glissongs

Put together a video of you playing 15 to 30 seconds of a variety of the songs you play. It might be as many as 20 songs. Open a Youtube acct and download the video on your channel. When you approach bar or restaurant owners, hand them a business card that has your Youtube channel listed, as well as your email addy. Emphasize to the owner to take a listen when he has the opportunity. Also, stop in and get the business card of every owner of a place you want to play. Then send him an email with a link to your Youtube video. If you are good and are attractive (will make him money) to the bar owner, he/she will call you. (but follow up anyway)

Ha! Thanks David. Most of mine are just playing directly in front of the Zoom Q3 video recorder. A few are playing thru an amp with some reverb, or with the Tascam in the background and playing on top of it. (But the recorder is still just the Q3. Cool little gizmo). My stuff is really 2nd rate stuff, 'cos I'm such a tech retardo. I wish I knew just 1/2 of what you and Michael know, and what Dave will soon know.

Thanks guys. That all makes perfect sense now. And now that we've covered THAT, you all's playing really sounds good. What other effects are you adding for your simple acoustic playing..........your 1 +1's as an example? Delay, reverb, echo, anything?

All you guys who play and record your acoustics so well, (specifically Hobo and Michael and Dave)....do you use compression during the recording or are you adding it afterwards in your DAW?

James Dupree went from Youtube to the Ellen Show to Nashville https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0xqu0Nuwek

Well, hopefully this thread will quickly die. The written word over the internet is SO subject to misinterpretation. Stuff you say person to person over a friendly beer in a bar comes across COMPLETELY different in a post on the internet. For example, a smiley face emoticon at the end of a post can TOTALLY change how that statement was interpreted. (not that a smiley face was appropriate here, but the thread was SUPPOSED to be a friendly one) Anyway, I'll save any future big questions for the bar and I apologize to anyone who felt put off by the way I handled this topic. Bob

Yes, I wasn't sure where to post (pose?) my question, but I thought it would be most read here. I wasn't trying to start any negative vibes, or single out a response. (The internet is SO hard to try to convey a point. Undoubtedly someone is going to take something you say wrong, others are going to think you're asking something completely different.) What I was asking (quite poorly I might add) was, do most people WANT to know small recording details on the songs they post, or do they want a critique of the song, musically and lyrically? There is a "Lyrics Critique", but songwriting is lumped in with "Songwriting and Recording Critique", so I guess you're going to get your recording skills (of which I have none) critiqued even if you aren't interested in that. For what it's worth, Michael ASKED for "music/vocals/MIX", so any recording critique is warranted. I was just using that as an example. For me, I want to write a song, put it to music, then get opinions on whether it's any good or has promise. I figure if it's any good and I want to then really do something with it, I would get it professionally produced. I wouldn't try to do it myself, so I wouldn't need small recording details and missteps pointed out. What do most people posting here want from the critiques, just an opinion on the song itself, or the whole package including the mix?

Michael, you in particular would be someone that I wonder about. Speaking only for myself, I think you are the best here...the most ready to cut a record. As great as your postings are tho, there are improvements that could be made by a professional. I would LOVE to hear your album that you are wrapping up the songs for, "produced" and finished by a professional recording engineer. What many of us think are great songs now, would probably be incredible. When I see someone post that there is "a hum in the right channel" or something like that, I think to myself, "WHAT!!!! This isn't a professionally made recording. Somebody is doing this in their HOUSE on their computer. It ain't gonna be perfect!!!" I'm listening to peoples postings and asking myself, "would I buy that? Would I want to hear that on the radio? Would I download that on my computer?" I'm not trying to cherry pick the recording quality. But then, it IS "songwriting and RECORDING critique".....

That actually sounds like a good song title.... So again, maybe I'm looking at this all wrong, but I'm not judging these songs I'm listening to here on this forum as "cd quality", or "done" by any measure. I am assuming people want their songs scrutinized and perfected, advice given when asked for, suggestions made on things to add or cut. BUT, that these songs posted here are a far cry from being ready for print, so to speak. I'm thinking that a song, when finally considered "finished", would then go to a professional recording studio and be produced by an expert. I'm not thinking anyone here is an expert producer, but I could easily be wrong. What are people here trying to do with their finished works....sell them, make a record, just post them to their Reverbnation channel...what?

