Singing covers - what's your toughest song?

[Nobody Told Me]

For me it's Second Chance by Shinedown. That song covers a lot of territory. Some nights I nail it, some nights I don't.

 

What's your toughest song to sing with consistency?

[rorylawford]

For me, it's probably "I Remember You" by Skid Row

[rorylawford]

For me, it's probably "I Remember You" by Skid Row

[SevenString]

Singing Symphony-X or Jorn Lande material always kicks my ass.

 

For more mainstream material, I find Journey is still a challenge for me. Steve Perry spends a lot of time "up there", with that softer attack.

 

But the toughest cover I've ever performed live? Probably "Bohemian Rhapsody". I do a good job on it, but it's always a challenge to get it right.

[romvert]

Living on a prayer, just because it's tough singing the chorus and the end modulation that high, while making it sound like him.

[Rob_Rocks]

Right now my toughest song to sing live is Stone in Love by Journey. I've been able to nail it the last three or four gigs though.

[blackeyed28]

for me, i struggle with a few. it would have to be either:

 

"Living on Bad Medicine" - we made a medley of "living on a prayer" and "bad medicine". i need oxygen after singing that. the guitarist hits all of the high harmonies, ...he's got an impressive range.

 

"Faithfully" - the notes at the very, very end ("i'm still youuuuuurs...faithfully"). some nights i can hit them in a mix. some nights i just use a reinforced/twanged falsetto.

 

"Love in an Elevator" - it's not the pitch, ..it's the grit i add which can wear me out. again, the guitarist hit's all of the high, high harmonies in the chorus (very impressive). we do the a capella ending in a 3-part harmony, ...sounds pretty sweet.

[Tele-vania65000]

I Want You To Want Me, specifically the second "Didn't I see you crying"

 

Probably laughable to some of you that are nailing Journey and Bon Jovi on a regular basis.

[stilettoechoes]

Ha, I'm going to put in what seems to be the first female response to this topic.

 

"Fear" by Sarah McLachlan. Soft, airy, and vulnerable with orca high parts. Sigh. Someday....soon.

[Brighid Rose]

I may be showing my newbie-ism here but mine is Landslide. Trying to hit all the notes with the same strength & sweetness as Stevie is a challenge. Much easier to just belt out CCR.

[Nick*]

Hmm...interesting. I'm not sure what the most difficult song I've covered was...but here are some songs that I would LOVE to cover...but way to afraid to attempt...

 

1) Say Hello 2 Heaven: a lot of the song should not be too hard, but hitting the notes at the end with the power that Chris Cornell has....you need something special for that. Pretty much anything off the Temple of the Dog album is a real challenge.

 

2) Love Reign O'er Me: Pearl Jam could do it....but I don't think I could.

 

3) Grace: C'mon....it's Jeff Buckley. Hallelujah is another tough one for bass/baritone singers.

 

 

There are some others like "Child In Time" that would be way too difficult for me. Also a lot of McCartney songs and Lennon songs...not just because of vocals, but because of the passion and emotion in some of those songs.

[MusicalSchizo]

For me, hands down, it's "Don't Stop Believing" - not the majority of the song - I can handle the verses and choruses, it's just the blankey-blankin' outro chorus. My tone is UGLY on that, even when the pitches are on (70-85% of the time). The thing that sucks is how important it is not to suck on that part of the song.

 

{censored}ing Steve Perry, man...thing is, I don't really WANT to be able to sing like that, but it's a nice tool to have. I like making the people at my shows happy, and they want to hear Journey, so I go through the pain.

 

Even my mediocre performances of that song make them go crazy, so I can't complain too much. I just want to be better.

 

I think breath support is my biggest obstacle as a singer. I actually am bad at breathing in general (I'm sort of a shallow breather unless I'm concentrating on something), so breathing the way one should to support the vocal instrument definitely is frustrating at times and leaves me gasping for air on wordy songs (or songs where I'm singing lead and backup parts a la 867-5309 - doesn't leave much space for getting air in that chorus)

 

There I go, making it about me again...

