GregB

Be nice if it wasn't for the constant software/hardware arms race mismatch and the inevitable sudden dropping of support for old software, hardware and file formats

Definitely! I recently had an album reviewed and the guy said, in effect, "I'm sorry that Greg has had so many relationship problems and depressive episodes". On one hand I thought "what an IDIOT"! Does the guy believe that all authors of thrillers and murder mysteries are actually, in real life, psychopaths and killers??? On the other I thought "wow, my words/music must have sounded authentic". For me, songwriting is about imagination. Form an idea, spin a story, and finally hone/edit/crystallise the words to work well with the music. Greg

Yes ... but now I'm too scared to fart!

Hi. I've never been confident WHERE to post stuff on the Songstuff site. Probably wrongly, I created a BLOG about my four albums and provided the 'making of' stories' as well as complete 'Songbooks' (chords and lyrics) for each as a free download. The issue with Blogs is that their creation/updates do not appear to be conveyed to anyone in the FORUM because 'Blogs' (as well as 'Clubs') are not listed as Forum topics. So ... Album 1 is here ... and there is a link at the bottom of each article for Albums 2-4. If you like the format of these PDF books, I'll be posting relevant Word documents in this Songwriting forum so you can make your own, either singly or as a collection. I'll then also post some Excel/Powerpoint tools that have saved me 'admin' time or helped reduce the drudgery associated with creating/releasing albums. With all of these, you'll need to be willing to learn features that have been around for yonks but few people ever seem to use (there are many YouTube 'how to' vids once you know the key terms to look for). Cheers, Greg

If your brain imagines things when listening to music then the video side is just the mechanical manifestation ... as long as you accept you can never really capture imagination. If it's been a while since your last attempt, but you're interested, I'd suggest: 1) trawling through www artgrid.io. Any clip is usually part of a set of 10-50 clips with the same people/scenery. Without paying you can download watermarked clips. 2) have a go at editing with the free version of Blackmagic's Davinci Resolve (it can do 98% of everything I've done in music videos with the Studio version). It's surprising how videos (just like music) are hard to start but take on their own life and develop once you find a suitable opening. If you wish I'd be happy to try helping you get past the initial technical humps - just message me directly. Greg

Well-judged comments, Clay, and they've given me fresh perspective. I think conceptually sunrise/sunset are visually similar (low sun, golden light), but I had to be careful not to 'cross the streams' and share clip sets across the two videos. This alone exhausted what was available/relevant from my limited sources. (There is probably much more content now, two years later.) So it ended up with Sunrise being more about nature 'waking up', while Sunset was more contemplative. Since I did these it's been a jolt when I see some of clips used elsewhere in other people's work, even in adverts! But that's the nature of stock images. 🙂 Music videos are strange ... my brain can't fully appreciate the music and images at the same time - the images tend to dominate. I can only listen intently to music when freed of other stimuli. And yet images can magnify the music, and vice versa. Better stop now before heading into different topics! Thanks for taking the time to listen/watch and comment. Greg

During the album writing/recording phases, these were simply known as 'Instrumental 1' and 'Instrumental 5'. Meaningful titles ("Sunrise" and "Sunset") only sprung into being a couple of weeks before the album was released ... largely because I had come across groups of video clips on Artgrid.io that seemed to match the vibe and would form the core (approx 95%) of the music videos. When it came to structuring the 30-tracks on "The Flat White Album", both for symmetry and change of mood, Sunrise was placed the fifth from the start after the heavy The Last Post (anti-war sentiment and large word count). Sunset was a mirror, placed fifth from the end, and after the frenetic Pop Song. This was a conceit that only I would ever appreciate The SUNSET video WON Best Music Video at the 'Picasso Einstein Buddha Film Festival' (2020). It may not be Cannes, but it’s something! And it was doubly pleasing as most of the Beatles’ 'White Album' (after which my album was named and hopefully had a similar vibe) was written during their 1968 retreat in Rishikesh, the Festival's location!

