http://www.terriblesinger.com Learning To Sing Like A Pro! Tue, 02 Jan 2007 23:14:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 en © 2003-2006 harri@terriblesinger.com () harri@terriblesinger.com 1440 Learning To Sing Like A Pro! harri@terriblesinger.com No no http://www.terriblesinger.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://www.terriblesinger.com 144 144 http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/02/first-podcast-recorded-%e2%80%93-but-where.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/02/first-podcast-recorded-%e2%80%93-but-where.html#comments Tue, 02 Jan 2007 23:14:59 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts Podcasts http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/02/first-podcast-recorded-%e2%80%93-but-where.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/02/first-podcast-recorded-%e2%80%93-but-where.html/feed/ 1:18 Terriblesinger.com is now also available thru podcasts! First one is always the hardest :) but I'm happy I got it finally online. I wanted to ... Terriblesinger.com is now also available thru podcasts! First one is always the hardest :) but I'm happy I got it finally online. I wanted to have something special to celebrate the occasion, so I went to a very unusual place to make the recording. The secret is revealed in the podcast, so go ahead and click the link :) Posts, Podcasts harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/01/sony-made-my-life-harder.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/01/sony-made-my-life-harder.html#comments Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:50:36 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts Gear http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/01/sony-made-my-life-harder.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2007/01/01/sony-made-my-life-harder.html/feed/ Terriblesinger.com wishes you Happy New Year! After the fireworks and New Year's promises (hope you made some, I know I did ;) ) it's time ... Terriblesinger.com wishes you Happy New Year! After the fireworks and New Year's promises (hope you made some, I know I did ;) ) it's time to get pulled back from the happy blue sky to the harsh reality. I must say I got really disappointed with my Sony netMD today. I made the recording of Happy Birthday with my Sony netMD, as part of my Christmas promises. But it seems now, that I can not copy the file via USB to my computer. I have to connect the MD to the computer's line in and make another recording. Too many clicks in my opinion, so I'm going to buy an MP3 player with recorder capabilities. So another delay to get my podcast online, but it's going to be available soon. What comes to my other promises, ... I sang two Christmas songs. First one I sang with the kids for Santa Claus. Second one, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, was performed with my older son, while we were waiting our turn to the bathroom. I recorded my first “single”, Happy Birthday. It's not going to change the world in anyway, but it was recorded in a very, very, very unusual place. Listen the podcast and you will discover the secret place... I hope I get the technology up and running, so I can provide more material. Until that happens, I wish you a successful New Year! Posts, Gear harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/31/back-online-to-teach-terrible-singer-to-be-a-better-singer.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/31/back-online-to-teach-terrible-singer-to-be-a-better-singer.html#comments Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:51:33 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/31/back-online-to-teach-terrible-singer-to-be-a-better-singer.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/31/back-online-to-teach-terrible-singer-to-be-a-better-singer.html/feed/ Farewell Christmas, Welcome New Year! I hope you had a good time during the holidays. Celebrating Christmas kept me away from blogging, but now I'm ... Farewell Christmas, Welcome New Year! I hope you had a good time during the holidays. Celebrating Christmas kept me away from blogging, but now I'm back! And there's lot to tell. I made some promises for Christmas, so I'll be going back to those in the following posts. I also met a very good singer on a Christmas cruise and I'm hoping to get his interview in the near future to this blog. I'm also setting up my recording gear, which I will present in a post called Terrible Singer's Guerrilla Recording Gadgets. So hang on, I'm working to get the material online. See you soon! Posts harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/26/i-got-to-get-me-one-of-these.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/26/i-got-to-get-me-one-of-these.html#comments Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:50:50 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts Gear http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/26/i-got-to-get-me-one-of-these.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/26/i-got-to-get-me-one-of-these.html/feed/ Do you know that feeling when you meet an old friend? I was fortunate to meet some old friends during the holidays. It may sound ... Do you know that feeling when you meet an old friend? I was fortunate to meet some old friends during the holidays. It may sound akward, but one of my friends came through a Playstation box. I used to play a lot with my guitar in the past. Somewhere on the way I kinda lost the passion I had, but this Xmas I got some of it back. I came to visit my parents with my family on Christmas eve. We usually spend our Xmas in 2 parts: first we visit my wife's parents, then we move our stuff to my parents house. Its a huge operation to move 2 adults plus their 2 little boys and their stuff. We only have like a 10 minute drive between our parents' houses, but the biggest task is to pack and unpack all the stuff we have with us. So, after we had unpacked our stuff for the second time in 2 days, I went to see my brother upstairs. I heard he had bought a new game for Playstation, so I went to check it out. I'm not really into arcade games, so I was positively surprised when my brother introduced his latest game: Guitar Hero II! Needless to say, but I got hooked! The basics of Guitar Hero II: you have a mini size guitar and you have to pick the correct notes as shown on the screen. There is a wide selection of rock songs you can play and 4 different skill levels where to choose from. When I first saw the guitar, I was thinking to myself that this is kid's play. I've been playing for so many years, that I will beat the highscores in no time. But I couldn't been more wrong... My brother, who has never played the guitar, kicked my sorry a** too many times. There are at least three different elements for succeeding in the game.