jeffstunes's Journals
I made a decision to seek out some local musicians to help me out with my album project. The biggest issue I have with my songwriting is on the music side. I think that I pen good songs, and that has been confirmed by many musicians and industry pro's. I'm very happy with my lyric writing, and the general melodies. The problem comes when I try to get the song out of my head into musical form. Because I only play basic guitar, I cannot seem to add the expression I want from the musical instruments. Like I do with the vocals. I'm sure that I will in time, but I really want to get this album out before the end of this year. I was talking to a mate of mine who goes to occasional karaoke, and I found out that he was in a band. He asked me several times to come with him to an open mic night. So I did on wednesday. I ended up getting up and doing 2 numbers, with the help of a guitarist. I have to say that it was a very enjoyable evening. The venue had shades of the cavern club (of beatles fame). It was underground, and all arches. The acoustics were fantastic because the long arches acted like funnels for the sound. Before I left, A few of the musicians came up to me and asked me to come back and perform again. So I said I would learn one of their songs if they would learn one for me. We were all in agreement. So it looks like I'll be doing it again soon. This experience sparked an idea. I could visit a number of open mic nights and get chatting with some of the musicians. Then find out if they are interested in helping me develop my album. I will run up CD of a number of my original songs for them to check out. If they like what they hear, then we will talk :) I'll keep my blog updated about this. I came across 2 potentials on wednesday, though nothing is for certain until they are recording with me. What's been going on with the Youtube figures. Youtoube are constantly overhauling their interface, and I've just discovered that they have taken away the total video views. So I had to add up all the individual video viewing figures myself. Here's the lowdown: My subscribers are up to 746. The channel viewings have climbed to 17,049. After a long counting process. I can tell you that my total viewing figures are 262,877. You can visit my Youtube channel at the following link: Right. I've got to go and learn "Afternoons and coffee spoons" for the next open mic night :) |
I chose to do a different song, but remain with the same band. Coldplay. After I had put up "Violet hill", I got a large number of requests to try "Viva la vida". There were too many to to pass it off. So I deided to record that one next. It's the second song of theirs that I've done from their latest album, which goes by the same name. some consider that it's not very professional to cover songs with backing tracks, but I always find a use in everything I attempt in music. One of the things I want to get really good at is production. It's great to record all the musical parts perfectly, but if the mix doesn't sound right, then all your efforts are for very little. One of the aspects I've been concentrating on is vocal production, and I've been trying to match that of the original song. I think it's made a big difference in the result, and it's teaching me how to produce my own voice in relation to the different types of music. I've used a vocal boost on this one. Plus I'v added a measure of moderate plate reverb in the verses. Chorus and a heavier plate reverb in the chorus. This is the result. Viva la vida. Now for some up to date figures from my Youtube account. Subs have come and gone, but yesterday I awoke to the pleasant sight of 6 new subscribers. That puts the figure at 727. Channel viewings are currently 16,529. The overall video viewings have made it! They've gone past the quarter million views. All of this within a year of putting up my first Youtube video. At the last check, the number stood at 254,512. Hopefully I can now go back and do that old Coldplay album track :) |
Now for some cover versions. This one is quite a recent tune, and is called "Violet hill". It's taken from the latest Coldplay album entitled "Viva la vida". I've got a number of Coldplay songs lined up to do, and this is the first out of that selection. It was extremely hard to get the falsetto on this song, so I dropped the music by a semitone. I still struggled to reach the highest note, but did get there in the end. It's been quite noisy in the skies above my village over the past weekend. I live quite near to a place called Goodwood. They hold a number of annual events and one of them is called "The festival of speed". So whilst it was in progress, I took a few pictures of the aircraft from my rear garden. I have added those to the vid. All I will say is that one aircraft in particular got extremely close, and it wasn't the smallest flying object in the world!!! Check out my cover of this brilliant song, and see my snaps: The Youtube stats are still moving well. I now have 721 subscribers in total. My channel viewings are now up to 16,254. The overall video views are so close now. 249,532. Barring disasters, it will pass the quarter of a million tomorrow :) My next one will probably be another Coldplay song. There's a track on one of their albums that I've always wanted to sing :) |
This is the 3rd of my old original songs choices. This is a song called "Winner". The words can be interpreted in different ways, but the meaning I attach to it is for mistaken friends who need support. This song was also co-written with Mick Paul. I finish off with details about what mick is up to now in his music career. If you saw the video in my last post, you will no doubt have discovered that Mick played bass on a hit single for David Hasselhoff in the UK. I don't think there's many individuals who don't know who the Hoff is. He's been in smash hit shows such as "Knight rider", "Baywatch" and "America's got talent". Here is "Winner": Mick is quite busy doing the touring thing at the moment, with an outfit named "The David Cross band". David Cross was once part of a band called "King Crimson". They had quite a big following. If you come from Italy, you might have heard of David Cross. He's quite popular there, and hence the reason why Mick does most of his touring there. Now for some youtube statistics news. My subscribers have seen a really good jump in the last few days. Racing past the 700 barrier to 717. The channel views have rolled along to 16,017. Another barrier broken. Last but by no means least. The total video views. They are 246,003. I hoped that they might possibly get to the quarter of a million by the 17th July. Which is the 1st year anniversary of my the first vid I uploaded on Youtube. It's looking like it's going to get there on the 15th!! I'd like to get a few Coldplay covers done for my next videos, and I'll hopefully be bringing some more news on the progress of my upcoming album release. I've set up a mailing list for first hand news about progress on the album. I will only be using the email addresses for that purpose. It's so I can inform interested parties about events regarding the album, before I post the info anywhere else. If anyone is interested in signing up for it then you can do just that if you go to the homepage on my website. Here's the URL: Until the next post :) |
This is the second of three songs written by Mick Paul and I several years ago, that I have selected to upload. Ths one shows off Mick's Bass skills a bit. I just wanted acoustic guitar and Bass in this, and I think it worked quite well. The vocals drift off key in a couple of places. This song, and most of the others were only written hours before they were recorded, so I'm not really surprised at the mistakes. The song is about a very dark subject, though I'm not going to tell you here. You'll have to watch the vid to find out. I reveal the meaning at the end. It puts a whole new angle on the lyrics. Getting back to Mick. Here's some information on this very talented guy: Played on 2 singles in 1970. He joined "The Hotshots" in 1973. They got to number 4 in the british chart with one of their releases. Joined "Union express" in 1974 and toured Europe for 2 years. From 1978, did session work for the BBC and various publishers. Did a stint as an in-house bass player at Abbeydale studios in West London. He co-wrote the Labour Party campaign song in 1987. Joined "More tea vicar in 1990. Wrote and played on a single called "Aquarius" for Yello records, which was produced by Tyrrell. He played bass on the "David Hasselhoff" single "If we could only say goodbye" (Yes. It's The Hoff). and there is more.. I'll give a web link to his recording studio in West Worthing, southern England: This is the guy doing all the music in this song. The previous song, and the next song. The title of this song is "Losing my mind". I hope you like it, and the Bass playing :) Now here is the latest youtube account stats. A rise in my subs to 692. The Channel views are 15,540. The total video views are now at 237,970. Still on schedule to reach a quarter of a million by the 17th. Rising at roughly a thousand views a day. Next up is the third and final upload of my three old original songs. I'm still beavering away on my album. I had a song in my head, as I was waking up yesterday. A strange way to discover a song, but I thought it was very good. I'm going to put the track together to see what it sounds like in real life, and if it's good enough, it can go on the album. |