Here's my newest recording of "When Words Fail". Some things got better, some worse. Overall, I'm making progress. Two weeks until the recital (not the PianoTell recital).
https://recorder.google.com/b318b9d7-e61a-4a0f-9c03-ec9c0ebcf141
Things to work on:
- Focus on strong support even at the end of phrases. Keep veil up in nasal areas.
- Work on the fast passages "obviously you're not fat / but your personality is biggish" and on the soft phrases "when words fail"
- Memorize the physical gestures I've notated
TC3 That's some darn fine improvising accompaniment. I'd love to be able to do that.
Thank you. It's taken years for me to feel comfortable with my off-the-cuff piano skills.
I know what you mean about singing and playing at the same time. For myself, I need to have the lyrics memorized 100% -- if I have to stop to think about a word, I'm bound to mess up ...
The lyrics are memorized now, but I'm still messing up because my piano-playing is not as practiced. Listening to the newest recording, I discovered my singing pitch wanders the most when two things happen to my piano-playing:
1) I get a little lost or play a note I wasn't expecting. Brain starts focusing on fingers, and voice deflates like an unpinched balloon.
2) I play a non-chord tone. I think if I settled on an arrangement, I could get used to the non-chord tones, but because I'm improvising the accompaniment, the way the piano sounds against my voice always surprises me. I think I need to stick with chord tones exclusively next time I do these practice recordings. Since my recital does not entail me playing piano, I won't worry for this song, but I have the PianoTell recital coming up, and this insight may be useful for that!