I plan to get better at songwriting by doing a lot of it....

[Hilary]

We miss you Alfredo - it's heartbreaking to think of you in the thick of all this madness.

Stay safe and I look forward to one day hearing you make music again xx

[Hilary]

Jacob Collier has a lot of really good songwriting videos on Youtube - he is an unbelievable talent. This is a cover, he's absolutely crushing Jamie Cullen here


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X8vyeZgVVQ

[AndyR]

Jacob Collier has a lot of really good songwriting videos on Youtube - he is an unbelievable talent. This is a cover, he's absolutely crushing Jamie Cullen here


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X8vyeZgVVQ

Whoa, that's cool. But I have to admit I much prefer Jamie Cullum's voice/delivery!
But the tinkling on the ivories... flippin flip! He'll be quite good one day if he keeps practising! 

Actually, I just realised, I have Jamie Cullum's first album somewhere, I think ... my sister bought it for me years ago, only listened to it once - I'll have to dig it out on the strength of watching that.

I'm dying to know, what did you make of Music and Lyrics? First few times I watched it I was just watching it as a film that Mrs R likes and luckily I do too... but then I realised the musical and song-writing references weren't embarrassing me... (and, possibly more embarrassing to admit, they weren't causing me to "explain" to Mrs R what was wrong in the film!!) ... and then I realised some of the interplay in the writing sessions is spot on... and then when I was writing my essay yesterday, I suddenly realised that M&L, if you take it seriously and believe it, does offer some insights on the song-writing process...

[Hilary]

Please, please, please listen to some of Jacob Collier's stuff - he walks on water!

M&L - I liked it. I thought Hugh Grant was really funny in it (as the hasbeen putting out his back with the hip thrusts and the 80s band throwbacks) - on the songwriting front - OMG I would love to get in a room with someone (so to speak) and do some songwriting. There was emphasis on the strength/choice of words and a bit about song composition (starting on the minor 3rd etc) and also how a good/bad producer can totally change the essence of a song. Oh and also how the subconscious mind plays its part (the absent mindedly good lyrics she says when watering the plants).

Your Dean Friedman course sounds very cool!

[Hilary]

But I have to admit I much prefer Jamie Cullum's voice/delivery!

Jamie has chosen the key not Jacob.

[Hilary]

Oh and dig deep to write the 3rd verse 

[StephenM]

I just listened to your soundcloud video arcade song.... to quote you
"Saturday, some time in the 1980s, in London Ontario Canada. An Arcade on Dundas Street, a Dairy Queen, and the London Public library, Chicken Noodle Soup, and Gummy Bears, and Best Friends.

Coin up. Game on."
 love your sentiment to a happy time, a young time, of your life that your song creation reminds you of....that is a great reason to write something....personally I was hoping I could download it because i like listening to stuff like this off line...and in a case like yours where it is very short i would make a loop of it and let it rip for like 5 minutes... I am a runner and I put stuff like this on my run playlist....i zone out to it while I hit for the endorphine buzz......
Years and years ago i started playing guitar and then bass... got in a band and we wrote some stuff but most of the success I had was doing cover music from the 70's and 80s....in bars....while people were drinking and they just wanted to hear some good Rock and Roll...and that was alot of fun and I had about a 3 year window that we were one of the better bands in Charleston, SC....(around 1986-89)....and we got some big gigs some other bands that had been around longer asked us how we were doing it... and frankly it was mostly because we played the songs well and we had a hot female voacalist that kicked butt....
I totally got away from playing any music from around 1991 until about 2009....I didn't think about it....didn't know that I even missed it...and then some guys moved into my circle of friendships and we got talking and next thing i knew I was playing bass with them....alot...and  I really got better and better on the bass.... and then about 5 years ago I bought another Les Paul (this one was an epiphone)..... and my guitar playing really took off and I think it was because of the bass....I really became a lead guitar player playing bass....
and then I really wanted to write some songs...and I started and it took me a while to take myself at all seriously about it... I was kind of embarassed...but i also liked it and really wanted to do it...and I just decided that even if I was the only one who liked it that would be enough reason to do it... and then I got thinking that someone, somewhere would like my music if I could just connect with them.... So I have now had over 1400 song plays on reverbnation....lol.... and really the only thing I care about is if 1 person actually likes my music it makes it all worth while....but really for me to do it because i like to is reason enough.... I am 60 something now.... and I also play drums and harmonica....and i do those too just because i like to....and I am getting better at them....
people will listen to you on SC especially when you take the time to listen to them.....play on....

[StephenM]

Andrew, you are full of great stuff and you take the time to explain so well.... and some of what you said about yourself I have figured out about you a little from hearing some of your songs....and you have alot of great technical knowledge on recording as well...I am going to go and try to find that song you wrote when you were 15....should be great... I have really taken to heart some of what you shared on eq on vocals and bottom end.... and just getting me touching those things is a huge step of success... I think one of the things I love the most about SC is alot of folks on here are totally into creative stuff...different stuff... and yet also appreciate kind of same old same old.... and I have really posted a few things that I never would have if I didn't feel "safe" doing so on here....plus people will actually interact with you on SC which i really like...

[StephenM]

Music and Lyrics is on Netflix. There are some good documentaries about artists too - Ian Drury, Lady Gaga 5fr 2, and Taylor Swift - they all show their songwriting processes - Ian Drury had a book of phrases and ideas that came to him which I've been doing "share a breath" in Stronger - I've got one that isn't finished yet with "pussyfooting around".

and some people just really have it....it is easy....for them...that is true about all sorts of things....but I have found it to be hard but that is ok and I can get better at it....

[StephenM]

Amen to everything you say, Mike!

Unfortunately due to the actual situation and my job, I haven't been able to put online anything new, and honestly I don't know if and when I will be able again...hopefully with the end of this nightmare, that is more and more scary...but I come here everyday to listen to what's new, and this helps me a lot!

Alfredo

Thank you for your service to humaity and I hope and pray you stay well.....and yes...looking forward to hearing your music when you can return to writing....