I don't expect rave reviews. I would like some critique. If I shouldn't do this again, it's cool. Realize, am not a pro like those Elvis impersonators. This is something I do for charity and this case, a co-workers birthday party for her 85 year old grandmother.

I can accept negativity, but please don't say stuff like "you suck" or" that's horrible", but if you say "you can't sing", I get it!

http://www.youtube.com/wa...rY9xP1W3A8

[Edited 11/27/11 6:51am]

I haven't watched the video yet, but if an 85-year-old grandmother is getting down to "Let's Go Crazy", then you are doing just fine!

You should consider imitating Alice Cooper instead.

Well, at least you have some balls to post this here.

Why exactly are you doing this?

MacDaddy said:

Well, at least you have some balls to post this here.

Why exactly are you doing this?

Honestly? I usually do this for charity, I do KISS as well. I did this merely to entertain for a birthday party. I don't profess to be amazing. When I showed my wife the video it appeared she was embarrassed for me and she always says I can't sing.

I can't sing great, but I think for what was expected, I did ok. Just to entertain an 85 year old Prince fan.

I am just wondering if others are watching this and thinking it's awful.

oh my god

3:38..when you get the coat you can here the audience member go "uh oh" aka "ahh look out nah"

Be civilized
Don't create offensive, vulgar, obscene, threatening, abusive or excessively profane posts

Thanks

langebleu - moderator

Im watching it now its pretty cute, cause ur doing an honest interpretattion, I say continue the good fight, I like it!

These pictures are soooo funny,

ROFL

I wonder what flashes through his mind when he does all this...?

What can't people Be themselves? Why ?

[Edited 11/27/11 9:54am]

ganesh said:

These pictures are soooo funny,

ROFL

I wonder what flashes through his mind when he does all this...?

What can't people Be themselves? Why ?

[Edited 11/27/11 9:54am]

What flashes through my mind is, I'd be honored to try and make you grandmother's 85th somewhat entertaining.

Definatly was entertaining

If you're job was to make someone laugh congrats

You sorta sounded like him in the beginning (before you started to sing )

[Edited 11/27/11 11:37am]

novabrkr said:

You should consider imitating Alice Cooper instead.

I agree! That certainly is the vibe I got. If you continue to do Prince-put makeup on your neck.

Funny, lighthearted and a good laugh....

if youre having fun with it and the audience is too then thats all you really need!

hhhhdmt said:

oh my god

Den, you do favor Alice Cooper you know. Hey...it's for charity and that's a good thing.

You obviously have the makings of a good character actor - there were a few subtle (and not so subtle) mannerisms that you mimic well and you have the confidence to pull it off.

That said, the more confidence, the better. Your voice isn't your strongpoint, but I think you already know that - I think you'd do well to really get into the performance, throw more into the screams (if you can) and basically build the energy, get the audience into it.

I thought the coat was a nice touch, but the problem was your guitar started to disappear under it - might be better to take the guitar off while still on 'stage', go put the coat on, and grab it on the way back to the mic. It's all in character, because it's not unusual for Prince to swap instruments, ditch the guitar to sing, etc... You could even throw it into the audience, get the coat on and then grab it again

The point is that even though you're obviously just playing around with the guitar prop, you still want to at least give a general impression that you're playing it - when you're strumming over the coat, it's not really even a prop anymore...know what I mean?

You could even take that a step further and work on making it look a little more like you're genuinely changing chords, rather than just running your hand up and down the fretboard. Low notes mean close to the end of the board, high notes at the body, etc... and alternate finger placing suggest different chords. It might sound dumb, given that you're not playing it, but just like the mannerisms, it does add something to the performance.

I think it's a great thing to do for birthdays and charity events. The more confident you get, the more you'll be able to get the crowd into it, the more you can throw in some Prince banter ("I've got too many hits", "On the one!", "Don't hate me coz I'm fabulous!", etc...) and some really meaty screams, as well as a bigger 'whoooo!' from 1999, as that one sounded (understandably) a bit hesitant in the clip.

