This past summer, I managed to record vocals for 10 songs, and I was actually pleased with the results. It took helping someone else to record a song to teach me how to do it for myself, and I’m much more comfortable knowing that most of the limitations of my voice — and there are many — can be "fixed" in production.
Thus inspired, I went through all Eponymous 4 songs requiring vocals and noted the highest and lowest notes of each. My most comfortable range is from low C to D near middle C. Every song was categorized in relation to that range. If the lowest note was a B, it was considered too low. If the highest note was an E-flat, it was considered too high. In reality, I can hit those notes but not as easily as anything within range.
Songs that hit the furthest acceptable ranges — low F for bass, G near middle C for tenor — were flagged to be transposed in such a way where the extreme note would be near the comfortable range. Songs with an extremely wide range — the folly of a writer who isn’t a singer — posed the most problems. Two songs in particular were more difficult rhythmically than melodically.
And after all that analysis, the Spreadsheet was born! It really should be called the Eponymous 4 Vocal Schedule, but I’m calling it the Spreadsheet.
I’ve used the Spreadsheet in the last few days to figure out which songs I’m going to tackle first. My first inclination, like all lazy people, was to do the easiest stuff first and save the harder stuff for later. Then I dove straight into the most complex song to record — "Hear the Wind Sing". I wanted to get a benchmark of just how much work would be required to do the more challenging stuff.
When I realized it wouldn’t be that bad, I decided to go against inclination and tackle all the difficult stuff first. If I get it out of the way now, they won’t be around for wild procrastination later.
See that section of green? Those are songs that have some vocals done (not necessarily final draft vocals). The goal is to make that green section as large as possible. Not pictured is a blue section, which signifies the songs that fall in the comfortable range. The yellow sections, of course, are the more difficult songs, with the darker shades being more difficult than others.
All this organization isn’t very rock ‘n’ roll, but I’ve been putting off recording vocals for a long, long time now. I needed a picture of the work I’m facing, and the Spreadsheet illustrates it nicely.