The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => Competitions => Topic started by: seriousfun on June 03, 2013, 10:26:02 AM
-
Rules for the songs/lyrics of the month.
Each month 5 songs will be nominated from the finished song category and 5 lyrics from the lyrics category by a nominated forum member and these songs shall be placed in the song/lyric of the month thread where members may vote on the favourite selection in each category. At the conclusion of the voting period, the top three songs will be ranked, Each months winner will then be automatically put forward at the end of each year where a song of the year and lyric of the year will be judged in the same manner. The following rules will apply:
1. The artist must be an active forum member and have taken part in the reviewing of songs/lyrics on a regular basis and have at least open mic rank.
2. The song/lyric must be the members own work.
3. Only songs/lyrics which have been posted between the start and end of the current month are available for selection.
4. All selections will be made by a forum member who will be nominated by the month’s previous selector. This selector will be of at least solo gig rank.
5. No member may be represented by more than one song or lyric in any one month.
6. The selector may not nominate their own work for an award.
These rules are in no way set in concrete they are merely a starting point for discussion but we need to have it finalised before the months end so that this month can be put underway. The reason I have put rank provisions in rule 1 is to prevent passers by with no real forum interest from posting songs for the competition and not participating in what we are all about. The rank for rule 4 ensures that the nominated has spen sometime in our community and has a full understanding of how we work here and what we value. It also gives the more junior janked members something to aspire to at the same time.
The reason I didn't incude wips is that they are by name an unfinished work and IMHO we should be encouraging people to finish their work not rewarding them for leaving it incomplete. If a member wishes a wip to be considered they should finish the work and have it shifted by a moderator to the finished song section.
-
thats a great idea
putting use of songs and give them recognition
i'm in on that
there are tonnes of great songs that i have read that would fit the bill
cena69
-
Fantastic idea, come on mods, make it happen :)
-
yeah i dig it!
-
Great idea ..
May I suggest an idea ..
panel of five or seven .. three from outside the forum .. so it will help the voting .. ;D
Cheers ..
-
Good plan Alan,
This forum is extremely inspiring. The competitions, collaborations and just posting your latest work are all great drivers. A 'Top Ten' seems like a natural progression.
-
I like the idea but a couple of thoughts to add to the stew:
I think we need to be inclusive, not everyone want to be in a competition all the time and be careful around the overhead/fatigue of monthly voting. So why not get the mods to have a monthly 'featured songs' with say 3 tunes, and then at the end of the year a vote on the 36?
In addition is you could then run a competition to do cover versions of the top 10 voted songs. I'm doing a cover song at the moment and its fascinating to try and interpret and give something different to an original and personally I'd be chuffed to bits if someone else wanted to cover a song of mine. It would also be fascinating to hear different interpretations given the diverse range we have in the forum.
:)
Neil
-
maybe you could have a song of the month for each cateogory, like on for lyrics, one for works in progress, and finished songs. then you could have the over all winner.
-
gettig all the mods to agree on a selection could be tricky....
-
Then let each Mod have a month...?
:)
Neil
-
needs to happen i reckon! need some fun in this forum! we cant all be serious now can we 8)
-
In addition is you could then run a competition to do cover versions of the top 10 voted songs. I'm doing a cover song at the moment and its fascinating to try and interpret and give something different to an original and personally I'd be chuffed to bits if someone else wanted to cover a song of mine. It would also be fascinating to hear different interpretations given the diverse range we have in the forum.
:)
Neil
sounds like a cracking idea that!
-
maybe you could have a song of the month for each cateogory, like on for lyrics, one for works in progress, and finished songs. then you could have the over all winner.
Not keen on this idea. It would be unfair to be judging finished songs against lyrics or wips and also wips against lyrics. IMHO we should be judging just finished songs as that's where we would expect wips to end up anyway.
Do like the idea of mods having turn about. 10 maybe too many songs to consider each month, but I just put this outs as a raw topic for discussion.
-
Alan, 3 songs a month would be enough I'd have thought..
:)
Neil
-
Not keen on this idea. It would be unfair to be judging finished songs against lyrics or wips and also wips against lyrics. IMHO we should be judging just finished songs as that's where we would expect wips to end up anyway.
:'( don't be anti-lyricist! Why don't you just pick a top one from each category and then not have an overall winner? Three winners a month isn't a big ask, and we all work as hard as each other so it would be unfair to not let everyone participate!
-
Awww Jess, I am not anti lyricist, I even include words my own songs :)
Its just that you cant have a section for lyrics in a song competition as lyrics by themselves do not constitute a song.
But having said that, there is absolutely no reason, that I can see, why we could not also have a lyric of the month section. In fact that could be a good idea and if the writer was interested he could allow musicians to participate in adding music to the lyric the following month to see what they came up with. Just a way to further add value and encourage people to work together.