Hi Almanah Good idea, but you haven't really opened the 'discussion' yet. What are your detailed opinions ... WHY do you regard it as exciting? What about this genre is especially appealing yo you? What makes you regard it as 'classical'? To me, the music is fairly standard tango; did you mean 'classic tango'? Either way, I've heard a lot of far more exciting and accomplished tango music (my wife was a tango nut for several years!). Do you write/perform this style? How would you change this song to suit your instruments/abilities, and have you written/recorded anything along these lines before? Greg

I'm the least romantic person also with a huge dislike for occasions 'manufactured' strictly for retail benefit 😆 However, assuming there may be people serious about finding personal 'messages' for loved ones, I reckon a week beforehand provides sufficient time to trawl the offerings and send the links they have found/liked in time for the occasion. Greg

Hi. Is this playlist being released on Feb 14?

I feel this is similar to the over-reach seen in the wholesale removal of statues of people associated with the slave trade. Slavery is a fact. Wouldn't it be more constructive and educational to instead install new plaques on such monuments explaining the contextual but proven place of such people in history and the story of the journey and emancipation of the affected races. Similarly, it wouldn't take much for the Spotify platform to place a contextual explanation over 'contested' podcasts that summarises (with links) the prevailing view. Information is better than the emotional echo chamber. Greg

Joni Mitchell has always been my No.1. artist and has for 60 years espoused both in person and in song many insightful reflections about the human condition. But withdrawing your music because of ONE person o nthe same platform? Despite my deep adoration of the woman, this strikes me as being shallow and petulant. How many podcasters, songwriters and musicians are there on Spotify? Couldn't she instead consider that her presence (and that of the many other singer songwriters and enlightened podcasters) might have a counterbalancing effect, and that removing that presence would leave the platform more heavily skewed towards the nutbag element? I expect that Spotify must have in excess of one million 'creators' on the platform. I'm sure a significant number have views more extreme than Joe Rogan, yet this seems to be the first time that people have withdrawn their work due to the views expressed by ONE other creator. And of the Groups/Band on Spotify - how many would have ONE member who's has extreme views? Another element that doesn't get discussed is how do Joe Rogan's 1000+ episodes paint his character, personality and belief system. I'm a keen podcast listener and I've tried his stuff a couple of times, but his voice and presentation style just don't gel with me. But his content varies hugely in scope, and he often speaks to experts in their fields ... and Rogan hasn't struck me as a conspiracy nutbag. I've watched a clip where he effectively says: 'if you're young, eat well and exercise, and you ask ME 'should I get the vaccine', I'd say no.' Like all such commentary, especially the very persuasively intimate podcast friend 'talking in your ear', the failure is that of context. He didn't say, 'this is my PERSONAL opinion and 9x% of medicos believe you SHOULD get vaccinated'. It's the same as with a climate change "debate", if you have one person for, and one against, the PERCEPTION is that there is a knife-edge 50/50 balance of thought. Ah well. Humans!! ** SIGH ** Greg

Well ... perhaps I'm kidding myself when I think I have too many and instead need to be more ruthlessly selective!

You write, you edit, you hone and tweak. But too many important lyrics remain - and I certainly don't have the musical or vocal chops to carry an extra-long song. So ... what do YOU do? TWO OPTIONS work for me: 1. SOUND EFFECTS Sound effects allow you paint an audio picture quickly. It means that time/words don’t have to be spent or wasted in exposition, and you can get to the nub of the story. Sound effects can also work underneath the lyrics. An example is “Running From Red”, a song about escaping the Soviets as they expanded through Eastern Europe after WWll. At 3:36, the song is overtaken by the sounds of invasion ... far more powerfully than any words could convey. The opening of “The C-Bomb” has various politicians denying climate change, focusing the listener on the issue and removing the need for me to provide additional lyrics for context. 2. SPOKEN WORD Sung rhyming lines are highly constrained by their need to fit the musical rhythm and melody. By contrast, speaking allows you to pack in a LOT more content. “Last Post” started as a sung melody but is was far too unwieldy ... the words/syllables had to wait for the music, which was slow/funereal. Yet, when spoken, 370 unhurried words made it into the 4:47 duration, saying everything I wanted to say on the matter. These were still rhyming lines (the same as my preference in songs). In “Losing My Grip”, I had more ideas for the choruses than could fit when ‘sung’ (ideas that I was not willing to cast aside). When spoken, I ended up with 110 well-fitted words in these chorus parts. “Agincourt”. I tried for a long time to tailor this into a more traditional song format, but nothing ever gelled. Even spoken ‘verses’ like in “Last Post” were too constricting. The end result is more like a radio drama. Not only spoken prose (1180 words in 11 minutes) but ‘illustrated’ with sound effects and classical music. I'm aware of the self-referential pompous nature of these posts. I've parodied the whole issue in "Pop Song" ... Cheers, Greg

