lemonstar

2 weeks! More like a month as it turns out - I'm now emerging from a mountain of deadlines and pressure - hopefully I'll be hanging around the boards here or maybe throwing my effort into the 50/90 songwriting challenge.

I did FAWM last year and it went well - I finished 8 songs in the month and went on to finished 2 more just after it had finished. This year, due to work pressures, I only managed to post 1, but have 7-8 that are certainly more than sketches, they're well started but not finished - one of those was a co-write with the awesome Becca. I feel I have to make a certain kind of ageement with myself if I'm really going to have a go at doing the 50/90 even it is with the aim of doing nothing like 50. I got a lot out of FAWM '07, mainly the belief that it can be done and that I, personally, can actually do it when I put my mind to it. I think FAWM is an excellent way to develop as a songwriter; 50/90 still seems a bit crazy though.

As of now (Fri 27th June) you have over 6 days to make up your mind if you're up to writing 50 songs (yes 50!) - I'll say that in words - fifty, five-zero songs in 90 (yes ninety, 9x10) days - that's more than one every 2 days - then sign up at http://5090.fawm.org and good luck to you. It's hard to imagine how many people could complete such a task but devotees say, with Zen like wisdom, anything is possible with the right state of mind. It took me about 1.5 seconds to make my mind up but there's no reason NOT to enter if all you can actually manage is 5, after all, it might be 5 more that you'd normally complete - so that's something for all of us to contemplate I think.

How revealing - I was thinking along the lines of buildings and statues! Glad you posted before me. So...hmm. Gladys Knight and the Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia

Andy Partridge - a massively under-appreciated British talent - shame stage fright forced him out of the limelight. He was/is a talented guitarist and was a charismatic performer and above all, I think, a genius songwriter. I'm a huge appreciator of Pete Doherty's songwriting too. Difford was great in his heyday but I've not been impressed by the song I heard off his latest album - some song about a handbag. I recognize most of Lazz's bar about 5.

Queen - A Kind of Magic

I love what these guys do - Strollo's Cafe - all their own material - they have a classic sound about them IMHO runninglikewind

You're dead right of course...must get back to it though.

Shame but work is gonna drown me for the next 2 weeks.

OK - the 273K fact appears to be an urban myth I once heard, probably from my physics teacher - the number is a coincidence. As the basic idea is one of word association, however mistaken I was, the fact is that I did associate the Cage piece with cooling to absolute zero so lets continue.

I thought Finn might step in with "Counting Out Time" - Genesis. Wasn't the Cage piece something to do with cooling to absolute zero: 0 Kelvin = -273 Celsius and (4x60s)+33s = 273s So I'll go with:- Frozen - Madonna

7 seconds - Youssou N'dour/Neneh Cherry Cue Finn...

I deserted MySpace for now.. lemonstar just personal demos at the moment.

It's not too difficult to get started if you go about it the right way and know or learn how to listen. I play the bottom E string and try and follow the bass to start of with (making sure my bottom E is in tune with the song itself) - I stick a capo on if I have to. All my guitars are tuned down a semi-tone - it's surprising just how many songs are recorded that way - if you find yourself putting the capo high up the neck it might be that it's played on guitars tuned down a semi-tone - anyway I think you need a capo on 1 for this and the basic chords, from the couple of listens I was allowed by last.fm before it stopped me playing it any more, are Dm F G Bb C (not in that particular order - they are chords you can use to play the song)- if I'd have had the chance I would then have started listening for the hammer on's/off's - they give you a clue - Dm (top E) and a couple of strings in the C are chords where the hammer on's might take place. I always work along the lines that guitarists are basically lazy (= smart) and if what you're tabbing out seems too difficult then there is probably a simpler way - maybe the capo is in the wrong place or the chord voicings/shapes are different. I'd get the basic chords down and then start tabbing it out knowing that the notes (in general except the blues notes/accidentals) that are picked (riffs, etc) will be from the chord in play at any given moment. That's a starting point. There are free tools such as "guitar and drum trainer" that allow you to slow the speed down without changing the pitch and to loop on small sections - that helps. The more you do the easier it gets. HTH.

Yes - Elvis, the 3 albums of out-takes from 56-57 show what a genuinely awesome voice he had.

