Hi all. I am a professional engineer, amateur inventor, amateur guitarist and a huge music fan, listening to everything from medieval to modern, from Greensleeves to Goth. However, I am not a music writer as such. I have ideas for songs that I play around with but that’s as far as it goes. That is until now.

By a strange route, I have come up with a song that I really want to take further. The only thing I will say is that it is a Christmas song and I would like to attempt have it on YouTube/ available for download before next Christmas.

The song is pretty much complete and I am now considering the way forward. At the moment I am looking at either multitracking it myself (not my ideal route) or finding a band that would be interested in working with me. I know many have tried and failed, however, if you don't try you will never know. Any advice would be welcome

Hi Koolcat

Welcome to the forum. I hope you can find some collaborators on the forum here. I would say that in order to attract interest you will at least need a demo of your song for people to hear before taking things further.

Does the song really need a band, or would a talented producer be able to make it work (we have a few of those in these parts too)?

Tone

Hi Tone, thanks for the reply. To be honest, I don't really know what route to take as I am new to this. I think that because of the stories you hear about how hard it is to get music heard and taken on by the music industry, it puts you off a bit and people such as myself tend to think that the best way forward is to get a band to do a demo and then take it to the record companies/put it on the web etc. However, this is not a route I am totally comfortable with as myself and a local band would be unlikely to make the most of the idea, which is where a producer would help.

At the moment, I am learning to play the song so that I can get the idea accross to people. Once I am confident I have it nailed, I will then be happy to demo it. I still have a few issues with chord choices so there is likely to be a post from me on that subject shortly.

Hi Koolkat. Welcome to the forum.

I'm an engineer too, a mechanical one. What type of engineering do you do and what do you invent?

Have you written both the music and lyrics for your Christmas song? When it is finished, why don't you post it in the reviews section on here. You can then get feedback on the song itself including your chord choices. You can also ask about how to get it produced ready for Youtube.

Justin

Hi Justin, thanks for the reply. I’m an electrical engineer working on the Astute class Nuclear Subs up in Cumbria for my sins. I mentioned about my being a bit of an inventor. I have a simple website that explains what I do better than I can here. The site is down at the moment while I tidy it up a bit. I’ll post a link as soon as it is up and running again.

Bit of a strange tale to tell with the song.  Many years ago, I wrote a Christmas poem for a competition. However, I never did enter it and there it stayed, filed away under “seemed like a good idea at the time”. Some years later I dreamt I was on stage playing guitar and performing a song. There were no lyrics that I could remember but the melody was clear enough for me to write it down the next day. I played around with the idea for a while before it got filed in the same “good ideas” cabinet as the poem. There they both lay, in the dark and all but forgotten.

That brings us up to this Christmas. Someone at a party made a chance remark that there are no decent Christmas songs around any more. We just get normal X Factor type fare that could be released any time of the year and none of it is really festive. That night I had an epiphany (not my guitar) and actually got up during the night to look at the poem and the tune I had tucked away many years ago. They were a match made in heaven, which was actually quite freaky. Since then, I have been working on a song based around these ideas and have the melody and lyrics complete (I can't write music so it is all tabbed). However, I now need to refine things a bit but it is pretty much there. It is a bit of a rocker, perhaps a hint of a Status Quo influence but certainly not a Quo song.

I must admit that telling people I am writing a 70’s style Christmas song does make me cringe a bit. It almost seems naff. However, once I am confident it looks ok, I will post something on here for you all to have a look at.
Cheers.

Hi Koolkat

There's nothing wrong with a 70's style Christmas song. The songs that Slade and Wizard wrote must be paying for their pensions now. 

We had a Christmas song competition on here in December and we'll probably have another one this December. It was just for fun - no money was involved.
If you are interested, you can listen to the entries from this post:
http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/song-reviews/christmas-song-competition-polling-station

Justin

Justin.

As promised, my website can be found at www.koolkatz.biz. It's not a business site as suggested by the .biz. Anyway, hope you enjoy looking at my ideas.

Dave.