"Don't Speak" (No Doubt) - Spanish/Salsa cover by Nguyen-Anh Le

Here's my latest "one man band" music video!  "Don't Speak" is a great rock ballad.  My cover turned out to be very Spanish, a bit more upbeat, with a heavy dose of Salsa-style rhythm and bass.  Vocals, lead guitar, and rhythm guitar were performed by me.  The bass and percussion are synths using GarageBand.



I actually performed "Don't Speak" on solo guitar/vocals at an open mic a couple months ago.  It was my first time playing guitar in public!  Since I didn't get boo'd off stage, it must have been decent enough (though I did mess up the solo a bit, oh well).  I played something similar to the rhythm guitar part on the video.

When I started working on the video, I decided to focus on the beautiful Spanish-style solo.  This solo always felt a bit out of place in the original song, which is alternative rock everywhere else.  For my cover, I went the opposite direction - making the solo the heart of song, and the rest of complement it.  I did this by:

• Playing the Spanish-style lead guitar throughout the song.  Why just do it in the solo?  So I did some songwriting.  The lead guitar part ended up with a cool counter-melody during the chorus as well the verses.
• Applying some Latin style syncopation to the rhythm guitar part.  It turned out sounding a little Brazilian.
• A Salsa-style rhythm and bass.  The song starts out a little slow (since it's supposed to be a sad lament).  But it really picks up at the chorus.  I decided to throw in the full Salsa bass line rhythm, plus some conga/snare/shaker action for some zest. 

You can also download the mp3 version - click here (right-click to download).  Hope you enjoy it!  Vamanos a bailar!! :)