Performer: rsl12 (USA). Piano has been a hobby for decades. First half of my piano life was focused on classical, but now I'm into jazz.
Piece: What'd I Miss by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2015)
Comment Policy: All comments; anything goes!
Source of music: My own transcription
Recording method: Blue Yeti on top of the piano, omnidirectional, but pointed at my mouth
Additional info: The Second Annual Keep-Up-Musical-Skills-Over-The-Summer Family Recital was a success. You may remember from last year that the recital is meant to give our kids a reason to practice over the school break. Last year, I sang "Always Chew Your Food". This year, we expanded the operation from 2 families to 4, and changed the venue to a church! It bigger crowd and formal venue was more nervewracking for everyone! We may scale down next year. Anyways, the unofficial theme was the musical "Hamilton", as several of the girls are obsessed with it. "What'd I Miss" starts the 2nd Act of the musical. Thomas Jefferson arrives back in USA after spending a few years in Paris as an ambassador. I picked this one because I liked the harmony and style. Large fragments of boogie woogie, combined with jazzier harmonies, which I tried to figure it out by ear. Not sure about some of the voicings, but stacked 4ths seem to be a good approximation. In the in-person recital, I forgot many lyrics from the 2nd verse, but fortunately all the Hamilton fans in the audience shouted prompts so I could continue!
In addition to being a challenging (and long) piano part to sing with, this recording was a little rushed. Sorry it's not great! My previous piano/voice recordings are too heavy on piano because I make no effort to balance the two. This time, I pointed the mic directly at my mouth, and that definitely made a difference, though I think some tweaking is necessary. Also, I put in the earbuds to hear the audio feed--I'm not sure if that helped or hindered. All this use of technology feels a little bit like it's cheating, because in a real live situation, people won't hear it that way, but I think I've reached the limit of how much I can soften my fingers and bellow out the notes!