While more “crossover” than straight country, I decided to take on Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” as my first song. An odd choice? Perhaps, but there’s no denying that the song is a major hit, and it was stuck in my head. Also, it’s exactly the kind of song that I rarely have cared to learn: super mainstream pop country, energetic, easily accessible lyrics.

In learning this song, I was surprised to find that I was immediately winded! Apparently that girl has some serious lungs (and/or she punched in on every other line when recording). Also, the vocal arrangement is pretty tricky. The second verse has a couple of one-time hooks that are hard to get right (or even close to right); if you don’t breathe quickly and in the right places, you’ll derail the whole song.

For my arrangement, since I’m a hetero male, I changed up the lyrics and subsequently some of the intent of the song, though the main theme of overlooked girl or guy next door still comes through pretty well. I recorded my version with an iPhone using the voice recorder app, and then processed it through Garage Band to beef it up and compress it a little. Definitely not a perfect take, but I did make it all the way through the song and feel successful with it on the whole.