john

hi and welcome to Songstuff!

I will go have a listen, though it is a finished EP so I won't be giving much feedback as such, after all it is already finished, done. Add to that, there is nothing I say will make a difference to your EP now. Plus, no offence, this blog is about my music, not yours. Hell I devote an entire site to talk about everyone else's music! lol It's not even as though you even commemted on my news about my music... if me listening to your music really meant that much to you, you could at least have demonstrated that my music meant something, anything to you, don't you think? Otherwise your message will come over to others as spam, getting your link on a blog with absolutely no interest in what the thread is about. Still, to that end I will send you a brief comment and then remove your link and comment from this blog post. I want to keep this one little bit of the site about my music. I think that is fair. If you want to discuss what you are doing to market and promote it, or follow up with future releases, then please start relevant topics on the appropriate boards... that way other members get to contribute and to learn from any discussion too

Lol Getting there... now I just need to get a new recording system in place... plans are afoot!

Hey Tell us a bit about the song, your music etc. It's be good to have a bit more than a song link

Hey Dave, good to have you aboard... welcome to Songstuff!

Hey Buck, welcome to Songstuff

Just a quick reply at this point... although not voiced clearly by me (I typed it in the car while Karen was in a shop lol) I was meaning as an industry. As mentioned elsewhere in my original post we have a number of writers on these boards who write these kind of songs (including myself), however what makes it through to the charts these days is as challenging as scratching your nose. Generally. Mostly.

Hi gang I wanted to have a discussion about the role of songwriters within the modern world. Historically, songs have been both a commentary, and taken an active place in shaping society. Even back in the 60s and 70s there were many songwriters who felt they had a responsibility to act as a mirror on society, to offer a commentary on it's successes and excesses. They tried to change the world around them. Even in the 80s, many pop songs disguised a lyrical commentary on the world around us. But somewhere along the road, the world changed, and the songwriters changed with it. A schism occured, a break in the fabric of reality, where everything became about shortcuts and popularity. Songwriters changed with it. Songs became less challenging, and more about conforming endorsement, more self serving and purile... which in itself is less of a mirror of the society in which we live, and more of a manifestation of the same. Yet, here is the problem. Music and songwriters are taken for granted. The role they play is less challenging, less vital. This is paralleled by a society that is more fragmented, more volatile. We have generations who feel they are without voice. In many ways this is true. i have always had a strong element of cause based songwriting within my own songs. I know there are others out there... I see them writing on the boards, of nowhere else. what do you think? Has our wholesale abandonment of cause based songs contributed to this? Do you believe we have any responsibility in this regard? Should song writing now be about purely acting as entertainment? Should it act as a mirror? Should it be going beyond that, and be active on shaping society? Cheers John

Welcome to Songstuff Randy I look forward to hearing some of your tunes

I will double check the menu permissions, but it should be okay

It should be on the row below on the far left. All the top menu's sub menus appear on the row below.

Top menu, hubs > member > member only articles then navigate the categories to instruments, guitar and bass and.... Taddah! http://forums.songstuff.com/member/articles/instruments/guitar-bass/

Hey Paul, Welcome to Songstuff! There's quite a good number of Europeans. Mainly Brits, but we have members from Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and now Austria (if we didn't before!) cheers John

Hey Sad news about Christine Grimmie, 3rd place runner up in the 2014 USA version of The Voice. Christina was shot and killed by a 27 year old man, while signing autographs after a show in Orlando Florida. The man was immediately tackled by Christina's brother, before the man shot himself. It seems her brother may have saved the lives of many people as the killer had two handguns and four clips, plus a hunting knife. 22 years old, a great voice, a promising career, a young life with so much potential. Her passion and drive for music was unquestionable. I'll leave this here... cheers John

Hi Elena, welcome to Songstuff!

hi and welcome Rick

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Johan! Good to meet you

worries, it happens

I looked at the moderation history... No one deleted a post. Are you absolutely sure you hit submit? I know I have forgotten more than once. If you are then I will need to investigate a bug. We can't have posts going missing!

