Caravan of Love

doc_ramadani

In times when the world seems so divided that it is almost unbearable, I remember a song from my youth: “Caravan of Love”.

“Caravan of Love" was written by Chris Jasper (Christopher H. Jasper), the creative genius of the hit trio Isley-Jasper-Isley. Chris Jasper also sang the original version of the song, which reached # 1 on the US Billboard Hot R'n'B chart in 1985. A year later, the British indie band “The Housemartins” made it to number 1 on the UK Singles Chart with their a capella version of “Caravan of Love”.

Together with my friend, British singer Robert Ruddock, I decided to bring the humanistic spirit of “Caravan of Love” back to life. In the original version this beautiful song is a mid-80s disco bandworm. I reworked it to give it a modern, yet acoustic driven dress. I did the arrangement and instrumentation all by myself but the final tracks for drums, bass, piano and guitars were recorded by friends of mine. The final mix was done by a professional mix engineer from Nashville, Kyle Holland. And I am so happy that my KTVA mates Chris ( @Wigs ), Klaus ( @Klaus_T ), Adam ( @Adam164 ) and Bob ( @highmtn ) joined Robert and me on the gang vocals for the last chorusses. You are bold ones.

I started KTVA 2 years and 11 months ago and I am still far away from where I want to be as a singer. At the same time I could never have imagined that I would be able to release something like this. But the hard practice, 1.5 hours at least 6 days a week is paying off and I already wrote a lot of originals which I will release one after another from now on.

This great learning environment and all the very kind mates here helped me tremendously. And ... they kept me motivated. It was super helpful to see all the progress that mates are having. And it was also a great pleasure to have a nice chat here and there with my friends. A lot of you are now - and will remain - a part of my life. You and KTVA changed my life, honestly.

Spread the words of LOVE:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ERrg7FiVNgg



A singer is only a singer because he has the guts to be a singer. Do your scales!

Take care, Doc

RandyB

Marco, I think you’ve got the video set to private. It’s asking for a password to access it.

doc_ramadani

Thanks @RandyB,

I corrected the link.

Doc

Wigs

Sounds awesome Marco! We blend very well together 🎤🤘🏼

Klaus_T

hey Marco, that's amazing! congratulations! so happy to be a part of this

RandyB

Nice work, Marco and company!

Vocality

Great job Marco and everyone involved

DannyOc3an

@doc_ramadani
Hey doc, congratulations on achieving this goal of yours. Must have been some serious hard work. The video production is flawless, total pro quality. And the singing, well, I'm so happy you find and enjoy the results of your hard work. Total pro sound mate. Those guys in the background sound like a very happy family together nice production, nice job all of you guys!. Keep it up doc, wishing you all the best!

doc_ramadani

Hi @DannyOc3an,

yes, it was and is still a lot of work. I am far from where I want to be as a singer. But the journey taught me that it is possible. I'd never taught that this could become possible. KTVA was the best investment I ever did in my life. This course opened the opportunities I looked for. I am so grateful for this. Ans I am even more grateful for the friends I gained on my journey: @Wigs, @highmtn, @Klaus_T (my punkrock buddy and soul trash can), @Elara, George, Raphael, Rick, Diego, Danny, Chris182, Shane, ...

I must say that I'd never thought that Adam ( @Adam164 ) would show up on something like this. ADAM, you are bold. Great that you joined us: great phrasing, great placement, AWESOME work on the accent. I hope that you can hear yourself poking out here and there.

Doc

DogMeat

Congrats @doc_ramadani . Just a pleasure to read about your passion, and i share the same feeling. Great all around work on the track. It sounds pro.

DannyOc3an

I remember when we first started at KTVA around the same time, trying to figure out some concepts while giving advice to others that was within our reach. Then you did this cool changes to the forum's visuals, and kept in here helping others. I was working directly with the course material and didn't log into the forum for quite a while, until now that I decided to spend some more time here

doc_ramadani said:

I am far from where I want to be as a singer. But the journey taught me that it is possible. I'd never taught that this could become possible. KTVA was the best investment I ever did in my life.

I can absolutely relate to this exact same feeling. As I said to Chris the other day, singing was always way beyond my realistic possibilities, every time I sang a happy birthday I felt truly sorry for the guests and tried to blend in or kept quiet One day I said 'if I can learn this, I can do anything' and then I looked around and found this cool rocker dude on YouTube who was promoting an online course and took the shot. Easily one of the best investments. KTVA value to price ratio is like a Zillion to one. If and only if, we take the time to dig deep and practice, practice and practice. I look forward to some day make those cool covers as this one you pulled off perfectly.

Cheers mate!

doc_ramadani

HI @DannyOc3an,

what was your biggest Add-On to KTVA?

I started KTVA and saw my voice growing so much. But pitch was always a big thing for me. I have noticed that I've had a listening problem. I started to train my ear, What was your biggest issue?