If you have a willing birthday girl/host/etc... at an event, you could even get them up to sing 1999 with you - if you don't have someone with you, I'd suggest you sing both parts (or turn the backing tape up), because it did sound a little disjointed.

Overall though, I'm sure you'd be a hit live at a party, in the right atmosphere, etc... It's a lot more clinical for us to sit in front of our computers, watching the performance cold and offering feedback. These things are always more entertaining when you're in the midst of a fun event.

In any case, well done!! I hope the feedback is useful!!

Edit: Meant to add that I loved that you changed the chorus of 1999 to suit the event

[Edited 11/27/11 15:49pm]

I give you a thumbs up, only because you have the balls to post this here

The laugh track made me laugh too

At the of end of lets go crazy i thought you were gonna jump on a table or something

At the begining of 1999 i thought Holly shit hes gonna do the splits

This is where u failed if you could have pulled that off it would have been Epic

1 question did the Grandma think you were really prince?

den1226 said:

I don't expect rave reviews. I would like some critique. If I shouldn't do this again, it's cool. Realize, am not a pro like those Elvis impersonators. This is something I do for charity and this case, a co-workers birthday party for her 85 year old grandmother.

I can accept negativity, but please don't say stuff like "you suck" or" that's horrible", but if you say "you can't sing", I get it!

http://www.youtube.com/wa...rY9xP1W3A8

[Edited 11/27/11 6:51am]

U keep doin U Bruh. Miss Rose certainly loved it.

Your good man, it look's like you and her where both having fun

den1226 said:

I don't expect rave reviews. I would like some critique. If I shouldn't do this again, it's cool. Realize, am not a pro like those Elvis impersonators. This is something I do for charity and this case, a co-workers birthday party for her 85 year old grandmother.

I can accept negativity, but please don't say stuff like "you suck" or" that's horrible", but if you say "you can't sing", I get it!

http://www.youtube.com/wa...rY9xP1W3A8

[Edited 11/27/11 6:51am]

I LOVED it! It was very entertaining

To be honest i dug the Lets go crazy.. 1999 seemed a little lost to me.. maybe you did 1999 to change it to celebrate 85th bday which was cool.. but with multi singers on that track maybe you should have a female playing to you..

as for what Chiquetet said.. really dead on.. make it look like your playing the guitar.. you got it.. when it went to a cool riff you let go of the guitar learn the song alittle more so when it has a cool riff you can play to it.. Make Prince's O Face <yeah i said it his O Face> ...

and on 1999 the jacket over the guitar really did bug me.. i know your pretending but it takes away from the image your are trying to create..

but good job.. and if u could learn the spilts.. go for it

Awww, what a cool thing to do for grandma...looks like a lot of fun and that's really the point.

You must have had the costume custom made because it's very authentic looking.

Chiquetet said:

You obviously have the makings of a good character actor - there were a few subtle (and not so subtle) mannerisms that you mimic well and you have the confidence to pull it off.

That said, the more confidence, the better. Your voice isn't your strongpoint, but I think you already know that - I think you'd do well to really get into the performance, throw more into the screams (if you can) and basically build the energy, get the audience into it.

I thought the coat was a nice touch, but the problem was your guitar started to disappear under it - might be better to take the guitar off while still on 'stage', go put the coat on, and grab it on the way back to the mic. It's all in character, because it's not unusual for Prince to swap instruments, ditch the guitar to sing, etc... You could even throw it into the audience, get the coat on and then grab it again

The point is that even though you're obviously just playing around with the guitar prop, you still want to at least give a general impression that you're playing it - when you're strumming over the coat, it's not really even a prop anymore...know what I mean?

You could even take that a step further and work on making it look a little more like you're genuinely changing chords, rather than just running your hand up and down the fretboard. Low notes mean close to the end of the board, high notes at the body, etc... and alternate finger placing suggest different chords. It might sound dumb, given that you're not playing it, but just like the mannerisms, it does add something to the performance.

I think it's a great thing to do for birthdays and charity events. The more confident you get, the more you'll be able to get the crowd into it, the more you can throw in some Prince banter ("I've got too many hits", "On the one!", "Don't hate me coz I'm fabulous!", etc...) and some really meaty screams, as well as a bigger 'whoooo!' from 1999, as that one sounded (understandably) a bit hesitant in the clip.

