Thursday, October 22, 2009

Notes from the studio

The Red Apples have been in the studio recording some of their new songs as well as some cover material -but all acoustically! The studio is often fraught with so much (possible) angst. We Apples are kind of "git em in, git em out" types when it comes to recording. We do a couple of takes and call it a day. I think on "Bump Bounce Boogie" we did like one take. Crazy yes? Well, we are paying for it ourselves, so got to be quick about it. But also, hey, we've played that song a few times. Pretty much know how it goes...and here's the other thing. If you are doing twenty takes you can always find something wrong with allllllllllll of them. You can nitpick yourselves to death. Ron and I are both total perfectionists ( he's a Virgo sun and Virgo rising, I'm a Virgo moon with other planets as well in the persnickity sign) so it's best to just get it over with. And whoops, here come's Dave also on guitar-another Virgo! (also a very musical sign...). The same goes for tweeking the mix. This can go on forever. Sheesh.
But we are looking forward to getting out again and playing more, acoustically and otherwise. Had a great time at Gallery Cabaret, where some lovely young ladies were fairly schnockered but dancing up a storm with some buddies of Ron's. Ron by the way, lead the Apples into some wild and crazy territory with some jamming that seemed to cross the boundries of time and space. One fan said he was "Mozart on the guitar". Nice.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Wendy's Voice finds a home

Being a journal keeping person from way back (I mean waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy) I figure it's high time I was truly blogging. We do a little on the band website and myspace but this will be more of a singing in particular blog, and more generally, being a chick singer in a band blog. Not only that, but how's about the whole family aspect of being in a band with your hubby and having a teenager who has to put up with your band rehearsals all the time? This could get deep...
But let's talk about singing and voice and voice lessons. Learning to sing is, in many ways, just like learning any other instrument. There are a few big differences of course. For one, we all (most of us) walk around much of the time, using our voices, talking since we were a year old or so, and singing along to our ipod or going to karoke night and having at it. Most people cannot pick up a guitar or a clarinet and get beautiful sounds out of it from the getgo. And neither can most people from their voices. Yes, there are strong natural singers who are born with a gift. Many of them have benefited from voice lessons as well.  Because singing and singing correctly are two different things. Most of my students are surprised at how much there is to learn about singing. Studying voice doesn't (necessarily) mean that you will lose your natural approach or whatever gifts you are inherently endowed with. It does mean, if you have a good teacher, that you will learn how to use those gifts, well and with ease, and maybe even to the extent that it becomes, well, art.
So that is some of what this blog will address in days to come. There's so much to talk about!