A Love Letter to Songcrafters.org

[Ted]

I've been doing a thing I call Blackout Bumping. You've probably seen it. Maybe you find it annoying. It doesn't mean that I'm bumping songs while blackout drunk. Rather, it's born out of a feeling that I've neglected and missed out on this community from time to time – not just the songs, but the community. Over the past 14 years, 7 months, and 29 days since I registered on this site, I've dropped off, several times, for months on end – one of my gaps was almost two years.

I did a spreadsheet, one row for every week within these long gaps. I sorted the rows randomly, and I find (at least) one song posted for each of these blackout weeks, and I bump the song – with some (hopefully) substantive comments.

I'm like a lost relative who drops in and wants to look at the photos on your wall and show you his tattoos – as though that makes up not being there for you.

Life happens. But nonetheless, I regret not being much more musically productive over these years, and not being a more supportive member of this special community. This is the only online community in my life that really feels like community to me. (I've still never met any of you in real life. I used to live in the same state as Satchwood, but that never happened.) And I've pretty much lost interest in posting my music anywhere else.

In spite of several long gaps, I have obliquely journaled many of my life events here – and nowhere else but here. A marriage. A divorce.  Deaths in my family. Life in Arizona. A new life in Madagascar. A second marriage.

I just turned 60 earlier this year. I still feel like I have a lot to say with music. I better start saying it.

Many times I've tried to come up with a formula for how to produce more music: Less perfectionism, limit the number of takes, limit the number of tracks, commit to a minimum time for music every day (or week). Nothing sticks. Now, I feel like I'm onto something this time. We'll see.

Me here with my 3000th post, and with my big gaps in activity, I wonder if I'm as obscure and unknown to the newer regulars as flyon90 is to me. (Nothing personal, flyon90, I picked you out of the Member List at random from among other lackluster community members. Your songs are great. Not that you'll ever read this post.)

Of the top 15 posters on this site (listed on the home page), only Oldrottenhead and 64Guitars have been here longer than I have. I see bruno on that list, and I think, "Ah, yeah, that new kid from 2012... Pfft." The internal dialog continues, "Your seniority don't mean shit! Bruno is relevant to this community. Are you?"

Flash Harry's post "one last message," is a long thread with many members saying what this site has meant to them. You should read it, if you haven't.

So anyway... I'm just very appreciative that this site is still here. Not monetized, not optimized, not commercialized, no advertisements, no "like" button. And I want you all – the members who consistently show up, comment, and post your music  – to know that I appreciate this community. A special mention to the admins – who do more than we know to keep the community in its special social, technical, and musical equilibrium.

When I started doing my Blackout Bumps, I noticed that my posts lingered on the top of the boards for days. That worried me. Am I one of the only people still here? And am I being a pest?

2022 is estimated based on the average number of song posts so far

So I did another spreadsheet, analyzing all of the song posts since the site was launched (in the Bossbr.net days). These aren't "official" stats, but I'm pretty sure that the trends are accurate. This was another wake-up call, helping me realize how special this community is. Someone running this site for money would have shut it down in 2019, if not earlier.

But the trend is upward now. We will probably never hit the previous highs again, but I've resolved to listen, comment, and post like it's 2011. I mean it this time.

More music! Fewer spreadsheets!

Thank you!


EDIT: I did another analysis (God help me) and realized that my gaps weren't as long as I originally believed. It's true that I went almost two years once without posting a song, but the longest I ever went without posting a topic or a reply was about 200 days. Nonetheless, mining those big gaps between posting songs is proving to be really fun, and I'm getting to know some of the people on this site much better. I've decided to keep doing the blackout bumps until my 15-year anniversary on this site – even if I haven't visited every week of every blackout. It's coming up.

[Hilary]

Crikey you are doing a lot of thinking and analysing. No one minds that you drop out for a bit and then come back when you want - life gets in the way - be gentle with yourself.

I love that this is a love letter to the site. I still miss loads of members music some non-active at present and some have sadly passed.

This is a precious oasis of special and I for one thank all the members for giving whatever they can whenever they can and yes, special thanks to the admin too for holding everything together.

Let's all party like it's 2011 😀

[Zoltan]

Glad you edited the post because of the granma. Songcrafters is special and Ted is the intergalactic superhero!

(This escalated fast, but did you really expect less from me? ).

You/we come and go. That's the name of the show. Or should be. Like Hilary said - be gentle with yourself! (within limits).

Although i think Hilary should post more songs... And Ted yes... More songs!

