I had gone through quite a few covers so far, so it was about time I started putting some of my own songs up. The first of these put up is a song called Changes. Everything about this song was written by me. Words, music etc.

It's about someone waking up in the morning and suddenly realising that they are in love, but having real difficulty in letting that person know how they feel. It's a slow number, and you can find the lyrics in the video description if you go to Youtube.

I wrote this one about three years ago. As I have a library of songs I have already written. It made sense to start putting some of them out, so that I could get some general opinions.

See what you think of one of my own songs.

And now for a few more cover versions.

When I had put together my first few videos. One of my subscribers asked me for some tips on singing. I replied with some tips and exercises that I came across over the years. She suggested that I put it all into a video, because she thought the information might be useful for other people.

So I managed to fit just about everything into three videos. These handy tips and exercises could be used to help improve vocals.

Outr of all of my videos. These ones have been seen the most. All together they've had over twenty three thousand viewings up to the date I posted this. They are currently getting several hundred views a day.

So if you have an interest in singing and want to hear tips from an amateur, then take a look.

You can find links the these videos below.

How to sing part 1

How to sing 1 video

How to sing part 2

How to sing 2 video

how to sing part 3

How to sing 3 video

There have been a large number of comments already, and I'm glad to say that most of them have reported that they found them very helpful. If you are seriously considering singing then I hope they provide useful to you.

My sixteenth video on Youtube was a cover of a band that I used to like a lot. They are Depeche mode. In the early days, their music was quite bouncy, but they soon changed into dark and experimental, whilst still remaining very popular.

Amongst all the dark and soul searching music, their was a song that really stood out in my eyes as being in a different mould, and I think it's one of their very best.

The song is called Somebody, and below, is my interpretation:

What a great song.

My Neil Diamond numbers were proving quite popular so I decided to do another. The third of his songs I'd done on Youtube. I was more pleased with this one myself, because of the improvement in my sound setup. A lot of Neil Diamond fans put this song in their top 5. It's got some pretty low notes, but I didn't seem to have any problems with that.

The Neil Diamond song in question is I am I said.

and here is my version:

loads more Neil songs to come. Amongst all the others :)

The sound quality was on the up, and I was feeling happier. It made the music and vocals sound so much clearer.

My next pick was from Travis. I like a few of the songs they released, and this particular one is called "Why does it always rain on me". I have a few friends that really like me singing this one.

See what you think:

When I first started doing videos on Youtube, I found it strange, trying to pretend that the camera was a bunch of people. Getting familiar with it was something that was going to take time, but I was slowly getting used to singing to a glass lens :)

This is where the sound started to get better. The music was now being played through the headphones, and not the speakers I was now using the Stereo mix channel on the soundcard. Instead of it all going through the mic. This allowed me to put a reverb effect on the vocal without doing the same to the music.

Though one problem still remained. The timing of the audio and video. The vocals were not matching the video, it looked like i was miming. However, I was most definitely singing.

On to the song. This was my second REM song. Another good one by the band. The track is called "Man on the moon".

Check out my attempt at it below.

One of the comments for this was quite insistent that it wasn't me singing. My lip movements didn't go in time with the sound. It's easy to see why they would think that, but I look at that as a compliment. If they think that I am miming over a proper recording then I am pleased with that :)

The final video before I made improvements to the way I recorded. So it's a bit on the low side as far as the volume levels are concerned. Yet again.

The second of my Neil Diamond songs on Youtube. The song is Sweet Caroline.

This is another one of his most well known songs.

and this is my rendition:

After this the sound quality gets better in the videos, but another problem still remained. I'll cover that in my next one.

So on to my second Elvis Costello song, which was one of his covers. I can't quite remember who did the original version. The Elvis Costello version was the first one I had heard.

The tune I'm talking about is "A good year for the roses". Again, this is a song that I have sung many times, and is one of a few country songs that I sing.

Check it out below:

The next video coming up after this one is a Neil Diamond number, and then the sound quality starts to improve. That wasn't the end of my woes though. There was another major problem that I will go into later.

For now though, I hope you enjoy my rendition of this song.

On to another band. Who had a string of good hits. They are known as "Travis".

"Sing" was the song that I did as my 10th Youtube vid.

It was a top ten hit in the UK for Travis in the summer of 2001. The fourth of 4 top 10 hits in a row.

I liked Travis for their guitar sound. Crisp and quite clean, with a distinctive bass.

So here is my attempt at "Sing". See what you think:

I have done one other Travis song on Youtube, so far, and plan to do a few more in time. That's likely to be well into the future.

I'm sure I've got loads of others to go between :)

I wanted to sing the songs of many bands and artists on Youtube, and deciding which one was to be next was less than easy with all the choice I had, but finally I opted for a song by one of my favourite bands over time. Their album "Urban hymns" has been played many times in my house and car. The song in question is "The drugs don't work" by "The verve".

Apparently Richard Ashcroft penned this song about his mothers struggle with cancer. Which makes the song a really powerful number about real life.

I only really found out the meaning of this song a few years ago, but it's one I've always liked singing. I never thought it was about drugs. I always thought it was about the addiction of love.

So on to my version of this great song. Check out my attempt below:

This was just one of the songs by "The Verve" that I enjoyed performing. Much the same as several other bands I like really. With that in mind, it's not really a shock to discover that I did more that one of their songs :)