The feed-back thread - still going strong into YEAR 11

[Vic Lewis VL]

Hello all, and welcome to Year 11 of the SSG. This thread does exactly what it says in the header - it's a place where you can voice any general comments about the assignments you may have. Too tough? Too easy? Too open? Too restricting? Let me know what you think as we're going along. Any ideas you may have for improving the forum - put 'em in here. What kind of assignments DO you prefer - stand-alone assignments, or multi-part assignments? Would you like a choice of two widely different subjects every week, or is the one topic enough?

All feedback gratefully received!

Oh - and if anyone's got any ideas for future assignments, well - there are bound to be times when I'm stuck for ideas. PM me, if you like - if your idea's used I'll make sure you get full credit for it! I do (I think!) have a pretty decent stockpile of ideas for the first couple of months or so, and hopefully I'll have more ideas before they run out - but it'd be nice to have a few ideas in reserve just in case!



Vic

[Nick]

To answer your question in week 1. No, I had no idea. Seven years? You have got to be kidding me.

[Vic Lewis VL]

To answer your question in week 1. No, I had no idea. Seven years? You have got to be kidding me.

Well the oldest surviving thread dates back to Nov 11th 2003, Year 2 Week 2 - although some "Guest" managed to borrow a time machine and post comments on the 1st of Jan 1970. I'm next in line for it - next week's lottery numbers, here I come!

So I deduce, Watson, that Year One, week one would be around early Nov 2002 - six years in real time. Hey, the baby's growing up, Nick - it'll be at University before you know it!



Vic

[BluezOldy]

... "Guest" managed to borrow a time machine and post comments on the 1st of Jan 1970...

If I remember correctly from my forum admin days: with phpBB all post dates are (or used to be) 1 Jan 1970 until the admin does his/her work in the setup area.

[Alan Green]

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of songs already which use these chords - a few more that spring to mind are Brown Eyed Girl, Unchained Melody (for the verses, anyway!), Paul Anka's "Diana," Neil Sedaka's "Oh Carol," Elton's Crocodile Rock, "His Latest Flame" by Elvis, etc etc etc.....

And lots of stuff by the Everly Brothers too, don't forget them

A

[leear]

I like WK1 assignment. I'm going to try and participate each week this year atleast once a month so I can learn more. However you mentioned all the greats, elvis, everly bros, beatles, etc.... This progress is also very modern I'm thinking Pearl Jam, Last Kiss same progression with a more modern feel and sound (more me really) I know last kiss was orginally done by..... (NAME PLEASE) i've heard the original just don't remember who performed it.

[Vic Lewis VL]

I know last kiss was orginally done by..... (NAME PLEASE) i've heard the original just don't remember who performed it.

Originally written by Wayne Cochran, who released it as a single with his band, The C C Riders, back in 1963. Didn't make any impact on the charts till a year later, when it was recorded by J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, becoming a huge hit in the USA. It was his/their only top 50 hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard charts....a follow-up single reached #85.

A similarly titled, though unrelated, song was David Cassidy's last UK top 40 hit back in 1985.

I got all that from Wikipedia - just typed in "Last Kiss."



Vic

[Alan Green]

To answer your question in week 1. No, I had no idea. Seven years? You have got to be kidding me.

Well the oldest surviving thread dates back to Nov 11th 2003, Year 2 Week 2 - although some "Guest" managed to borrow a time machine and post comments on the 1st of Jan 1970. I'm next in line for it - next week's lottery numbers, here I come!

So I deduce, Watson, that Year One, week one would be around early Nov 2002 - six years in real time. Hey, the baby's growing up, Nick - it'll be at University before you know it!



Vic

Year 1 Week 1's assignment was to write a song about the Wild West. Week 2 was to bring a fairy story up to date (several contributors turned Snow White into a heroin junkie, and my effort replaced the rats in the Pied Piper story with lawyers). In those days, there was only the Songwriters Club forum, and SSG shared office space for a few weeks. Nick had to create the SSG Forum because the regular songwriters were being squeezed out.

