[Sticky] The feed-back thread - still going strong into YEAR 11

But did you notice that Vic himself was an early responder to this thread?

I did. I also PM'd Nick to point out the existence of the feedback thread.....

The reason I used to lock the thread immediately after posting the topic was that when I did get comments, I had to separate them from the thread, put them in the feedback thread - and I made a mess of that a few times before I got the hang of the mod tools! - then, later, cut-and-paste the topic to the running list (Y7 assignments, I think it was - then David merged a couple of threads together1) WITHOUT the comments. I think it was halfway through year 8, I had to go back through ALL the topics and cut out any and all unnecessary waffle - the thread had gotten so big, there was too much information to post.

I honestly can't remember if it was my idea or David's to put all the current year's topics on one thread - I know we PM'd about it, and I know David mentioned that Bob used to repeat assignments - and I do know we've got all the assignments/topics from Y6 onwards in a couple of sticky threads. Maybe someday, when I've got a few hours to spare, I'll go back to the start and put all Bob's topics in a single thread - he just used to release them back into the wild to fend for themselves when he posted the next week's topic!

:D :D :D

Vic

I did. I also PM'd Nick to point out the existence of the feedback thread.....

Thanks for pointing that out Vic. To be honest I hadn't even noticed that thread in amongst the other stickies. :oops: But in my own defence, nobody else used it this week either.
The reason I used to lock the thread immediately after posting the topic was that when I did get comments, I had to separate them from the thread, put them in the feedback thread - and I made a mess of that a few times before I got the hang of the mod tools! ........ etc.

All that makes sense. Thanks for the background explanation. The ongoing list of past weekly assignments is very useful - I've often had cause to use it.

I see that there's now a separate feedback thread for Week 33, which seems like a good idea. :D Would it not be useful to start a separate feedback thread each week right when the new assignment is posted? The original assignment post can be locked, as you did, if that's preferable.

It would provide an opportunity to discuss things as we go along, in one place, rather than sprinkled around through the personal song threads. This week there's been some chat about the detail of the assignment, and that can crop up at any time if there's any doubts about what to aim for. But there can also be general points there are worth a group discussion. It can sometimes be very helpful to talk a point or angle through before you begin, or just throw around ideas. There's probably no reliable way of predicting in advance which topics might initiate a lot of debate and which might get very little. But the opportunity to do it seems worthwhile.

What do others think?

Cheers,

Chris.

Someone did an awesome job examining the song writing process of John Lennon.

Definitely worth checking out :wink:

How John Lennon wrote "Real Love" and "Stepping Out" (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDZmLCEfCIM

How John Lennon wrote "Real Love" and "Stepping Out" (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLh5y2ySHQU&NR=1

wow, so much griping over commercially successful music... we're either pretty lame or way too cool for pop (i'll pretend to be the later)

I don't know that it's over pop so much as it is in getting outside one's comfort zone.

Today is June 26. Are we still working on Week 34? I new here. Thanks

It's officially the start of "Week 35" but the new assignment didn't come up until Sunday evening (US East Coast time). That happens sometimes. Welcome to Guitar Noise and to the SSG, by the way. Looking forward to seeing you around!

Peace

P.S. Don't go putting any other music to this yet. That's next week.

:?:

Wasn't that going to be Week 35 Nick? Keep the lyrics and write some new music for them?

Not a problem for me though, as I didn't get Week 34 completed, although I did make several starts. Without meaning to, I spent half of last week re-writing music anyway. :roll:

Although I didn't get a song from Week 34 I did get a lot of other useful stuff out of it. Sometime you find good things when you're looking for something else altogether! :mrgreen:

One of the things I did get was to make up a new "Saying" (or maybe half remember a forgotten one???) that I'm going to try and use in the lyrics of another song later:

"The harder you crack the whip the more you have to put up with the screaming......" :wink:

I also got some recent music exposure, and a new goal to try and work on a particular 'comfort zone' - currently it's all pretty wobbly.

So it's all good. :D Thanks Nick.

