I know, sounds weird coming from a video game music guy. Anyway, I assume most people are aware of performance anxiety, right? I was wondering if people ever got nervous about recording vocals (Or even writing them) because they thought the lyrics were too blatant or that they couldn't get the delivery right or whatever. I'm hoping people have some kind of way around this, or at least other people experience it so we can brainstorm some solution.
At 6/20/16 05:03 PM, Troisnyx wrote: I do, particularly with performance.
Strangely enough when it comes to real performance it's not a problem, though the fact that I don't perform vocals probably has something to do with it. Easier to hide your fear behind a giant bloody saxophone than a quivering larynx. Especially if you're singing something that you're worried is preachy or whatever.
For me, I find it easy to record, because most times I'm just by myself, surrounded by the four corners of my room.
The biggest difficulty in performing is tied to my past. My musical dream has been trampled upon by many (especially my parents) and among other things, they sneered my performances and ideas and deliberately stopped them from happening. I am still fearful that when I sing to an audience, no one will applaud. I'll be there alone. When I pour myself out on the drum or on something else, they'd think I was deliberately trying to be dirty.
At 6/20/16 05:29 PM, Troisnyx wrote: For me, I find it easy to record, because most times I'm just by myself, surrounded by the four corners of my room.
I don't know, I've always like the idea of instant feedback from an audience. If they don't like your performance you know immediately, although I will concede it's probably much different if it's something you've worked on and put your soul into.
Still, the trouble I have with recording stuff is just that I'm not sure if it's good or not, and then I end up not bothering because ahhhhhh
Your performance anxiety sounds much worse than that though, so I'd be very curious as to how you deal with it. Anytime I'm nervous on stage I bite down on the reed/my tongue and play a bit quieter. Not very good for my tongue, but it works :D
At 6/20/16 05:53 PM, Kalviter wrote: Your performance anxiety sounds much worse than that though, so I'd be very curious as to how you deal with it.
I haven't found a way to handle it. Haven't performed on stage for a long time because of it.
At 6/20/16 05:59 PM, Troisnyx wrote: I haven't found a way to handle it. Haven't performed on stage for a long time because of it.
Sorry! Didn't mean to make that mistake, probably should have clarified first.
I have a feeling, and it is just a feeling, that it's normally the first few seconds that are the hardest. Crowd's silent, lights are down and you're staring at an empty stand because you forgot the music like a numpty (True story). I don't know where that equivalent stage is with recording though, so I don't know what to get past, if that makes sense.
Yes, I find recording and writing lyrics difficult.
I rarely do my own vocals, I usually delegate them to my collaborator. I get over the writing part by reducing the meaning of vocals in my tracks. They are just another element among countless others, that's going on in the project. This allows me to write whatever I wish to. Usually at this point I have been working on the track well over a month anyway and there is so much other things that require my attention.
My real anxiety is publishing anything. I need to be sure I can safely stop working on a project and call it finished. This is probably a big reason why I take so long to finish anything.
There is always anxiety in creating something. One should just ignore it and remember, that there is a sea of everything out there and this piece is just one drop in there.
As for stage anxiety, I will never know.
p.s. i am gay
At 6/20/16 09:16 PM, midimachine wrote: writing good lyrics is hard, yo. don't sweat it.
Word up.
At 6/20/16 06:16 PM, Leelius wrote: I get over the writing part by reducing the meaning of vocals in my tracks. They are just another element among countless others, that's going on in the project. This allows me to write whatever I wish to.
Might try it. I'll say it's ironic if people don't like and say it's genuine if people do :D
Seriously though I do see how that's helpful. Thanks for your input!
I can definitely relate to this. While I don't actually write lyrics/record any vocals myself, I work as a freelance voice actor in addition to the composing/mixing work I've (slowly) been taking on over the last few months. The recording anxiety can be very, very real indeed. Sometimes I can walk into my booth and record an audition or voiceover in one or two takes without a sweat, and other times, nerves or doubts get the better of me and I wind up spending an inordinate amount of time trying to record what typically amounts to no more than a minute to two of audio on average.
Just last week, for example, I actually landed my first VO gig that required a "natural" (very heavy air quotes here) commercial read. As in, the sort of promotional, energetic-sounding almost 'guy-next-door' (ha, don't know if that's the right way to describe it, but whatever) type of delivery. I've done a couple commercial VOs before, but both featured more exaggerated 'character' voices. One, for example, was a parody of sorts of the typical movie announcer voice. To put it bluntly -- this type of "natural" VO, generally speaking, is about 1,000,000 miles outside my typical comfort zone and doesn't feel "natural" at all. Literally the last thing I recorded for prior to this role was a gigantic, screaming skeleton. Before that? I believe it may have been some sort of super-gruff, exaggerated soldier guy for an animation.
