Composing songs - When Are You Going to be my girl

professor bob
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Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:01 pm

Hi folks,

I've been busy lately so I've not been active. Had a great holiday in a place I never thought I wanted to go - Mexico. I posted this tune but when I was checking today I found it not available any more so I am going to re-post it. People say writing a book is difficult but actually it is just having something to say. I think the same approach works in writing songs. I bought a book about composing songs, Writing wrongs in Writing songs by Danny Cope but after reading his book I sort of stopped. It is as if I was dazzled by technicalities, and it killed the creativeness. Almost the same thing happened as I began to learn from this website, I learned about mistakes I was making and it killed my desire to work on the guitar. Fortunately I have come to my senses and will forge ahead, trying to use proper fingering to form a G chord even though I do not know why it is that way.

This is a simple song, and I tried to jazz it up with some psychedelic touches for interest. In watching videos of others and of myself I am quite conscious of faults and I am a critical person. When I was working I had to look for things that were wrong, so I guess that fault finding goes a long way. I recently posted a version of Hotel California that has a mistake in it but I am not ready to redo that one yet even though I know it needs work. It sure is a long song.

Anyway here is the link for When are you going to be my girl. Thanks for all the replies and help and criticisms, I'll not waste them

Bob
PS. I did upload the link, I don't know what happened to it. All my videos are on You Tube, search for "old waterdown road", and then click the box for other videos.

Sorry for the inconvenience.[video][/video]


tovo
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Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:04 pm

Hi Bob,

Interesting post. "Dazzled by technicalities". That's a good term I think. We all make mistakes, and shooting for a "perfect" rendition of a song every time you play it I think is setting unrealistic goals. Sure we want it to be of a sufficiently good standard to make it worth showing to people, but rarely is anyone "perfect", whatever that is.

The G fingering is a good example I think. It's not so much "the right way" or "the wrong way" it's about what makes life easier. By fingering it Neil's suggested way, you free up that 1st finger to more quickly form barres. You get used to that fingering very quickly and it makes your playing smoother. Simple. If you want to finger it differently it's not so much wrong as your choice.

You said you recently posted a song that had "a mistake". Man, I've never posted a song with only 1 mistake. I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've never read from ANYONE on this site "hey that's crap because it has a mistake in it". I doubt I ever will.

Right, I'm not lecturing you, I read your post and had some thoughts to share with you that's all. Like your playing, it's not about "right" or "wrong" it's about various options.

OK, so to "When are you going to be my girl". I don't see a link? Keen to see your video but no link.


professor bob
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Joined: Fri May 07, 2010 7:56 am
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Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:06 am

Thanks Tovo,

I can always count on you


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