Composition Challenge #40

Sporky

I believe Stratman is away, and you will be able to experience the EPIC GLORY of my creation in a couple of days. 

TTony

Sporky said:

I believe Stratman is away, and you will be able to experience the EPIC GLORY of my creation in a couple of days. 

My expectations are now appropriately moderated.

Sporky

I'm confident you'll like it. Or not. One of the two. 

stratman3142

TTony said:

Sporky said:

I've submitted mine. It doesn't sound much like any of the others.

@stratman3142 - at the risk of being called a masochist, I was curious to experience the submission from @Sporky - did it fail the suitability test?

( )

I've been away for a few days in Seville. I'll upload it shortly. I did reply to @Sporky to say there'd be a short delay.

But thank you for keeping me on my toes

Petepassion

Four days to go...creeps up quickly, must record something pretty soon then

stratman3142

Entry from @Sporky is now in the playlist.

TTony

Sorry Pete @stratman3142 , didn't mean to chase you!

I forget that some people have "lives" and do interesting things with friends and families in faraway places   

thecolourbox

Oh god yes it's the deadline soon isn't it. Might have to leave my intended entry till next time and do another one quickly instead that's already fully written with words etc

stratman3142

TTony said:

Sorry Pete @stratman3142 , didn't mean to chase you!

I forget that some people have "lives" and do interesting things with friends and families in faraway places   

No problem. I have been known to forget things, so happy to be reminded.

In fact, I didn't realised how close the deadline is, until @Petepassion mentioned it above.

Sporky

stratman3142 said:

Entry from @Sporky is now in the playlist.

Ta! 

I wonder now if I shouldn't have written/mixed it on the assumption that everyone has a subwoofer. Sounds truly dreadful on tablet speakers! 

stratman3142

Just a couple of days to go. Entry closes at midnight 15th April.

Petepassion

I’ll record something today, I have a couple of tunes I’ve written recently 

IMC1980

I have sent one in, it is the last track off an EP I did a few years ago, the track is about dysfunction in relationships and the importance of addressing it instead of repeating learned behaviours. 

stratman3142

IMC1980 said:

I have sent one in...

Added to playlist.

thecolourbox

I've sent mine in, thank god for deadlines

This was a song I wrote in a week for an open mic night at a local community centre called The Moseley Hive. It's a bit cheesy but frankly, I don't care

stratman3142

thecolourbox said:

I've sent mine in...

It's in the playlist. That's 7 in the list, so not a bad crop of compositions this time.

Petepassion

I had one of two songs lined up, but I’ve just started writing another, so gonna see if I can get this one done

thecolourbox

Here's my traditional over-sharing liner notes for my entry.

I signed up an open mic night recently, off the cuff as I had a free evening. It was at a community cafe nearby, and they were encouraging folks to do originals so I thought I'd make it harder and more nerve wracking for myself by writing a song in a week and playing it. The cafe is called the Moseley Hive so I thought I'd use the hive as my lyric starting point as it's a nice image in my head.

Lyrics are kind of around the idea that the answers to a lot of problems tend to be around you in nature, and that looking at stuff with an open eye can help you to see both sides of things not just the negative or positive. 

In the open mic I just did it with finger picked guitar and my voice, I chickened out at the last second about asking the audience to do the recurring Hmmmmmmmmm-hm motif. 

Recording is in cubase, acoustic guitars are me "double tracked" with pickup (through an IR) and microphone, Piano is Alicia's Keys. Drums and bass were "typed" in so are quite mechanical and repetitive as I didn't leave myself enough time to make it nicer. Stylewise for the arrangement I kind of went for a Beatles' Now and Then feeling. I like using hmmms and ooohs instead of strings or pads etc to fill out the sound so I kept the Hmmmmmmmm-hm thing going all the way through.

Lessons learned from this one - I feel like I'm ok at writing tunes but that they'd be better performed by somebody else, whereas I'm better at covering/arranging other people's songs as they are better and wider ranging songs. For my songs I tend to be happy with the harmony progressions (I don't think i've done a key change chorus one before) but they tend to come across as very dull and easy listening, whereas doing covers I can stretch myself more and use my voice in more interesting ways. I also enjoy other people's songs much more. I'm not an easy person to get along with and often can't quite handle the thought of dealing with others, so real life collaboration to make the whole "me singing others songs/them singing mine" thing happen isn't feasible, so I think I have to just learn to accept it's the way it is haha

Petepassion

Just sent in my MP3.
Wrote the song yesterday, halfway through I started on two other new songs...will have to come back to them later.
Song about the normal chaos of life.
Recorded with Reaper, vocals and guitar done at the same time, pretty basic, no overdubs.
Used gear bought from this very forum...
Carr Mercury V from @StrummyBrummie
Peerless Monarch archtop from @prudd
And the Drybell Unit 67 from @mgaw
All fantastic gear,
Cheers.

stratman3142

Petepassion said:

Just sent in my MP3...

It's in the playlist.