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First Post - Hello Songstuff

By lemonstar
in Introduce Yourself

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Newbie

lemonstar

Posted
Posted

My great friend Sunfighter encouraged me to http my way down here and take a look at the boards. I had a mulch around and can see there are plenty of posters here prepared to take a bit of time to listen (and genuinely listen with a critical and compassionate ear) and offer up impressions, opinions and suggestions - that's exactly what we have been doing for each other over the past couple of years and it does helps but our "community of two" obviously has its limitations. Musicians seem to be thin on the ground where we live but music is so diverse that even when you have musicians in contact with one another there's sometimes or often still a real lack of common ground so this is one reason why communities this are so damn useful.

Last year I joined in with the FAWM project for the first time - any one else here do that? I think that's a really great project (attempt to write 14 new songs in the month of February) and a brilliantly supportive community but you need to be able to make a lot of time in your schedule to get the most from it. Last year I managed 7 or 8 songs - this year only 1 due entirely to work commitments and that really gets me down - anyway I guess most of us have the same time/family/opportunity pressures.

My current approach to songwriting is limited by many personal limitations but also by a lack of time at the moment. I'm at the point, for the first time, where I feel the need to start recording some of my songs in a more formal way but that won't happen until the Summer at the earliest this year. On the whole my songs have been fairly simple and I've been recording them using my digital camera (ultra lo-fi!). For me it's quick, convenient and uncomplicated - I use the camera all the time when I'm developing ideas. I do have ideas about other instrumentation for some of my songs but I started out with the view that I wouldn't really want to spend the time and trouble recording anything properly until I felt I had some material that was worth the effort - I was simply more interested in the basic song ideas, melody, chords, song structure, lyrics, etc, however I now recognise that the lack of any backend recording/mixing/arranging process also limits my ability to express myself as well as I might. The way I view the current state of my songs is that many are not finished - with some I've ran out of ideas (or the right words to express them), with others I can see the problems or limitations myself but I'm not able or equipped to solve them so I'm still open and willing to change them. In fact I've always been careful not to adopt the view that what part of a song I've done is "set"(like jello/jelly) - I remain prepared right up until the last moment to hack the song's structure/words, etc around.

So, in short, hello everyone! I'm off to post a comment as I've already heard something that's grabbed my attention.

cheers

Neil

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Grand Master

john

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Hi Neil

Welcome to Songstuff!

Nice intro. :)

We had a 21 songs in 31 days during January but few people took part or completed 21 in 31. Still it was useful to those who did take part.

There's a wealth of talent on these boards and a good mixture of experience levels. I'm sure you'll fit right in.

Be prepared for pretty honest and open reviews, but hopefully you'll gain a lot from advice offered and observations made.

Cheers

John

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AnneC

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Hello Neil, and welcome! I'd like to add to what John said: In addition to the candid, helpful critiques you'll get for your own compositions, the exposure to the different tastes and styles that the members display here is very enlightening and I encourage you to have a listen to as many as you like and offer your own take on them. We do all tend to work hard on our music as I'm sure you do, and I've found that this forum is great for bouncing ideas off each other. We also play around together and have some good discussions about lots of things.

What I'm trying to say in my rambling way is that I'm happy you joined our community (thanks to Sunfighter for the referral!). Take, give, grow and enjoy! :)

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lemonstar

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Thanks for the welcome.

"candid, helpful, honest, open, enlightened advice, observation..."

The aphorism "if you can't stand the heat, keep out of the kitchen" springs to mind but well intentioned feedback is what I'm here to give and take.

There's a good breakdown of boards here without there being too many and I've noticed a few articles on recording that look worth reading.

cheers for now

Neil

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