Kassiopaea Karaoke

Cool thread, so many songs listed here we used to sing as a family or with friends - in the car, cooking, around a camp fire. This thread stirred up many memories, even when as a kid in choir and through the valleys of voice changes. Whether it was in a canoe on a lake or river with each paddle stroke part of the choirs while singing to the sky, it was always enjoyable.

Here is a quite song that was around in my teen years: a young Neil Young - OLD MAN

 
Thanks for the music! I was thinking a little bit about "corniness", it seems to me that it's a program that seems to prevent souls from actually enjoying good music. It's a psychological block against feeling the pure joy of listening and performing good, clean music. It's wise to observe ourselves whenever we think the music is "corny" and try to see the emotions behind it, like shame. Deny its hold over our emotions. We all deserve to feel joy.
 
Oh I hope Eva Cassidy gets included, any song from her album Live at Blues Alley. She had the voice of an angel :love:

Track listing[edit]
1."Cheek to Cheek" (Irving Berlin) – 4:03
2."Stormy Monday" (T-Bone Walker) – 5:49
3."Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Paul Simon) – 5:33
4."Fine and Mellow" (Billie Holiday) – 4:03
5."People Get Ready" (Curtis Mayfield) – 3:36
6."Blue Skies" (Irving Berlin) – 2:37
7."Tall Trees in Georgia" (Buffy St. Marie)– 4:05
8."Fields of Gold" (Sting) – 4:57
9."Autumn Leaves" (Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prévert) – 4:57
10."Honeysuckle Rose" (Andy Razaf, Thomas "Fats" Waller) – 3:14
11."Take Me to the River" (Al Green, Mabon "Teenie" Hodges) – 3:51
12."What a Wonderful World" (Bob Thiele, George David Weiss) – 5:50
13."Oh, Had I a Golden Thread" (Pete Seeger) – 4:46 [Studio recording]
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For anyone thinking "I'm not god at that", "I will never be good at that", "why should I bother doing it, when I don't have a good voice" and so forth: There is something I would like to point out, since the process itself is what really matters here (as with everything else) and not if you are perfect, or becoming perfect in it, or anything like that. There is no such thing as perfection, just a endless process of learning something.

In the book "The Practising Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life", Sterner explains very well how anything we do in life depends on how we pursue it.

I'll start off, with a little quote from later in the book:

The Practising Mind said:
Simplicity in effort will conquer the most complex of tasks
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Now Sterner explains a bit about arts (he is a professional musician, by the way). What he explains there, doesn't only apply to arts per se, but basically everything we do in life. It just so happens that he came to those conclusion through deep study of music and eastern philosophies. So he just uses those arts as an example:

The Practising Mind said:
There is an endless quality to life. There is always more to be experienced. Deep down, we know this and are glad for it. The problem is that everyday life steals this sense from us. It pulls us away from this perspective, constantly bombarding us with advertisements that all promise to fulfill us through purchases: “Get this, do that, and life will be perfect.” But none of this ever works. We need to let go of the futile idea that happiness is out there somewhere, and embrace the infinite growth available to us as a treasure, not as something that we are impatient to overcome.

People involved in the arts come to understand this endless nature through direct experience, which is part of all the arts. That is why I believe that a personal pursuit of some form of art is so important to a person’s sense of wellbeing. It will teach you the true nature of life right up front, if you pay attention.

Getting started in an art form as an adult is not a difficult task, but you need to approach it with the proper perspective. Whether you’re learning a musical instrument, painting, archery, or dance, you must first find an instructor who meets your needs. This is a fairly routine task for most of us. We do it for our children all the time. What lies in wait to ambush our enthusiasm is our lack of preparation: We are undertaking an art that is infinite in its potential for growth, and because of that we need to prepare to let go of the goal of being “good” at it quickly. There is no goal to reach other than pursuing the activity. This is not an easy perspective to function from, because it is so contrary to everything else we do all day. At work, this report needs to be done; that meeting is at 2 pm; and so on. Every task has a beginning, an end point, and closure. We pursue an art form to escape this constant task mentality and to indulge in the total relaxation that flows from the understanding that what we are doing has no end. Wherever we are in our process is where we should be.
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A very good and important read by the way...

There is also a very good book by Wayne Chase, called "How Music REALLY Works", where he explains pretty good, that you do not have to be able to read notes in order to understand and pursue good music. He also explains the mechanisms behind music and why, we as humans, are the only species that can actually naturally experience and play it. A very good read for anybody who likes to understand why and how music works. It is very enlightening for both the layman in music (in regards to playing a music instrument as well) and those who already play some kind of instrument and musicians. He also explains that music was probably the driving force of people coming together and doing something together before language even started. So music is a very deep and important part of us humans.
 
