FAWM - Area for songs, discussion and therapy!!!

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Martinswede

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« on: January 28, 2018, 09:06:48 PM »
Physician, shrink, psychic, they might all advice against it. For some reason I decided to go for it. Anyone with experience?

I first thought 2h/day would be a good aim but then I read about the forum and community and other internet related stuff. This will take both time and work by the look of it.

Martin
« Last Edit: January 24, 2021, 11:58:20 AM by Boydie »

Neil C

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« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2018, 09:28:31 PM »
Hi,
Its a wild ride. and you kind of need to understand how it works and what your strategy is?
Its a very fast moving and hugely enthusiastic environment, so you need to work out how much time you spend reviewing others and whether you want to collaborate with others.
Good luck.
 :)
neil



songwriter of no repute..

Boydie

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« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2018, 09:31:44 PM »
To all of those much braver than me - I thought it would be useful to have another FAWM sticky to host all discussion and songs (and therapy sessions) for all things FAWM 2018

Good luck everyone and see you on the other side... 
To check out my music please visit:

http://soundcloud.com/boydiemusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BoydieMusic

Martinswede

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« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2018, 03:03:20 PM »
Thanks Boydie for making it a sticky! I saw the 2017 sticky and thought it was time to mention the subject...

Mostly I'm wondering if 48h-48h-48h etc for every song is the advised tactic or a more loose 3 1/2 songs a week?

I believe a fast pace will lower the quality and touch of my own personality in my songs but nothing says they are completely finished the last of February. I can keep working on them. If I get two good songs out of 14 attempts I still end up with twice as many songs as I regularly write a month. (But twice a small number is still a small number.)

Good luck to all who dare!

Martin

PaulAds

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« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2018, 08:52:33 PM »
Firstly...apologies for not being around much of late. I thought I’d post this just to show how I’m trying to do it

I’ve done song 1 tonight...thought of a guitar riff...recorded it into my iPhone then tried to come up with a lyric idea. Picked a fab Alan Bennett play that I’m particularly fond of called “say something happened” so went with that. It’s pretty sad. You probably guessed as much. I wrote a load of lines yesterday and tried to get a tune going. Fired up GarageBand and expanded a little on the riff, picked a few drum loops that suited, recorded acoustic guitar and added a simple bassline and uploaded the bare arsed version to my Dropbox. I played it loads today as I was driving around working out a melody and once I’d settled on a definite structure, picked out a few lines to keep and knocked them into shape. Got home and cut/pasted the original track to accommodate the structure. I’m a bit gutted as I couldn’t really expand on the lyric ideas that I’d hoped to fit in...but I’m happy enough with what I kept. I recorded a one-take vocal and left it at that.

I was a bit of a mug last year...killing myself with almost finished versions of lots of full arrangements...that was really intense...so this year, I’ve decided to take it a bit easier and not try as hard. Also, last year, I had a few ideas I was able to use, whereas this year, I’m really starting from scratch. That was part of the attraction, I suppose. Might even do a few simple acoustic + vocal numbers.

I’ve been recording little riffs into my phone for a few days now...hoping to find a few things I can turn into songs. I need to relax more with my lyrics and just write stuff I don’t think much of. No point killing myself. If I have a few songs that turn out ok...I’ll be happy and I can work on them more at a later date. If I feel so inclined.

FAWM is a bit terrifying, to be honest.

Anyway...the song is here

https://soundcloud.com/thefuneralcrasher/say-something-happened

I’m going to try to stick to this fawmula...one day for ideas and brain-storming lyrics etc, then one day to consolidate and record it.

And if I fail, it’s fine. I’ve been failing all my life. I feel no shame.

Ps if you can, check out the audiobook version of “say something happened” with Brian Wilde, Thora Hird and Imelda Staunton. It’s a heartbreaker.



« Last Edit: February 02, 2018, 08:55:16 PM by PaulAds »
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Martinswede

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« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2018, 12:04:18 PM »
So it has started... It's a blast!

I liked your song PaulAds looking forward to more of them! Am I right to assume you stick to the 48-48... model?
I'm working more on parallel tracks with three shifts. (Love the midnight shift playing unplugged electric btw.) Chaos on the inside, why fight it on the outside.

I've written three songs so far. Doing my best to procrastinate recording.

Martin

PaulAds

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« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2018, 06:59:58 AM »
Hi Martin...sounds like you're doing great...and if you can enjoy it too...that's excellent!

