PDA

View Full Version : hello stranger - barbara lewis song - double tracking



billkilpatrick
Mar-04-2009, 12:50pm
2nd attempt at double tracking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CArZ8-XbS8

... made with "garage" software; came packaged with the mac. i'm doing something wrong - sound quality on the 2nd track makes it sound as if i recorded it in an aircraft hangar - 1st track is much cleaner.

if anyone is familiar with this software and can give advise, i'd appreciate it.

- bill*

joshua collum
Mar-04-2009, 4:03pm
That's a cool tune. Nice job, I think it sounds pretty darn good.

journeybear
Mar-04-2009, 7:29pm
Hi Bill

Sounds OK to me. It's usually a good thing to have each track sound different. The final result is fuller, greater than the sum of its parts.

Just one thing: I think you got the chords wrong. I believe this is a classic example of the 1ma7-2m7 songs so popular in the 60s. Here that's Cma7 Dm7. Listen to the original version at youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZyuUxUdWhw&feature=related

If you're making your Em like this

==x==
=x===
=x===
===x=

raise the finger on the G string one fret for your Cma7. It's a great, dreamy chord, one of my faves :mandosmiley:

There's a gap on the interweb around this song - can't find a page with chords. Plenty with lyrics, but no chords.

Bruce Clausen
Mar-04-2009, 10:09pm
That is fantastic, Bill-- keep 'em coming! (I'm thinking "Walk on by", for example.) Great rhythm and fine arrangement; I especially love the fills and that tremolo line. Cool vocal approach, too.

(Journeybear, it does sound like the first chord must be C maj7, or C maj9 really, but I can't hear anyone playing or singing the 'C' in the original. Maybe just my speakers not pumping out the bass).

BC

journeybear
Mar-04-2009, 11:43pm
... it does sound like the first chord must be C maj7, or C maj9 really, but I can't hear anyone playing or singing the 'C' in the original. Maybe just my speakers not pumping out the bass ...

I'm not 100% sure myself, which is why I searched the web hoping to find a site with chords, but no such luck. I'm going by feel, and it doesn't feel minor. A lot of times in songs like this the melody slips around the root notes, it's smoother that way, slinkier. The melody does hit C, as in the line "sh bop sh bop, my baby, oooh" which is C D B, but the C note is on the Dm7 and the B note is on the Cma7. I love this stuff, it's very cool, very floaty and groovy. Like I said, this is a classic 60s approach, so I'm slipping into 60s lingo. :cool:

Michael Cameron
Mar-04-2009, 11:46pm
bill,that was 40 wt. cool! Nice groove and sweet vocal. I really like what you did with that. Hey,if those are the wrong chords,I want to learn it the wrong way!

I'm so clueless,I was expecting a John Prine song...(Come Back to Us,Barbara Lewis,Hare Krishna Beauregard).

:redface:

billkilpatrick
Mar-05-2009, 3:32am
I love this stuff, it's very cool, very floaty and groovy. Like I said, this is a classic 60s approach, so I'm slipping into 60s lingo. :cool:

..."boss" - in new york it was "boss" or ... "sharp."

i couldn't find any chords for the song either - hence my stab at it. i played the e-something chord like that (i thought it was an f-something) so that a step up on the g would make the (sort of) bass line borrowed from "ooo baby baby."

thank you gents ... - bill

Patrick Hull
Mar-05-2009, 10:16am
Very nice, Bill. I have enjoyed several of the things you did. Didn't you do a cover of one of the Drifters songs....maybe "On Broadway?" I'm interested in your picking technique...is that finger-picking, or is that the two tracks that make it sound that way? Also, what are you playing? The inlay looks familiar, but I couldn't tell, and I had the same question when I was you last tape... Keep up the good work....seems like you've found a niche that's a bit different....

journeybear
Mar-05-2009, 10:16am
..."boss" - in new york it was "boss" or ... "sharp."

i couldn't find any chords for the song either - hence my stab at it. i played the e-something chord like that (i thought it was an f-something) so that a step up on the g would make the (sort of) bass line borrowed from "ooo baby baby."

thank you gents ... - bill

Hmmm ... yeah, the Fma7 chord in that area is a bit of a bizarro chord

x====
==x==
=x===
=x===

As you may have noticed, there are different fingerings for a 1ma7-2m7 pattern up and down the neck, a device which has not been lost on many a songwriter. Also, since a 3m7 differs from the 1ma7 by one note being altered by a half-tone, that shows up a lot too.

Lastly, my fun Fma7 is

=====
=====
==x==
====x

though some say those open strings are a no-no. But this leads to my fun F#m7

======
======
===x==
=====x

which I cannot get enough of and use every chance I get. :mandosmiley:

BTW, I learned that Barbara Lewis WROTE this song, rather unusual for the time - songwriting and singing were separate disciplines until The Beatles changed people's minds about that (and a few other things). Didn't check to see if she also wrote her other big song, "Baby I'm Yours." Another day ... Meanwhile I'm glad you restored this song to conscious thought. I like her smooth jazzy approach to R&B or whatefver is going on in this song. It's really boss ... ;)

We now return you to your previously scheduled programming, already in progress ... :whistling:

billkilpatrick
Mar-05-2009, 12:29pm
thanks again guys ...

don't have to ask me twice to post photos of my mandolin. as you see, the name on the headstock is "hudson" - there's been some correspondence about this recently, if you're curious.

yes, i used "garage" software to make the double tracking - first track with this GORGEOUS hudson and the second with my trusty m-6 mid-missouri (much brighter in tone.)

i believe she did write "baby i'm yours" as well - just one of the few songs NOT written by smokey robinson. back in the day ... i wasn't all that concerned with the lyrics of many of these songs but what impresses me now is how poetic they are - simple and comprehensive at the same time. some fun ones as well: if you remember a song called "do the pony" (new dance step and related song) there's a line in it that goes "boogeddy-boogeddy-boogeddy-shoo" ...

... they just don't write 'em like that anymore.

regards - bill