Reading lyrics incognito

[LiveMusic]

I recorded an original song yesterday as a test and I didn't like the video because I have not memorized the lyric and I didn't care for the visual of me having to glance at the lyric sheet. Then I thought of using a projector to a screen. Which worked fine except the fan motor noise is way too loud to record a song. Then it dawned on me that I have a 65" smart tv in the room, so, I figured out how to pipe my laptop screen to the tv, was easy, and it worked great as far as the image goes. I have not recorded a video using the lyric-on-tv yet, so, I do not know for sure if it looks natural. The recording device, cellphone or iPad, will need to be right next to, over or under the tv to minimize that I am following the lyric on a screen.

Another question needing answered is where should one look when filming a video of yourself? Even if you've memorized the lyric, look straight at the camera or obliquely or vary it? I will need to watch some videos and make note what artists are doing to provide a good viewing experience!

I also have this same need for doing gigs. I have hundreds of original songs and am always writing more and I am not one of those people who easily memorizes lyrics such that I'm pretty much fool-proof. The obvious solution would a cellphone or iPad but am concerned about the visual on that, too, not wanting the phone or iPad to block much of the view. And to minimize that I am reading a lyric! The solution is to play only those songs completely memorized but gigs have different set list needs, plus, the constant songwriting, and I am no spring chicken and the brain gets fuzzier.

If anyone has any thoughts or tips, advise!

[b1j]

Once you invest in that laptop piping, there’s no limit to what you can plumb it up to.

[Rudy4]

I think you and I have very similar situations. It will be interesting to hear what others have to say.

Specifically for videos you could print LARGE sheets and hang them on a board adjacent to your camera tripod. That's perhaps your best option because it allows you to see lyrics, but not appear that you're reading directly from a sheet. You then can look wherever you want to. For "archival" videos I don't care, but for something that is done as a performance there needs to be some thought put into where you want to look.

You might consider simply putting your lyric sheet on a flash drive in jpg form. Most smart TVs have a flash drive port so there's no need to use your laptop if you don't want to.

If you are using a mic stand already, you could try this:



I have a combo music / mic stand that I use for gigs and I adjust the platform to be almost flat. It then works well for lyrics but doesn't obscure you from the audience. My playing buddies also use books and nobody has ever commented that we didn't memorize the material.



The last video I did I just used a clipboard on a footstool just below the camera view. A lot of stuff I can do from memory, but when doing a video there's too much stuff going on for my lil' brain to handle all of it.

[KevWind]

For recording my philosophy and method is know the lyrics and music well enough that you do not have read it. And while recording I tend to vary where I am looking a little bit.

For live if you need a cheat sheet IMO an iPad or Tablet that has song software that can adjust font size and scroll, mounted below the mic and again try to vary the looking also so say to the iPad and then out to audience

[Guitars44me]

Originally Posted by KevWind

For recording my philosophy and method is know the lyrics and music well enough that you do not have read it. And while recording I tend to vary where I am looking a little bit.

For live if you need a cheat sheet IMO an iPad or Tablet that has song software that can adjust font size and scroll, mounted below the mic and again try to vary the looking also so say to the iPad and then out to audience

My take…. YMMV

Long ago I read an interview with John Hammond Jr. where he was asked how he learns a song. He said he does not even consider starting to learn it until he has listened to it at least 500 times. Thus he knows it before he even starts to learn it. If that makes sense.

If I don’t know the song inside and out, upside down, under water, and stoned I certainly don’t want to play it for an audience, let alone record it.

Just me.

Have fun whatever you do

Paul

[Bob Womack]

"Video killed the radio star..."

Bob

[Rudy4]

I don't think a lyrics book and stand have negatively affected Lucinda William's career any.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

I recorded an original song yesterday as a test and I didn't like the video because I have not memorized the lyric and I didn't care for the visual of me having to glance at the lyric sheet. Then I thought of using a projector to a screen. Which worked fine except the fan motor noise is way too loud to record a song. Then it dawned on me that I have a 65" smart tv in the room, so, I figured out how to pipe my laptop screen to the tv, was easy, and it worked great as far as the image goes. I have not recorded a video using the lyric-on-tv yet, so, I do not know for sure if it looks natural. The recording device, cellphone or iPad, will need to be right next to, over or under the tv to minimize that I am following the lyric on a screen.

Oh, my. You're creating a problem that isn't there. All you need is newsprint or posterboard and a magic marker. Or the time it takes to properly learn the song before you record it. If it needs a few takes to make it good, so what? No one will know but you.

I mean, come on. How did people manage without electronic media thirty years ago?

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

Another question needing answered is where should one look when filming a video of yourself? Even if you've memorized the lyric, look straight at the camera or obliquely or vary it? I will need to watch some videos and make note what artists are doing to provide a good viewing experience!