Doc

DannyOc3an

Everything doc I was totally clueless before never could have guessed that learning to sing was even possible, then I noticed how doing scales is the way this is learned, and that everything is trained by scales... But my main issue was always support. I spent the first year thinking that I was doing this right, I even started doing some songs, and then a friend of mine had a listen to one song that involved some high notes, I think it was Robbie William's Angels ("high notes" then, it was only a F#4 ) and she told me: "that's what people call 'singing from the throat' isn't it? That technique..?" and she said it in such a legit and curious way.. I was like 'errr yeah sure... cool technique isn't it?' and went back immediately to work on it That's when I had the biggest breakthrough, revisited all the material with this in mind, and by revisiting Vol 1 and digging deep I had the AHA moments. Spent months digging deep into the "sit up" exercise since it's the only thing the course presents in this regard and could finally "find" clearly what it takes. Could find that power or strength Ken talks about, and how it totally relieves any throat intervention no matter how loud or high you go. Then I learned to control that strength, progressively, and this two things combined were my biggest breakthrough. Now by doing Vols 3, 4 & 5 this strength is ultimately very required and can feel clearly how it helps with high notes, and in every range. And by working along some skype sessions, I truly can say I found it. In fact this moved me to come back to the forum recently and make a post around the topic so maybe others could benefit from this experience too. Only yesterday I finished editing it
Have to say, those Pro videos and the other skypes around are priceless, when you choose to sing along.. Now working deep on the open throat too, (yawning) and vowel mods, precisely because of these videos.
Ken is such a great guy letting us have access to those sessions, as are those those students who make these available for us. It's exactly like having a 1 on 1, without the prime cost. I'm totally grateful for all this with them. See, that's another reason the value of KTVA is a zillion to one with its price...

doc_ramadani

Hi @DannyOc3an, Hi Danny,

oh, it so great to hear your story. It is the same for me absolutely. My problems:

• OVERSINGING. I was shouting at Ken in my first session.
  
• PITCH: My ear wasn't ready.
  

A lot of times I would have liked to have Ken with nw in the basement telling me when and WHY I should into head voice (or miixed). But doing the scales more and more, I learned to control my voice. It is amazing how I now listen to vocal performances. Yesterday, wifey (Sonja) and I have been to on open-air Musical: "Dracula". It was pretty good. But I was annoyed by the way Dracula swallowed all the vocals.

Danny, this has been a very interesting journey and I am so glad, that you've helped me on that.

Doc

DannyOc3an

doc_ramadani said:

OVERSINGING. I was shouting at Ken in my first session.

That's because you're such an enthusiastic guy Doc, can't help it

doc_ramadani said:

A lot of times I would have liked to have Ken with nw in the basement telling me when and WHY I should into head voice (or miixed). But doing the scales more and more, I learned to control my voice.
Doc

That's when I find the recorded sessions so useful when singing along them !!

doc_ramadani said:

Yesterday, wifey (Sonja) and I have been to on open-air Musical: "Dracula". It was pretty good. But I was annoyed by the way Dracula swallowed all the vocals.

Ha ha yes I can relate, "vocal awareness" increases greatly the more time you spend working out!!

It is in fact an interesting journey, Doc... It's an inspiration to see your progress, for all of us! Keep on rocking mate!!

shining

Und auch hier:
Toll gemacht von euch allen
Tolle Songauswahl, großartig gesungen und überhaupt ein schönes Projekt
Schade, dass es bei mir zeitlich nicht passte.
Viel Erfolg !!!!

doc_ramadani

Liebe Ela,

beim nächsten Projekt bist Du auf jeden Fall dabei.

Liebe Grüße,
Marco

Vocality

@doc_ramadani

Hey Marco,

it’s a long way we all have come in our singing journey, We still want more and it’s that drive will in time make us much better singers. It’s great you managed to keep up with daily 1.5 hour workouts.

We both had to wrestle with pitch issues, you recommended me to do interval training to start with getting a lot wrong but now my averages above 90 % nearly at my target.

I had a lesson with Ken a year ago, he was quick to pin point areas to improve upon, getting root note of the scale accurate, don’t sing bottom too loud as ascended scale, vowel mods have to be smoother and work on register brake.

I have improve a lot since then but got a way still to go so my feet 🦶 is still on the ground.

George 🙂

Adam164

doc_ramadani said:

I must say that I'd never thought that Adam ( @Adam164 ) would show up on something like this. ADAM, you are bold. Great that you joined us: great phrasing, great placement, AWESOME work on the accent. I hope that you can hear yourself poking out here and there.

Doc

(@doc_ramadani) Thanks Doc! I had a lot of fun with this project. Let’s do another!

Cheers,
Adam

doc_ramadani

Hello Adam, @Adam164,

no worries, I am already preparing my next release and hope that my KTVA friends are on board again.

Doc

Vocality

@doc_ramadani it would be nice to be part of it!

feliciahong99

How wonderful! I love the song and the video for the positive message of love. The singing is excellent! Congrats to you and the crew 😍