🙂

Apropos of your round 3 song: http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/thursday-july-2-2009/

Only one performer can ‘win’. With (I believe, an opening count of) 39 performers or even (a final count of) 21, your chances of ‘winning’ or even being in the top five, are extremely limited, especially if you don’t already have a following.

(The scare quotes around the word ‘win’ are deliberate – as others have articulated before me, the nature of this ‘competition’ is such that applying the word ‘win’ to the person who gets the most votes is at least a touch laughable.)

So, votes shouldn’t – in my opinion, of course – be the reason that you do this. What should? The chance to make mistakes, and thereby learn and improve.

It costs nothing (well, time and effort, but no cash outlay unless I’m completely mistaken) to put your songs here and in return, you get free feedback! Free instruction from the School of Hard Knocks, which is the best (if most painful) teacher out there.

Did you learn something with each song? If so, then they were worth doing, even if you’d gotten zero votes.

Did you enjoy making each song? If so, then they were worth doing, even if you’d gotten zero votes.

I liked all of your songs, and I REALLY hope you’ll be back if there’s a MoSF #5 (and beyond). I also hope you get a website. 🙂

(I also hope that many others will be back: Edric, Ian & Melissa, Steve Chatterton, Crabbydad [from last MoSF], Jarrett Heather, just to name a few.)

As to whether or not you sound ‘Beatle-y’, I concur with others who’ve said you do. I think there’s something about the quality of your voice, or maybe a nuance of your accent, even if it’s from nowhere near Liverpool, that says “Beatles”, particularly to us North Americans who aren’t as attuned to the differences in regional accent. It’s something, I suspect, that you’re going to have to struggle with (in terms of the way people perceive your songs).

Best of luck against the master! (Could it be Molly????)

Oh, and happy 4th to everyone! Cheers!

I AM a professional musician. I have a very expensive degree that has been lying in my house, in a frame, gathering dust as I housewife around my unkempt home NOT doing anything and just generally lying fallow. So therefore – I’m NOT really a professional musician. It’s kind of like an Epimenides paradox, this paragraph.

What I expected out of songfu was something like Steve C’s five year plan. Something to get me off my duff, making deadlines. Something that if (heaven forbid!) I got bad reviews or no votes; I’d get over it and keep struggling along. Because bad things happen to us all, when we are professionals. Professionals don’t make money sometimes. Professionals just work. We get up in the morning, we flip on the equipment in our recording rooms (ending lastly with our studio monitors as I almost tragically learned), and then we work. It’s a learning process. I have professionals that are more professional than me helping me now. Many/most have more impressive resumes than me. They’re also still learning. Someone will always have a cooler resume than you. And there will always be someone with a littler resume waiting to take the next award.

There’s room for all of us. I don’t really like contests. I like what Darrell said originally; when he said in his bio why he did this. To give payback for the amount of free music he recieved. I feel justified and happy – I’ve earned the right to have ‘Football is Good’ (which I thought was precious and hilarious, and reminded me of when I went to watch the cricket with my husband’s family in Australia – even though footbal isn’t cricket – although football is good). I get to keep it in my iTunes because he gets to keep my goofy-assed songs about gerbils and ancient royalty and magic rocks. Maybe next time I will learn to master better for him, others like him, and everyone else who has trouble hearing my singing because I have not yet learned the recording skills necessary to be heard even if my singing is very soulful.

I certainly had something nice to say about most everyone. I know I voted for Darrell – and I don’t say that lightly, since I am not one to “vote and tell.” But I feel that he might need the reassurance. I know I was thankful for the reassurance I got, in agreement with many of the criticisms, and amused by the rest of them.

I will hold my breath and kick if:

People quit the contest for silly reasons
Godz Poodlz break up
Legs don’t give it another go, at least someday
I don’t get my durned reviews done.

And on that note, I suppose I have a 4-5 day 4th of July plan for that. But don’t hold me to it! 🙂

When I think of Har Mar Superstar I think of a smart, nerdy, white guy, single-handedly writing and recording immaculately produced songs in an eclectic variety of genres. I think of a guy who has not only taken on a stage name, but also a comic persona in order to promote music that swims upstream just outside of the mainstream. If those similarities to your music don’t make sense or if that comparison makes you think that you’ve completely failed, I’m sorry. I intended the comparison as a compliment.