-You need to use your pinky. This is trivial if you have been playing guitar before, but in this game you have to use more than usual, so it's good practice. No pain, no gain! -You need to have stamina. When you are playing song number five of your set, you still need to be concentrated and have enough energy to play the song. And the song after that. -You need to know when to use your score multipliers. Guitar Hero II is after all a video game, so you need to know the tricks how to multiply your score and when to do it. After you have played a certain number of notes correctly, you can point to the sky with your guitar (yes, you get to do it like the rock stars do). Then you hit a note correctly and you'll get extra points. Since the extra point mode lasts only for a little while, you should choose a part from the song where you play a lot of notes. The more notes you play, the more points you get. Simple, but not easy. So if you have bunch of friends coming to your place or you just want to shred with the rock legends, this is definetely a product to consider. Maybe you'll meet your old friend like I did :) Posts, Gear harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/22/the-dawn-of-a-new-year-thrills-me-to-make-promises.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/22/the-dawn-of-a-new-year-thrills-me-to-make-promises.html#comments Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:17:06 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/22/the-dawn-of-a-new-year-thrills-me-to-make-promises.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/22/the-dawn-of-a-new-year-thrills-me-to-make-promises.html/feed/ I like to make promises. To be honest, I LOVE making promises. It's like creating a better future, since you usually promise to do good ... I like to make promises. To be honest, I LOVE making promises. It's like creating a better future, since you usually promise to do good things. Needless to say, that reality strikes my face with a shovel every now and then. A promise that I haven't kept is like a thorn in my spine (well, not that bad but almost :) ). Over the years I haven't learned to cut down the quantity of my promises but I have learned to promise less. So I still make a lot of promises, but instead of conquering the Himalayas with you I promise to take a look at the brochures. So what promises I have made for this Christmas? This is the best time of the year to be performing songs in public occasions. Everybody's already swinging in the spirit of Christmas, so "the public is on your side" so to speak. I've promised myself to sing at least one Xmas carol. And maybe some late, late, late evening karaoke. At least this year I'm more prepared. Beware. OK, that was a little promise. Do I have something BIGGER in my mind? Of course I have! During the holidays I have promised to do three things: -Record an exercise CD. I will play some notes on my guitar or computer and record them. Then I will make an MP3 file and burn it on a CD. So in January when I return to work I can play that CD in my car and practice singing on pitch. -Record Happy Birthday. I got the guitar chords for that song, so I'm going to make my first recording. This will serve as the "BEFORE" example of my singing skills. Looking forward of doing that :) -Make a promotional video for terriblesinger.com. Once I have the recording of Happy Birthday, I'm going to make promotional video for the blog. I already have an idea for the video and I'm really excited to do it! I have made videos with my friends in the past and it was so much fun. I miss filming and editing, so this is a marvellous change to refresh my memories. I will come back to these issues in the beginning of January. And that is a promise! Posts harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/21/pit-stop-get-your-gear-tuned.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/21/pit-stop-get-your-gear-tuned.html#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:58:07 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts Gear http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/21/pitstop-get-your-gear-tuned.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/21/pit-stop-get-your-gear-tuned.html/feed/ I admire people, who can play the guitar and sing at the same time. I cannot do it, although I can walk and chew a ... I admire people, who can play the guitar and sing at the same time. I cannot do it, although I can walk and chew a gum simultaneously. Anyway, this is again a skill that can be learned by practicing. So what I'm going to do here is to practice Happy Birthday and I'm going sing while playing the guitar. The chords are basic, so this is a good tune to start with. But before I can start, there's one essential thing to do. I let my kids play my acoustic guitar. Since their just little kids, they don't actually play it. They just strum the strings as hard as they can, pull the strings or tune my guitar to low A or something. But its lot of fun for us all, so I accept the fact that I need to tune my guitar before I start to play. Today, as usual, the tuning was absolutely terrible. I wanted the guitar to be exactly tuned to E, so I could practice the song from the correct pitch. Because I don't have any guitar tuners, I decided to find one from the net. I searched for a guitar tuner software and I found this freeware called Digital Guitar Tuner. I downloaded it, because it was one of the first on search list and the features seemed more than I was looking for. It offers different tuning types and you can change the root frequency plus other features. A microphone is required, since the software doesn't play the tuning sounds. But in a way this is good, since the tuner shows exactly when the string is in tune. The installation took only couple of minutes and I'm ready to go. But I have to wait for tomorrow, since the kids are already sleeping... Think I 'll just practice the song tomorrow on my way to work. Posts, Gear harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/20/idea-that-marilyn-monroe-gave-me.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/20/idea-that-marilyn-monroe-gave-me.html#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:00:54 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/20/idea-that-marilyn-monroe-gave-me.