No one cares. Look wherever you want. I often close my eyes.

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

I also have this same need for doing gigs. I have hundreds of original songs and am always writing more and I am not one of those people who easily memorizes lyrics such that I'm pretty much fool-proof. The obvious solution would a cellphone or iPad but am concerned about the visual on that, too, not wanting the phone or iPad to block much of the view. And to minimize that I am reading a lyric! The solution is to play only those songs completely memorized but gigs have different set list needs, plus, the constant songwriting, and I am no spring chicken and the brain gets fuzzier.

If anyone has any thoughts or tips, advise!

Okay, here you go: I'm terrible at memorizing, too. And I agree that looking at a tablet or notebook or music stand looks dorky.

So just keep in mind that you're not going to play every song you know at a gig. That means that while you keep working on learning songs, you can stick with the ones you know when you gig.

The trick is to review what you know often, and especially before a gig.

[Birdbrain]

At the bluegrass jam I attend, iPad lyrics are the norm. I use a three-legged stand to pout it below eye level. When I forget the stand, I sit parallel to my guitar case and lay the pad on the slope of the lower bout. It's very inconspicuous there, and still available at a glance. After repetitions, I don't need to look at it much except to keep the verses in order.

If you put yourself into the song and make eye contact with an audience, I think they'll forget about the tablet.

[raysachs]

I’ve been doing videos lately with my iPhone up pretty close to eye level and with an iPad (with lyrics and chords) right below the phone, but out of its view. When I look at the iPad, it’s close enough to looking right at the phone / camera. If you look closely, I guess you can see I’m looking a bit below the phone and you can see reflections of the iPad in my glasses, but it works pretty well, certainly well enough for my limited purposes. Here’s a video I shot a few months ago this way…



-Ray

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

"Video killed the radio star..."

Bob

Had we only known the extent way back in 1981...

[Robin, Wales]

I find that memorising lyrics takes an inordinate amount of time. I guess that I'm a +10:1 in the hours I put into learning the lyrics for a song compared to the time I'm practicing the guitar part.

I have a solo slot in a concert tonight. The song is in the Welsh language, and quite a tongue twister. I have had about 10 days to learn it and build an accompaniment (clawhammer banjo). I have lyric sheets all over the house, on my bedside table, and taped to the handlebars of my bicycle!

I think that I'm ready, but I'm going to have a large print A4 version with me tonight. There will be a music stand on stage because the choir conductor will be using it. I'm going to put my lyrics on that. But I really hope that I won't need to look! I may though glance across them before I start the song.

I love to play without the lyrics in front of me - I find it very freeing and I think that I connect with the song and audience better. For me, knowing the lyrics is very much a part of the performance art - so it is worth the extensive time it takes.

Learning them in a foreign language is definitely more difficult. I'm very good at ad lib lyrics in English, which have carried me through many a song. I can't do that in Welsh!

I terms of recording, I think of this in the same way as I would record tunes on dulcimer. I would read the music to learn the tune but always put away the music sheet before hitting "record".

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I don't think a lyrics book and stand have negatively affected Lucinda William's career any.

And lots of people on TV use teleprompters.

Memorizing is real hard for me (too many mercury amalgam fillings as a kid?), so I just force myself to do it, however long it takes.* For me, it's easier than reading, playing, and singing all at the same time. Just not a multi-tasker.

And even though lots of pros do keep words or music in front of them, even classical and jazz artists, I'd still feel unprepared (and feel like I looked unprepared) if I used training wheels onstage.

-------------

* A pro guitarist friend once told me he didn't have time to talk because he had to learn three songs that night. Three that night? I'm lucky to learn three in a month!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

My take…. YMMV

Long ago I read an interview with John Hammond Jr. where he was asked how he learns a song. He said he does not even consider starting to learn it until he has listened to it at least 500 times. Thus he knows it before he even starts to learn it. If that makes sense.

If I don’t know the song inside and out, upside down, under water, and stoned I certainly don’t want to play it for an audience, let alone record it.

Just me.

Have fun whatever you do

Paul

Total sense and good point. No question that just listening to a song many multiple times is a real advantage to "knowing the song by heart" as the expression goes

But as I expressed in my previous post there are two different concepts here .
#1 is completely memorizing a single song for recording, which is what I do as I don't want any distractions from listening to what I am doing while I am recording (i.e I do not want the distraction of split focus) of trying to listen to how what I am playing blends specifically with what I am singing and vice versa (the prosody) while trying to read lyrics or chord diagrams or both.

#2 trying to memorize 2 or 3 or 4 full sets of songs aprox some 30 -60 songs
Which I could do and did in my younger years, but can no longer do .

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

Had we only known the extent way back in 1981...

Well, I can say that the first time I saw The Buggles my thought was, "This isn't going to end well."

Bob