SSG and Nick's comments on songwriting

Glad you finally put music to it.
Of course I didn't understand half the process you went through but . . .
I'm glad you did.

Thanks Ken, I appreciate your kind comments. :)

I guess it does look a bit complicated, although it's mostly not too bad after you've worked through the first time.

I'd just love to see bigger numbers of the GN members having a go here, so I'm trying to think up ways that might help more of the newer players get over those first hurdles. I'm rather guessing that there are some who would like to join in but feel daunted by the full task of writing, playing, singing and recording. But maybe I'm wrong, and those who have the necessary spark will find their own way round anyway....

Anyway, that's more than enough waffle from me. Good luck with week 2. Vic's setting a cracking pace here (I'm sure there were only 4 days in last week. :wink: and I'm looking forward to tackling this I, IV, V, IV assignment. Can't seem to get the feel of it yet, so it's back to work....

Cheers,

Chris

Chris, that brought a tear to my eye. Beautiful, Poignant, with just a hint of meteorology.

I'd like permission to play that one here in DC for my next gig.

Oh, and I think you can just claim that as an original. Swiped melody or not I doubt the copyright holders will either recognize it or claim it.

Oh, and I think you can just claim that as an original. Swiped melody or not I doubt the copyright holders will either recognize it or claim it.

And doing just that certainly helped a number of artists get their careers launched. You'd be surprised (or probably not) at the list of names who could (should) attest to doing just that.

Thanks for the breakdown and I hope it helps folks to participate more. Sometimes, though, the SSG is just cyclical. People come and go and come back and go and more often than not participation is a matter of "real world" matters than of desire.

What might help matters immensely (and something I've made a vow to do this year) is to post whatever you happen to do, "complete" song or not. I've come up with at least a chord progression, if not chord progression and melody, for easily two-thirds of the assignments for SSG since Year 1. But I've never posted anything unless it was pretty close to done. I think it's good to take a cue from John ("the Celt") Roche's Week 1 post and to put up whatever I've got by a certain time in the week. Progress reports on "works in the works" are always good.

Peace

But I've never posted anything unless it was pretty close to done. I think it's good to take a cue from John ("the Celt") Roche's Week 1 post and to put up whatever I've got by a certain time in the week. Progress reports on "works in the works" are always good.

It can also be useful posting an unfinished song if you're not sure what to do with it next - sometimes one can draw a mental blank there, but to everyone else there's an obvious direction to follow. Happened to me a couple of times!

:D :D :D

Vic

I'll second that. That is the miracle of this place.

I decided I was going to write 52 songs this year, good, bad, or mediocre, but I was going to write them. For this week I figured out the style -Orbison, chords in A with flourishes to Maj7, and the melody I wanted to use pretty early on, but the words....nothing.

I was getting frustrated, but I was going to write a song for week 1 no matter how much it sucked. So Saturday morning, without much hope, I sat down to write it.

I started thinking, what kind of song do I want to write? The early Roy Orbison day's were filled with love songs, so whatever it is "It's not a love song". And then I listened to Only the Lonely to get me in the proper writing mood and that gave me the "running from loneliness" stanza. I wrote that down and read it and think "It's not a love song, but what if it turns out that way?" That was a eureka moment. Then the words just poured out onto the page. About 3 days fretting about it, 1 hour writing it, a couple more editing with your help and there it is. Bizarre.

I'd like to take credit for writing the songs I consider good, but a lot of it goes to the miracle of SSG, people freely giving advice to make the song better. Some of it is practice crafting lyrics, but a big part of writing a song you can perform is just dumb luck. It's like winning a raffle, you have to enter/write to win, but you have to be lucky too.

What the SSG really does, is prepare you for those times when you are lucky.

Chris, that brought a tear to my eye. Beautiful, Poignant, with just a hint of meteorology.

I'd like permission to play that one here in DC for my next gig.