For a change I thought I'd offer a controversial rant I was delighted (and a little stunned) to see in my CD-Baby Sales Reports that just one of my tracks, the instrumental "Six Degrees North", was getting an extraordinary number (for me) of 'hits' on TikTok --- 33,895. There was no explanation if this meant my music had been used in other people's videos, or whether my own video was actually being shown. My excitement was soon doused. TikTok represented 95% of this track's total 'hits' but, of these, 32,990 showed absolutely NO PAYMENT AT ALL (the payment field was completely blank, as opposed to $0.000)! I thinks most of us consider the Western behemoths of Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Google etc.. as rich bastards who screw every artist with a fraction-of-one-cent payment per play. But this pales by comparison to Chinese businesses. Anyone who follows this area of geopolitics will know of neverending revelations of direct theft from the West (with the encouragement and protection of the current CCP which itself has proved to be corrupt from top to bottom). According to The Sun (UK) Dec 18 2021: TikTok is owned by Beijing-based technology company ByteDance, founded by the Chinese billionnaire entrepreneur, Zhang Yiming. The 38-year-old was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2019, who described him as "the top entrepreneur in the world". The West just loves people who make money, regardless of their methods! As said elsewhere, I was never in this for the money. But it'd be nice that, if there was ever enough income for just an occasional cup of coffee as a reward, it wasn't being siphoned off by some underserving scum! *SIGH*

Hi Clay. I sympathise with that approach but we're all aware that, like it or not, the human brain is constantly pattern-matching. That's why returning to the root chord and repeated structures/themes/motifs can be so emotionally satisfying in songs, instrumental, Film & TV music. I too am not in it for money or stardom. A goal I've achieved throughout my life ... with flying colours! The challenge of creating music, personal pride in a 'good' product (without false modesty, if we don't know what's good by now, what are we doing?), and doing my best within my skill levels and budget, have all given me immense satisfaction. 'Fame' is horrendous but, hey, if anyone suddenly wants to shower me in money, I'm not going to complain!! Greg

Streets ahead of all others ... Joni Mitchell 50 years of whip-smart and finely-sculpted lyrics embedded in inventive music like no other, she rips my soul apart again and again. Her songs are delivered by one of the purest and most emotional of voices that seems to represent all humanity and are underscored by her unique playing style both on guitar (with 40+ tunings) and piano. This solo performance is prefaced with the songwriting story ...

Hi John Unable to select more than one radio button in "5. What are your main reasons for NOT adding your songs to playlists?" Greg

Hi Clay. These were very interesting. Good stuff! Great sonic textures and change-ups. How would you categorise them ... experimental electronica? I can't offer any specific comment, as the style is so different from anything I do. I reckon they would work well got movie or video-game soundtracks. Of the four, my favourite was 'Primordial' as everything seemed rhythmically tight on the grid, and the sounds were not stylistically over-distorted/processed. Do your productions have an equivalence to verse/chorus/bridge or ABC song structures? If not,how do you map them out for performance? Greg