If you have a willing birthday girl/host/etc... at an event, you could even get them up to sing 1999 with you - if you don't have someone with you, I'd suggest you sing both parts (or turn the backing tape up), because it did sound a little disjointed.

Overall though, I'm sure you'd be a hit live at a party, in the right atmosphere, etc... It's a lot more clinical for us to sit in front of our computers, watching the performance cold and offering feedback. These things are always more entertaining when you're in the midst of a fun event.

In any case, well done!! I hope the feedback is useful!!

Edit: Meant to add that I loved that you changed the chorus of 1999 to suit the event

[Edited 11/27/11 15:49pm]

I found this so very helpful. The main thing IS I don't play guitar because I lack coordination. Finger placement is very hard for me. The notion that someone can strum strings a certain way at the bottom and change finger placement at the top makes my brain want to explode. Kudos to all you talented guitar players!

I should have rehearsed a bit more. I didn't think the coat would cover the guitar as much as it did, but I did think it still appeared I was playing it. I just looked and I am indeed strummng the strings on the guitar. The jacket is not covering the top "bridge" is that it?

I misjudged on my choice of track on 1999. I used a karaoke track that was left out Lisa/Wendy's vocals and Dez' vocals. I stupidly thought everyone would know the song and sing along; I even provided lyrics. I should have went with the karaoke that had all vocal parts and just sang over the "Prince" parts.

Can you please expand on the mannerisms you allude to in your first paragraph?

Thank you so very very much!!!!!!!

[Edited 11/27/11 20:13pm]

mplsmike said:

I give you a thumbs up, only because you have the balls to post this here

The laugh track made me laugh too

At the of end of lets go crazy i thought you were gonna jump on a table or something

At the begining of 1999 i thought Holly shit hes gonna do the splits

This is where u failed if you could have pulled that off it would have been Epic

1 question did the Grandma think you were really prince?

If I could do splits, I'd be taking this act to a higher level. You saw my limited white boy dance moves, right? LOL

No - she might be 85 but she knew it was an act, LOL! She was funny. She said, I must be your oldest fan, you don't have an 86 yr. old fan right? When I told her of how I missed my grandmother and she brought back memories, she said, she didn't prefer the alternative so she plans to hang around as long as she can. She was something else!!!

[Edited 11/27/11 20:04pm]

Flip said:

To be honest i dug the Lets go crazy.. 1999 seemed a little lost to me.. maybe you did 1999 to change it to celebrate 85th bday which was cool.. but with multi singers on that track maybe you should have a female playing to you..

as for what Chiquetet said.. really dead on.. make it look like your playing the guitar.. you got it.. when it went to a cool riff you let go of the guitar learn the song alittle more so when it has a cool riff you can play to it.. Make Prince's O Face <yeah i said it his O Face> ...

and on 1999 the jacket over the guitar really did bug me.. i know your pretending but it takes away from the image your are trying to create..

but good job.. and if u could learn the spilts.. go for it

I'll look into the "O-face" does he do it on Crazy in the movie? I can't do splits. I can't even reach my toes with my fingers bending over. I have zero flexibility.

I posted about 1999 - def should have not taken for granted people would sing the non-Prince parts.

babynoz said:

Awww, what a cool thing to do for grandma...looks like a lot of fun and that's really the point.

You must have had the costume custom made because it's very authentic looking.

I bought it but it had to be majorly altered. In fact alterations cost ore that the costume itself.

In fairness, I have not listened to your performance, I would not expect you to get everything about him perfect. What I do respect is your willingness to this act at all, for some it would be too easy to ridicule you when they would never have the courage to do that themselves. If you have enough customers to make a decent check, you're doing great.

Gunsnhalen said:

Your good man, it look's like you and her where both having fun

Exactly if you had fun? go for it !

babynoz said:

You must have had the costume custom made because it's very authentic looking.

Yeah your outfit looks pretty cool

on 1999 the jacket over the guitar really did bug me

Me too