I was talking to an old friend of mine yesterday and he and I go way back. Anyway, he was talking to me about how is brother is getting married on November 1st, but they are stretched a bit thin on the wedding budget and one of the items they are having trouble with is figuring out how to pay for a band. My friend doesn’t have any money either, so I threw out the idea of me paying for a band as my wedding gift to them, but was informed that any gifts that are (more or less) direct cash would probably result in his brother being offended.
I always like to be the problem solver, so because I used to be in a band (Like, six years ago) I hastily volunteered to play in the wedding for free. Obviously, my friend loved the idea (he had heard our band and liked us) and told his brother all about it. The hard part is over, which was for me to get a make-shift band together. Actually, both the drummer and lead guitarist of my former band were available for that night and thought it would be a fun thing to do. I contacted everyone in my social network and managed to borrow a bassist from another band for that night and got in touch with a friend of mine who isn’t half-bad on the keyboards.
We got together and played and we aren’t half-bad, and considering I have gone as long as I have without really trying to sing, I sound pretty good given the circumstances. The only problem is, I can’t hit anywhere near as high as I used to be able to, I’m still good on the low end, but not so much on the high end.
As luck would have it, it turns out that the soon-to-be newlyweds, “song” is, “Take On Me,” by A-Ha. I wasn’t aware of this until today. Anyway, I managed to find the song on a compilation CD that I was able to purchase for three dollars, and as it turns out, I am nowhere in the vicinity of hitting the big high notes in this song. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get myself to the point where I can hit this note within a month?
I have heard about some sort of honey concoction singer use. you might do some research there…Barring that, Put a tack in your underwear near your testicles and at the point where the high note is required, apply just the right amount of pressure to activate the tack. You should get some fantastic high notes then :-"
Tabula Rasa: I suppose volunteering was a nice thing to do, but I am sure that I am going to enjoy playing as much as they will enjoy us playing if not more.
Imp: I’m not going to cheat.
KrisWest: I’ll look into that. With more preparation time, I could get my voice back into shape, I sing in the car a lot and do karaoke sometimes at family parties, but I usually stay away form songs that require high notes.
All I know is I want this to be perfect. You only get to be married two or three times in your life, but much like losing your virginity, the first time only happens once. If I fail to do anything else, I need to shake this song to its very foundation and be like the lead singer of A-Ha (Whatever his name is) incarnate or something. I need to be ridiculously on for this song.
I won’t do any Frampton even if it is requested because I don’t really know any Frampton songs that well and the lead guitarist hates Frampton.
I’m going to spend some money and have some cards made. I don’t intend for the make-shift band to play again, but I want to give the impression to everyone except those in the know that they paid for the band. If anyone calls wanting us to do a gig, then I will just say we are booked already for whatever day they suggest. I was lucky to get the bassist from the other band for that night, but the lead singer of that band owed me a favor for some interest-free money I lent him five years back. I know to many the statute of limitations would be up on that, but his exact words were, “anytime you need something, I owe you one big favor.”
Any suggestions on what this band should be called for one night?
The name of our old band was Dethstryke, (don’t bother to look for us on-line, you won’t find us, we had original material but got gigs by word of mouth and didn’t do anything except play live) so I might call us 60% of Dethstryke, what do you think?
How about “Conditioned Reflex” for the name of the band.
And why do you actually have to reach those same high notes. Sing it your way. Could be “conditioning”? “Gotta do it”? Do it "Sinatra’s way.
Why not just start at a lower chord – then just relax and sing, sing, sing and enjoy.
I like that name, I’ll check on-line to make sure it is not taken and then go with it!!! Thanks for the idea!
I have to hit those notes. It is their song, for other songs I will sing it my way.
We did one thing very intelligently, though. We are getting the requests ahead of time so we can work on getting to know the songs. We have had people calling around and every guest gets one request. There are a lot of hard rockers/punks in the group also, so that helps. Here are five of the more interesting requests:
1.) “Come On Eileen,” Dexi’s Midnight Runners (Don’t know how we will pull this off)
2.) “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Deep Blue Something (Easy Enough)
3.) “Santeria,” Sublime (Very easy song, even though I sound nothing like him)
4.) “The Zephyr Song,” Red Hot Chili Peppers (One of My Favorite Songs Ever!!!)
5.) “Fuckin’ Hostile,” Pantera (That will be fun)
???