Every song needs a spark, and just the first two chords did it for me, leading to "The Coast", track 2 on the album Prescient (2015). I’ve always loved Eadd9 ... especially on a 12-string! On a whim I tried exactly the same shape elsewhere and finally found the 2nd chord (Am7+6 is my guess at the chord name). These two together somehow got me going. After working up the sections, it was a relief to realise I had enough harmonic variation for a complete instrumental. There was no need for any theme with 'deep and meaningful words and metaphors' and, even better, no need for singing!! HOORAY! The bass on this is unusual for me ... a melodic instrument. Getting the right sounds to match your imagination is often a pain, but it’s great once found. The MIDI bass here comprises three separate samples ... plucked bass, fretless bass and synth pad. Together these give each note a percussive start, a shortish buzz, and an ongoing tail. I felt this sound removed any requirement for additional instruments other than the lead synth. This was also the first time I used the EZ Drummer 2 plugin. This was a huge turning point for me as I no longer had to trawl the net for loops (which need to be found and auditioned by the barrow-load). Now I could quickly specify the beat, choose the vibe, tailor it for each section, and build it throughout the track. Cheers, Greg

Hi Clay. Any links to the titles you mentioned ??

You are wise indeed, Obi Wan. Taking a break from battling the Dark Side, I'm off to the Cantina to listen to the band, have a drink, and engage in some nefarious activity. Greg 👍

This is certainly true of some. When I was 'networking' trying to figure how to market my albums, I'd estimate that 95% of folk I met at industry events introduced themselves as 'singer songwriters' without having any material recorded (even demos) to warrant that description. I agree that, at some point, one has to stop talking and just DO something and test the waters. Greg

Hi. I agree. I'm OK but I've never excelled at MIDI. A lot of people say that Pro Tools is poor in its MIDI capabilities, but it's all I know, and I did a lot with note velocity, note overlaps for legato, and micro-level writing of track volumes. But there must always come a point when I decide it's 'good enough' ... it's usually when I stop wincing 😄 There's also a trade-off between effort and perceived reward ... and the clock is ticking ever louder for me. Perhaps another DAW would provide a more natural, organic and efficient method for shaping the sound? But who has the patience and time to learn another DAW? As for sound libraries it's a matter of a shoestring budget ... half were from Protools internal XPand2 samples/synthesis libraries, the rest were real samples via Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 ($129). As with the rest of the album, I always hoped that if someone really liked a track they would do a more professional cover. .... Interested?? 😅 Cheers, Greg

Before I started the proper recording sessions for "The Flat White Album" in earnest, I was having issues with an instrumental 'Suite for Guitar' . Although an 'OK' player I was struggling with consistently producing clear-sounding strings and smooth runs. So I challenged myself to record it on video. This turned out to be a good investment of effort because, although I eventually recorded each musical section separately, these recordings were done with very few mistakes. In the live video there was one really bad mistake when starting a new section, so I simply froze in position, then continued the performance from that section start point. I later removed the error in the video edit ... can you spot it (there's a slight image twitch)? In the end, this was a good practice session but with the bonus of producing the simplest of all my music videos - one setup, one take, and no requirement to find the usual multitude of 'story' images plus hours of editing. Because the performance was planned to be just a single take, I had to play/practice each day for a week (very rare for me!). The audio is the unprocessed recording from a Zoom H1 stereo mic (visible on the table) plus a Rode directional mic shoed on a Canon 70D. The 'audience' vibe bookending the video was done purely as a joke, but I liked it so much that I incorporated it on the final album track to feel like an orchestral concert performance. The sections (all using E, A and D bass drone, except ‘Sunshine Variations’ and ‘Bridge’): · Fanfare/Anthem (E) · Lost (Em) · Chase (Em) · Lost and Sad (Em reprise) · Sunshine (Mozart inspired) · Sunshine variations (Am with modulation) · Sunshine (Mozart reprise, with fuller chords) · Bridge · Fanfare/Anthem (reprise) · Maypole (E folkstyle) The final album version is below, with the orchestration built around the same guitar part (as above, but re-recorded). I recorded the guitar without a click track - it sounded too robotic otherwise and also allowed me the freedom to play more dynamically while concentrating more on good playing technique. However, the downside was that the orchestration (12 MIDI tracks) was far more time-consuming as all the notes had to be 'floated' manually into place as bars/beats on the DAW timeline served no purpose. Cheers, Greg