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Insight on the Laptop Sessions Acoustic Rock Cover Songs Series

By Jeff Copperthite:

When the idea came across to do The Laptop Sessions as a free video series, Jim started it all off by watching an acoustic cover video of Let It Be that was covered highly incorrectly, and Jim recorded himself playing it correctly. He wanted to put a good name to music covers on Youtube – especially covers of one of his favorite bands, The Beatles. Also, in spirit of “The Bathroom Sessions”, which was a free music video series by two members of Barenaked Ladies, I helped coin the term “Laptop Sessions”, since Jim was using the camera on his laptop to record the video.

After the positive response to sessions that Jim put out, Chris and I decided to help Jim with the “Session a day” project starting in 2008. Initially, Jim enlisted Chris to put up one video between each of them, so that the site had a new music video each day. I had tried ten cover song sessions in late 2007, but I had stopped doing them due to the low quality web camera I owned. In general, I was still new to the realm of video as well.

After nearly 60 new video cover song sessions recorded for The Laptop Sessions this year, I have recording videos down to a science. Here is a typical rundown of what it takes for me to make each session.

1) Practice the song

This is the obvious one. As a songwriter, I know the more comfortable I am with the song, the better the video will come out. I grew up hearing a lot of music in the 90’s, so I tend to be most comfortable when I decide to do a Pearl Jam song, Stone Temple Pilots cover, or a Radiohead song. However we do try to diversify our recordings across the years, and I know I cannot limit myself to alternative music bands. Therefore, some cover songs require up to a week of practice. Others I can learn and play comfortably in an hour or two. I will usually begin practicing the song regularly up to two-three days before I record it.

2) Set up the video recording station

Lately I have four common locations for my videos. The biggest problem I have is that I do not have a tripod for my camera (yet – I do plan to buy one). Therefore, I have to rest my camera on a makeshift stand. I also have to make sure there is enough light. Even during the day, I have to have at least one lamp on so the video doesn’t come out dark. After that, I position the camera, set the zoom, tune the guitar, and do a practice run of the song on the acoustic. Music tends to be easy for me – it’s singing and remembering lyrics that is the most difficult. For this reason, I have to put a small sheet of “notes” that remind me what verse or line to sing next. Sometimes, I have to include the entire lyric sheet, but that is rare. “Round Here” comes to mind as a cover song I just needed that entire lyric sheet by the camera for.

3) Record the video

When I am satisfied that I can record the song, I psych up for the performance. Lately, I have been able to record the song in about three or four takes. I don’t worry about what happens before or after the performance, since I can edit that out in the next step. As you have seen on our site, recording acoustic guitar video covers is real easy some days, other days you want to throw your guitar against the wall because something minor keeps messing takes up. “Jane” comes to mind with this (despite it being a piano cover). I had played it on the first take and was very happy to have satisfactorily made it through the song. That is, until I discovered the battery had died in the middle of the recording. I charged the battery, and then it took me another 20 or so takes to get it again. Other times, the performance comes so naturally you wonder why you practiced the song so much beforehand.

4) Edit the Video

This is probably the easiest step, despite it taking up to 30 minutes. I transfer the video to my laptop (as you can tell, I don’t own a laptop with a built-in camera, so technically I should be doing “The Powershot Sessions”). Once the video is transferred, I split the clip to the parts I want (usually this involves trimming out the beginning and end of the clip), then add on two title screens and a credit roll. Then, depending on the length of the performance, I render the video, which can take up to 12 minutes for long cover songs.

5) Write the description, and upload the video.

While the video renders, I write the Youtube description and tags. Usually I will comment on the song I chose, why I chose it, the album it is from, and any comments on the performance itself. I will also usually throw in some current news and other tidbits of info. My descriptions tend to be at least 100 words long. I can usually get both descriptions on the blog and Youtube before the video finishes rendering. Then I upload the video, copy the embedding information onto the blog, and publish!

What keeps me fresh for the Laptop Sessions is when I try to listen to new music that I may like to cover. I found on Chris and Jim to introduce me to bands and songs I’d otherwise not know, but some people I know also help me out in that department. It is also fun to use this as a springboard to get people to hear our independent music. That is why we do “Original Wednesday”, and slowly we are building up some excitement from our subscribers when that day rolls around. At least we know everyone watching will be listening to something they’ve never heard before.

I hope you enjoyed getting some insight on the acoustic cover songs recording process on my end. As always, if you have questions please email admin@fusco-moore.com, and direct your questions to me, Jeff Copperthite. Have a great evening!

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Yes, the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs blog always comes out with new material, but you'll also want to check out our extensive archive of past posts. We have literally hundreds of great acoustic cover videos here on the blog. And, a great cover video is just as good today as it was a year ago. You could spend DAYS watching great cover song videos through our extensive archives!

During your search, make sure to watch out for specialty weeks of our cover videos, including "New Bands Week" and "Number Ones Week", where we played a full seven days of songs that hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. These weeks allowed the members of the Laptop Sessions to expand their horizons and play cover songs that they normally wouldn't have thought of. It's amazing how difficult it is to find a Number One song from the past twenty years that we actually like, much less would want to play as an acoustic cover.

Through these archives, you'll find our talent by how we turned many over-produced songs into acoustic versions. Eighties songs especially benefited from our efforts because they tended to have electronic sounds that make the songs sound very dated now. Our acoustic treatment to these cover songs showcases them as just "songs" and not "recordings". If a song's truly great, it'll stand up to our bare-bones acoustic style. But, even well-produced songs, like those from the Beach Boys and the Beatles, do well as acoustic versions here on the Laptop Sessions music video series. When we do an acoustic cover of one of these songs, say stripping-away layered harmonies, you can still hear how great the song is on its own. It's a unique take on all these classic songs- hear your favorites with a fresh sound! That's what we promise here on the Fusco-Moore Productions Blog: great acoustic cover songs, superb video performances, and great music articles to tie it all together.