I do hope you can forgive me though I wasn't degrading lyrics, just saying it would be unfair to judge two distinctly different products against each other. Pleasel let me know if I should be doing some hail Mary's or self flagellation to earn redemption :)
-
Awww Jess, I am not anti lyricist, I even include words my own songs :)
Allan, that gave me a damn good laugh to start the day! :)
Completely agree though that a written lyric cannot directly compete with a lyric set to music I.e what we are calling a song. Mind you, that raises an interesting question; When does a poem become a song? I think 'Sonnet' means song but are all sonnets set to music? Jess recently posted a recording consisting of singing and body slaps which made it far easier for me to appreciate the lyric because of my preferences not prejudices.
Gets complicated don't it? Perhaps a top three from 'finished songs' and a top three from 'lyrics'. It's not like there's a recording deal awaiting the winner but I reckon this would spice up the competition/inspiration on this site a little bit but, as you said, the standard is already very high around here. I can honestly say that I have a few new songs under my belt that I'm quite pleased with and just wouldn't exist but for the inspiration, help and guidance received from this community.
-
ha, many good ideas in this thread (that idea from Neil to cover songs from other members sounds very interesting......i would like to organise and / or participate in something like that)
about the song of the month.....i think we could sort of randomly choose an active member per month (i don't think it should be mod, we may end up fighting ;D ;D ;D ;D) and as Jess suggested that forumite gets to pick a best lyrics, best WIP song and a best Finished song.....
we could keep them together in one thread, collect them and have a new years evening voting for the best lyrics and best song...
if just start with giving one forumite the task, then perhaps this forumite could also have the heavy duty to hand over the task to another forumite for the next month???
just my two eurocents..what do yoy guys and galls think?
-
Dutchbeat ..
I like the collecting part .. make a page which has the nominated songs of each month .. accumulate them over the years they well always be there as links so any one can revisit these songs rather then look for them through the hundreds of pages in the forum .. or maybe never hear them again ..
one question .. start from Jan 2013 .. or Jan 2014 ?? :D
I like that .. ;D
-
Got so many mentions in this topic, feel so special, haha. I get how you can't compare songs with lyrics but I guess we want to get as many people involved and keep every section on the forum motivated.
Jess recently posted a recording consisting of singing and body slaps which made it far easier for me to appreciate the lyric because of my preferences not prejudices.
:)
-
well put jess i'm with you on that
everyone should have the same chance
seriousfun hats off to you for the origanal idea
lets all have fun...
-
Sounds like this could be fun :)...would you have to post the lyrics of your song in the lyrics section to be considered in the lyrics comp....or would all lyrics be reviewed from all songs in finished or WIP?...also could one person conceivable win every month through the year or would there be a limit on how many times one person could be picked...how far back would you go to pick a song of the month? ...or would only the songs posted in that month(1st to 31st) be chosen?? hmmm...lots to consider, but great idea ;D
-
would it be an idea to try this the following way....
we make a thread in which for every month a best lyrics, a best song in progress and a best finished song are selected....they have to be choosen from clearly defined months, so the first pick would be from songs and lyrics that will be posted between July 1st and july 31st....
and that we just choose one regular forum member (no mod or administrator) per month for this task (it means a lot of listening and reading in that month....). A regular forum member could be defined as someone who reached the "open mic" rank at least.... ;D and should have also been active in the last month on the forum.... ;D
so for instance, in this case SERIOUS FUN could be the first juror...he started this thread and he made it to the rank of: "solo gigolo" or something like that :P
if he would be prepared to take on this task (how could he refuse the honour ;D ;D) and the others are ok with this, he gets to appoint the next juror for August...
seriousfun is in a place on the globe where it is now winter, so he can't use having a summer holiday as an excuse...
of course we keep track of all the selected lyrics and music on one thread and the day before newyear we can all vote for the annual winner....the price for the winner is als usual, one get to ask a regular forumite (again, that is a forumite that reached the ranks of open mic or higher) of choice to perform a track or sing on one of your own songs...Lyricists could perhaps ask a forumite to put their winning lyrics on music...
just some thoughts, sorry for being so bold, but would this be a way of getting this started???
and if so, Seriousfun do you think you can take this responsability...without being bribed...can you stand the heat???
-
Good call DutchStadium...
:)
Neil
-
I Second that DutchBeat .. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers ..
-
This. Sounds. Awesome!
So glad that the idea's getting off the ground :D
-
Love the idea, sound rather exiting! :D
-
Another great example of the energy on this forum! :)
Quite a responsibility for one forumite each month but all to the good I think.
-
I humbly accept this great honour bestowed upon me and i will look at putting some formal rulestogether from the discussion todate for the forums consideration.
And by the way, Dutchbeat, SOLO GIGOLO , thats most offenceive. Whats the use of being a gigilo if i have to be solo, huh? ;D :D :D
-
yeah good to see this is starting to roll along, should be pretty dam good as they say...
-
Best of luck Allan..
you're the man .. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers
-
Just incase you missed it, I have edited my first post on this thread and it now contains rules for the competition which are currently under discussion. I will amend the rules in a week or so and have a sticky thread opened for the competition with the finalised rules as the first post.
-
Rules for the songs/lyrics of the month.
