'Like a Stone' - Audioslave (Chris Cornell) Cover

RLV

Here is a cover of 'Like a Stone' by Audioslave/Chris Cornell I did. I admit, this is a pretty ambitious song and singer to try and cover, but being my biggest influence, I had to give it a shot Would love to know how others think I did. Thanks in advance! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZWvRP5wO28

Diego

I like your tone for most of this! Good job. There are some parts that do need some more support because you're going a bit flat for some of the notes. You are slurring a lot words, which I understand is in the style of the song. I feel like on the "I'll wait for you there" parts in the chorus you could go more "I'll W-EHHHH-eeht" Not going straight to Eeh but just barely touching it at then end just to create the illusion that you sang the word without modifying. I feel like you also could have a little more fluidity in your phrasing. I think you breathe in between almost every word, which makes it seem like you are out of breath.

Those are just some pointers that I picked up.

Good job!

Keep it up.

codeowl

@Jwal,

Hey mate, my tip for conquering the flat notes would be to:
Listen back to your track above and take note of where the flat notes are, as in make a list.
Analyse each one, and try and determine why you are not getting to the note.
Eg; if you can sing the note when playing it on it's own with a keyboard, (which I am sure you can), why are you not hitting it in the song?
It could be how you are transitioning from the previous word/phrase. Is there a vowel mod you could use to help the transition, or a mask you can use to assist.
I was working on Let Her Cry from Hootie and the Blowfish and for ages I just could not get the part in the last chorus where he sings "If it eases all her paaaainnnnnn" at the 3:47 mark, and the final "Let her goooooooo" at around the 3:50 min mark. In the end I found after listening very closely that when he sings pain, he does it like pay-een and when he sings "let her gooooooo" the goooooo is like guh-ooooohhhhhhh and when I approach those words starting with those sounds "pay.." for pain and "guh" for go, it made them so much easier and I could get the pitch right.
I don't sing it exactly like him as he gets some really sweet distortion and I am just focusing on support and breath control at the moment, I will get to that stuff later down the track when I am more advanced. But I can now do it in key and it captures the feel of what he is doing there.
https://youtu.be/1aVHLL5egRY?t=215

Then experiment with technique, vowel mods, mask etc... to be able transition to those notes. Study where you think the melody should go, and then work towards being able to articulate it in pitch and enunciation.

Great work mate!!

Regards,

Scotty

RLV

@codeowl

Awesome tips! Ya know I thought it sounded fine for a day or so and listening to it again after that I cringed. You are absolutely right about being able to play and sing the notes on keyboard (mainly guitar) just fine....
One thing that I believe caused me to sing a lot of this song flat is the fact that I recorded the guitar and bass ect. a half a step up than how the actual song is played. I'm assuming that years and years of listening to the song drove me to sing it through memory rather than to the music I was singing over. Like the chorus goes "IN----- YOUR HOUSE------" I sang those on a F#, but listening to the actual song I realized that he is singing an F.
Thanks a lot, your tips are wonderful.. It's funny you mention "Let Her Cry" as a song you struggled with, because Darius Rucker (the singer for Hottie) did as well on that tour lol

Thanks a lot!

RLV

@Diego

Thanks a lot Diego! You know I thought it sounded fine at first... and then the next day it made me cringe. One problem I think cause me to fatigue and go flat throughout this was the fact that the original recording is sung a half step lower, and listening to this song for almost 20 years I think memory forced me toward notes that I subconsciously knew were the actual notes sung.
I'm guessing this is whatr happened, don't want to sound like I'm making excuses for myself though lol, so I'm going to do it again and again until it IS correct.

Thanks a lot!

Regards

Jacob