I spent the past two days trying to sing and play this song, one that DNJ posed as a challenge to me a couple days ago.

This is a very difficult song for me to sing, mainly because of the tightness of the vocal lines, plus the harmony segments. This was a 2-day project for me, and the most difficult part was the vocal harmony, which I must fine tune to eliminate some of the minor distortion. Also, I was a bit heavy with the left hand, overlayed male chorus, which I need to lower the volume a bit, maybe about 50 percent.

I'll let you folks pick it apart and make some recommendations on what I need to do with it, then I'll wait for another rainy day and go to work on it.

Click here to play my rendition of Hallelujah

All the best,

Gary

Gary Bravo Bravo !!!

You my friend have bestowed upon me a great honor.
This song as I predicted was meant for you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to work on it
and present it to us it really made my day!!
This performance is certainly one of your All Time Best
for sure in so many ways as I knew it would be. The vocal and styling even with your ailment was strong and heartfelt,
and the style used on your Yamaha S950 was just right also.
Well done good buddy... Well Done!!!

Thanks for all that hard work, Gary:

Vocal Harmony and Effects have been "eating my lunch" since the day I bought that 970 from Mason. Every now and then, I think I'm gaining on mastering the beast(s)... but I have such a long way to go... and fear there isn't enough time to "get-R-done" before "croaksville" sets-in! LOL!

This is really nice. Bravo to you, too... Donny... for "goading" Gary into accepting the challenge. Just another thing that keeps me returning to this "site" when I know I have other chores and tasks needing attention. Experimentation without fear of reprisal... or having to wear the "cone of shame" out into public view is part of the ambiance of this particular group.

Thanks to both of you... and the rest of you super nice folks who provide moral support, levity and humor into our middle of the road lives.

Well done! ----Dave

Dave your very welcome but I wouldn't call it "goading" at all but think of it as if someone came up to you on stage and made a "request" for a song, personally I would be happy to play it for them if I knew it for sure,.......on top of that I am from the school of learning from others by Watching & Listening and if you don't share your music & singing after all whats the sense of just talk talk talk if you can't hear hear hear it?
It's music and should be heard no matter what
although many like to keep it all bunched up to themselves.
But that is what a music discussion forum is for sharing.
I know I have learned from the best through the years
and still am to this day.
But I have to "hear" what your talking about
Sorry for the rant.

take care

Boy these Honey Cherios and Fresh Strawberries are yummy!!

Good morning Donny and Dave, and thank you both for the compliments. I have someone coming to my home today that I am tutoring on the S-970, and with any kind of luck, we will be able to set up his vocal harmony section to where it will be acceptable. He just began working the senior circuit as a solo entertainer, but also has a 4-piece band, making this even more challenging.

Thanks again,

Gary

Gary, I'm sure you're up to the challenge, but why is it more challenging because he is also in a band? Wouldn't he just turn off the accompaniment when playing with the band?

Tony, his band does not have a bass player, just a drummer, a fiddle player, an acoustic guitar player and him playing the keyboard and providing the vocals.

Gary

Ok ... I've done this before and I set up all the 'standard' styles with all accomp off but the bass ... we placed a monitor right next to the drummer who was excellent - he was touring with Donald Fagan when the tour was cut short because of Walter Becker's death -
He could hear the bass very well and never lost a beat

Good job Gary. The song sounds like a great match for your vocal style. Sometimes Donny has some good ideas

Yep, that's pretty much the way he and his band have been doing it as well. Additionally, he needs the accomp on to trigger the keyboard's vocal harmony, which he does with his left hand. He tried to chord trigger with his right hand, but finds this a bit difficult. The only person I know of that triggers the vocal harmony with his right hand is Uncle Dave, who has mastered this process incredibly.

All the best,

Gary

Thanks Paul, and yes, even in semi-retirement, Donny does manage to come up with some great ideas.

All the best,

Gary

Gary...great job! Your voice sounds strong and the harmony (is that the 950 on board VH?) sounds great.
Thanks for sharing,
JM

Thanks JM, and yes, that is the S-950 vocal harmonizer. I tried using my TC Helicon Harmony-M, but because of my bullfrog voice I could not get the higher vocal harmony sounds I wanted.

I sincerely believe I can tune the S-950 to sound equally as good as the TC Helicon vocal processor, but this is going to take some time, which I no longer have much of - it's sailing season and the only days I get in the studio are when it's raining and the weather is too nasty to sail.

All the best,

Gary

Gary, admittedly, I don't know the workings of the S-970, but I would think he needs to have his left hand play the chords for the bass line ... Can't the accomp parts be muted and still use his left hand for the chord changes?

Yes, and for the most part, that's exactly what he does. However, in order to trigger the vocal harmony processor, there must be a midi signal from the device, which is set for his left hand chords. The processor needs the chord information in order to provide the corrections for the harmony. This is also the case with an external vocal harmonizer - it requires the midi information from the keyboard's chords being played in order to function properly.

Most of today was spent teaching him to create registrations and how they function, which is one of the most difficult aspects of all arranger keyboards. The last hour was spent setting up the vocal harmony processor and teaching him how to tune it, then save the information to a special, setup registration. For the old salts on the forum, this is fairly easy, but for someone that is just getting into playing an arranger keyboard, the learning curve is pretty steep and I consider myself a fairly good teacher. I have written tutorials on creating registrations, and another guy on the PSR-Tutorial site put together an instructional video, but it is still difficult for many to comprehend.

All the best,

Gary

Of course ...

Wow Gary- everything Donny said and more. Thank you for that..

I'd appreciate if you (or anybody)could email me charted lyrics..

Don't have access to a printer right now ...

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/jeff_buckley/hallelujah_chords_198052