Cover: Sakamoto Maaya's "Saved"

Hello again! I just wanted to write up a quick post regarding a vocal cover I've been working on. One of my top hobbies since as long as I can remember has been singing, and although I didn't follow through with my original intentions of pursuing a music degree in college, I still take my singing seriously.

...That's not to say that it's any good, but I do try to improve on it and I hold myself to high standards, as is true for everything that I do.




The song I've been working on is Sakamoto Maaya's "Saved," from her latest single that I reviewed not too long ago here. "Saved" has been part of my daily listening routine ever since I got my copy of Be mine!/SAVED, and since the single came with instrumentals of its tracks, my friend and I decided to do covers of them.

My choice was "Saved" because it seemed like the one that would fit in with my range and voice 'style' the best. My friend is working on "Be mine!" (best of luck Maxi). Of course we have been singing both tracks as well, but we thought we'd try to do decent recordings separately of each.

I don't know how many recordings of "Saved" I've done, but I'm thankful I finally have a decent one, haha! And I'm really proud, because I had a first with this recording: it was the first recording I did on my own. In all the years I've been singing for fun, I've always struggled to sing without listening to the actual vocals of the song. Because I don't know how to sing properly (and my ear training is hopeless), singing in tune without the guidance of the original vocals has been a challenge for me.

"Saved" is the first song I've managed to do a decent cover of without listening to the actual vocals. And the benefit of doing it on my own is that I don't try to mimic the sound of the actual vocals, which was another bad habit I nearly ingrained into my skull all these years. Because of this whole process, I'm finally starting to understand my voice, and that means I can truly improve on it.

As the shy person that I am, I've always been adamant about my singing not being heard. I've let some people hear me, but I usually get nervous and sound like crap. And then there's the fact that I have high standards for myself - I pretty much have no desire to share unless my recordings are perfect, which they never are.

So I want to thank my friend, who I mentioned earlier, for inspiring me to work harder on my covers and to actually not be embarrassed about sharing them. He's right: singing can be a way to appreciate someone's work - in this case, that of my favorite singer, Sakamoto Maaya - and, as a hobby, it's simply fun to do. I'm going to work towards not stressing myself out so much over anyone hearing me, and just focus on improving on and understanding my voice so it can reach its best potential.

The recording of my cover can be heard on my SoundCloud here. Thank you to my friend Maxi for taking the time out to mix my voice with the actual instrumental. You can view his SoundCloud here.

I hope you enjoy, and thank you for your time. ('<>')>

~nikki

P.S.: The butterfly picture is totally random (it's also the display picture for my cover on SoundCloud...lol).