Uploaded March 2009 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is my second vocal/piano cover collaboration, this time of She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel.
The piano track in the background is played by YouTube user pianojohn113 and is used with his written permission. Check out his awesome channel here (or click the annotation):
youtube.com/user/pianojohn113
The background image is a cropped and resized photo of the Venus de Milo, taken by Alfred Low(alflow on Flickr), and presented here under a Creative Commons license.
I've been tinkering with this project for nigh on two weeks in my spare moments. Finally happy enough with it to post it.
Still trying to figure out how to persuade YouTube to present my audio in High Quality without HQ video, but even with YouTube's audio compression it still seems pretty good.
Let me know what you think!
This is my second vocal/piano cover collaboration, this time of She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel.
The piano track in the background is played by YouTube user pianojohn113 and is used with his written permission. Check out his awesome channel here (or click the annotation):
youtube.com/user/pianojohn113
The background image is a cropped and resized photo of the Venus de Milo, taken by Alfred Low(alflow on Flickr), and presented here under a Creative Commons license.
I've been tinkering with this project for nigh on two weeks in my spare moments. Finally happy enough with it to post it.
Still trying to figure out how to persuade YouTube to present my audio in High Quality without HQ video, but even with YouTube's audio compression it still seems pretty good.
Let me know what you think!
![Midnight Rider [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nkhiHANc3qA/mqdefault.jpg "Midnight Rider [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Midnight Rider by The Allman Brothers Band, as it appears in Rock Band 2 for PlayStation 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by Gregg Allman are minimized so you can hear what Im singing.
I really adore this song, even if Im not very good at singing it - Ive never quite figured all the quirky little differences in cadence and melody on each chorus (every single one of which is slightly different from the others). You only have to be sort of close to get a full combo on this song though, as you can see in this video - this is one of THE most forgiving songs in the game.
I octave shifted the second half of the song down 1 octave because I simply cant sustain singing at the upper maximum of my voice that long without shouting myself hoarse.")
![A Jagged Gorgeous Winter [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nz3WAztZSxI/mqdefault.jpg "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals
This video posted by request from internetguy87.
100% Expert Gold Star performance on A Jagged Gorgeous Winter by The Main Drag.
As is customary with my videos, the original vocal track by Adam Arrigo is minimized so you can hear what Im singing.
This is an example video of how to most easily get 100% on this song. Ive octave shifted EVERYTHING in the song into as small a range as possible, from the intro to the bridge to the outtro, with only a few easily nailed outlying notes.")
![Downfall [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oMSfDD6EhQE/mqdefault.jpg "Downfall [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Downfall by TRUST company, as it appears in Rock Band 2 for PlayStation 3.
This song is downloadable content for the PS3 ($1.99), Xbox 360 (160MSP), and Wii (200 WP) versions of Rock Band 2.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by Kevin Palmer are minimized so you can hear what Im singing.
This video requested by punkst3r3009.
Long description ahoy!
I really like this song. The vocals are lots of fun and the drum line is awesome beyond words.
Pollen allergies have been dogging me for the past few days so if Im not sounding at the top of my form, chalk it up to me coughing/wheezing/sneezing a lot while trying to record this.
Downfall has some sneaky pitch changes in the verses, and all the pitched screaming can make things a little hairy because theres actually three vocal lines in this song (a lead vocal, a screaming backup, and a harmony backup). Other than that, its not too terribly difficult. If you want a high score, though, watch out for the overdrive activation at 1:29 - its really hard to hit. Check my annotation for it.
I struggled a lot making this video - I dont scream well at all, so I had to find a reasonable workaround. Plus, Kevin Palmer sings with this almost breathlessly soft timbre. I dont know how much of it will come through after YouTube gets done mangling my audio, but hopefully you can hear just how much air Im pushing on the verses. I ran out of breath quite a lot of times while trying to record this because of this, and on the times when I didnt run out of air, my mic simply wouldnt score the phrases sometimes. I eventually gave up on exact mimicry and just left as much of the breathy quality remain as I dared while still giving the microphone enough of a clean pitch to maintain the arrow .
Moral of the story: Dont sing soft and breathy like Kevin Palmer or youll get really bad scores in Rock Band.")
![Chiron [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oRY2I7tpu3g/mqdefault.jpg "Chiron [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals
This video done on request by iou8112.
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Chiron by All That Remains as it appears in Rock Band 2 for PlayStation 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by Phil Labonte are muted, and my microphone is turned up so the only vocals you hear are my own.
I really dont do this sort of growling/screaming very well at all, and even harder is transitioning from that into the solid pitch-singing in the chorus, but I did what I could with the song.
As always, let me know what you think!")
![Good Vibrations [Rock Band 3] 100% Expert Solo Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ojginqwqhmc/mqdefault.jpg "Good Vibrations [Rock Band 3] 100% Expert Solo Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Solo Vocals performance on Good Vibrations (Live) by The Beach Boys, as it appears in Rock Band 3 for PlayStation 3.
This song is on the disc in all versions of Rock Band 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by The Beach Boys are minimized so you can (mostly) hear what Im singing.
This video requested by ToymasheenSH.
I wanted to see just how well the new engine handles vocal output from the player, so I turned up my sensitivity on my PS3 and mic volume in-game to maximum... and the results (as you will see and hear) leave a lot to be desired.
