H
Hayden Kurosaki
Guest
Please excuse my long-windedness, but I'm pretty excited about this and am trying to get some opinions from people interested in similar subjects, many of whom can also play music and or sing, and so I wanted to be as detailed as possible. I tried to provide a link for anything I'd referenced.
Okay. So.
I live in Detroit, Michigan, where every year we have a 3-day Japanese anime & culture fest called YoumaCon. This year's Con days are from Halloween to November 3rd, just to give a concept of time to any responders. I'm indescribably nervous about this year, as I will be entering the Con's annual singing competition "YoumaIdol", as well as the dance competition they only added last year.
I've gone to the Con for about 6 years but have only done "YoumaIdol" for 3 if I include this one, and something has gone wrong every time. I know that part of this is because I'm usually an at-the-door entry instead of pre-registering, as I don't have recording equipment to send in audition tapes and stuff -- HOWEVER, my song choices are often also done at the door
('coz I'm smart like that).
But not this year!
There are only two rounds, and I make sure to do at least one, if not two, Yuki Kajiura song(s) every time. The rules are fairly lenient, the most constricting one being that the song can NOT be in English. For both the first and second years, I got myself into the finals with an instrumental of Canta Per Me they used to have on iTunes. The finals, however, are where both years' problems were.
In 2017, I tried to use some cheap free audio editing program the day before the Con and make an instrumental out of the Madlax Mix from The BEST Live 2, and in the jury's opinion too many vocals were left that clearly weren't for background. Last year, I went left at the last second and chose to sing Passion by Utada, and started mixing up the choruses of the second half of the song. As a strong performer I kept singing and didn't show any second-guessing in my face or voice, but I'm positive the song was MUCH too popular for stuff to go unnoticed in comparison to if I'd done the same during Madlax Mix, and I was infuriated (
).
Now, on to this year's potential choices. On Spotify, I had found an EXTREMELY well-done instrumental of Ensei in July by I Love You!Project, on the album "Best of Anime, Vol. 6 (Karaoke Version)". I think it's better than this one on YouTube because the background melody is like chamber-choral synths, and the YouTube one is a pretty loud guitar(? or other strumming instrument) and I don't want to get into trouble again. But I'm trying desperately to get the one from Spotify as I couldn't find it online last time I looked. A lot of people on here have much more computer prowess than I do, and I'm looking for someone that can either tell me how to get that Spotify instrumental or outright find it for me.
As I'm thankfully one of the strongest out of the semi-finalists every year(humility, right? but even the judges told me this last year and I was SUPER honored), I'm fairly confident in getting to the finals and so I thought, "since I found Ensei, why not finish with Mezame?" It's a relief that Mezame's main YouTube instrumental is pretty damn great IMO and the melody isn't an instrument that's going to overpower me singing into a microphone.
HOWEVER . . . the day of this post, I found another potential song for finals that I've also wanted to do for a while: Possessed By Disease from NieR: Automata, written by Keiichi Okabe, sung by Nami Nakagawa. I wish I could sing this live version that she performed, as it's shorter and requires less breath, but of course that's a sculpted and edited concert arrangement and I've already found that attempting to edit lives has not worked in my favor.
Personal positives about going with this choice:
Regarding background information, I've sung gospel and have been in regular and chamber choirs from 7th grade to my college sophomore year, where I was also in a Men's Glee Club. Range is approximately E#2 to G4 although again, there are days and times of day I can force myself down to D2. It's often most possible when I first wake up and can get my larynx shockingly low within the first words of the day -- should I just not talk for the entire day if I make it to the finals??
Now for the two-round dance competition, which I'm much more confident in, I'd just like some recommendations for my audition song this year. I already have my song for finals in the old Sound Horizon "The Beast of the Endness" live. Last year, I did the The Best LIVE 2 version of Frenetic and the judges there stopped me after 75 seconds and said "stop it, you're in" (this was shocking to me because everyone else had to perform almost all of their own entry songs, so once again I was pretty honored). But yet another final round f**k-up happened as I walked around for two hours and couldn't find the room the finals were held in, even after many stops for directions . . . and I sat down and cried in the middle of that giant crowded building.
As I've been constricted by common African American church culture for all of my life, I've been doing liturgical dance for 20 years; though it's definitely not the style I'd be doing by choice, it gives me an opportunity to dance and choreograph. Unfortunately I only possess one dance video here, and it's certainly not a great example of my usual work (people take advantage of the fact that I have very strong improvisation and I was asked to do that dance the morning of the event). My experience has come from ballet, jazz, contemporary, modern and interpretive work.
Thank everyone for any input, opinion and/or suggestion provided
Okay. So.
I live in Detroit, Michigan, where every year we have a 3-day Japanese anime & culture fest called YoumaCon. This year's Con days are from Halloween to November 3rd, just to give a concept of time to any responders. I'm indescribably nervous about this year, as I will be entering the Con's annual singing competition "YoumaIdol", as well as the dance competition they only added last year.
