I do know one thing, if I was either Neil or Matt, I'd be breathless. I know another, I am myself.
It was only a few years ago this female from Aussie land could barely look at a camera, much less play> and now, holy sh-- Batman!!
Busking TG Original Collaborations
Thanks everyone. I'm still blown away by the response here. I was working with two awesome musicians so I'm a lucky woman. Give them an opportunity to be even more creative and they shine even brighter if that's possible.
I'd recommend trying your hand at writing lyrics and an accompanying melody for an existing piece of music to anyone who's got any desire to write a song. Starting with an amazing guitar piece and putting words around that has GOT to be one of the easiest ways to go. The feeling is already largely established and so the trick is finding a story in the the musical marble that you can relate to which matches the feeling.
When I first listened to Mark's piece it really affected me emotionally, so I knew it was going to be a sad song. Well the minor sections, which are also my favourite, really makes that decision for you.
So what was my process? Well I had a day where I was required to sit and wait with no access to a guitar
, but I had my iPad and the track to Mark's video. So the first step was to listen to it a few times. Then I used the piano on my iPad (yep! I can carry a keyboard around with me 
) to toy around with some melody lines against the track. There are lots of notes in there that are quite prominent and I found myself singing many of them and basically following the basic direction that some of the picking was suggesting. After a short while I figured out the basic feeling of the lyrics and some phrasing. There are three different types of sections and I knew I wanted the structure of those to be fairly similar, so that made it easier too. Then it was an organic process of just writing lyrics that came to mind (on my iPad ) while I listened to the track over and over.
Once I had a couple of sections I started humming it, singing it in my head, while I was listening to the track. That sorted out where I needed to change the lyrics to fit the rhythm and/or the length of a phrase. That took a while and also showed me where I needed more lyrics (and where I had too many).
Then once I had the right amount of lyrics for each section, it was basically a process of singing it against the track properly and changing the bits that I wanted to improve til I had the lyrics I wanted. The lyrics from that first day are a fair bit different from the final. I also found that as I sang it more, the story I wanted to tell became clearer. That changed a bit too.
Well then I recorded it. I also recorded another track, just a really simple bass track. I actually wasn't that happy with the sound. My singing was rougher too. At that point I sent it to Nessa with a "Hey...I've been playing around with this ". I was really happy that she didn't say, 'OMG that's so lame'. Well in a sweet way of course. I think I did a little dance when she said she'd like to add some strings to it. Woo hoo! :woohoo: Thrilled!
Well the rest was mostly down to Nessa finding just the right string composition. Which made me all teary straight away.
I'm sure there are better and more efficient ways of doing it. But that's pretty how it went for me.
Yep...I changed the lyrics bit by bit too for a fair while. Fiddling... never quite happy with them...
Thanks everyone.
Shel
I'd recommend trying your hand at writing lyrics and an accompanying melody for an existing piece of music to anyone who's got any desire to write a song. Starting with an amazing guitar piece and putting words around that has GOT to be one of the easiest ways to go. The feeling is already largely established and so the trick is finding a story in the the musical marble that you can relate to which matches the feeling.
When I first listened to Mark's piece it really affected me emotionally, so I knew it was going to be a sad song. Well the minor sections, which are also my favourite, really makes that decision for you.
So what was my process? Well I had a day where I was required to sit and wait with no access to a guitar
, but I had my iPad and the track to Mark's video. So the first step was to listen to it a few times. Then I used the piano on my iPad (yep! I can carry a keyboard around with me ) to toy around with some melody lines against the track. There are lots of notes in there that are quite prominent and I found myself singing many of them and basically following the basic direction that some of the picking was suggesting. After a short while I figured out the basic feeling of the lyrics and some phrasing. There are three different types of sections and I knew I wanted the structure of those to be fairly similar, so that made it easier too. Then it was an organic process of just writing lyrics that came to mind (on my iPad ) while I listened to the track over and over. Once I had a couple of sections I started humming it, singing it in my head, while I was listening to the track. That sorted out where I needed to change the lyrics to fit the rhythm and/or the length of a phrase. That took a while and also showed me where I needed more lyrics (and where I had too many).