Consider it yours. :D

Regardless of whether it actually happens or not, the mere thought that it might is a wonderful thing. It's my 62nd birthday the day after tomorrow (the 12th) and that's the best present I could have wished for (I might print that out and gift wrap it.... ).

I was hoping not to have to reveal this... but, thanks to the wonders of GN forums, it's pretty much half yours anyway.

UH? What?....
Well, around the time I wrote this I came across a comment that you'd made about singing. It was probably about one of the jams at the store with all the crew, but it was making mild fun of how shy and retiring you were, and how reluctant to step into the limelight (all the while suggesting that you couldn't be prised out of the spotlight with a crowbar once you'd got hold of the mic...). So that was part of the inspiration for the guy in the song who knows he can be pretty impressive on his day, but is wry enough, and confident enough, to laugh at himself and put it all in perspective too.

Also, the fact that I could dare to dream up such a phrase as “rectal illuminance” and sing it without blushing can be traced directly to having recently listened to a certain IGFYUTA.... song around that time, and having some stray ‘regional imagery' still rattling round in the murkier depths of the brain.

Even the trumpets had a connection. When you put up your “Write a lead line” challenge for Lost Summer Days, I spent many hours with the headphones on looping bits and pieces, slowing them down, and so on trying to figure out how the hell you were working the magic. I never did figure out how to write a solo for it (I'm strictly a three chord strummer and haven't played any lead yet), and I couldn't successfully deconstruct the magic either, but along the way I got a tantalising glimpse of a whole stack of other intriguing and useful things. Things like “I reckon I could fake that, that and that, for backing tracks.. make a mental note of that...”, “What's he doing with his voice that makes that bit work so well? Is it the timing, the timbre, the phrasing....??”, and “Boy! That sax just lights things up when it comes in there... I wonder if I could try that that effect without being able to play a sax....”

And the other half of the credit probably goes to David, Vic and a few others around here. Probably just as well there's no royalty cheque to have to try and split, I might end up well in the red.

Other that, well, I was top of my class and I'm getting more senile by the day so, apart from the initial premise of youthful good looks, it all fits me pretty well too.

Cheers,

Chris

Sometimes, though, the SSG is just cyclical. People come and go and come back and go and more often than not participation is a matter of "real world" matters than of desire.

I guess you're right David. I just see so much good stuff here not being accessed as much as it might be. Paul's comments a while back about ads and general site profitability stuck in my head, and now I keep seeing - or imagine that I'm seeing - ways in which traffic might be increased. Little things like wanting to recommend an article of yours about singing, but not being able to find it because the index still wasn't very user friendly (I eventually memorised the title "Home on Your Range" and used Google to find it after that...). Having successfully run my own businesses for years, I suppose I'm just a bossy "Why don't you try doing it this way, and have you thought of that?..." kind of guy. I do overdo it at times. :mrgreen:

What might help matters immensely (and something I've made a vow to do this year) is to post whatever you happen to do, "complete" song or not. I've come up with at least a chord progression, if not chord progression and melody, for easily two-thirds of the assignments for SSG since Year 1. But I've never posted anything unless it was pretty close to done. I think it's good to take a cue from John ("the Celt") Roche's Week 1 post and to put up whatever I've got by a certain time in the week. Progress reports on "works in the works" are always good.

+1

Something like that should be engraved on the entry arch for SSG - along with Nick's "What the SSG really does, is prepare you for those times when you are lucky."

Cheers,

Chris

I'll drink to that too - doesn't have to be the greatest song ever written, or even the best song YOU'VE ever written - just has to be a few lines with the potential to be a song. Got a verse and don't know where to go with the chorus? Got a hook and nothing to hang on it? It really DOESN'T have to be a completed song, or a fully realised idea - we're all here to help each other, add a phrase or two, an idea for music, even a critique about the wrong word in the wrong place. It all adds up - even a negative critique helps, as long as the critic spells out what's wrong.

If you've got a verse, or chorus, or hook and don't know what to do with it, post it - ideas and suggestions WILL be forthcoming!

:D :D :D

Vic