I've gone to the Con for about 6 years but have only done "YoumaIdol" for 3 if I include this one, and something has gone wrong every time. I know that part of this is because I'm usually an at-the-door entry instead of pre-registering, as I don't have recording equipment to send in audition tapes and stuff -- HOWEVER, my song choices are often also done at the door
But not this year!
There are only two rounds, and I make sure to do at least one, if not two, Yuki Kajiura song(s) every time. The rules are fairly lenient, the most constricting one being that the song can NOT be in English. For both the first and second years, I got myself into the finals with an instrumental of Canta Per Me they used to have on iTunes. The finals, however, are where both years' problems were.
In 2017, I tried to use some cheap free audio editing program the day before the Con and make an instrumental out of the Madlax Mix from The BEST Live 2, and in the jury's opinion too many vocals were left that clearly weren't for background. Last year, I went left at the last second and chose to sing Passion by Utada, and started mixing up the choruses of the second half of the song. As a strong performer I kept singing and didn't show any second-guessing in my face or voice, but I'm positive the song was MUCH too popular for stuff to go unnoticed in comparison to if I'd done the same during Madlax Mix, and I was infuriated (
). Now, on to this year's potential choices. On Spotify, I had found an EXTREMELY well-done instrumental of Ensei in July by I Love You!Project, on the album "Best of Anime, Vol. 6 (Karaoke Version)". I think it's better than this one on YouTube because the background melody is like chamber-choral synths, and the YouTube one is a pretty loud guitar(? or other strumming instrument) and I don't want to get into trouble again. But I'm trying desperately to get the one from Spotify as I couldn't find it online last time I looked. A lot of people on here have much more computer prowess than I do, and I'm looking for someone that can either tell me how to get that Spotify instrumental or outright find it for me.
As I'm thankfully one of the strongest out of the semi-finalists every year
HOWEVER . . . the day of this post, I found another potential song for finals that I've also wanted to do for a while: Possessed By Disease from NieR: Automata, written by Keiichi Okabe, sung by Nami Nakagawa. I wish I could sing this live version that she performed, as it's shorter and requires less breath, but of course that's a sculpted and edited concert arrangement and I've already found that attempting to edit lives has not worked in my favor.
Personal positives about going with this choice:
- Easy access to a legitimate instrumental
- 98% of the song is in my range as I always just sing songs an octave lower than the original, instead of trying to edit it into some other chord or some fancy thing
- Thank God I've had the lyrics memorized confidently for over a year as I was obsessed with this soundtrack upon release
- If I bring back my old singing habits from around middle school where I used to cover my throat with my tongue, I can achieve that southeast Asian/neo-enka sound without worry
- I'm very spooked about starting this song off, as I believe her first vocal notes are at or around D3; however, my ability to hit a D2 varies by day, which is absolutely rage-inducing. I could start it at the D3, which is around my speaking voice notes, and then jump back down to the lower octave when she starts the "aaaah"s and "iiiiiieeeeeeh"s which I can hit down in octave 2, but I don't want to ruin the dramatic ascension aesthetic of the song.
- I'm currently trying to work on my breathing during the chorus.
- Although the song is more interesting done solo than Mezame IMO, it starts to feel a tad long. (This is also likely because of my lung abscess)
- I'm looking for anyone that can do some editing and take note of the background vocals used in the live version, take them from the original and put them onto this instrumental. I hate to be a p***y, but I'm slightly questioning my strength to carry this song solo for a full 5 minutes.
Regarding background information, I've sung gospel and have been in regular and chamber choirs from 7th grade to my college sophomore year, where I was also in a Men's Glee Club. Range is approximately E#2 to G4 although again, there are days and times of day I can force myself down to D2. It's often most possible when I first wake up and can get my larynx shockingly low within the first words of the day -- should I just not talk for the entire day if I make it to the finals??
Now for the two-round dance competition, which I'm much more confident in, I'd just like some recommendations for my audition song this year. I already have my song for finals in the old Sound Horizon "The Beast of the Endness" live. Last year, I did the The Best LIVE 2 version of Frenetic and the judges there stopped me after 75 seconds and said "stop it, you're in" (this was shocking to me because everyone else had to perform almost all of their own entry songs, so once again I was pretty honored). But yet another final round f**k-up happened as I walked around for two hours and couldn't find the room the finals were held in, even after many stops for directions . . . and I sat down and cried in the middle of that giant crowded building.
As I've been constricted by common African American church culture for all of my life, I've been doing liturgical dance for 20 years; though it's definitely not the style I'd be doing by choice, it gives me an opportunity to dance and choreograph. Unfortunately I only possess one dance video here, and it's certainly not a great example of my usual work (people take advantage of the fact that I have very strong improvisation and I was asked to do that dance the morning of the event). My experience has come from ballet, jazz, contemporary, modern and interpretive work.
Thank everyone for any input, opinion and/or suggestion provided