Then once I had the right amount of lyrics for each section, it was basically a process of singing it against the track properly and changing the bits that I wanted to improve til I had the lyrics I wanted. The lyrics from that first day are a fair bit different from the final. I also found that as I sang it more, the story I wanted to tell became clearer. That changed a bit too.
Well then I recorded it. I also recorded another track, just a really simple bass track. I actually wasn't that happy with the sound. My singing was rougher too. At that point I sent it to Nessa with a "Hey...I've been playing around with this ". I was really happy that she didn't say, 'OMG that's so lame'.
Well in a sweet way of course. I think I did a little dance when she said she'd like to add some strings to it. Woo hoo! :woohoo: Thrilled!Well the rest was mostly down to Nessa finding just the right string composition. Which made me all teary straight away.
I'm sure there are better and more efficient ways of doing it. But that's pretty how it went for me.
Yep...I changed the lyrics bit by bit too for a fair while. Fiddling... never quite happy with them...
Thanks everyone.
Shel
michelew wrote:
I was going to ask you about your video.You said when you did your Busking bass line video you did not know how to add a third frame to your videos.On this one you got 4 different parts on one video.How did you get it worked out?? Do you use windows movie maker live????You can PM me if you don't what to explain it here.Once again BRAVO!!!!I was just blown away by the whole thing.
Dancing caterpillars that live on my forehead :laugh: :laugh: That's a good one Sis.
Kev - eyebrows? I think you might be referring to the dancing caterpillars that live on my forehead. They have a mind of their own. I stopped trying to control them years ago. Sue laughs at my expressions whenever she sees them in my videos. They can be fairly intense and eyebrow/caterpillar heavy.
Thank you ...
Shel
I was going to ask you about your video.You said when you did your Busking bass line video you did not know how to add a third frame to your videos.On this one you got 4 different parts on one video.How did you get it worked out?? Do you use windows movie maker live????You can PM me if you don't what to explain it here.Once again BRAVO!!!!I was just blown away by the whole thing.
Michele,
I wanted to thank you for letting us all know how you came up with the lyrics to this song. I've got to say that it sounds even better two days later. I'm still amazed at what you and Ness did with this song. When I was playing around with these chords the first time around it was 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. Ususally just before we put the girls to bed for the night. Then I'd put the guitar away and head downstairs to watch some TV. Over the weekend I sat down and thankfully remembered the chords and started going up and down the fretboard to see what direction this thing took me. I liked the picking pattern and sounds it produced and then tried to walk the progression down from the G to the C. I liked the sound of the C at the 5th fret so much that I kept coming back to it. So I started another section where I walked it up from an A and finished at the same C. I thought it needed something else so after fooling around I came up with that minor pattern in G. That was a big left turn in the song for me but I thought it sounded pretty cool and really didn't want to get rid of it. From there I started thinking of this music as possibly a song and arranged it in that way. Intro, verse, chorus etc...... Well at least as close as I could to that format. Anyway long story short here is that I too liked that G minor pattern the best as well or at least I liked where it came into the song. What you did with that is (%#$@)@ fantasic. It"s what I would have wanted to do if I had your skill set in writing. You made it so haunting. Its great. From there I went into the A rising to C pattern again. Kind of bringing the song slowly back to a happier place after that minor section. Its amazing that you wrote the lyrics almost like you were reading my mind from an emotional standpoint. You brought the story up as well. Anyway I have to run but I really wanted to say thank you for what you did to this music. I am very proud of you for making this 10X more than it was when I left it.
