Hello folks!
I'm joining this forum because I'm looking for feedback on some music recordings I've made in the past year. They have been received politely by younger people in music forums, but being a senior myself I think that other seniors might enjoy the recordings more.
For the last 30 years, I've been in serious choral groups, notably "Voce" in Washington DC. Using a grant from the National Endowment for the arts, we commissioned the work "Sing Me to Heaven," which sold hundreds of thousands of copies on college campuses. http://www.dunstanhouse.com/2016/02/04/sing-me-to-heaven-the-real-story/
I started playing brass instruments in grade school and branched out into guitar and piano in high school, where I learned music theory. I sang in the Cornell University Men's Glee Club in college, and sang in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Performing Arts center on one of our tours. But I went into science instead of music because I wanted a paycheck and I was good in math and science.
My grandfather introduced me to "overdubbing" when I was a little boy. He had a two-track recorded that he used for making recordings of my cousin playing the piano and singing on one track, then singing harmony on the second track. Like my father, my grandfather was a country preacher. My ancestors, who go back to New England in the 1630's. Our blood is blue, but so are our collars.
Since then, I had two dreams, which have now come true with the help of GarageBand and the more sophisticated "Digital Audio Workstation" called Reaper. One is to sing all 7 men's parts in Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria." The other is to play all instruments and sing all the vocals for a popular song, which I've done for Eric Clapton's tributes to JJ Cale's "River Runs Deep" and "Ride the River."
I'll post links to my recordings in the Entertainment subforum of "Hobbies and Interests" and ask for feedback. I'd like to encourage any seniors who would like to get into recording to give it a try. There is a pretty big learning curve, but at least for myself, it is worth the investment to hear myself making music as I dream of doing when I was young and thought I would never get the chance. I got started on $0 using GarageBand and the built-in microphone on my Apple laptop. I bought $50 of software and $300 of recording equipment to do the Eric Clapton cover songs. Judge for yourself whether the results justify the expense.
When I'm not spending more time than I should on music, I am a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. But you'd never know it to look at me.
Nice to meet you!
Jim
I'm joining this forum because I'm looking for feedback on some music recordings I've made in the past year. They have been received politely by younger people in music forums, but being a senior myself I think that other seniors might enjoy the recordings more.
For the last 30 years, I've been in serious choral groups, notably "Voce" in Washington DC. Using a grant from the National Endowment for the arts, we commissioned the work "Sing Me to Heaven," which sold hundreds of thousands of copies on college campuses. http://www.dunstanhouse.com/2016/02/04/sing-me-to-heaven-the-real-story/
I started playing brass instruments in grade school and branched out into guitar and piano in high school, where I learned music theory. I sang in the Cornell University Men's Glee Club in college, and sang in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Performing Arts center on one of our tours. But I went into science instead of music because I wanted a paycheck and I was good in math and science.
My grandfather introduced me to "overdubbing" when I was a little boy. He had a two-track recorded that he used for making recordings of my cousin playing the piano and singing on one track, then singing harmony on the second track. Like my father, my grandfather was a country preacher. My ancestors, who go back to New England in the 1630's. Our blood is blue, but so are our collars.
Since then, I had two dreams, which have now come true with the help of GarageBand and the more sophisticated "Digital Audio Workstation" called Reaper. One is to sing all 7 men's parts in Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria." The other is to play all instruments and sing all the vocals for a popular song, which I've done for Eric Clapton's tributes to JJ Cale's "River Runs Deep" and "Ride the River."
I'll post links to my recordings in the Entertainment subforum of "Hobbies and Interests" and ask for feedback. I'd like to encourage any seniors who would like to get into recording to give it a try. There is a pretty big learning curve, but at least for myself, it is worth the investment to hear myself making music as I dream of doing when I was young and thought I would never get the chance. I got started on $0 using GarageBand and the built-in microphone on my Apple laptop. I bought $50 of software and $300 of recording equipment to do the Eric Clapton cover songs. Judge for yourself whether the results justify the expense.
When I'm not spending more time than I should on music, I am a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. But you'd never know it to look at me.
Nice to meet you!
Jim
