Mr.Brightside-Ukulele and Drums

Here is my second cover! Hope everyone likes it !! Please tell me what you think!

Hey man, saw your first video and it looks like your having the same problem. The timing is still off, and it makes it really difficult to listen to. Do you maybe have a friend or someone who can help you line it all up? I know, it's tough some times. It sounds like you've got all the right pieces, you've just gotta make 'em fit.

Professor Palmer said:

Hey man, saw your first video and it looks like your having the same problem. The timing is still off, and it makes it really difficult to listen to. Do you maybe have a friend or someone who can help you line it all up? I know, it's tough some times. It sounds like you've got all the right pieces, you've just gotta make 'em fit.

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If you think it sounds off then I'll take your word on it. I worked really hard on syncing this one up. Even when I got other people to listen to it they said it sounded in sync. I agree that my last cover was off though. I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong. Everyone sounds fine to me.

Firstly, the drum beat isn't right, the hi-hat should be working quavers not crotchets.. and when you're doing fills, dont do the same thing with both hands, try get some syncopation in there.

Not being rude but the singing was out of tune, i would recommend you use ear-bud style headphones next time and leave one of them out, so you can hear the song AND what you sound like together.

When it got to the "coming out of my cage" part, at 1:33, the vocals came in on the wrong beat.. that set the rest out of time. Your singing also sounded monotonal.. if you have a piano I would work out the vocal notes/google the sheet music and try to go through the piece note by note on the piano, singing that note at the same time. Just do it slowly and try to make sure you hit the right notes, then when you come to record it you should remember exactly how it should sound

Not trying to be rude or anything, just wanted to give you some feedback so you can improve for next time. By the way, that uke looks beautiful! The abalone inlay almost looks like a chuck moore job! haha

Uke. said:

Firstly, the drum beat isn't right, the hi-hat should be working quavers not crotchets.. and when you're doing fills, dont do the same thing with both hands, try get some syncopation in there.

Not being rude but the singing was out of tune, i would recommend you use ear-bud style headphones next time and leave one of them out, so you can hear the song AND what you sound like together.

When it got to the "coming out of my cage" part, at 1:33, the vocals came in on the wrong beat.. that set the rest out of time. Your singing also sounded monotonal.. if you have a piano I would work out the vocal notes/google the sheet music and try to go through the piece note by note on the piano, singing that note at the same time. Just do it slowly and try to make sure you hit the right notes, then when you come to record it you should remember exactly how it should sound

Not trying to be rude or anything, just wanted to give you some feedback so you can improve for next time. By the way, that uke looks beautiful! The abalone inlay almost looks like a chuck moore job! haha

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Thanks for your practical advice. I think you are right. I need to take a new approach when working on my covers. This helped me out so much! I can hear now where I am off and can use this. Your interpretation has helped me to realise what I have been doing wrong.

I don't agree with the suggestion to use ear bud headphones. Most recording monitoring situations call for closed back can headphones. The only time I've seen in-ear headphones used is when they have the thousands of dollars, custom-fitted, extremely isolated in-ears. That being said though, those Sony Noise-canceling headphones you have probably won't cut it. I use Sennheiser HD280s and Beyerdynamic DT770s. You'll see in my Killers vid that I just leave one ear off to hear myself. But it's still closed back headphones, never in-ears.

Also the reason why you're going out of sync is because at one point you are dropping a beat in one of the instruments you are playing/singing. The trick is to always know where the "1" is. When I lay my rhythm tracks, I have a metronome/click track going with a different sound clicking on the first beat of every measure so I know where "1" is. If you don't have a metronome or click track available, just play along with the CD.

For the part they pointed out your two handed hits. The pattern you were playing was similar to the part the Killers drummer did. But he doesn't play it with two hands. He's working the hihat at the same time. So just move one of your hands over to the hihat, ok? in a fill though, you should alternate hands. Mr. Brightside is not an easy song on drums. On the verses you have to do 16ths on the hihats while still hitting the snare.

As for the vocals just buckle down and listen and hear the notes he's singing. Sometimes Brandon sings notes other times it's rhythmically speaking. It's actually a pretty high song for most guys. So sometimes you gotta really reach for those notes. Remember when he sings it, he's not 100% relaxed, he's impassioned about the subject matter.

Nic966 said:

Also the reason why you're going out of sync is because at one point you are dropping a beat in one of the instruments you are playing/singing. The trick is to always know where the "1" is. When I lay my rhythm tracks, I have a metronome/click track going with a different sound clicking on the first beat of every measure so I know where "1" is. If you don't have a metronome or click track available, just play along with the CD.

For the part they pointed out your two handed hits. The pattern you were playing was similar to the part the Killers drummer did. But he doesn't play it with two hands. He's working the hihat at the same time. So just move one of your hands over to the hihat, ok? in a fill though, you should alternate hands.

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Thank you so much! Your covers are just amazing so I really value your advice. I wasn't really counting with the metronome; just like using it as a reference so I'll find a click track to use. I think I really botched the drums on this one so I'll have to work on getting that right. You were right about the fill. I didn't notice until you mentioned it, but I do need a hihat. Thanks though.
-Nick

Good to see you take advice well, some people just take it as an insult and get upset rather than using it to improve on their weaknesses. Just noticing what you said about focusing on drums next time.. if I were you I would do something like "somewhere over the rainbow" next time, just ukulele and vocals. That way you've got less parts to synchronize and you can work on getting them both perfect. It's a simple but lovely song, and although it's been done a million times, it will show your improvement and you can concentrate on hitting every note perfectly as it's nice and slow

I'd much rather see a good cover of a simple song, than a bad cover of a hard song. Good luck!

Uke. said:

I'd much rather see a good cover of a simple song, than a bad cover of a hard song. Good luck!

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Not only that, but it's a better way to improve.

Thompson's Rule for First-Time Telescope Makers: "It is faster to make a four-inch mirror then a six-inch mirror, than to make a six-inch mirror."

JJ

Uke. said:

If I were you I would do something like "somewhere over the rainbow" next time, just ukulele and vocals. That way you've got less parts to synchronize and you can work on getting them both perfect. It's a simple but lovely song, and although it's been done a million times, it will show your improvement and you can concentrate on hitting every note perfectly as it's nice and slow

I'd much rather see a good cover of a simple song, than a bad cover of a hard song. Good luck!

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I guess I could give it a try. I don't really think I'll play "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". It is a great song, but not really something I could get into. I'll just do an easier cover with just vocals and ukulele and see how that goes. I really like incorporating drums and other instruments into my music so I won't give up on making all of my different instrument tracks in sync next time.This is a good idea for me to try though.

I seriously can't thank everyone who has replied with helpful advice enough. I can't believe how helpful this forum is. All of this incite and different perspectives has helped me so much!

g.r.e.a.t
5.r.a.t.e

hey,what kind of drums u use?

I use a Roland V-Drums Lite set. I simply plug the midi out cable into my laptop.