Ah, nostalgia. It ain't what it used to be.

[Chris C]

Great start.

Week 1 is not over yet, and there have been six entries already, which is a good turnout in itself. But the thing that's got me applauding is that EVERY SINGLE ONE has an MP3 or a video with it. That must be some kind of record.

After wading through pages of orphan words on the other songwriting forum, that rather lamely pretended to be lyrics, it's great to see everybody here thinking musically about their words. The biggest disappointment with my own first attempts with writing songs was how long I hid behind cranking out fairly ordinary words with only a vague idea of how they'd be matched to some music. But you can't get round the fact that 'No Music = No Song'.

If you can somehow manage to set assignments that encourage us all to be working on aspects of rhythm, tunes, structure, style etc as well as the words, I for one would be delighted, pleased, chuffed, stoked, thrilled... where's that thesaurus gone...

Cheers,

Chris

[Vic Lewis VL]

If you can somehow manage to set assignments that encourage us all to be working on aspects of rhythm, structure, style etc as well as the words, I for one would be delighted, pleased, chuffed, stoked, thrilled... where's that thesaurus gone...

That's roughly what I'm aiming for - I know the SSG was originally set up to PRACTISE writing, as Nick says in the FAQ:

The objectives are:

1. to bring songwriting to the front burner, once a week.
2. to learn to write creatively on demand.
3. to force yourself to think creatively in new ways.
4. to stretch your mind and writing beyond your comfort zone.
5. to exchange ideas, tips and encouragement with other writers.

The objectives are not:

1. to write commercial songs
2. to write polished songs

I agree 100% with the first set of objectives - and if that's as far as anyone gets, that's fine....but I can't help thinking that it's got to be worth going that extra distance and putting that extra little effort in so that the finished product for the week (or longer, if that's what it takes) is a SONG. These last six years, the SSG's concentrated mostly on lyrics - well, I don't want to lose that focus, but at the same time I would like to see people thinking musically as well - there's more to a song than lyrics, after all! There's - as Chris C says - melody, rhythm, style, structure, dynamics to work on as well. So I'll try and balance the assignments out so we're thinking lyrically and musically - both in the same week would be a big bonus!

Yes, I'm thrilled with the turn-out this week - and even more thrilled that not just one, but TWO people - KenRogers2 and Dylan Barrett - have managed to put out their first Mp3's! Another bonus was the wide musical spectrum covered - from 50's pop to humour to country to rock to folk! I don't expect for one moment that everyone will manage an mp3 every week, or that there'll be a flood of new writers every week - but this week's certainly gone better than I'd ever have thought in my wildest dreams.

Looking forward to week 2!



Vic

[Nick]

By all means. The last two are there because one shouldn't feel the need to produce polished work. If you have something you want to push further, then rock on.

[leear]

VIC may i make a suggestion. When you do the next weeks topic paste it first. Right now when you open Year 7 Week 2, you must scroll down past Week 1 to find Week 2 it's a bit confusing if you are opening it to be week 2 and you see week1. I'd make it where when it opens you are looking at the most recent topic and you must scroll down to find previous topics.

Make sense? Again just a suggestion.

[Nick]

d@mn it, I was doing week 1 again. Just kidding. That's a good suggestion

[Vic Lewis VL]

Thanks for that suggestion - it is what I actually meant to do, same as David did last year. Typed it in, previewed it, checked grammar etc - and never thought about putting week 2 at the top!

Reaches for edit button.......



Vic

[Nick]

Hi Vic,

I'd like to suggest one of two things, either post the new assignment in a unique post and in the year's lesson summary, or put instructions for people to click, "subscribe topic" so they are notified when the new topic is updated in the summary. I think the former is the better solution. People who aren't in the know about SSG will never see notificiation of the new topic in "view new posts". Even if there was a topic they'd like to write for, they'd never see it.