Brian V.

[Labrat636]

Nowdays, I don't sing a cover that's out of my range. But when I was younger my 2 toughest covers were "Heaven" by Warrant and "Eighteen and life" by Skid Row.

[underground66]

'Love ain't for Keeping' by the Who. I practiced on my own for about a week and eventually gave up. It's weird, Daltry doesn't sound like he's singing that high. But man, that guy just hits it like I can't.

[Consume]

 

'Love ain't for Keeping' by the Who. I practiced on my own for about a week and eventually gave up. It's weird, Daltry doesn't sound like he's singing that high. But man, that guy just hits it like I can't.

 

 

Don't feel bad. Roger Daltry is one of the most underrated singers ever - I'm not a big Who fan, but I AM a big Roger Daltry fan. As a drummer, I never cared for the Who because Keith Moon was so wild - I preferred drummers like John Bonham from Zeppelin and Ian Paice from Deep Purple where there was a groove AND precision in the playing, but Roger Daltry has one of the most powerful voices in rock - EVER - and I honestly believe that part of the reason for that is because he was in such tremendous physical shape. Just look at the underside of his throat - he thoroughly developed all of his throat muscles.

[romvert]

 

Don't feel bad. Roger Daltry is one of the most underrated singers ever - I'm not a big Who fan, but I AM a big Roger Daltry fan. As a drummer, I never cared for the Who because Keith Moon was so wild - I preferred drummers like John Bonham from Zeppelin and Ian Paice from Deep Purple where there was a groove AND precision in the playing, but Roger Daltry has one of the most powerful voices in rock - EVER - and I honestly believe that part of the reason for that is because he was in such tremendous physical shape. Just look at the underside of his throat - he thoroughly developed all of his throat muscles.

 

So now, guys with big muscular necks are good singers?!? LOL... god bless you, son...

[Consume]

 

So now, guys with big muscular necks are good singers?!? LOL... god bless you, son...

 

 

 

Okay, do you knbow any skinny weak, or fat guys who can do the scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again?" I've only seen one other guy who could do it justice, and he was every bit as muscular as Roger Daltry was.

 

If you don't think singing has anything to do with neck muscles, I would suggest you think about this:

 

In a correctly developed neck, the inside remains completely opened like a Pipe. If you stregthen the neck muscles more than the average singer does, they will cause the Adams Apple to move forward a bit more out of the neck and it causes the inside to be opened even more.

 

I would suggest you read the book THE NEW VOICE by Dr. Alan Greene which teaches you about the muscles of the neck that are used for singing, and non-vocal exercises to develop these muscles.

 

For example, one of the exercises involves sticking your finger down your throat after you have lowered your larynx. You hook it into the base of the tongue and pull it forward, and you then press on the myoloid muscle (sits above the larynx) very firmly with your other hand, this helps develop the anticonstrictor muscles and helps form the actual shape of the throat so that it is opened lieka pipe.

[Jersey Jack]

Odd, I've always read that the neck muscles should be relaxed. Is this wrong? You suggest that we need to develop and work these muscles, which is the same thing as tensing them, no?

[Bajazz]

 

Living on a prayer, just because it's tough singing the chorus and the end modulation that high, while making it sound like him.

 

 

+1

 

I tend to sing in reinforced falsetto to get a egde, but it don't seem quite right.

 

I also have some problems with "Thunderstruck" (AC/DC) in the break area

 

The Trooper (Iron Maiden) is very hard to nail the "Bruce"-sound. I tend to be thinner sounding on the top notes and not get his fat vibrato everywhere.

 

Back to practice!

[rockerdiva]

All the Zep the guys are having me sing, Heartbreaker, What is and What Should Never Be, anything by Heart,

 

(Journey and carry on my wayward son, these two we have not yet learned but I am working on).

 

If only I was Robert Plant or Ann Wilson. Sigh. Oh well, I'm a good singer, pretty good in my own right. We can't all be Robert/Ann/ Steve Perry/Freddie mercury, right?