Yeah I'm trying to keep it to 1 song every 2 days.

I wrote and recorded the skeletons of 5 songs yesterday...pretty short and rough...but that gives me something to work on for a few days.

But I need to pick one and get it finished today. Back to work tomorrow, of course :-(

One thing I noticed last year...a lyric by itself counts as 1 song...and an instrumental by itself counts as 1 song. If you write 14 songs with words and music...you've effectively done 28, really.

An idea for getting over the line and taking some pressure off would be to put a lyric up...then a few days later put the instrumental up...then you've done 2.
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PaulAds

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« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2018, 05:09:42 PM »
Well...song number 2 is done...

https://soundcloud.com/thefuneralcrasher/six-ways-from-sunday

I bought some Pete Thomas drum loops a while back so I used the set from Elvis Costello's  "Radio Radio" for this one...kept it short and sour, scribbled the lyrics down and came up with the chorus just before recording the vocal...but I think it's ok. After my mellow first song, this one's a bit punky,. Surprise surprise  ::)

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Martinswede

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« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2018, 06:11:06 PM »
Here's my first recorded song.

https://soundcloud.com/k-martin-j/far-enough-demo-fawm

Kind of a sad song.

Not so much inspiration at the moment. Mostly getting ideas for music.

Are you planning to record all your songs PaulAds?

PaulAds

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« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2018, 06:52:35 PM »
Hi Martin

Well done on getting the first one recorded. It’s all about getting people to write. Anything we can keep is a bonus.

I knocked out a simple one-take guitar+vocal song today. Just wrote the lyric as I was driving around.

https://soundcloud.com/thefuneralcrasher/imagine-my-surprise

I can get lyrics going without much problem, so I’m going to try and get some music done for the whole 14, if possible. I have a ghastly euro-pop number I might embarrass myself with at some point. I think it’s a good idea just to do stuff you wouldn’t normally do.

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MjayP

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« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2018, 06:02:10 PM »

I believe a fast pace will lower the quality and touch of my own personality in my songs but nothing says they are completely finished the last of February. I can keep working on them.


I completely agree with this. I think that takes the pressure off, and makes it less terrifying too. It's not a competition. Actually IS IT? I don't really know much about it. I only just found out about it yesterday. I figure it's there to get the creative juices flowing! The way I see it, you don't need to have anything perfect by the end, just the foundations. (being a newbie, I could be wrong though :D)

I've decided to do my own thing, and just try and write 14 songs in February. I have already written 4 this month, and think that something like this will keep me on track. Really looking forward to see how it goes.

Martinswede

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« Reply #11 on: February 06, 2018, 08:44:50 PM »
Nice that you made the commitment too MjayP, in your own way. It's a bit like making an inventory of your songwriting skills. After three songs in a week you get this sense of what's easy for you and what's not.

I think the idea is to set the bar so high you can't say 'I'll do it later'. A lot of my creativity gets lost that way. Waiting for inspiration. At this point I have NO inspiration left for lyrics. I write two lines and then that idea is exhausted. Soon I'll probably write about not being able to write.

I've realized my weakness is all that happens after the song is written. Performing and recording.

Martin 

PaulAds

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« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2018, 10:20:37 PM »
I wrote a (comically, I hope) bitter diatribe about the (in)famous Spanish City in Whitley Bay a while back. I just recorded a summer-type backing track for it and banged that up as song number 4

https://soundcloud.com/thefuneralcrasher/summer-horrorday

The music was meant to slightly reflect my loathing of Bobby Goldsboro's god-awful Summer (the first time)

Great to see MjayP getting involved too  :)
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MjayP

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« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2018, 12:49:23 AM »
At this point I have NO inspiration left for lyrics. I write two lines and then that idea is exhausted.

I have some issues with lyrics. I tend to only ever write 1 verse. It’s more laziness than anything else. I guess the way I see it is. Get a verse and chorus sorted, and you’ve got yourself a song. Time to move on! I can never seem to work on one song longer than a couple days. I get bored too easily. Once I have a decent number of songs, I’ll record them professionally. That’ll be the time to tweak!

I wrote a (comically, I hope) bitter diatribe about the (in)famous Spanish City in Whitley Bay a while back. I just recorded a summer-type backing track for it and banged that up as song number 4.

This really works for me. Very unique. Your accent is great for spoken word. There was something very poetic about it. Liked the Summer Holiday outro too!  :D

pompeyjazz

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