[Jay-morris]

Hi everyone

I came across this forum today, and decided to join. A little bit about me. I live in Brighton. I am a digital artist, but also, in my spare time write songs. I have never shared my songs with anyone until recently. The only person before was my 6 year old daughter.

Now, I work in a very unique place. I am telephone fundraiser (don't hate me) The great thing about my job, is the people who work there. It is a mix of actors, artists and songwriters. Some of these people have had success in the past with acting and songwriting. It is a great environment filled with people I can relate too.

Even one of my favorite bands drummer joined our place. I will not say his name, or what band, but at one point, they were quite big and toured with system of a down, Red hot chilli peppers to name a few.

Anyway, i got talking to him and mentioned i write songs, but really for myself. He told me to send him some. I really did not want too, but in the end i did. He said he really liked them, and they had potential. Off course, being me, i thought he was just being nice because he worked with me. Now, a few people from work have heard them and say they are good. One of my friends there says he wants to produce them.

I just cannot believe that they really like my songs, and are just saying it to be nice. I love writing songs, but never thought them to be good enough to sing live, even though i have been asked a number of times when i go to open mics in Brighton.

I am very strongly influenced by Elliott smith and Leonard Cohen, and my songs are Mellon collie. I recorded them on one take, and never bothered to polish them. I recorded them on my mobile phone, so the quality is not good. I do not like my voice either, and not an experienced guitarist, pretty much self taught.

Anyway, i feel that to get the best honest opinion, would be to post them on a site like this, where people will not be nice because they know me and see me everyday. I put nine songs on sound cloud. If anyone would take the time to listen to them, that would help me decide if i should polish them, and maybe sing them live.

https://soundcloud.com/morrison-art/sets/morrison-demos 

[PaulAds]

Hi Jay

your best bet is to put one song every two weeks (at the most) into "finished songs" section - assuming you're fairly happy with them - and try to grab a listen to other songs here and chip in with any thoughts you have. You'll probably find you can strike up good relationships with other folks.

I'm listening now to the first song now...we're all pushed for time so we try to give a little attention to whatever we can whenever we can. Nine songs in one go is a big ask 

If you can give a little background to the songs and post lyrics individually too, when the time comes...that'd help as well.

Have a look around the "finished songs" section to get more of an idea of what other members are about...and get stuck in.

welcome along 

[Jay-morris]

Thank you for the quick response. Yeah, I am new to all this, and sharing my music with other songwriters I do not know.

I do not think I could put them into finished songs yet, and u do not have the equipment to do good recordings at the moment. Guess it is hard to spend money for better recordings when I do not know if they are any good. If people on here are positive about some of them, guess that would give me a bit of belief

I will try and do what you say.

Thank you

[PaulAds]

They sound pretty good. I listened to three.

You are good enough.

Your songs can and will get better.

You'll learn a lot and enjoy it here...I have/do.

We're a friendly bunch!

Collaborating is a great way of getting help and making friendships as well as songs...

Good luck...and believe in yourself 

[Jay-morris]

Thank you!

[EmmanuelT]

Hey!
Listened to ''Gods that Bleeds to waste'' and a few others and it was really good. Very nice voice, resembles Leonard Cohen in many ways. Good guitar playing so no complaints there. Maybe focus on song structure, you know have a memorable hook/chorus or throw in another interesting musical part somewhere. Even if I really enjoy listening to this mellow kind of music, it might not pull me in as much as Dylan's or Cohen's songs would because of this. But overall really great, I thoroughly enjoyed it, there's definitely potential!
/Em

[CaliaMoko]

As others have indicated, your work has much potential. I have a couple immediate recommendations, in general.

First, since you're doing "one-shot" recording, move the microphone so it's giving you a better balance between your voice and the guitar. Or find a way to mic or plug in the guitar and record from two microphones at once. You said you're using your mobile phone, so I imagine, moving where you put it when you record will do the trick.

Second, I really like your voice, but you sound insecure or uncertain, like maybe you're not so sure you're good enough to be singing. You need to get over that. Your voice sounds really good and just needs to sound more confident. Right now, you waver a bit, occasionally getting slightly pitchy. Pretend you're a really good singer and just let loose and sing. Don't worry about how it sounds; simply act like you're a confident and accomplished singer. I think you might be surprised at the result.

And like PaulAds said, choose one song at a time and post it on the "Finished Songs" board every 14 days (the "legal limit"). Tell us a little bit about it, why you wrote it, what kind of feedback you'd like to get on it. You mentioned believing your songs aren't "finished" enough to post in "Finished Songs". Think of it this way--you're done writing the song, so it's finished. Post the demo of your finished song. You might not be done producing it, but the song itself is finished. Sure, once you get feedback, you might decide it wasn't finished after all, but don't worry about that.

And, also like Paul mentioned, you'll improve your odds of plenty of feedback if you take a listen to some of the songs of other members and give them a little feedback. We all like the evidence that someone is actually listening to our music! You don't have to be an expert to provide feedback. Just say what you like and don't like about the song.

And, finally, welcome to the best songwriters' forum on the internet. I've signed up for a couple others from time to time, including before I found this one, but this is the only one I frequent regularly. I haven't been to any of the others for some time, in fact. And we are a friendly bunch. Be nice to us and we'll be nice to you. Although, if you review any of my music, I expect you to be ruthless. I'm kind of musically masochistic, because I like [constructive] negative feedback.

Hope to see you around the forum!

Vicki

[Jay-morris]

Thanks every for their advice. All taken on board To be honest, my songs have been received much better than I thought they would, so thank you all

[Yodasdad]

Hey Jay,

Listened to a minute or so of 5 of the tracks.

Is there potential, yes.
Can they be improved, yes.
Is it worth you pursuing this, yes.
Will you become a better songwriter by getting involved on this forum, yes.
Can  I promise you fame and fortune, no.

I would also echo what Paulads and Calia have said.

Welcome.

Yodasdad

[2tuoo]

I've skimmed over 4 songs in the list randomly,
the lyrics are great and your singing shows that you feel what you sing

I recommend investing a bit of planning time onto your strumming patterns, I noticed that they are practically similar in all the songs I've chosen and it feels like the songs deserve some more versatility (I hope this is the right word to describe what I mean)

[Jay-morris]

Thank you yeah I am not the greatest guitarist. Self taught myself over the last year. I know I need to improve my guitar playing.