Hi Area51 Well you didn't mention Arabic language in your original post... and that aside, think not badly of Tom, we have had many spammers over the years, some of whom have asked similar questions.... . Indeed spammers of all backgrounds and languages, including Arabic, and a load of Indian and African spammers. As Tom said, he couldn't see a way that your post would lead that wouldn't get you moderated... believe me, Tom will be the happiest person if he was proved wrong. Sadly, spammers exist, and using leading questions of a particular type is one of the very common things they do. So, to answer your question, I think there are a number of mobile apps where you can provide a song clip (say grabbed from a radio or background music in a cafe, or words and get the song. I think there are also a couple where you can whistle the tune... but I may be wrong. Cheers John

I was expecting said new member to post (either directly, or under a second account) to tell us of a great mobile app where you can whistle or sing a tune and it will identify the song and find it on the internet. There are a number of apps that do so. Tom (Henceforth called "Flash") spotted it too and did a pre-emptive shot across the bows. lol When this happens, most spammers slope off without response. A very small number come back and try to argue their case. A teeny tiny amount of those may be successful in persuading us otherwisebut the patterns and language get very easy to spot. Spotting new ones is somewhat of a sport for staff... who are very sad as we all live in a dungeon and get excited very easily.

Don't worry Tim. Drugs are a personal choice, fuelled by many reasons including environment, experience, mind set, availability and a whole host of other reasons. Whether you condone or not is not going to impact it, and certainly doesn't make me re-assess my opinion of you. Most people understand that drugs are harmful on some level. Most people understand that there is at least some aspect of a drug that is appealing to that individual. Managing that (or not managing that) is where people tend to differ. As an aside, most families have a family member who suffers from some mental health issue or another. Usually several. I don't think it is something to feel anything about "admitting" it. They are health issues, not something to be ashamed of or hidden away. Be concerned for someone's privacy, maybe, but never feel it is something that should be hidden for any other reason. Interestingly enough I just read a paper last week which was all about using psychoactive drugs, specifically magic mushrooms and LSD for treating depression and psychosis! It seems counter intuitive, who knows. Probably more of an issue at triggering a psychotic response is skunk. It's a very high THC version of cannabis and is known to trigger psychosis in people who have a genetic predisposition towards psychosis, such as those who could have latent bipolar or schizophrenia. It is also widely available as most grass on the street is now of a skunk variety. I think creative types are more likely to be experimental risk takers... that is a different issue to psychological addiction, and completely separate to physical addiction or having a genetic predisposition to any and all of them. Certainly everyone can develop psychological addiction to substances. Indeed OCD is partly the same thing applied to activiies rather than substances. Additionally,being expermental and being creative are almost the same thing. That only means that a creative is perhaps more likely to TRY drugs. That is most definitely NOT the same as psychological dependence or physical dependence, or the genetic predisposition to either. All good stuff Tim. It is good that these things get debated. That you are not a drug user, other than alcohol, means that you want to get a handle on it.... which is notoriously difficult in any area, never mind drugs. Try understanding the joy of a motorcycle to someone who has never even been in a car. They understand exhiliration, but their frames of reference would be limited. It is good to grapple with concepts. That aside... of course drugs have benefits and appeal. Otherwise why would anyone take them? To deny that is like denying that riding a motorcycle is fun and focusing only on all the crash injuries and deaths. To have a realistic view we have to understand appeal, risk and potential damage.

Hi Ayo... welcome to Songstuff Good to have you aboard. We're a friendly lot

Good topic I like being able to express my innermost feelings with a rich, deep palette I like creating something new and original I like communicating with listeners, a conversation that doesn't need words I like building and evolving skills, so that music is a journey, not a destination I like being able to quickly, sometimes instantly, communicate with other musicians I like the enthusiasm of musicians caught up in an idea I like the dynamics of a good performance I like the sense of connection with an audience in sync ith the music and the performers I like being surprised by the beauty of well expressed talent I like the joy of hearing/seeing other musicians reaching for and exceeding expectation I like to see musicians learn I like the joy of discovering new talent I like the challenge of music I like the promise and possibility of music I dislike unambitious regurgitation of something tired and uninspiring (except when used for learning) I dislike undependable musicians I dislike arrogant musicians I dislike complacent music making I dislike that I have a calling that is sadly so undervalued by today's society I dislike that it is so difficult to make a living as a musician and songwriter by comparison to other careers and life choices I dislike that making music can be so expensive I dislike that there are so many sharks and opportunists circling musicians looking for a fast buck and another hopefully artist to suck dry I dislike that I am still not skillful enough for what I want to be able to do musically... but I love the challenge that continues to bring (classic double edged sword!) I dislike seeing musicians being abused and taken advantage of, in any way.