Theres a game we like to play with our friends called Cant See, Cant Hear Karaoke. Each player chooses a song, then puts on a blindfold and noise-canceling headphones. The song is blasted through the headphones, but only the person singing can hear the music and not herself.
Its always a riot watching people get all into their performances, without being able to see how the crowd is reacting, or know if theyre hitting the right notes. It can make even the best of singers sound terrible. I highly recommend it.
The 2016 Grammy Awards were Monday night, and there were some amazing performances. But there were also some that I think were more along the lines of the Cant See, Cant Hear game that werent necessarily the artists fault.
So much goes into a live vocal performance. First off, there are the rehearsals with the band or other musicians and artists beforehand. These can be days to weeks leading up to the actual performance. Hours are spent going over and over the songs, catching missed notes, key changes and wrong tempos. Everything is sorted out, hashed out, worked out and gone over and over again.
Then, either the day of the performance, or sometimes a few days before, the artist goes into the venue they will be performing in for a sound check, which is a rehearsal on stage, checking out the acoustics and equipment of the venue.
The artists spend several hours going over and over the song(s) again, making sure they can hear themselves in the mix of all the instruments, as well as in the monitors at the front and sides of the stage. If the monitors are not turned on, and the sound is just coming through the house speakers, the speakers throughout the venue that lets the audience hear the singer clearly, the artists wont be able to hear themselves.
Add in bright, blinding stage lights and screaming fans, and you can see how sometimes this is the perfect scenario for the Cant See, Cant Hear game.
Despite hours of rehearsals and sound checks, many times things go wrong. A mic isnt turned on. An instrument is out of tune. The sound is too loud, too soft or there is a bad connection or too much feedback that loud, screeching sound a microphone makes when its too hot or too close to the speaker.
And thats what makes live performances so exciting. So much could go wrong, but when everything goes exactly right, magic happens and the crowd is left on a musical high.
Monday night, Adele hit the Grammy stage for the first time since 2012. No doubt she spent hours rehearsing, checking and preparing for this, her comeback moment.
Imagine her disappointment when the first notes ringing from the piano were not clear and melodic, but clangy and harsh, like someone was banging on the strings.
"The piano mics fell onto the piano strings; that's what the guitar sound was," Adele explained on Twitter after social media blew up with criticism. In a desperate attempt to fix the problem, the sound technicians momentarily muted Adeles mic, silencing her voice and making the problem sound worse.
Regardless, Adele powered through and delivered a beautiful rendition of her song All I Ask. Was it perfect? No. There were several notes that fell flat and several she flat-out missed. Her voice cracked. Her tone wasnt spot-on.
But she was still amazing.
There is no denying Adeles incredible voice, her absolute command of the stage, and her complete dominance of the music industry this past year. While there were things she probably wouldve changed about the performance, most of those things were out of her control.
A singers voice isnt like an instrument they can tune to sound perfect every time. They get tired, they get weak, they are affected by how much sleep they get, what they eat, how stressed out they are, etc. I have often said, I am only as good as the sound. Things dont often go perfectly, but a true professional can make the best out of a mess and that is exactly what Adele did.
Because of it though... I'm treating myself to an in n out (burger). So maybe it was worth it, she tweeted.
I agree wholeheartedly, Adele. A burger and shake can make a bad day better.
Its always a riot watching people get all into their performances, without being able to see how the crowd is reacting, or know if theyre hitting the right notes. It can make even the best of singers sound terrible. I highly recommend it.
The 2016 Grammy Awards were Monday night, and there were some amazing performances. But there were also some that I think were more along the lines of the Cant See, Cant Hear game that werent necessarily the artists fault.
So much goes into a live vocal performance. First off, there are the rehearsals with the band or other musicians and artists beforehand. These can be days to weeks leading up to the actual performance. Hours are spent going over and over the songs, catching missed notes, key changes and wrong tempos. Everything is sorted out, hashed out, worked out and gone over and over again.
Then, either the day of the performance, or sometimes a few days before, the artist goes into the venue they will be performing in for a sound check, which is a rehearsal on stage, checking out the acoustics and equipment of the venue.
The artists spend several hours going over and over the song(s) again, making sure they can hear themselves in the mix of all the instruments, as well as in the monitors at the front and sides of the stage. If the monitors are not turned on, and the sound is just coming through the house speakers, the speakers throughout the venue that lets the audience hear the singer clearly, the artists wont be able to hear themselves.
Add in bright, blinding stage lights and screaming fans, and you can see how sometimes this is the perfect scenario for the Cant See, Cant Hear game.
Despite hours of rehearsals and sound checks, many times things go wrong. A mic isnt turned on. An instrument is out of tune. The sound is too loud, too soft or there is a bad connection or too much feedback that loud, screeching sound a microphone makes when its too hot or too close to the speaker.
And thats what makes live performances so exciting. So much could go wrong, but when everything goes exactly right, magic happens and the crowd is left on a musical high.
Monday night, Adele hit the Grammy stage for the first time since 2012. No doubt she spent hours rehearsing, checking and preparing for this, her comeback moment.
Imagine her disappointment when the first notes ringing from the piano were not clear and melodic, but clangy and harsh, like someone was banging on the strings.
"The piano mics fell onto the piano strings; that's what the guitar sound was," Adele explained on Twitter after social media blew up with criticism. In a desperate attempt to fix the problem, the sound technicians momentarily muted Adeles mic, silencing her voice and making the problem sound worse.
Regardless, Adele powered through and delivered a beautiful rendition of her song All I Ask. Was it perfect? No. There were several notes that fell flat and several she flat-out missed. Her voice cracked. Her tone wasnt spot-on.
But she was still amazing.
There is no denying Adeles incredible voice, her absolute command of the stage, and her complete dominance of the music industry this past year. While there were things she probably wouldve changed about the performance, most of those things were out of her control.
A singers voice isnt like an instrument they can tune to sound perfect every time. They get tired, they get weak, they are affected by how much sleep they get, what they eat, how stressed out they are, etc. I have often said, I am only as good as the sound. Things dont often go perfectly, but a true professional can make the best out of a mess and that is exactly what Adele did.
Because of it though... I'm treating myself to an in n out (burger). So maybe it was worth it, she tweeted.
I agree wholeheartedly, Adele. A burger and shake can make a bad day better.