[StephenM]

It's almost impossible for me to pass by something like this and not say something.  I have said this in more than a few comments: this site is very important to me.  All I really wanted was to find a place to post a few songs where I could actually interact with people.  I had no idea how this site would radically change my music life a bit over 2 years ago when I found it randomly doing a search about the BR1600 hard drive problem I was having.
Its really cool to have actually collaborated with some great musicians, singers, recording enthusiasts from various places around the globe.  The thing here that works for me is that it is a small site.  I don't care about it being outdated or whatever that matters not to me.  Actually, I am kind of that way myself now!
I doubt many know how much I have learned by being on this site.  Mostly just how to improve musically and recording wise.  It is inspiring to be part of your songs.  It feels like an honor to get private hearings of some of the great songs of this planet that are produced by you. 
I have a special place in my heart for this site and all of you who take the time to interact with me.  It's special and I treasure it! 

bump away Ted.  I enjoy hearing many of them.  Oh, so many songs.... so little time...whats a person to do?

I might  add that lately the more I think about this site and what it is and all the great music it kind of makes me think about what I am posting..... as in is this good enough to add something to this site?  I try not to judge to much but really!

[Ted]

...lately the more I think about this site and what it is and all the great music it kind of makes me think about what I am posting..... as in is this good enough to add something to this site?

I've become the opposite: I try to not think about "not good enough." I like that I can replace the song with an updated version later if I discover I'm unable to live with the original version being out there. It's kind of an underappreciated feature of this site. Imagine the stress of uploading a song, and the only way to replace it was to delete the entire topic? That would be so bad, it would be like YouTube.

(I'm actually planning on repairing one of my recent songs this weekend.)

[SteveB]

WARNING: Looooong post + some info in this is relevant to questions raised in 'NiteFill 2015', in the songs thread. So, one of the most depressing pieces of news - music wise - that I've read in the last couple of years is that approx 20,000 songs a day are uploaded to Spotify and the like - this number is very likely to be out-of-date by now. Now I'm not criticising the people who can get infinite joy from the writing, arranging, playing and producing individual songs to upload - it's just the sheer volume that makes me shudder. I'll explain my misgivings. Before I found Songcrafters I was a member of a couple of music forums (Jeeze, and on one there was an endless debate about whether it should be Forums or Fora - and it turned out that not one of the people taking part in this pointless argument had ever attended a Latin lesson at school/college in their lives - make some music already!) Anyway, the point here is that on these music forums, literally every other post was along the lines of: Hear My Beats/Where Can I Sell My Beats/ Newbie Beat Maker Seeks Audience/Beats For Sale and on and on and on. Only once did I click on a 'Beats' post, and was subjected to the most turgid drivel imaginable  - which still gives me nightmares. Simply put: some half-wit has got hold of a drum machine and/or synth and recorded an 8 bar pattern for 4 minutes - they then want you to pay for it. Huh? It was like one of those Pyramid schemes - Yeah, you too can make a thou £/$  month selling 'Beats' - send me a 100 bucks and I'll tell you how. So, in the middle of this madness I acquired a BR900CD, and on searching the .www came across 64Gtrs Boss Recorders site (Apologies 64Gtrs I'm unsure of what it was actually called now), anyway that led to the Nirvana that is now Songcrafters, whose ethos from day one seemed to be: Encourage not Criticise. I don't know who formulated this policy, - was it just organic? - but it was the freshest air I'd ever taken on the Interweb. My first encounter on SC was with the Reverend48, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago, and he encouraged me to upload a noodle called 'One Minute Blues', that I'd recorded. With little me not knowing that The Rev was teaching people Online how to play Blues Guitar! He said he loved my blues noodling and to record and upload more. Jeeze, to paraphrase Alice Cooper, all I'd ever heard before was Turn that damned thing down!!
So at around this time I was burgled, actually for the umpteenth time, and was wiped out musically: Gtrs, Amps, Pedals etc all gone. Fortunately for me, on the night it happened I was elsewhere with my BR900CD recording a folk trio. I used to attend this Folk Club - a room above a local pub - and I asked the Committee - Beardy Bob with the check shirt - could I hone my very primitive production techniques by recording a few songs - the Committee said yes. Coincidently, one of trio was the grandson of Rob who used to run a Youth Club in the village in the 1960s, and it was he that introduced myself and other 14yrs old to Pete Seeger, Simon & Garfunkel, Euan McColl and others - he brought the LP Sounds of Silence in to play and my life was never the same again. Rob also played guitar and sang folk songs, and by the time he got to the last verse of 'The Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh', he had a Youth Club full of kids with tears in their eyes.
And so it was that I had to start again, again. (Don't forget this was the 4th time I'd been burgled. The good news is that I moved from that gaff some time afterwards and have been happy and un-burgled since). All my musical instruments could now fit in one hand - the BR900CD. So by a couple of paydays later - prob 3months - I was having withdrawal symptoms and my Other Half had noticed that my fingertips were becoming soft (ahem!). Anyway, it was down to my local music shop and I purchased a Strat copy that was On Sale, down from £117 to £99 - which was stolen in the next burglary!! Though in between those two events I plugged the guitar in to the BR900 and recorded 'NiteFill'. As I stated over on the songs thread, apart from the drum loop all the sounds are from the one guitar, including Bass. Have to say that the effects on these machines are incredible, and a little while later I purchased the BR1200 which I still have and which still works, though since I've been noodling again through this first part of retirement, I've noticed that some of the buttons are becoming unreliable/sticky. But what of Songcrafters? I've checked, and apparently I've been a Member since June 2009, though I freely admit that I've done much more lurking than being involved. But in all that time I've not considered joining anywhere else to post music - I'm on Soundcloud but I don't think I've any songs uploaded there. Nope, Songcrafters does the deed for me, and one of the best pieces of news - music wise - that I've read recently was Ted's demolition of anyone thinking that SC is the pathway for ego-boosting yer crib on the 'Bumping' thread. Well done, sir. So that's it, quite simply I've never been involved with any music site where the generosity of spirit and encouragement are so prevailing from fellow Members - and not forgetting the Admin team who do so much that we never hear about. Yep, Ted et al, a Love Letter indeed to Songcrafters. Long may it last.