MarkM
I wanted to thank you for letting us all know how you came up with the lyrics to this song. I've got to say that it sounds even better two days later. I'm still amazed at what you and Ness did with this song. When I was playing around with these chords the first time around it was 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. Ususally just before we put the girls to bed for the night. Then I'd put the guitar away and head downstairs to watch some TV. Over the weekend I sat down and thankfully remembered the chords and started going up and down the fretboard to see what direction this thing took me. I liked the picking pattern and sounds it produced and then tried to walk the progression down from the G to the C. I liked the sound of the C at the 5th fret so much that I kept coming back to it. So I started another section where I walked it up from an A and finished at the same C. I thought it needed something else so after fooling around I came up with that minor pattern in G. That was a big left turn in the song for me but I thought it sounded pretty cool and really didn't want to get rid of it. From there I started thinking of this music as possibly a song and arranged it in that way. Intro, verse, chorus etc...... Well at least as close as I could to that format. Anyway long story short here is that I too liked that G minor pattern the best as well or at least I liked where it came into the song. What you did with that is (%#$@)@ fantasic. It"s what I would have wanted to do if I had your skill set in writing. You made it so haunting. Its great. From there I went into the A rising to C pattern again. Kind of bringing the song slowly back to a happier place after that minor section. Its amazing that you wrote the lyrics almost like you were reading my mind from an emotional standpoint. You brought the story up as well. Anyway I have to run but I really wanted to say thank you for what you did to this music. I am very proud of you for making this 10X more than it was when I left it.
MarkM
Hi Mark, Shel and Ness, I've only just got round to watching and listening to this outstanding piece of music. I take my hat off to all three of you for a wonderful collaboration, well done. Its all been said and I doubt I can add anything more other than this has to be one of the most influential postings since TG began showing how far this site can take members.
PS 'Dancing Caterpillars that live on my forehead' sounds like a song title...
What a team... Well done!!
PS 'Dancing Caterpillars that live on my forehead' sounds like a song title...
What a team... Well done!!
-
thereshopeyet
- Posts: 130
- Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:19 pm
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Mark, Michelle and Vanessa :ohmy:
What a great song.
Well done to the three of you.
Thanks for sharing your efforts.
Very cool !
What a great song.
Well done to the three of you.
Thanks for sharing your efforts.
Very cool !
Well Chas that caterpillar certainly is dancing, but I don't think I'd want him on my forehead.
Song you say? Where are the words?
Guys - Thanks for the sweet words.
Mark - thanks for explaining your process that's really cool. Now anyone who wants to add to this thread has a guide for how to get started.
I'm also hoping we'll see some more TG collaborations on original songs. The community certainly has the talent to generate albums worth of material.
Shel
Song you say? Where are the words?
Guys - Thanks for the sweet words.
Mark - thanks for explaining your process that's really cool. Now anyone who wants to add to this thread has a guide for how to get started.
I'm also hoping we'll see some more TG collaborations on original songs. The community certainly has the talent to generate albums worth of material.
Shel
dekotaj wrote:
Actually, I prepared two different complete videos. The first one wasn't spaced very well. So once we had all of the videos and I knew how I wanted the final to look, I started the process from scratch. But the difference was definitely worth the time. Now that I've done it a couple of times, the process is not quite as arduous as it probably sounds.
Daryl came to my rescue with the IT know how.
I can't advise you on PC programs.
I hope that makes sense.
Shel
Kev - I currently use iMovie. It's a Mac program. You can only insert one window into a video. So to make this one I had to build it up step by step. I prepared the first video (which was the blue backdrop and Mark's video) I then saved that as a QuickTime file. Then I prepare the next stage which was to start a new movie, import the movie I'd just made and then insert a window into it. I repeated the process until I had all of the parts included. It's a nice trick for getting around the limitations of iMovie, but it takes time.I was going to ask you about your video.You said when you did your Busking bass line video you did not know how to add a third frame to your videos.On this one you got 4 different parts on one video.How did you get it worked out?? Do you use windows movie maker live????You can PM me if you don't what to explain it here.Once again BRAVO!!!!I was just blown away by the whole thing.
Actually, I prepared two different complete videos. The first one wasn't spaced very well. So once we had all of the videos and I knew how I wanted the final to look, I started the process from scratch. But the difference was definitely worth the time. Now that I've done it a couple of times, the process is not quite as arduous as it probably sounds.
Daryl came to my rescue with the IT know how.
I can't advise you on PC programs.
I hope that makes sense.
Shel