RedFox said:
This was the one song I really enjoyed singing at school (every morning at assembly we all had to sing hymn's like this).
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Thanks for sharing that one! Very simple and beautiful. Even though it is hard in the way it's sung there because of the different tones, I think it could be sung simpler and still be a good song for unskilled singers such as me. :D

Another good thing about it is that by listening to the different tones one can think of a way to sing it that can be adjusted to ones particular range, high and low. For example, I have a high range that I even think it's a bit disturbing, lol But I know that by working in it I might learn to make it better, so I can use the high tones in that song as guide.

Hesper said:
For groups an Old Irish Blessing would be really fun too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3EWCbtZGk

Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.
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Beatiful, but quite hard maybe.

I've found a simpler version that could be easier for beginners' practice:


It's a high range but it can be adapted to low ranges too, OSIT.
 
Laura said:
I just love Nana. What an incredible voice. And I heard she only has one vocal cord!

I had to get tough with myself and stop watching music videos!
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I love music from that era, and I am just loving this thread! Nana Mouskouri was a favourite for a while..
I grew up with Scottish music, bagpipes and all. One member of my adopted family worked in a record shop (remember them) and had a huge collection of records. At school I was in the choir, as a boy soprano I could sing higher than all the girls! Later I played guitar in the church music group and sang in the church choir for about twenty years. I had to give that away when my fingers got too arthritic and an operation damaged the vocal chords, so then it was Country and Western and Line Dancing. Unfortunately that came to a grinding halt when my achilles tendon went.

So now I am enjoying these videos, thanks to all for the contributions. I'll share some later.
 
Laura said:
Loved the horse song and images!

And since PP&M were brought up, more to add to the list:


Which reminds me of:


And:

Which leads to:


And:


And:




I'm getting carried away....



All these songs just have such beautiful and simple melodies.
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I cried with a smile on the lips by listening to Nana Mouskouri's last video. I saw again my mother to sing, what I liked when it to sing there was of the sun which gone into the house and also when she(it) sang. Dice that the spring comes back from Hugues Aufray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mR4h0-4H88&nohtml5=False
Thank you Laura for these memories. :hug2:
 
Laura said:
I just love Nana. What an incredible voice. And I heard she only has one vocal cord!

I had to get tough with myself and stop watching music videos!
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I Know what i can make with one rope, :)
and Nana she have an "unique" voice, it was with my sister when i was kid
that i heard for the first time Nana.
Kassiopaea Karaoke :thup:

 
As you start to collect songs to this songbook, I think you need to take into consideration also what are the most suitable keys for you to sing a particular song. For most people, the biggest problem is to sing higher notes/pitches. Singers like Iglesias and Nana seem to have a well trained 'head voice', which makes it easy for them to sing pretty high (I really like their style of singing), but for beginners singing in the same key would be tremendously difficult.

So, if you sing with a karaoke backing track, you need to have the option to transpose the key up- and down to suit your needs. Or, if you use a score or a 'band sheet' with chords (with someone accompanying on an instrument) you need to rewrite those in a suitable key. I'm sure all us musicians here on the forum can help you transpose songs into different keys.

Some quick notes on singing pitches.

- Women will most often experience a "barrier" at Bb3 (European: Bb1), that's B-flat above middle-C. If they can't switch into a lighter 'head voice' mechanism, pitches above that will become straining and singing much more difficult, since you need to add a lot more pressure to raise the pitch. The upper limit for the heavier 'chest voice' by adding pressure lies usually at F4, from where upwards it's almost impossible without switching to the lighter head voice mechanism. Of course, in some styles of music this sort of "screaming" by pushing the 'chest voice' up is even a must, but I have a feeling that most people here are not after this kind of "compressed" singing. The pitch for women's lowest note varies according to the voice type, but the "still usable" pitches would in average be somewhere around G2 or A2 (below middle-C).

- For men, this higher barrier would be around the same note, but an octave lower, that is Bb2 (below middle-C). As with women, men can push the chest voice up to F3, from where upwards it will become almost impossible without proper training or seriously hurting your voice. Lowest pitch varies, of course, but most men's voices "stop" at F1. Since men have a very strong component of 'chest voice' (we use mostly 'chest voice' when we speak), the battle for those higher notes will be even more difficult than for women.

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The million dollar question is, of course, how to train the 'head voice'. That's another "can of worms", and there are all sorts of ideas floating around of how to do that (one example being the previously mentioned charlatan Seth Riggs). I'll come back with some of my ideas regarding the 'head voice' later.
 
Keit said:
Laura said:
sToRmR1dR said:
Buddy said:
This thread is getting heavy with video embeds, so, in case this is noise, I'll just ask:
Any place for ABBA in this scheme? I really like their "Take a chance on me."
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I really like their "The winner takes it all". :)
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Yeah. Very philosophical song. I like ABBA and I don't care what anybody says!
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Well, apparently "anybody" here say "YES" to ABBA! Me too! So fun to sing. Karaoke wouldn't be the same without them.

But what about Queen? The show must definitely go on... ;)
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That was my thought process as well... This one by Queen is very melodic and simple enough :)

http://youtu.be/Q4lupqXayYI
 
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