Dream on - in theory perhaps. I know I have written quite a few close together for the FAWM thing I mentioned (7-8 in a month) so I know it can be done - maybe I'll do more during the Summer holidays. I wish I could spend more time on it - I have enough time to jot down new and initial ideas but not enough time to follow up on them - I must have 30 songs with 1 verse, a chorus and a clear idea about what the song is about. The "Eye for Colour Theory" song (now renamed Beautiful World) didn't seem to get much attention here - I can totally understand it - it's not straight forward folk, pop or rock - more like acoustic geek-rock or something - I really don't know. Fortunately I don't have any two songs that are particularly alike. I have deliberately tried to avoid relationship songs which leaves me trying to write "more songs about building and food" (Talking Heads) for example. I'm relaxing that restriction a bit. Non-relationship songs are awkward to write.

very amusing My GBP4:10 is in a paddypower account - I thought I might squander it on one last bet. I did see a hypnotherapist a few of times - fell asleep in one session and could barely be raised from it - not convinced of it's value myself but he did work with John Lennon who apparently suffered terribly with stage fright. He suggested to Lennon that the longer the walk to the stage the more time he would have to step out of his real persona and into his stage persona. That's why Lennon, given the chioce, opted for a dressing room or a trailer that was at least 250 yards from the stage - he wouldn't leave until he heard his name announced and then he'd walk very slowly to the stage telling himself that he was going to meet loads of old mates who were dying to see him - that's what he told me anyway.

Yes I read through the rules and it all looked fine "to me" - I thought I'd sound the board out here and see if anyone here wanted to consider entering - I don't know if I'd back anything I've done to the tune of USD30, reasonable as it is but I also wondered if anyone knew of any similar or well known competitions. I approve of the statement in one of the rules that says "The quality of performance and production will not be considered." - clearly very focused on the songwritng itself (as it should be in this case). As a rule I don't bet or gamble but I put GBP20 on 8 horses in the Grand National this year and won GBP8:10 (last year - first ever bet I won GBP62 from a GBP2 stake on the National. I took my GBP8:10 and bet GBP4 - an each way bet on a KO or TKO in the Calzaghe fight so apart from the GBP4:10 left(any suggestions), that's me done for the year as far as gambling goes.

Indie International are running a competition - closing date end of June 2008. I suspect they run several back to back but I'm not sure. Your entries are critiqued and there are prizes however, the cost is USD30 per entry. Anyone seen this or anythng else like it and either entered or considered entering? It looks plausible enough but how much of a scam could it be?

Evan Dando from the Lemonheads - he has such a versatile and expressive voice, he writes great songs and has a great ear for spotting songs to cover - I like the Gram Parsons and Lucinda Williams songs he sings - I've seen him twice where he's been totally in the zone when it came to his solo acoustic spot - you could hear a pin drop. He struck me as a real pro when it came to performing - I didn't get the feeling he was going through the motions on songs he must have sang a thousand times - he put everything into making them sound fresh and new. He has so much colour in his voice even when he's just talking (yes - he smoked a lot of crack at one time but his voice, against all the odds, has survived in tact) - the recording engineers on his last album said that they had virtually nothing to straightenout usng the autotune technology that is in fairly common use in the studio these days - he has great pitch. As Finn said Peter Gabriel (for the rich colours he can produce just like Dando) and Kate Bush (been listening to Aerial today in fact) and I even agree on Annie Lennox - she was astounding live. Daniel Lanois is a favourite - again for the rich tapestry in his voice and lyrics and for his production work - he is a very musical guy in his own right but he also gets such great results from the artists he works with - Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmylou, U2, Eno, etc.

I spent more time that I can really afford on trying to get this song finished but once I'm gripped by something I'm reluctant to give up on it before I've made a significant amount of progress even if I don't or can't finish it. This song has been lying around half-done with notes for several more verses (more than I've been able to use) for well over a year. I'll sleep on it and play it through a few times over the next couple of days before posting. It might not be news of much general note other than to say that there is hope for unfinished songs - evidence for that is surely worth it's weight in gold isn't it?

I started running a bit more regularly over Easter and I'm trying to get a couple of runs in during the evenings on weekdays but work demands mean I'm often out late if I do go, typically 9:30-10:30pm for about 40 mins, leaving me too energised to sleep after a shower so I'm up late. Over the next 6 weeks I won't be posting as much as I have done (work) but I'm working on the polishing up the last 2/3 short verses of a simple sounding song (about colour that is subtly more complex than it first appears) - when verses have very few words it's even more important to get the scanning/overall impression exactly right and that's partly why it's taking so much time. That might be the first song I post here but I'm easily/frequently sidetracked with other ideas so who knows - I have 6-8 songs on the go at the moment but might only get 1 or 2 done before Christmas.

Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield

It's Cassell's Dictionary of English Idioms (Rosalind Fergusson is the geezer!) It has a picture of a back cat and a pigeon on the front. About 400 pages - 40-50 idioms per page. I saw an idiom on an American website (an idiom that's also a simile) "as crazy as a pear-orchard boar" or something to that effect, never heard it myself before, so something familiar, maybe cliched, in one part of the world might be considered quite the opposite elsewhere. I can just imagine the fallen fermenting pears crawling with drunken wasps.