If you're a solo player, you probably speed up as you progress. Knowing this, force yourself to start a new verse or chorus slower. It isn't hard to do this, you just have to remember to do it.

To me, it depends. "Story" songs MUST have great lyrics...they have to draw the listener in. If they have a great melody, even better. The great singer/songwriters (James Taylor/ Jackson Browne/ Dan Fogelberg/ etc) usually did both. Newer songs like "The House That Built Me" or "Highway 20 Ride" have great. emotional lyrics AND good melodies, which is why they are huge hits. But Maroon 5's "Payphone" is a GIANT hit with mediocre lyrics...but tremendous melody. No one cares too much how great those lyrics are 'cos you're just bopping in your seat listening to it.

I would say that, for FREE, it's a pretty good program. Also Reaper, which I heard is maybe a little bit better.

Look, I know I'm never gonna be famous....I just want something simple to record and edit some songs. Anyone out there using the iPad version of GarageBand for their songs?

Shape of a heart- Jackson Browne Georgia Rain-? The House That Built Me-?

Was this in a different language? Or was it just a kind of warbling?

Ditto. I've been playing guitar for so long that I can usually come up with some interesting music. The feel of that music then leads me to a melody. The melody invokes a certain type of lyric....love, broken heart, storytelling, etc. Hopefully, in the end a song results. But the final melody is the last thing that comes about, after I've sung the original melody about 100 times.(usually by that time I'm pretty sick of it)

Depends. As long as you don't think you need a complete understanding of theory to be successful, then it's great. Most of the hugely successful artists that you know of don't really know squat about theory. And would KNOWING theory make them even MORE successful? Probably not.

I use the Zoom A2 for acoustic effects. Very cheap, and sounds pretty good.

Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac) played all those memorable electric licks using fingers, not picks.

John, thanks for the great insights. I will try my best to offer some balancing comments when I have the chance and/or see an opportunity. Truthfully, I've backed away somewhat from the "lyrics critique" forum cos I think I HAVE to hear it as a song to offer any meaningful or reasonable critique. So I'll probably confine myself to the "songwriting Critique" forum. Regarding lyrics that don't rhyme.....playing and singing for so long has probably caused me to have difficulty judging songs that DON'T rhyme. I just don't have a good feel for them. (In fact, I'm sitting here trying to think of an immensily popular song where the lyrics don't rhyme, and I can't think of any.) For me, they don't flow as well. I wonder if it's a left brain/ right brain sort of thing???

Great points. And for what it's worth, I didn't start this thread due to any critique pointed at me. (I will probably ALWAYS rhyme, cos that is the style I like to sing....and NO ONE can stop me. Bahahahaha). It's just in reading through some different critiques, rhyming seems to be a big negative issue, and I would probably like to hear it sung first. There may be other things I don't like about it, but (for me) it's hard to fault rhyming since so many GREAT songs rhyme. In fact, I would go as far as to say that rhyming can sometime CARRY a song....

That's interesting. I'm working on a song right now that incorporates a lot of these ideas about building the song up as you move along. I didn't even realize it as a strategy, just heard it so often in other popular songs that I just naturally wanted to do it myself. Shifting keys in the middle of a song sometimes sounds really good, but can be tricky with a guitar....especially trying to transpose minor7's and such.

I guess maybe I'm just drawn to good rhymes married to great melody. Songs like... Fire And Rain: James Taylor Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone. Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you. I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song, I just can't remember who to send it to. I cover a LOT of songs, and it seems almost all my favorites rhyme like crazy. I guess all I'm saying is that it's one thing to read a sheet full of lyrics, it's another thing entirely to hear it sung.

Lots of negative critique here on the overuse of rhyme. Personally, until I hear it in a song, I will never criticize the use of rhyming... Yesterday All my troubles seem so far away Now it looks as tho they're here to stay Oh I believe in yesterday Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be there's a shadow hanging over me Oh yesterday came suddenly Unless someone is rhyming "I love you" with "Kangaroo" or some other such nonsense, it doesn't seem justified to criticize someone's lyrics 'cos you think they rhyme too much. Might as well say Lennon/McCartney were no good. Just sayin.....

1. A better guitar with lower action might help (I have no idea what you're currently playing). Even a lower priced guitar will benefit from a professional set up. 2. Drop your tuning a step to D. The strings will feel a little softer. Just capo on the 2nd fret to get back to E. I routinely keep my guitars tuned to D.