Songwriting Contest - rules draft

[Embrace_the_Darkness]

OK, the other thread has reached two pages of discussion, and people seem up for the idea of a little friendly contest, so I've taken the liberty of making a "rules list" from what has been talked about so far. I think it's pretty fair, if there are any major disagreements obviously they can be disscussed.

GuitarNoise Songwriting Competition #1

Rules

The topic is to be; **Life & Death**

Collaboration is allowed, up to 2 people may work on one song. It is down to
individuals to decide how the collaboration will work, and how song is to be credited.

Work must be original - no covers submitted

Contestants must provide written lyrics and an audio file; this can be with music, or sung acapella (no music).
Any entrants who do not submit an audio version of their song will not qualify for judging.
Singing / playing quality will not be judged.
If music is written for a song, the chords / riffs may be included in the lyrics text to give a better idea of how the song will sound, if that is your choice; either in TAB or standard notation.



Songs will be judged on the following catagories;

Story or meaning behind the song - how well this is conveyed

Genre - how well does the song fit the style it was written for

Imagary - how well the song is "fleshed out" and how well it communicates to the listener / reader

Music / flow - pace of the song, rythm, ryhme, music (if applicable)
note; music refers to how well the music fits the song, NOT how well the individual/s play in the recording


All songs are to be submitted by **Sunday August 26th** for judging by a volunteer panel of GN members.

The bits in **italics** are the things I think are still open to change (especially the date, we need judges first )

Pete

[Vic Lewis VL]

You seem to have covered all bases there, Pete. The date is the one thing that may need changing - I'd suggest an extra week.....songs have to be written, practised, recorded...that should give everyone ample time.

As already mentioned, MP3 quality/ musical skills won't be judged - the MP3's only meant as a rough guide to how the song will sound, so don't worry about how polished or well-produced it'll be....

I've already volunteered as a judge in the other thread - maybe one of the mods could make it (and this thread) a temporary sticky?



Vic

[Ignar Hillstrøm]

Agree, I think people might need a bit of extra time. For the rest:

If music is written for a song, the chords / riffs must be included in the lyrics text to give a better idea of how the song will sound.

Riffs, solos, melodies etc either included in the music file or notated in standard music notation. Tab does not give enough information to judge it as the rhythm is not there. If you play the chords (or have them played by a computer or whatever) I don't need them to be listed, I can hear them just fine. As it's a 'songwriting' contest I'm most interested in the lyrics and their rhythm/flow, a great riff would score bonuspoints but can't save 'bad' lyrics.

All my humble opinions ofcourse.

[Embrace_the_Darkness]

Yeah I figured the date would need changing, 3 weeks sounds good to me Vic.

Arjen, I only put in the bit about including the chord names in the lyrics in case it wasn't clear on the recording, or someone had trouble with a certain chord but wanted to include it, having the chord name may help if the artist couldn't play the chord smoothly / fully (such as wanting to use a full barre F but only being able to play an open F well enough to use it in a recording).

But we can certainly have the inclusion of chord names as a voluntary aspect, not a required one.

Pete

[kingpatzer]

I volunteered to judge as well -- my only comment is that I'd rather see the contest have set categories of genres rather than a particular subject theme.

It is, in my view, a lot easier to compare two blues songs regardless of subject matter than to compare a death metal song to a jazz ballad that just happens to cover the same topic.

I like the idea of having a sense of the rhythm and melody, but having riffs really isn't the point. This is about the song-writing, not the accompaniment.

[Ness K]

well, the rules look good, i am participating but i am in need of a partner who can play okay, decent guitar to do the music, i will handle some if not all of the lyrics. I'm going to start sending messages to people i want to be partners with now

[Elecktrablue]

People expect to "win" something when they enter a contest. What does the winner get?

[Ness K]

I don't know, respect from the rest of us as a great songwriter, its just a friendly competition, for us to sharpen our skills

[Embrace_the_Darkness]

What does the winner get?

The Bragging rights as the winner of the first songwriting comp here at GN! :D:D

Oh, and this marvelous Air Guitar I have lying around;



Display stand not included in the prize. No postage needed as weighs nothing. Winner will recieve prize instantly.
Strings never break. No repairs needed. Sound like your Guitar Heroes all the time, every time.



Sorry, Couldn't resist

Pete

[Ignar Hillstrøm]

People expect to "win" something when they enter a contest. What does the winner get?

The experience to have written a song about a theme not chosen by themselves in a short period of time. In general I don't think there is really such a thing as a 'contest' when it comes to music because you can't judge a piece of music objectively. Just look at this as a cheap excuse to have some fun and improve as a songwriter, with constructive criticism being guaranteed. You can't lose!

[saint_duud]

Just look at this as a cheap excuse to have some fun and improve as a songwriter, with constructive criticism being guaranteed.

Yeah. Like any other friendly game or contest, the point isn't what the prize is, it's that the contest is going to be both fun and good exercise.

...And never underestimate bragging rights

And, is this really the first songwriting contest on here ever?

[Elecktrablue]

To my knowledge, we've never really had any sort of "competition" or contest.....

[Ignar Hillstrøm]

Sure we had. Da dog has set up two contests in the 'online collabs' forum. In the end there never really was a winner declared I think but people could vote, and all tracks were posted and listened to. Ofcourse, it's a contest in the 'GN-style', people looking for 'real' contests where people demand recounts probably need to look elsewhere.

[Ness K]

I'm surprised that this contest is shaping up to something good. This contest was my first forum topic, im glad this idea is really taking off.

By the way, me and Embrace the darkness are a songwriting pair , so i suggest everyone start getting your teams in order, or if you work alone, start writing!

Im not sure what the official deadline of the contest is, could some one clear it up and make it official

[Embrace_the_Darkness]

The deadline is in the rules above;

All songs are to be submitted by **Sunday August 26th** for judging by a volunteer panel of GN members

That gives 3 weeks (as of tomorrow) which Vic suggested would be enough. If enough people petition for an extra week, I can't see the harm. Any more than 4 weeks (total) though and it might be a little *too* long running.

Pete