I sing the entire song in its original pitches; you can barely even hear me when I go low for some reason. Ditto for talkies. Theres also a short burst of some weird static that shows up about halfway into the video. To even get this much volume on my vocals I had to use two microphones simultaneously.
Overall, Im dissatisfied by the players vocal quality in Rock Band 3. In the future Ill be doing my usual of recording external audio and mixing it back into the game audio myself.
As for technical difficulty, this song is arguably the most difficult song to perform in Rock Band vocals, period. Its REALLY tough, and definitely deserves its devil-tiered vocals rating because theres weird melodies and harmonies everywhere, and youre covering for several different singers - often one right after another.
I may come back and annotate this video with tips to help people get past this song, as there are so many strange melodies that you cant hear very well but are asked to sing.")
![Here Comes the Sun [The Beatles: Rock Band] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p4Lnvz9Wzow/mqdefault.jpg "Here Comes the Sun [The Beatles: Rock Band] 100% Expert Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles, as it appears in The Beatles: Rock Band for PlayStation 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by The Beatles are minimized so you can hear which part Im singing (in this case, lead vocals).
Ive got a bunch of requests sitting around for songs from this game, but Im not sure how many of them I will be able to get to.
Here Comes the Sun is mostly easy, except for the odd melody in the verses (...its been a long cold lonely winter...) which can be somewhat unintuitive.
Note that the falsetto sections (sun sun sun here it comes) can be shifted down if youre not comfortable singing that high.
The only oddity about this song is that the blue lead vocal line changes on the falsetto parts when played on Harmonies instead of Solo (as Im doing here). Im not really sure why - maybe because the harmony part actually does switch to being dominant there.")
![Learn to Fly [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals Performance Mode](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pcHsDJN7mwc/mqdefault.jpg "Learn to Fly [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals Performance Mode
This is another of my video entries into the ScoreHero How Good Can You Sound Video Challenge, found here:
http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11205
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters as it appears in Rock Band 2 for PlayStation 3. This is done in Performance Mode, so there are no lyrics, pitchlines, or scores visible until the end of the song.
As per the rules of the challenge, the original vocals by Dave Grohl are muted, and my microphone is turned up so the only vocals you hear are my own.
Not a terribly challenging melody to sing, though some people struggle with the low part in the bridge (fly along with me I cant quite make it alone).
I actually did this video in its original pitches when I first recorded it, but I found I had to falsetto the high notes in the chorus which sounded odd and disjointed. I did three separate performance mode FC runs on this song on video before I gave up in disgust at the results and just downshifted most of the song by 1 octave so I could put some spin on the words and not jump into/out of falsetto. Unfortunately, I cant reliably hit the lowest note in the bridge shifted down an octave, so I left the bridge alone.
As with all my Performance Mode videos, this is done in a darkened room with no hints or tricks to help me remember lyrics or pitches aside from the background music.")
![Take Me Out [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qVm-C_bDHVs/mqdefault.jpg "Take Me Out [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand, as it appears in Rock Band 2 for PlayStation 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by Alex Kapranos are minimized so you can hear what Im singing.
This video was requested by many, many, many people. Im afraid I stopped keeping track after the first few, and it wouldnt be fair of me to mention some but not others, but you all know who you are. :)
Take Me Out is really difficult to sing without octave shifting or using falsetto. It spans 2 and a half octaves, which most people simply do not have access to when singing - I can span the entire song if I jump into falsetto on the verses, but to save your ears Ive octave shifted the higher parts down.
Its unusual to have a song where the toughest phrases land on pitchslides, but thats exactly what happens in Take Me Out. Watch out for the I know I wont be leaving here... with you phrases, theyre trickier to score than you might think.
Silly YouTube botched the processing on this video the first time I uploaded it. Lets see if it works with a different encoding...")
![Dont Stop [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qa-9p7KXoNw/mqdefault.jpg "Dont Stop [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Dont Stop by Fleetwood Mac, as it appears in Rock Band 2 for PlayStation 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by Lindsey Buckinham and Christine McVie are minimized so you can hear what Im singing.
Im not sure why this song is rated in tier 6 (5 dot difficulty). Its honestly not difficult in any way whatsoever. The lyrics are a bit compressed in a few places, but everythings on key, theres not much vocal range required and the short word lines means you have tons of forgiveness in the scoring. Id have pegged this song at 1 dots, maybe 2 dots at most.")
![Me Enamora [Rock Band 3] 100% Expert Vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/riDtbbdHPd8/mqdefault.jpg "Me Enamora [Rock Band 3] 100% Expert Vocals
100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Me Enamora by Juanes, as it appears in Rock Band 3 for PlayStation 3.
This song is on the disc for all versions of Rock Band 3.
As is typical for my videos, the original vocals by Juanes are muted so you can hear what what Im singing.
This wasnt actually the video I was going to do for my first Rock Band 3 video. I was originally going to do Plush by Stone Temple Pilots first, but this song came up in a random setlist and the rapid-fire lyrics caught my interest.
From a technical viewpoint, Me Enamora isnt terribly tricky, but unless you speak fairly fluent Spanish, the lyrics are just too fast to read.
Personally, I dont speak any Spanish at all, so I had to learn the song one word at a time over the course of about three days. Im very sorry if Ive made some pronunciation mistakes; I tried hard to make sure I got as much of the lyrics right as possible, but with lyrics this fast, its really hard, especially with a completely foreign language.
Lo siento. Yo no hablo español.")