Anyway, here's my point; it all boiled down to the fact that everything about this particular voiceover didn't really click for me. For comparison's sake, let's say that the script was akin to the blatant lyrics you mention as an example in the OP, because there are indeed certain components that voiceover work and sung vocals share, in one way or another. Because the script required that overly-enthusiastic sounding "natural" commercial VO and 'tighter', more controlled/fluid vocal inflections and a certain rhythm and sense of pacing throughout, I ended up spending a good 4-5 hours trying to hammer out what amounted to about 1 minute and 40 seconds of recorded audio.
Everything was throwing me off. The fact that I wasn't as confident in my ability to produce this type of VO, combined with the largely acoustically flat recording space, led to me picking apart every tiny little flaw in the delivery of every individual line, every individual inflection, every breath, pause, and so on and so forth. And with every retake, it seemed to get worse; my uncertainty would mount and get the better of me, and 'controlling' that sense of rhythm became a challenge -- my speech seemed to lose clarity, I seemed to generate more 'mouth noise' with every failed take (clicks, gum-smacking, etc)...you get the picture. I imagine recording vocals has many of the same challenges. All of these things just add up and make the process of recording a battle against the self, so to speak.
That might sound like an overly dramatic way of putting it, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it. Overall, I love being able to make money by doing VO, but just like most jobs, it has moments of absolute frustration/nerve-wracking anxiety...even when I'm doing it all from the comfort of my own home entirely by my lonesome. It still doesn't change the fact that when I step into my booth with the mic on, I become very conscious of the fact that I'm about to record things with my voice in very high detail that other people are paying me money to say.
I used to think that gaining more experience and taking on more paid gigs would chip away at that anxiety until I could record and send off auditions and finished VOs without a sweat, but...nope. There's always a nagging sensation that I could've done something differently/better. I feel it with my music, too. Honestly, though...I think this is really, reaaally common for creative types.
As with all things, practice makes perfect -- or at least, practice makes you better than you were a few days ago and slightly more confident in your abilities for at least a few more days until you feel the ol' familiar itch of "I can do better...!" and go back to the drawing board again -- and there's really no end-all-be-all solution to curing or working around this type of uncertainty/anxiety when it crops up.
I imagine that the majority of even the most revered performers, entertainers, and musicians have all felt this same pang of uncertainty frequently at just about every moment; from the genesis of their aspirations to the heights of their professional careers.
In a weird way, that thought is sometimes enough to ground me and push me to just do the damn thing -- be it a voiceover or a composition or whatever else I might be working on at the time.
TL;DR - Leelius said it best. There's always anxiety in creating something.
At 6/21/16 12:33 PM, Seprix wrote: I am writing an album, and I worry something is to blatant or cliche, so I keep rewriting the lyrics. But that's a lyrics issue. The real trouble is that I hate my own voice, even when talking. I just hate it. I hear that this is normal because you don't sound like what you imagine yourself to sound like, so I might be okay. I don't know.
Thats almost always the issue. People hate their voice because they brainwashed themselves into believing they are inferior, even with some practice. Thats why most beginner vocalists quit and move onto other Instruments. I interned with an Audio engineer for a while and managed to get a HUGE understanding on the minds of fresh singers.
They would come to the studio, Half of them wouldn't even warm up. A few clients told him that they didn't need to, and when a session is over, they would hear an early mix and hate it. For the vocalists that have had lessons, they were more competent and warmed up in the vocal booth. When I'd hear them sing, I was impressed with their performance, the Engineer thought it was an amazing take. NOPE. The singer would always be discontent, they would give us examples of the singers they are trying to emulate.
They'd give us examples of prodigy singers (actual prodigy singers not the group), and take after take of gradually less stunning performance, the singer decides to go with the first few takes. They would say that they aren't good enough because they wanted to sound JUST LIKE THEM. So they'll just spend plenty more time practicing their talent (they should, regardless).
Its an innocent delusion.
At 6/21/16 12:33 PM, Seprix wrote: I am writing an album, and I worry something is to blatant or cliche, so I keep rewriting the lyrics. But that's a lyrics issue. The real trouble is that I hate my own voice, even when talking. I just hate it. I hear that this is normal because you don't sound like what you imagine yourself to sound like, so I might be okay. I don't know.
Dude, that's rough, I actually like my own voice (Because I'm a fucking narcissist apparently). I'm sure the people you talk to think it's alright. I'm with you on the lyrics bit though bc no-one likes preachy people but I would like to say something with a little bit of meaning.
Also the fact that this happens to professional voice actors (Thanks Jezza) does make me feel a bit braver. When I finally get around to uploading something with lyrics I'll be sure to let all of you know so you can relentlessly zero bomb it :D
I composed my first song ever with lyrics for my English final, and though I wasn't really worried about it, I still knew that my voice would sound like shit and the recording quality would be terrible.
Needless to say, it was.
But I got a lot of positive feedback on the project, so it's all good.
