We, the Scots folk, often speak/sing with a “glottal stop”. The ‘t’ sound is shortened to a momentary closure of the throat so ‘butter’ becomes ‘buh-ur’ etc.
This can be a problem if, say, “can’t” sounds very much like “can” - they are total opposites.
To your ear: can the singer leave the island and can they be reached? Are they lonely?
Very much a rough cut at the moment, hopefully I’ll get another session in the next week or so, Do I need to work on annunciation or should I let the Scottishness come through. My instinct is: be yur sel. [Be your self]
I had no trouble understanding the lyrics (I’m from Ohio). To be honest, I quite liked the “accent”. It fits the song style.
Nice piece. I look forward to hearing the finished product.
Sincerely,
J.L.
Sounds fine to me but I was focusing on the vocals. A couple things that could (in my opinion) to add some clarity would be to make the vocals a little drier and the acoustic a little wetter to set the vocals a little more forward. To keep the acoustic’s presence close, use a reverb that has a pre-delay.
Other than that, focus on your vowels. I noticed a little consonant slurring (not your accent ) that would lead to incoherence of the phrasing. Pay attention to the basic sound of the vowel and try not to add a whole lot in the consonants to the note. It should make it easier to sing too and strengthen the overall vocal performance.
“Rrrrreeeeeach me” to “Reeeeeeeeech me”
“I am alllllooooonnnnnnne” to I am aaaaaahlooooooooone
Taking Tom woodcrests points, the “Rrrrreeeeeach me” to my ears is fine but “I am alllllooooonnnnnnne” especially the first time sung, sounded like “I am a Loon” which of course here in Scotland is short for loony. To me its the emphasis on the “O” where you round it off and make it sound “Oow” rather than “Ooh”. Apart from that I always aplaud people that keep there regional accents and make it work for them. Good stuff
Ps
I could nitpick a couple of unnecessary slid notes, but I won’t. eg (1min 16sec) “gift that you give to me”
First off: heart-felt thanks to those who listened and commented. I “give up” on this place every now and again … but it’s feedback and encouragement like this that keeps me coming back!
This is the 2nd sketch: the 1st definitely sounded like “I can leave, you can reach me.” and that would be a very different song - where’s the emotional turmoil in that?!!
Oh! That stings: I’m sure that the last time I commented on someone’s work here, I told them exactly the same thing! It’s reluctant singer syndrome.
I think that’s another Scottish thing. I tell people to pronounce Ruaridh as “Rory”, but it’s more like “Rrrory”.
Elongated consonants: I’m compensating for my short vowels. Hey: something has to get stretched to make it fit in.
Aye, I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do!
If you head a bit further north - The Howe of the Mearns/Aberdeenshire - then loon means “boy”. [Fit like ma loon?: How are you, my young man?]
Fair comment. It’s exacerbated by me using VariAudio on a copy of the original vocal to generate the harmonies. And hey: thanks for not mentioning it!
Hey: it’s all fair comment! If I wanted someone to tell me how nice it was: I’d play it to my mum!!
It is only a sketch at the moment - the 3rd verse only coalesced 10 minutes before the final take! I’m not a singer so I’m not sure I’ve got a better performance in me, but, if I don’t need to worry about glottal stops then that’ll free up a few more percent brain power for everything else.
Oh, I do feel if you could hit some of the notes quicker rather than slid them in, not all of them of course as I can hear where you purposely slid the note in, just some of them and it’ll give the tuner an easier time as well.
It’s not radically different: but it now has added nakedness (vocally!!)- along with a few of the other suggested tweaks and has a razor taken to the worst of the trailing sibilance.
Helpfully, this has brought out some of the - ahem - inherent limitations of the guitar track!
Next week, I’ll have the time to re-record next week.
) that would lead to incoherence of the phrasing. Pay attention to the basic sound of the vowel and try not to add a whole lot in the consonants to the note. It should make it easier to sing too and strengthen the overall vocal performance.
I’m sure that the last time I commented on someone’s work here, I told them exactly the same thing! 
