Hive Open Mic Week #159 | I'm a Stranger Now Cover

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(Edited)

Since my girlfriend was out tonight for some work-related grand opening.

Despite having 800 things I needed to do, I seized this opportunity to do some recording on guitar.

Here I present I'm a Stranger now by The Tallest Man on Earth

I don't normally have the time to do this at home because I tend to prioritize my time with her, given that by the time we're both home, there's only the second half of the evening left. So yeah, I don't do it much.

And you can tell. Just look at the video lol. Any musician will be cringing:

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Not only am I using a terrible choice of microphone for vocals, but I'm dangling it precariously on the wrong support, the pop shield is incorrectly placed, the positioning is terrible. I'm wearing open-back headphones for a recording, A Cordoba is definitely not the right guitar either. Probably a whole host of other things. Not to mention I hadn't even spoken for about 8 hours so my voice was somewhat crappy, I even had to lower the capo a good 3 frets or so.

I don't really have a setup for my music in this apartment. Bad Feng Shui and no time. So yeah I just threw this together.

To be honest I only ever heard this song a couple of times. I certainly didn't know the lyrics which is why you can see me constantly look down at the screen. The guitar part is somewhat of an estimation, too!

My point here is not to make excuses. I think the performance is fine really. I just want to encourage music for the fun of it. I'm quite sick of 'perfected' music, with heavy autotune and atomically-quantized beats. There's something nice about the rawness of music like this. The imperfections, the failures, mistakes. It's easier to connect to.

So yeah, despite all the issues and rush, I went with it anyway since I wanted to join Hive's Open Mic for a change, and when I saw the theme was 'A Good Friend', this song spoke to me. Start the clock. I only got a brief window!

Enjoy:

[Removed cuz a proper rendition will be created soon]

'I'm a stranger now' has some meaning in this context for me, as my friends in England who I grew up with for many years, spent every day, entire summers and beyond together, are now distant vestiges of what once was. I moved abroad, and moved for so long (13 years now), that, well... I'm a stranger now.

I don't know their wives and their children. I never attended their weddings, I don't know anything really. The song, however, is seemingly more specifically about a partner. But whatever, I can interpret it how I like.

For anybody interested, the tuning is FACFAF. Tallest Man on Earth is notorious for his altered tunings.

I didn't do any autotuning or other editing other than adding an amplifier plugin to the guitar, and some reverb.



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13 comments
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Well, I understand how you feel about the imperfections. Humans aren't perfect either.
I agree with the fact that sometimes listening to something raw gives a different feel

You did great and I enjoyed listening to you.

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Thanks!

If I do a proper contribution to this community I'll make sure to do something a little cleaner and prepared, but for now yeah, it's just fun to make something and I think that's all that matters

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This is so sad to watch your friends distance away,Good friends are more precious than gold.
Truly such things happens,an african proverb says ''20 children can't play for 20 years'', that's how life is friend

I really enjoyed listening to the pleasant sound of yours, thanks for sharing with us

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My dad always had this very negative view. I'm not sure why he felt the need to remind me often that the friends I had will all be gone by the time I'm his age. He might be right but don't tell a kid that!

And really, I still talk to a handful of them who ive known since I was 7 years old, and I live almost walking distance from my closest friend I've known since I was 10 despite us both having moved across the globe.

Not too bad really!

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Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye .because between the period of distances a lot of new things will happen.its nice watching your presentation.

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Thanks - yeah, although I never really knew it was goodbye. When I left so many years ago I had no idea I would establish a whole new life and grow into middle age away from home. Pretty interesting how things turn out

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Anyways that's life. Meet new friends today and tomorrow we are not together again. Enjoy your new life.

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It seems that this is the first time you post in the Hive Open Mic community, anyway, we want to give you a warm welcome.

It is remarkable that you are very good with the guitar and of course your voice is not far behind, you are a great artist and for us it is a pleasure to have you here, enjoy your talent will be a privilege.

Here are the suggested community guidelines in case you are interested in reviewing them (https://peakd.com/hive-105786/@hiveopenmic/community-guidelines-or-pautas-sugeridas-del-hive-open-mic-eng-esp)

Thank you for participating! See you soon!

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(Edited)

Hahaha this was a very bad vocal performance - I didn't have time to learn properly, warm up etc, and so likewise, didn't have time to sit and read guidelines. I just thought I'd post in the community for once. I'm not even sure if it's meant to be a competition or something?

Just recording something was my main goal =D (and deleted in a few days for obvious reasons heh)

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Hi there ✨

Welcome to Open Mic, awesome two minutes and eighteen seconds passed too quickly, I had to play it once again. Haha, I thought I am complaining too much on myself 😂 but then I read this post and the part about the microphone, the support, the shield, and that the guitar isn't the best choice either. But yes, we have fun and feel good when play and the imperfections don't matter. And your presentation is indeed fine...no, not fine, it's great 😃

Nice to meet you @mobbs 😉

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Haha thanks! Next time I get some real time and prep I might do a more polished, mixed music (no autotune! I refuse)

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