this and "Don't Worry Baby"...Brian Wilson?

The story is, Wilson was fascinated by Phil Spector and submitted "Don't Worry Baby" to him. It was rejected by Spector, and....the rest is history.

And we should all listen to Chas. He knows his s***!


Russ

Talking about passing and transitional chords here is the songwriter herself, Carole King. An amazing piano player. Enjoy!



God Bless,
Don