Each month 5 songs will be nominated from the finished song category and 5 lyrics from the lyrics category by a nominated forum member and these songs shall be placed in the song/lyric of the month thread where members may vote on the favourite selection in each category. At the conclusion of the voting period, the top three songs will be ranked, Each months winner will then be automatically put forward at the end of each year where a song of the year and lyric of the year will be judged in the same manner. The following rules will apply:
1. The artist must be an active forum member and have taken part in the reviewing of songs/lyrics on a regular basis and have at least open mic rank.
2. The song/lyric must be the members own work.
3. Only songs/lyrics which have been posted between the start and end of the current month are available for selection.
4. All selections will be made by a forum member who will be nominated by the month’s previous selector. This selector will be of at least solo gig rank.
5. No member may be represented by more than one song or lyric in any one month.
These rules are in no way set in concrete they are merely a starting point for discussion but we need to have it finalised before the months end so that this month can be put underway. The reason I have put rank provisions in rule 1 is to prevent passers by with no real forum interest from posting songs for the competition and not participating in what we are all about. The rank for rule 4 ensures that the nominated has spen sometime in our community and has a full understanding of how we work here and what we value. It also gives the more junior janked members something to aspire to at the same time.
The reason I didn't incude wips is that they are by name an unfinished work and IMHO we should be encouraging people to finish their work not rewarding them for leaving it incomplete. If a member wishes a wip to be considered they should finish the work and have it shifted by a moderator to the finished song section.
What's an open mic rank? What's a solo gig rank? ??? Do only the lyrics posted in the lyric section of this forum get considered or are the lyrics in the finished song category considered as well? :)
-
Take a look under your name in the panel on the left. Your rank displays near your total postcount. Its a new feature so dont go and get your eyes tested for missing it
:D
-
How many posts do you need for 'Open Mic' rank?
-
I'm very busy ATM, but wanted to let you know that this is a great idea.
I'll try and keep an eye on this thread :)
-
Hello Every one ..
Great work Allan .. :D
I'm never entered competitions in my life .. only the summer one in this forum .. so I don't much about rules .. but it looks like Allan's work is good ..
Thank you Allan ..
Cheers ..
-
Thanks Allan, for taking this on you
i think all the rules are clear..i agree with the way you formulated it...i think for the nominees of lyrics they really have to come from the lyrics section
and i am doubting the ambition level to nominate five for each category (lyrics and finished songs), originally my idea was that the nominated songwriter of the month responsible for the selection could slos choose the winner
but if you nominate five, that may be good, as more people will listen and read other people's work, but we are depending on people to vote / select the final winner then...will enough people vote????
but let's go for this ok? Well i am all for this, but this means regular forumites have to pay attention to the selection of the nominees, really listen to them and read the lyrics and sent a vote to the organising forummember after the month is over
do i understand this correctly Allan? (btw, sorry for mistyping your rank "solo gig" into "solo gigolo" :-X)
if we agree on this, i will ask Tone - he who graciously rules the songwriting universe - to put out a banner to announce our "song of the month" idea
-
me again, should we perhaps bring back the number of nominees per month from 5 to 3 per category?
-
What say we let the months selector. Determine how many exceptional works he feels should benominated. 3 to 5 works from each of the two categories. That way if there are just 3 or 4 stand out works it is easy if there is a fifth then add it in. If we allow flexibility it may make it easier to define that all important cut off point.
-
Wait, slightly confused over here...
So we nominate one person to pick the best few songs and lyrics but then other people vote for them?
???
-
Yes that's the idea of it Jess, the winning works are chosen by a vote of your peers. The selector is charged with the responsibility of selecting a group of 3 - 5 lyrics and 3-5 songs and putting them forward at the months end for a vote. The idea being that they should find it easy enough to pick the absolute stand outs especially given the feedback already placed. And then to make it nice and fair all forum members get a say on which one of each of the 'shortlisted entries' takes out the award.
The job of selector will be passed around.
-
Please not I just added a sixth rule to keep it all fair and above board.
6. The selector may not nominate their own work for an award.
-
thanks and Good morning, Allan...where you are the day starts
and it is winter, i guess
but nevertheless you cleared it all!!!
thanks
-
should be interesting how this all takes of then!
good stuff Allan by the way in gettingthe ball rolling with the layout of how its all gonna happen!
-
Dang! I better get recording ... the month is almost out!
-
Please not I just added a sixth rule to keep it all fair and above board.
6. The selector may not nominate their own work for an award.
What about collaborations?
-
no, also no nominating of a song or project in which the selector participated in any way
-
It's the first of July...
-
"Song of the month" Not someone's personal opinion of their five? this is not song of the month!
EVERY song that is in the finished section is entered from the 1st day to the last day of any given month and your favourite song from them all you vote for.
This is song of the month. Terry.
-
The discussion onrules has been open for a month Terry, its a bit late to make comments now that the competition has started.
-
Just curious...will the songs be judged on the merit of the song writing or will production, recording, performance be part of it? ;D ;D
-
Just to be clear, is it necessary for the song to be written / composed / sung by the person who posts it please?
I only write lyrics and then melody is composed by someone else too.
Can a song as described above be accepted for the competition please?
Thanks
Keith
-
Collaborations are often posted in the song section and they are treated the same as solo efforts.