[alfstone]

Songcrafters is, by my point of view, a sort of a miracle. A group of people who meet and share the meaning of words like *respect*, *encouragement*, *support*, without any other *parallel reason* ($$$). Nothing like SC in the Internet, as far as I know, if we talk about making music. Other places, even if no money is involved, are full of people who just  want to show to be *better than*, both in making music and in technical and critic knowledge. I've been here since 2010, and believe me, every visit here (almost daily...) is a pleasure, even if I do not comment so much...it's like a walk to the local pub, where I'm sure I'll meet again my good old friends. Very important.

[Blooby]

I feel compelled to mention that I'm not wearing any underwear.

[Jean Pierre]

I stumbled upon this post this morning and this wonderful letter from Ted, and your responses

I was introduced in 2015 by Alfredo because I think we had a common interest in Band in a Box, I can never thank him enough

The Sogcrafters.org community (I say community) is in my opinion unique on the net

I regret that it is not more universal ... I think I'm currently the only active French-speaking member (in 2015 when I arrived, there was Daniel de Sete and Steelguitar, the oldest must remember. Unfortunately, like many members they are currently in desertion and it has something frustrating to lose the contact as held it with these people who are absent from SC, we do not know why, or how... are they in diffculty of health, family, professional, or suddenly disinterested?..we do not know

As you know, I only understand English with difficulty, I have to use a translator and the mistakes in translation, the false friends, the nonsense have certainly caused me problems of misunderstanding with some people.

My taste for music is above all musical, the lyrics of the songs come second, I'm unable to compose anything which explains why I don't go to the original song section as much.

One of the particularities that I appreciate the most on SC is the possibility to collaborate with you, I'm very proud of my series "Containement Musical Workshop" in which I collaborated with 26 of you, I must forget some...)

It is the occasion to thank again and again the administrators of the site Oldrottenhead and 64Guitar

and as the quote I chose from Bilbo's speech in the Lord of the Rings says in my signature
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

[Ted]

the false friends

For those of you who don't speak French, JP doesn't mean "false friends" the way we mean it in English – a duplicitous person who pretends to be your friend. In French, faux amis (false friends) are "false cognates" – words or terms that are similar in both languages, but don't mean the same thing in both languages. These can lead to misunderstandings.

• compréhensif means "understanding" (and complet means "comprehensive")
  
• éventuellement means "possibility" (and finalement means "eventually")
  
• une location means "a rental: (and un lieu means "a location")
  
• sensible means "sensitive" (and raisonnable means "sensible")
  
• commander means "to order" (and ordonner means "to command")
  

It says a lot that JP is willing to make the extra effort to push through the language barrier in order to be part of this community. I speak French okay, but I don't participate in any francophone online communities. It would have to be a pretty damn good community before I would commit the additional cognitive load required to interact within it.

quite simply I've never been involved with any music site where the generosity of spirit and encouragement are so prevailing from fellow Members

That summarizes a whole lot of words. Well said.

I'm not wearing any underwear

As a matter of course, Commando Blooby.