[OldMattB]

Damn, there are some singers here!

 

MY toughest is "Summertime Blues." For some reason I cannot sing "my momma and poppa told me son, you've got to earn some money." I just stumble all the hell over it. It's not the notes, it's the words. I sound like I'm trying to sing "My Generation."

 

I sing a lot of stuff badly, but it is not a problem to me...

 

oldMattB

[BigVoiceTenor]

I'm on the other side of the coin here. We do Faithfully and Don't Stop Believing and I love those songs and they're comfortably in my range.

 

Any songs I would struggle with...we simply dont' do. There are millions of songs out there to sing, so I would say don't cover a song you can't cover well in your range.

 

We do AC/DC but I only do Bon Scott songs. We do a medley of Jailbreak/Dirty Deeds/TNT and the crowd loves it. However the guys in the band want Shook Me All Night Long...which is a Brian Johnson song and much deeper and gravelly for me. So we don't do it.

 

Since I have the mic I guess I decide what we cover.

[Consume]

 

Odd, I've always read that the neck muscles should be relaxed. Is this wrong? You suggest that we need to develop and work these muscles, which is the same thing as tensing them, no?

 

 

 

 

No, it's not the same thing. Just because you have a stronger, more well-defined muscle, that doesn't mean it is tensed all the time. The neck muscles SHOULD be relaxed. But the point is, if you strengthen the muscles, they will hold the interior of the neck open more, so you have the open throat for extra resonation, which will give you a bigger and more powerful voice with less effort.

 

It's just like lifting weights - somebody who is stronger and has bigger muscles will find it easier to lift a certain amount of weight, over somebody who does not exercise or lift weights at all.

[romvert]

 

Okay, do you knbow any skinny weak, or fat guys who can do the scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again?" I've only seen one other guy who could do it justice, and he was every bit as muscular as Roger Daltry was. If you don't think singing has anything to do with neck muscles, I would suggest you think about this: In a correctly developed neck, the inside remains completely opened like a Pipe. If you stregthen the neck muscles more than the average singer does, they will cause the Adams Apple to move forward a bit more out of the neck and it causes the inside to be opened even more. I would suggest you read the book THE NEW VOICE by Dr. Alan Greene which teaches you about the muscles of the neck that are used for singing, and non-vocal exercises to develop these muscles. For example, one of the exercises involves sticking your finger down your throat after you have lowered your larynx. You hook it into the base of the tongue and pull it forward, and you then press on the myoloid muscle (sits above the larynx) very firmly with your other hand, this helps develop the anticonstrictor muscles and helps form the actual shape of the throat so that it is opened lieka pipe.

 

Sorry to bring this to you but that is pure BS, and it does not matter who wrote it where. You have to realize the voice is found in the mind and not in a physical place, like the throat or... your hands!?! Now if your a growler, good luck with the workout, it might help you prolong the growling a little longer, but if you're a singer, I'd suggest not waisting time on the idea of muscle developement as a workout. The right muscles will be developed enough if you have a safe and sound technique.The free voice is a delicate balance of air vs. muscle. One should never need that much muscle for it.

[romvert]

 

+1 I tend to sing in reinforced falsetto to get a egde, but it don't seem quite right. I also have some problems with "Thunderstruck" (AC/DC) in the break area The Trooper (Iron Maiden) is very hard to nail the "Bruce"-sound. I tend to be thinner sounding on the top notes and not get his fat vibrato everywhere. Back to practice!

 

I know, I end up with a Perry/ Soto thought on that final modulation!... LOL

The secret to Brian Johnson is to do it in light headvoice, almost no mix, thinking less fry than what one would normally attempt.

Bruce is the opposite of that: low larynx belcanto all the way. My problem is that I get stuck within that , then end up with it on a Journey tune!LOL

My favourite "feel" or "thought" right now is Glenn Hughes, which is basically a rocking Stevie Wonder if you will. Works for a lot a stuff, and puts me into a soulfull mood...