SINGER NERD IS BACK WITH ANOTHER A CAPELLA THING!!
I'm having a super nerdtasticly good time with this ongoing project. Allow me to state the obvious right off the bat: FREDDIE MERCURY WAS ONE BADASS MOFO. This is likely not news to anyone, but what it means in this context is this shit was hard! I was too busy following my charts and singing ALL THE NOTES (seriously - I think I sang every one I could hit plus some I couldn't) to do much clowning or choreography. Calvin & Clara were having none of it, so cat cameos don't happen either this time. There's no punching in or cutting/pasting in this app - each square goes down live, so there's definitely a little more humanity here than my perfectionist's ear would prefer. But having a couple of 9-note chords up in here makes up for it somehow. #nerdboner
PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN TIME! Putting these together takes me several days, a lot of do-overs, and plenty of swearing. Here's a breakdown of how it goes:
- write number chart for chords (bass part usually follows this)
- scratch out number chart(s) for vocal parts (this one required THREE cuz ALL TEH NOTES)
- work it out first in ProTools where I can cut/paste/punch/arrange (learned this trick after doing 187 passes in the app on first song)
- do rough pass of bass part to build around
- get a solid lead vocal
- pile on a bunch of other parts
- attempt to include cats (this is often frought with peril)
- re-record bass part first thing next morning so my soprano ass can hit the low notes
- mix
- share
This one was particularly tricky given the rubato sections and my tricked out cascading ending. I tried to leave enough space for all the notes to land on my first pass of the bass part, but failed. So once I had enough other parts to work with, I turned the scratch bass down so I could build the ending without that bass note screwing me up, knowing I'd re-cut that part last. It still isn't exactly like I heard it in my head, but it's close enough for rock & roll rendered on an iPhone app.
Big thanks to Jim Flanigan for suggesting this song. Want to suggest a song for next month's video? Click the button below. Click here if you're like "what the what?" and want to catch up from the beginning. Comments section is always open, and I always love hearing from you there. Til next month, All Hail Freddy Mercury!!!