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/20/idea-that-marilyn-monroe-gave-me.html/feed/ There's no doubt, that the most famous version of Happy Birthday is sung by Marilyn Monroe. She performed this famous song at JFK's 45th birthday ... There's no doubt, that the most famous version of Happy Birthday is sung by Marilyn Monroe. She performed this famous song at JFK's 45th birthday with over 15,000 people celebrating the occasion. This sexy M.Monroe version gave me an idea. I'm not going to perform the song as she did it (she would turn around twice in her grave), because I would just give “tribute” a bad name. But I'm going to exploit her idea. I was practicing singing on pitch last week, but I didn't have the time to make a mp3-track of the pitches for my daily trips to work. So instead I practiced a simple song, Happy Birthday, in my car. I was singing the song I don't know how many times, but suddenly I realised something. Have you heard about a band called Beatallica? They're like Metallica and Beatles combined. There's a lot of information about this band in the net, but the point I like to make here is the way the singer emulates James Hetfield (he does it very well). Listen for example “A Garage Dayz Nite” and you'll know what I'm talking about. So, my idea is to sing Happy Birthday in different styles. First of all, it's lots of fun. Second, its good practice. Third, I wanna do it. Results will follow... Posts harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/17/new-pages-added.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/17/new-pages-added.html#comments Sun, 17 Dec 2006 13:58:51 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/17/new-pages-added.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/17/new-pages-added.html/feed/ Last couple of days I've been busy writing 2 additional pages to this blog. I added my personal information (author), so that you can get a ... Last couple of days I've been busy writing 2 additional pages to this blog. I added my personal information (author), so that you can get a better view of me and this blog. Check it out. The other page is called "101 Songs". Let me explain a bit. I once heard that a decent guitar player knows how to play 100 songs. I thought it was a great advice, so now I'm applying it to my singing lessons: I'm going to learn 101 songs. After that I'm more likely to be a better singer than now. Next week's theme is "back to practice"! Posts harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/13/exercise-1-singing-on-pitch.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/13/exercise-1-singing-on-pitch.html#comments Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:20:40 +0000 Harri Lammi Exercises http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/13/exercise-1-singing-on-pitch.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/13/exercise-1-singing-on-pitch.html/feed/ OK, I made some research work and came up with a practical exercise. This is the most basic exercise there is, but I'll start with ... OK, I made some research work and came up with a practical exercise. This is the most basic exercise there is, but I'll start with it since it instantly works on my worst problem. So this exercise is called “singing on pitch”. When I was singing along with my favorite tunes, I sounded terrible. That's because I'm not singing in the correct pitch, meaning that I'm singing the notes either too low or too high. To be able to sing better, I need to practice my ear in order to hit the correct note. Trainining the correct pitch only requires some musical instrument or software, that can play different notes. After you hear the note, you try to match it with your voice. For this exercise I grabbed my guitar and played a note from here and there. I hummed and made different kind of voices, trying to match the pitch. At first I had some difficulties getting it right, but then I managed to hit the notes correctly more often. Then I played some chords, like Am-C-G-F and tried to sing some jibberish. And you know what, it sounded better than my poor attempts in the past. YES!!! So, some progress was instantly there and now I'm more confident about this learning thing. Actually, I cannot wait to do some more exercises! Exercises harri@terriblesinger.com no No http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/11/4.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/11/4.html#comments Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:46:57 +0000 Harri Lammi Posts http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/11/4.html http://www.terriblesinger.com/2006/12/11/4.html/feed/ You are driving your car and listening to the radio. Suddenly you realise that the DJ is playing one of your your favorite songs! You ... You are driving your car and listening to the radio. Suddenly you realise that the DJ is playing one of your your favorite songs! You start to nod your head with the catchy melody. You're feeling excited, because this is just the song that you like to hear while driving. Just to get the kicks, you increase your speed a little bit. Yeah, you're having some serious quality time with yourself! The intro stops and there's the short guitar part before the verse. You think to yourself that they have put the break just in the right spot, because it builds your excitement even more!!! The verse begins and you want to sing along as loud as you can, because this is your favorite song and you know all the words! So you start singing from the bottom of your heart... and in a matter of seconds you notice that your favorite singer is singing terribly wrong. Hey, how the h*ll he cannot sing correctly??? I've listened to this song thousands of times and it didn't sound that bad! The version is also the same, not some new live recording... You continue to sing along and then it hits you: hey, the problem is me. I'm a TERRIBLE SINGER!!! Oooooh... you cannot believe it! You have sang lots of times. “Happy Birthday” on birthdays, the national anthem on sports events, you even made that special show with guitar at your grandpa's barbecue party! You start wondering what have those other people thought of your singing voice... Uh-oh... You try once more to sing with your favorite song, but you give up because the singer is already singing the high parts of the last chorus and you're not even close to those levels. Better to do something. And fast. So, you decide that your days as a terrible singer are over and you devote some time to become the ULTIMATE SINGER! Or at least a decent one... Hi, my name is Harri Lammi and I'm a terrible singer. I'm going to learn how to sing and that's what this blog is all about. Posts harri@terriblesinger.com no No