Hi everyone,

I thought maybe you 'like' a melancholic ballad. It deals with a situation that is probably very familiar (or will be in time). https://soundcloud.com/user-296497130/our-house
The style is Buggane, the key F#m and the tempo 100.
The main instruments used are a piano, cello, a harp and a sythesizer. And drums and a acoustic bass and guitar, to be complete. The composition and lyrics are mine.

It was a bit difficult to sing such a song. Very emotional, even though it wasn't my story (but nearby).
I did something exiting; the high voice was mine but some semitones higher and some more tweaking things. I'm not sure if I can do this again. But in this case I think it worked out good.
What do you think? And maybe you have suggestions how to deal with this more easy.

Thanks anyway for listening,
Hans

The lyrics
Our House
(c) HWBerkhout, july 2019

I was musing of our time here together
I was a child. This was our house. We called it home
I trusted God. So for me this would stay forever
I could not see in time we all shall go

We had much fun, felt so safe around our home
Our mom, she smiled when we visit where we grew up
And we saw she never was alone
Now I strolled through a silenced house, I felt a tear drop

For years and years we lived our life, it was our house
Here we'd laughed and cried in many ways
It's our history, this place we all espouse
Now you left us, I walked in a mournful place

We had much fun, felt so safe around our home
Our mom, she smiled when we visit where we grew up
And we saw she never was alone
Now I strolled through a lifeless house, I felt a tear drop

=solo=

Staring at the garden I can hear our children calling
Now we all tore down that past
Clearing rooms to leave forever is appalling
Knowing soon our house will be recast...

We now leave forever
The house stays behind
A page is turned over, can't go back, never!
But it will always stay in our mind

We had much fun, felt so safe around our home
Still see mom's smile, all the time we cared her there
But even though she never was alone
No more strolling in that empty house, tears where everywhere
It was our house

Beautiful production, lovely choice of instrumentation. Poignant lyrics that match the music quite well.

Wow - this is truly a gorgeous tune Really lush, and really emotionally fulfilling to listen to. Your vocals on this absolutely soar, and the instrumentation on this is so well textured and so vibrant - you did an outstanding job here.

Not a thing I'd change - thanks for sharing!

What a creative write...
A plaintive song bringing back some strong personal memories from my own childhood...
Thanks...
I enjoyed listening to your new song!

Hans,
I like the personal almost childlike feeling of your song.The synth melody adds to that feeling and there`s a gentle paced to your arrangement that works well.
Enjoying as I do the part where you change pitch,I think it could be tweaked: at least on headphones the vocal does sound "hot" to me.
That said, this is my favourite of your songs so far.

Robert

The lyrics seem very personal even though it happened only nearby. I typically read the lyrics if they're there first, listen to the song, then read the story behind them if they've been offered, then listen again. Thanks for sharing what you did with us!

Hans,
Very nice song! Nice story. Beautiful arrangement! Certainly different from others. Overall it is wholesome and listens very well.

3 cents observation from a non-professional. You experiment with different genres and instruments, but seems that vocals get more or less same fx chain song to song. For the sake of experiment, try a completely different approach with processing vocals, it might bear fruit. To my ears it seems you are pushing vocal eq higher than needed. Listening to your songs, I feel you have a very good mid-range voice / clarity, seems you do not need to bust it higher If you decide to try it, I am sure folks here will give you a "common" opinion if it works better or not. Many people on this forum helped me to spot mixing/recording issues.


Misha.

I really really like this song. The music all sounds incredible, great choice of instruments and the lyrics are sung with such emotion. I don't think there's anything I'd change about it at all. Thank you for sharing it.

Very good song, Hans, maybe my favorite of yours so far and you have produced some very good songs lately.

I agree with Robert about that one vocal being a bit hot, maybe drop it down 2-3 db's.

But that didn't take away from my enjoyment of your song, just a minor observation.