Cheers,

Chris

eh, I changed my mind.

Many of last week's were put to music anyway.

No pressure, Nick, but it's Monday here and still nowt up for week 37 - by the time I get up, it'll be almost Tuesday in Australia and NZ....

:D :D :D

Vic

Sorry for the delay. I forgot people lived in different time zones. :oops:

by the time I get up, it'll be almost Tuesday in Australia and NZ....

:D :D :D

Vic

True. It's usually the MSG here.

I'm about to head out for the day (Monday 18th) so I'll probably not get to week 38's assignment until Tuesday. I think it's all part of a cunning plot to handicap the Antipodeans, and give the rest of the world a sporting chance! We'll manage.... :)

Chris

yep,it's the MSG in England now....

I've learned something new in the last few weeks, though. It's not enough to keep on churning the same old rhymes out, or the same old rhyming pattern out - whether it's AABB or ABAB. You've got to try something new - I've tried to do that with the last few topics. I've varied the rhyming sceme....always been a big fan of internal rhymes (once upon a time you dressed so fine threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you....) so I've tried to incorporate some different rhythms into the rhymes. I'm not sure it's working fully yet, but hey - I'm trying. And I wouldn't have tried without the kick up the back side.....so thanks, Nick, for making me think - again - a little deeper.

Cheers, mate!

:D :D :D

Vic

This was an interesting experiment I was reading about from Rebecca McClananahan's book "Word Painting".

Definition: Constellation of Images -supplies the metaphor in everything the writer writes

She states that Stanley Kunitz referred to writer's having a "Constellation of Images" in them. For Kunitz, his constellation formed around his father. For McClananahan it was the death of an infant sister the year McClananahan was born.

The experiment: Look over your past lyrics for words or ideas that keep resurfacing. McClananahan states, "Paying attention to reurring motifs in our work can help us discover the sources of our originality....and extend isolated metaphores" (McClananahan page 100).

So one way to do this is to use wordle.com
You cut and paste your lyrics and press "go" and it generates word pictures.

You can try it for a group of your songs, or it's fun to do with lyrics for just one song as well.

I put a large group of my lyrics in and the strongest reoccurring words were the following: know, time, love.

It's fun to play around with the different settings in wordle. It could also be an interesting CD cover if you put all the lyrics to the CD in wordle and then make the picture part of the cover art :idea:

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3866448/Y9W38_Graduation_Day

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3866458/Y9W37_Road_Rage_%28Tales_of_the_Jackalope%29

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3866545/Lyrics_to_100_of_my_songs

I enjoyed this week's assignment. I may have mentioned it before, but I'm a huge Springsteen Fan - I was the only person in my circle of friends who was into Bruce BEFORE Born To Run, and I used to take "Greetings From Asbury Park" and "The Wild, The Innocent(etc)" everywhere with me on the off chance I could get someone else to listen.

I found it pretty easy to get in a Springsteen state of mind....but there is one problem. No way this song's going to be a keeper, at least in it's present state....it sounds too much like a bad parody. Don't get me wrong, I do actually like what I've come up with...but one of the biggest problems I have as a songwriter is trying to find my own identity. I've written over 150 songs (!) for SSG assignments, and on nearly every one of them, I can tell who I was listening to at the time.....I can hear Kinks, Beatles, Stones, Manfred Mann, Who, Dylan (a LOT of Dylan - Blood On Your Hands [written in a hotel room in Texas] and Back On Track are the most obvious!) Mott The Hoople, Lou Reed, CCR, Status Quo, Hendrix, more Stones, more Beatles, blah blah blah. What I don't hear is an awful lot of Vic Lewis....about the only song on my soundclick site that doesn't sound like anyone else is Blink Of An Eye, and I'm quite proud of that one.

Maybe the ultimate SSG assignment would be to write a song that sounds uniquely you? A song that the listener COULDN'T tell who your musical influences are from listening to it? Now THAT would be a tough one!

Year 10, eh? Rock on, Nick!!!!

:D :D :D

Vic