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Welcome, Or What Have I Got Myself In For?
Entry posted by Kel
1,462 views
5 members have voted
Kelisms
kel-isms [kel-iz-mmz]
noun
a remark, phrase, sentence, action or philosophical announcement or catchphrase that may be considered out of the ordinary, if not extraordinary, and made by Kel.
origin:
1980-present; Kelisms first started to emerge in the early 1980s when Kel first realised he had a slightly different, if not skewed vision of the world to most other people. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the term “Kelsims†came into popular use, mainly by Kel himself, when asked to explain his particular viewpoint, thought, action or outrageous announcement that had upset somebody too thin-skinned and/or lacking in intellect to recognise humour when they saw or heard it. Into the second decade of the new millennium, the term has gained widespread use around the world, or at least the world that Kel inhabits, to describe anything slightly odd, warped, skewed, off-centre, mildly unusual, hysterically un-politically correct, or something completely defying any sane person’s comprehension, and uttered, written, or acted out (as in charades) by Kel, or somebody as clever, insightful and intelligent as Kel.
synonyms:
rants, ravings, ramblings, delusions, inappropriate blathering, insightful observations, clever deductions, brilliantly devised concepts, ingenious elucidations
who is this, Kel?
Read on!
Entry #1
Hi all and welcome to my blog.
I have been inspired to create this blog through some positive feedback I have received both as PMs and in chat. So don’t blame me, it’s their fault!
I don't claim to be an "expert" or any sort of guru on this craft of songwriting. In fact I consider myself a student. I’ve played guitar for 40 years, and still consider myself a learner. (I learned E7 the other day!) I simply pass along what I have learned in my own extensive and considerable search for guidance.
For those unfamiliar with my posts, I tend to concentrate on structure rather than content, and rarely offer alternative lines, though I have offered different ways of saying something from time to time. People write for different reasons, and that is sometimes obvious in what they are writing about. While I may help them focus what they are saying, I try not to tell them what to say, or not say.
This first blog entry is really to let my reader (readers, if there is more than one!) know a little more about me, and my songwriting journey, not so much for establishing my credentials, but to hopefully provide an understanding of where I am coming from as a songwriting, critic and consumer of music.
I am in my 50s now, and look to making a living from songwriting when I grow up. Don’t worry; while I have my head in the clouds, my feet are planted firmly in the air!
I can’t say I have written a lot of songs. I haven’t. I know I have 13 on my Soundcloud page, and a few on hand that I’m nowhere near happy with for one reason or another, and sadly, some I’ve lost along the way. I particularly remember writing a Country duet back in the late nineties I’d like the Muse to revisit upon me. Please, Muse? The number of songs I’ve completed is closer to 20 than 30, I think. However I try to put everything I have into every one. This is radically different to the school of thought that says “write, record, forget, move on…†that I have read on Songstuff. I see every song I write as a song that can be improved (or ruined) by the further application of anything new I learn. I don’t believe in re-inventing a wheel, if the most of the hard work has been done already. There-in lays a whole blog entry, so I won’t elaborate on that for now.
Update: it's a few months down the track since I started these prattlings and my MasterWriter now holds over 80 song files or versions. I haven't recorded them all and they aren't all "finished" but I must say nothing has spurred on my creativity more than contributing regularly to Songstuff. I urge everyone to become active. Don't just read about stuff, do stuff... Song stuff!
Writing is not a cathartic process for me. It’s simply something I’ve always done, in one form or another. I’ve written songs, a novel, several short stories, and even a few poems. I’ve suffered rejection and indifference, had some minor publishing successes and have even won a contest or two, including here on Songstuff. I remember during the 90s I was even making Doom WADs. I won’t bother to explain what that is… those of us who know will understand!
My musical preference these days is Country, but I have always been exposed to most genres of music. I grew up listening to such diverse artists as Slim Dusty, Englebert Humperdink, Elvis Presley, Charley Pride, and Al Martino, because these were the artists my mother liked. My father didn’t seem to care about music at all, apart from “Dead Ants†which he performed at most family functions where beer was flowing.
As a 70s teenager I couldn’t not be influenced by what we now know as Classic Rock and even Glam Rock. I cried during most of my late teens and early twenties because I thought the guitar was dead. Every song on the radio had electronically synthesized sound that grated at me. My friends and I would purchase “Disco†records, and then go to regular “Death To Disco†concerts where said Disco records were thrown into a bonfire as part of a guitar worshiping ritual. Thank goodness for Jim Steinman who showed us how our own Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through by keeping guitars prominent (Todd Rundgren probably helped a lot there) and he was ably supported by Jon Bon Jovi and later by Messers Rose, Cobain and yeah okay, I had lost interest in rock by then… I had found George Strait!
Songstuffers in America may cringe at the term, but down here in Australia, Country music is still considered the red headed step child nobody wants, despite the efforts of aforesaid Slim Dusty who chalked up an incredible 105 albums (he died during production of #106) and had sold more than 7 million records in Australia alone at the time of his death in 2003. Anyway, I’ll pay homage to Slim on another occasion, but for now… In 1995, there was 1, one, I say ONE major city radio station in Australia with a Country format. 2SM, in Sydney. And it only lasted a year! But what a year!!! That oft maligned minor AM radio station in the FM dominated Australian market introduced Australia to George Strait, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, The Tractors, The Mavericks, Lonestar, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Jo Dee Messina and many others who I am sure we would be ignorant of without 2SM’s brave move to play Country Music in Rock and Pop dominated Sydney radio. Thank you 2SM.
I’d better conclude my ramblings before anyone starts to understand me!
Thanks for reading, and I think I’ll start a trend by having a shortlist of future blog subjects (or targets) at the end of the entry and you can help choose the focus of the next entry by participating in the poll.
Cheers for now,
Kel
Upcoming Blog Subjects:
The world according to Slim
Re-inventing the Wheel
Where did that idea come from?
Syllables – we know they're there, but why do we ignore them?
What to say, and how not to say it!
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