If you were to describe the “Lex Vader Sound,” how would you do it? Who would you compare yourself to? And just out of curiosity, how would you categorize the Muzik of Godz Poodlz?

Darrell, your maths are confusing. I’m not sure where you got 11 out of 12 people not liking your songs. You were in the middle of the votes with both of your original songs. That means with, what, 0 fans (?), you were still able to beat out half the competitors. You make it sound like you were in the bottom two. You don’t need to quit music. You just need to get heard. And this is one way of doing that. Plus, let’s face it, without Hank or Molly or Paul & Storm or JoCo or Gene Simmons, not a lot of new listeners dropped by for this edition. I only got so many YouTube views on my shadow entries last time because I made the videos replies to Hank and Molly’s videos. And it took a while.

Russ, your comparison baffles the hell out of me. Har Mar does hip hop. I know you’re a little odd, but you’re comparing apples to marshmallow stars here. If I actually sound like a fat naked white guy doing hip hop when I put out a power pop song, I have completely failed in my musical intentions. And if so, I’m going to go eat stale peeps and see what happens.

SEACREST OUT!

This is what I meant when I wrote, “The numbers will always be skewed by the people who vote for just one song.” No one should take the voting as indicative of which songs are objectively “better” or “worse” than any others. Like I’ve written before, even if “most of the judges award the Red Velvet” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZg_f65yI0 or http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Peoples-Favorite-Thing/dp/B000TE2IL6 ), there’s still plenty of room in this competition for your Rice Krispie Treats — and we’d miss you if you were gone…

🙂

Edric

I think your tunes are good and have earned my vote at least a couple of times.

All I gotta say is keep working it – if not here than somewhere else. The secret to every overnight success is 5-10 years of hard work, or one year if you’re insanely dedicated like JoCo.

I have no idea how long you’ve really been working it, though. For me, I’ve been writing songs for about 25 years now, but I’ve only really been “working it” since April when I got my studio all ironed out & reworked my site & started recording again. And I only consider this a start. I’m not even going to turn on the juice until September, and even then it’s going to take a couple of years.

Draw up a reasonable 5-yr-plan for yourself that involves time for writing, recording & networking. Check out mine on my site for an example: http://www.stevechatterton.com/20090624-the-dreaded-five-year-plan.html

Also, do the math. Add up all the voters as well as all the votes that every person gets. I did this once when I felt down like you and I figured that every voter voted for an average of 1.25 songs, which means that the vast majority of voters are only ever hearing one song (if that).

You’re not losing 11 out of every 12. I’m no mathematician, but there’s only a slim minority listening to all the tunes & voting for 5 tunes, and you’re getting a lot of them. And they’re the real music lovers anyway.

That’s your niche. Concentrate on nurturing that.

‘Nuff said. I really like your stuff & want to hear more.

Btw, that John Cleese thing has been dogging me for years (since high school), but you’re the first to bring it to the internet.

If MoSF is really damaging your confidence or worse, the enjoyment you get out of music than I can understand that you might want to quit (I for one would like to see you stay in), but please for the love of Aisha don’t let it stop you writing and recording songs.

@Berg: I assume Ken is working on wrangling a master. I know that the original choice from a few days ago is (apparently) a friend/colleague of Neil Innes so I’d bet you guys have your work cut out for you. 😀 Best of luck, by the way. Unless my counting mechanism is broken looks like you’re the Challengers.

First of all — I really enjoy this whole “Song Fu” thing. I definitely plan on being back for MoSF#5. I love the creative challenge; I love the sense of community; I love the feedback. The votes don’t matter much to me — the experience does.

That said — I have some fears and some complaints. I think it’s time to give them voice.

One — Ken? Really? There’s no voting engine out there that can handle what we’re trying to do here? The voting has been pissing people off since the outset, and it’s still not good. I know you said in one of the Q&As that you’ve gone through three different iterations. But come on! I’m starting to get the palpable sense that it’s turning people away in droves — in a way that I haven’t felt before.