Hi everyone (and especially Ezekiel, Deryk, Jim, Robert, Ember, Richard and Dave),

At first thanks a lot for your compliment about the song, BUT It was Misha (and one of my sons) who caused me to make changes in the song. So don't blame me...

I agreed, not only my voice was a bit too hot, but I got the creeps of the high voice as well. It didn't feel good.
So got rid of 'her' and of some fx-es I used. I sang the song again solo and only some eq, reverb and compression. I think Misha must be proud now.
But I also changed the tempo a bit. From 100 to 107. It didn't spoil the mood of the song and even I liked it more than the one I posted.
I think the effects got me prisoned. Thanks Misha and everyone mentioned it as well.
But my excuses for this inconvenience,

Hans
(keeps learning)

Hans,
I hope somebody less bias can comment who heard your previous version.
To me this variant is much (MUCH!!) better for a simple reason, your voice flows naturally and tones are much more fuller!

Thank you for posting!

Misha.

Lovely and FULL of vivid imagery.

The "band," the heartfelt vocal, the arrangement and the mix are spot on
for delivering the emotionally charged lyric.

Excellent!

J&B

Well done Birchwood! The arrangement is soothing to hear and very captivating lyrics. Thanks for sharing!

Touching lyrics with nice warm interpretation. Your band is carefully chosen, I like especially the harp which gives the song a solid base.

Janne

Hi everyone,

Probably best things cost 3 times trying...
I regretted I had changed the song. I didn't get out of my head I did something wrong. The song not gave me that feeling of melancholism.
Although I kept some changes, like the key (F#m became Fm), I added the harmony again in the chorusses.
I felt a bit uncomfortable changing this song again (why not test it thoroughly before posting it...)
Well, that's also a purpose of posting songs on this forum; Open mind and don't pretend you are perfect. I demonstrated this now, haven't I?
So sorry for this inconvenience. Hope you still like it, especially Misha, Janne and Joe because of your compliments on an altered song.
I hope it stays with this last changing, otherwise I won't tell you ;-)

Hans

Hans

Sounding good - nice arrangement, vocal and some good instrument choices to fit the lyric.

Very evocative song.

Peter

Beautiful!

You managed to get a very good connection with (between) the lyrics and the music... it is very close to being a masterpiece! Very well done.

I very much enjoyed listening! Thanks for sharing.

Will

Hi Peter and Will,

I'm sorry that I responded so late, but I appreciated your compliments very much!
Especially what you said about the lyrics in relation to the instruments.

I know one must be careful with personal songs. That's why in the post I said it had nothing to do with me.
But actualy it did. That 'mom' was my mother-in-law and it was her house. This weekend we say farewell to that house...
The sum of all these feelings made me decide to make this song. I like the melancholic touch of it.

Hans

This is a lovely song Hans. Loved the backtrack. Super choice of instruments. What and awesome lyric and vocal delivery. So well done...

Hans,

A heartfelt song. Very nice arrangement/backing instruments. They fit the melancholy nature of the song well. The "hits" at 2:09 are nice...

You did a nice job on the vocal. It might still have a bit more high end than it needs. Rolling off the highs would "warm" the vocal and add to the melancholy nature... The track is one of the loudest I've ever heard on Soundcloud. I had to pull the volume slider down by 70% (to about 30%) to get it to the level I typically listen at...

Enjoyed it.

fj

Hi Floyd,

Thanks for your comments, but I was surprised about that volume you mentioned. I haven't noticed that here. On Soundcloud it is as loud as all my other songs (those from 2019). In no case I have to adjust that volumeknob when listening from one to another song of mine. So how come this was the case with you, and also as much as 70% ?!?
I'm curious and a bit worried,

Hans

Don't know. Might have to do with the type speakers we listen on. I am listening on a pair of Presonus monitors which are very clear. I can listen to "Our House" at about 50% - it is loud - especially towards the end... much louder than others Soundcloud posts - I jumped to BlueAttitude and Torrey's pages to compare... volumes of various pages change depending on the poster... no big deal... I know how to adjust..