Greg M

I appreciate that the debate about "being discovered" and "making yourself hard to be avoided" has merit but, fundamentally, what the music business was like when I was first getting into music in the later 60s and through the 70s and 80s was PROFIT. Record companies employed people to go out and find bands that might be good enough to be exploited, to create more riches for the record companies themselves. The "Indie" movement challenged this and took a large chunk of the music market away from the established recording companies, and maybe the level of exploitation of artists changed a little bit but it was still there. What I have noticed and really enjoyed is the number of unsigned bands and artists that we have been seeing at the bigger multi-stage music festivals for the last ten years at least. The big concert venues are now really big, with major artists and bands playing multiple shows at a few venues around the country. This has been a way for artists to make more money themselves, as opposed to just making records where the vast majority of the money made goes to the recording companies. But what has happened as this centralisation of big concerts has proliferated, is that the number of smaller venues around the country that show live music has grown to an enormous extent. Bands without recording contracts get to play at big festivals and arrange tours around the country playing at small venues. It is possible to make a living out of playing live music without having to have a recording contract. There is still the issue of getting noticed in the first place, but there are lot more ways that this can occur now. I went to see Sting and his band play in Sherwood Forest in Nottingham (UK) a few days ago. Sting was brilliant but he brought with him two guest artists who were relatively unknown "Storry" is what I would describe as an Rand B artist (or Soul artist) who sings her life through her songs. Brilliant if not a little heavy. But the second band who played, "Germein" , were a three piece band from Australia made up of the three Germein sisters. A brilliant display of melodic rock music that I could not fault. They weren't doing the sexy young thing approach, they were serious musicians. They had been playing around Australia for over ten years and their only album was made in 2013, since then only a long list of singles had been recorded, which I happily added to my playlist. They have been making a living and building a reputation for 12 years and this is the first time they had been outside Australia. That morning was the first time that any of them had seen a squirrel. They finally got noticed, but they didn't sit around waiting for it. The played their music and honed their skills and are now really worth listening to Just my two penn'eth

Thanks. I may have known that but my memory is so bad now that I can't retain the amount of details I used to

When I first joined Songstuff, there were hundreds of songs to listen to on the Showcase section. I can't find any songs now. If the music is still there, could somebody explain how to access it. I have been on the Showcase page and all I can find is three posts with lyrics only

"The Morgue" is an interesting concept and very close to my philosophy on song writing. I used to think that every thing I wrote was great, and I recorded everything. But what I have come to realise is that, just because I have created something, it doesn't mean that it is great. So now I have a number of folders open to me when I write songs. I tend to be quite prolific at times so there is a lot of material of my laptop. So, firstly I have a folder for all song ideas that I have been working on. Some are finished but are being left for a while prior to a potential re-write or edit. Some are part-finishes songs. The ones where the idea came to me but it only generated one verse and a chorus, and there are some that are just waiting for music. I have a second folder that I call "B-Sides" which is where I place all the songs that I have written that I don't think are of good enough quality, but which might turn into something else at some point. I re-visit this folder occasionally. I have a third folder for songs with musical ideas, or which are in the process of being recorded. Then I have a full set of alphabetical folders so I can keep them saved in manageable groups, so all the songs beginning with "A", "B", etc. Some songs I write are almost fully formed within minutes, and I go straight to music, editing the text as I go. I have found Songstuff to be a very useful resource and the community has made me, apart from other things, much more critical of my own work.

I use Reaper as my DAW and I use ReaEQ when mixing my vocals. There are a number of EQ types on Reaper but I tend to stick to the basic one at the moment. I'm just doing things that I learned off the internet / youtube etc. that I think improve my voice on the recording

Hi David, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I made quite lengthy comments about a number of aspects of Songstuff, as requested. You only seem to be replying to one part of those comments, yet your final section here addresses my overall feelings. The main focus of my comments was that Songstuff could be more of a community, with members paying attention to not only their own work, but the work of others, helping aspiring songwriters and performers to develop their skills. you said that "if I think I might have something constructive to offer, I will still comment on stuff others post in a critique forum here. I will also participate in discussions of things here if I think I might have something to contribute". This is exactly what I was alluding to, so we don't have a disagreement, and my reference to "elitism" is not aimed at you. Apologies if you felt slighted in any way Greg M

