Flowers by Miley Cyrus and trying not to sound too ‘classical’

In the past, we haven’t always been 100% about Miley Cyrus’s music but when we heard Flowers we were intrigued. The tone that Miley Cyrus achieves with her singing is just absolutely gorgeous and we were inspired to try and recreate the luscious jazzy textures and colours that she uses. One of the biggest challenges that we face as musicians performing covers of modern songs is trying to match the styles of the songs we play while still maintaining our own musical styles and retaining our musical integrity. Sarah with her Cello grooves tries to really lock onto the key aspects of the accompaniments and rhythm section while whittling it down so that it’s playable on just one Cello. The melody is another challenge and it takes listening to a song over and over again just to start feeling how a vocalist phrases the music, where they breathe, and how they treat the lyrics.

Flowers is so exciting because it feels like Miley Cyrus is increasingly going in a more Jazzy/Country direction. Whatever she’s doing we’re loving it and we can’t wait to hear more. Jaya has been listening to Flowers over and over again trying to emulate that lovely gravelly tone she achieves.

(p.s. if anyone’s wondering why the balloons, it was Jaya’s 30th last week XD)

#flowers #mileycyrus #violincover #cellocover #stringduet #violin #cello #violinist #cellists #covermusic #countrymusic #jazz #coversong #jazzviolin #jazzcello #countryviolin #cellogroove

The Adventures of The Chapel Hill Duo: 1

The Chapel Hill Duo, Sarah and Jaya as wedding guests.
A rare photo of us being Wedding Guests for a change! This was taken at the Carre Arms Hotel in Sleaford at Sarah’s Godfathers Wedding.

This is the first in a new series of blog posts where we will talk about our day-to-day lives as The Chapel Hill Duo. We will cover everything from our work at Weddings and other events to the joys and difficulties of being professional musicians living in rural Lincolnshire.

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Mr & Mrs Gale, on the windiest day of the year!

Bride and Groom in wedding ceremony see each other for the first time.
We love that moment when the Bride gets to the top of the aisle and the happy couple see each other for the first time on their wedding day. There were tears from everyone in the room – especially the groom!

As professional musicians part of our job is travelling, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot! Last week we covered about 500 miles in 4 days, which definitely falls into the ‘a lot’ category! It was worth it however, to play at 3 beautiful and wonderfully unique weddings. The theme for the week was really strong winds, making travelling and playing tricky at times. It was funny, however, as our third couple of the week were Mr & Mrs Gale!

Don’t You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia. People were dancing along to this one. Can you spot the kid teaching the bridesmaid how to floss?!

Continue reading “Mr & Mrs Gale, on the windiest day of the year!”