Busking an original song "There's a Fire in Los Gatos"

jimcjimc
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Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:39 pm

The story behind this song:

At my guitar lesson last week (after spending most of the time on the singing of Hobo's Lullaby), I made an off-handed comment that maybe I should only perform songs I've written, so I don't have to be concerned about the audience knowing the melody and whether I hit the correct pitch.

I guess the teacher saw this as a teachable moment and instructed: Play a D chord, hum a note in that chord, sing a lyric, and where should the song go next,, etc.....

Point being, I guess, that any song's melody must match the chords, be consistent, etc.

further back story: as I drove to the lesson, I could see smoke from a fire that had just started in the Santa Cruz mountains, and it seemed pretty close by as I got to the lesson.

The 1st words of the song were "There's a fire in Los Gatos."

Here is the song.

The latest news on the fire, by the way, is the fire is supposed to be contained by Saturday. And today police raided a marijuana grow near where the fire broke out.



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daryl
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Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:41 pm

I thought your song was fun. Your timing and singing were good. The only comment I'd make is that it seemed that you were strumming quite "hard" and that your fretting hand looked tense. I'm guessing your arm and hands were tired after the song. But keep up the good work - you are progressing quite nicely!


jayswett
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Wed Oct 05, 2016 8:21 pm

Love it. I admire all singer/songwriters. The only suggestion I would make is perhaps not cutting off the end so abruptly.


jimcjimc
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Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:45 pm

Daryl - Thanks for the comment! I did dozens of attempts at recording that over a couple of days. I kept forgetting lyrics or making some other mistake. So, I may have been strumming hard and tense due to usual "performance anxiety" of being recorded. Or, just how I always play. I will try to "lighten up" and hold the pick a little looser.

Jay - sorry about the abrupt ending. I was trying for something we do on some songs in my ukulele workshop - called a cowboy ending - abruptly stopping after beat 1 of the 4th measure. I may have stopped it short of that.


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auntlynnie
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Mon Oct 10, 2016 2:23 pm

Hi Jim,
I really enjoyed this. I love the sense of history within the song.
Keep 'em coming.
Lynn


dekotaj
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Sun Oct 16, 2016 9:42 am

Hey Jim, Thanks for sharing.
Keep up the good work.
Kev


jimcjimc
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Wed Oct 19, 2016 6:22 pm

Lynn, Glad you enjoyed the song and the history aspect. This week was the 27th anniversary of the loma prieta earthquake - certainly, the biggest I have ever felt. And this weekend, the fire area had some heavy rains and concerns of mudslides and erosion.

Kevin - Thanks also for watching and the comment!

I just re-watched the video two weeks later. I am happy with the lyrics and song overall - I even threw in an unusual word per Al Stewart's song writing discussion from the 1st IGC - geodesic, for the "pterodactyl" type word.

Not as happy with the singing and presentation - seems sort of low energy. barely opening my mouth. I need to figure out how to sing with a bit more feeling or animation.


TGNesh
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Thu Oct 20, 2016 11:41 am

Jim, I've been meaning to get to your post since day 1......but.... lots of things got in the way... :huh:

In any way, I think you did a great job here. I, like Lynn, also like the history of the song and how it came about.

I of course get the 'nerve wrecking camera'-thing, but I still think your song came out well. Like Kev' said, keep up the great work! I should take an example out of it and start writing myself....it's just not happening for me just yet. All in all, you sure are ahead of me on that one! ;)

Thanks Jim, and sorry for being so late! :S

Ness


michelew
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Thu Oct 20, 2016 9:23 pm

Hey Jim!

I also need to apologize for being late to the party. I Listened to your song a little while ago and then got pulled away to do something else and in my distraction never came back to comment.

It's good to see you back on the forum and showing us how you've risen to Neil's encouragement. It's great to see how you've used a current event like the fire to kick off your story weaving. It's a nice lead into the history of the place; nice approach.

And cameras and videoing sucks! Remember that you can make a video from images really easily in iMovie too. Then you just need to record the audio.

Thanks for sharing.

Shel


jayswett
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Sat Oct 22, 2016 5:02 pm

Geodesic. Yeah, I had to look that up.


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