1. Would you be willing to recommend Songstuff to your fellow songwriters and musicians? What is the reason behind your answer? I do recommend Songstuff quite regularly to other songwriters I come across. i have been in a community called Drooble for quite a few years. It's having bad times at the moment, but was set up to bring musicians and writers together, although there wasn't a lot od critiquing, it was often just supportive comments. Songstuff is much better for helping to develop songwriting skills, in my humble opinion 2. What would you like to see more of on the Songstuff Community? I like the way that the critiquing is kept separate on Songstuff, but I would like to see a more general discussion page pushed a bit more, which might help to bring out more members of the community. I know that there is probably something like that somewhere on Songstuff, but sometimes it feels so dispersed that I tend to stick to critique pages. When I first joined, I felt as though I was being put in my place a few times by more established members. One of the sections that allows you to post your best recordings seemed to dominated by a few individuals who I didn't tend to come across elsewhere, and the songs are not open to critique but often don't seem to have been posted elsewhere. A bit elitist. I think that it is a bit unfair to exclude people from posting songs simply because they don't have access to top quality recording equipment. I went through quite a lot of those songs when I first joined, and I didn't think that a lot of them were any better than some of my songs, they were just better quality recordings. Maybe there could be another page for artists to post songs that, although not brilliant recordings, meet a specific level of recording quality. Then you might see a lot more of the songs that go through the development stages on the critiquing pages finding their way onto a page for finished recordings. I suppose that another thing that I enjoyed on Drooble was having staff / administrators who occasionally led discussions on the main pages to try to encourage more members to participate in discussions. not just about songs and music, but about equipment, recording techniques, strings, plectrums, software, DAWs Also posing challenges, as you have done recently, for song writers to push themselves a little bit. Like giving the first two lines of a song and asking members to write the rest of it with a specific structure in mind, including numbers of verses, choruses, bridges, bars, time signatures etc (but start off easy), Or provide a chord sequence for the first verse, or write a song with a three line structure, anything to create more interest. Also, there could be a lot more collaboration on the site. I know that you have a section for collaboration, but I think that this could be something that could get more encouragement. I have collaborated with 6 or 7 other musicians over the last few years, some more successful than others. It does lend itself to international mingling, as tracks and stems can be sent to other countries. I now have an old friend who I collaborate with regularly. It is a lot more enjoyable than working alone. 3. What would you like to see less of on the Songstuff Community? I don't think that there is anything I would want to see less of on the site. However, if you are successful in growing the site then there may be a growth of obnoxious characters. What can you do? 4. Would you be interested in starting or growing the fan base for your music? I have just signed up to Distrokid which circulates my finished songs to Spotify and other sites so, yes, I am interested, but it isn't a deal-breaker. 5. Would you be interested in starting/growing the number of artists recording your songs? It would be nice to get other people recording my songs. I have had a couple of musicians do this over the years, as far as I am aware. I would settle for somebody with a great singing voice. Me and my old friend can do most things between us, I do the singing but I'm not the best, so a decent voice would make the world of difference. Just a few thoughts

When I used to sit in the back room playing my favourite songs, many years ago, I used to play this song a lot. I came across it again recently and just had to do a cover. On reflection, the cover picture is probably not appropriate

Hi Greg I am literally just getting ready to go on holiday for a week but can do it when I get back Greg M

Thanks for your uplifting comments, Rene

Thanks for taking the time to help. I understand some of it but the rest I am learning. I will post other songs in the future so if you still want to know whether or not I'm improving, always happy to get feedback and suggestions. I do use headphones for all my recording, but the points about mic address sound like they might be very useful, cheers

I am a home recorder so limited in terms of resources, although that is not the reason why my sound is not refined. Musical tracks are recorded in a studio (not by me) and I am recording vocals to add to the music. I'm using a Shure SM58 mic to record the vocals through an interface. I'm mixing on Reaper using Reaper VSTs and add-ons that come with it. I'm trying to learn the secrets of mixing vocals from the internet, youtube etc, as well as leaning on the expertise of more experienced musicians. It is a long journey but I certainly want to sound better than "open air karaoke"

Let me know what you think of the mixing.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to concentrate on getting a better mixed sound for my vocals. This is my first effort with a plan for mixing. The vocal mix includes: compression, EQ, pitch shift, reverb, delay and pitch correction. While I feel that this is an improvement, I am keen to listen to any comments from those of you with a trained ear as to how good a start this might be, or any comments on issues that still need correcting. I would appreciate any comments you have Greg M

Quite a lot of my songs are written from the point of view of a particular individual, some relatively obvious like broken hearted lovers, but some more specific, like a man who is reflecting on the life of his friend who has just been jailed for murder, or a Roman legionnaire who is trying to get back to the safety of York after his legion has been defeated by Britons. It makes for quite an interesting change to do it.