New Song Up! Apologies for the crapness :P

[Ravenlunasong aka GuerillaStar]

Hey all! Just to christen the new journal/blog/page/whatever ya wanna call it, I had the luck of actually being able to use my mic tonight without too many problems so I decided to record one of my all-time favourite songs, On My Own, from Les Miserables. It may not be a popular style, but I think everybody can sympathise with the lyrics, and it's a song that caught my heart from the first time I heard it.

Admittedly Lea Salonga sings it infinitely better than me (frankly, she can sing anything infinitely better than anyone, but that's another story. Miss Saigon, nuff said), but I'd venture to say this is one of my better recordings of it (and I'm using my own recordings as benchmarks there, not anyone else's, because tbh, I'm pretty sure if it were measured up against other people, I wouldn't come close).

Before you listen to it, or if you already have, before you judge it, bear in mind a handful of factors that have bearing on it. They may sound like excuses, but I like to make sure any factors that affect my singing are known so people can judge accordingly, and since I'd like any constructive feedback possible, I figure the more detail the better :)

This was recorded on the first try (for this song) on my incredibly awful headset mic at 1:30am while sitting on a very slouch-inducing sofa while trying to keep my voice down so as not to wake up the parents immediately upstairs and while fending off yawns every few seconds. Basically, in relation to my usual performance (ie during the day in my room while actually standing and rehearsing, without worrying about waking the parents), it's a fair bit quieter (I like to belt out the last verse or so, as that's the way it's intended, whereas in the current surroundings that's just not possible), my breathing control is worse because of the slouching preventing full, deep breaths, and I'm not usually quite so 'quaky' (in other words, having a word or two trailing off because of yawns cutting in).

Oh yes, and there's also the suspected case of food poisoning from the teryaki chicken noodles I had at the wedding, but I doubt that had too much effect on it lol.

I know it's not as loud, even taking into account my parents being in bed, as it could be, but I've only ever sung solo at home and in a couple of music festivals for charity, all my training and other public performance has been as part of choirs, and usually as a soprano since I'm midway between soprano and alto and the choirs I've been in have always been short of sopranos so I got plonked in with them to even out the numbers. Hence the quietness: I've always had to regulate my voice so as to blend with the choir and avoid standing out, so I'm still getting used to projecting my voice.

Anywho, lemme know what ya think guys! And for anyone who knows about singing (the finer points like breathing control, projection, that sorta thing), don't hesitate to point out what I'm doing wrong and/or what I should be doing or could do better, I'm always happy to take instruction :) Or even if ya hate it and think I should never post my own singing again, lemme know, at least I'll know!