I truly believe that, if you were to go back and count — during this past round, the voting was out of commission more often than it was up and running. Not cool. I do believe that it’s still _fair_ — in that no one is more unduly advantaged or disadvantaged than anyone else. But I have baker’s dozens of people (like Felicia — they come in thirteens) who have shared with me their frustrations of not being able to vote. (And these are conscientious people who want to cast _five_ votes — not just one for me!)

In Round 1, we had the whole voting scandal with votes being rescinded and I.P. addresses questioned. I believe that that abuse was made possible by the quest to solve the opposite problem of one person’s vote wiping out the possibility of a host of other people on the same network from being able to cast their own votes. But, like I said — really? We can’t get the voting ironed out?

Two — Darrell? (And others who are thinking along similar lines?) Please don’t drop out of MoSF just because of a poor showing in the “voting.” If you’re proud of your entries, please keep sharing your music and your creativity. Do not consider what is, in fact, a _traffic_ contest (filtered through a horribly ineffective voting engine) to be any kind of “documented evidence” about the quality of your songs. The two have basically nothing to do with each other. The voting is primarily a measure of a competitor’s ability to bring in traffic. The numbers will always be skewed by the people who vote for just one song. Blessings upon those people who take the time to cast five informed votes — but they’re never going to be able to turn the overall voting picture into a true representation of relative merit or true reflection of how much the songs were enjoyed in relation to each other.

As such, I can completely understand how this competition can serve as a “giant confidence knocker.” It takes thick skin to survive it. Just the act of _submitting_ a song to something like this takes a strong soul and a leap of faith. As I’ve written before, it is a “heart-in-the-throat” moment when you click the “Send” button and launch your very personal creation out into the ether — to be judged, to be critiqued, to possibly be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or even roundly panned. And it’s not like we’re professional musicians — doing this for money with buffers like agents and managers and publicists, and with special equipment and resources and mixing boards and editors… We’re students. We’re white-collar/blue-collar workers. We’re wannabe rockstars. (Or wannabe garage-banders.) We’re making music with whatever we have at our disposal. A lot of us are on the steep part of the learning curve. But we’re learning. And we’re doing it while we gamely attempt to rising to an artificial challenge imposed on us by someone _else_ — struggling to find and bring our own style, our own voice, our own sensibility to each successive task.

It’s not easy. It takes courage in inner strength and no small amount of intestinal fortitude to continue in Song Fu. But the greatest joy (for me!) is in sharing what I’ve done, and in listening to what others have done. The great variety and diversity that springs from the same common starting point but branches out in so many unique directions. To lose people to a cockamamie voting engine is tragic, and erodes the strength of our Fu.

Three — I’ve noticed a small decline in the sense of community on the comment boards (here, and in other forums as well). It used to feel very friendly and collegial. People would share praise and constructive feedback — people would learn and grow and ask for suggestions. Then, in MoSF#4, we first had the voting scandal. And people started pointing fingers and calling names. And then, after people took the time to patiently try to clarify the situation, other people _kept_ pointing fingers and calling names — obviously too wrapped up in taking offense to actually _read_ and _consider_ and _think_. (VERY discouraging and disheartening!) Then we had the political wars, which got a bit out of hand. We also had a noticeable decrease in traffic — which I think was probably equal parts frustration about the voting and the loss of a large number of competitors between Rounds 1 and 2.

I hope that when MoSF#5 begins, we can get back some of what we’ve lost. I hope we can retain a lot of the challengers we already have, and that we can add in new, fresh faces. I hope QSE can stumble across some new voting code that will remove one big frustration from the overall equation. I hope that people will be able to appreciate that a “competition” of this format will _NEVER_ be a referendum on _talent_ — and that people who want feedback on the quality of their songs will always remember that validation, suggestions and feedback _are_ to be found here, but they’ll be found within the _comments_, not in the voting results.

Personally, I’m having a great deal of fun with Song Fu, and I’m proud of the songs I’ve written. It is admittedly a tough pill to swallow that I’ll likely never be in the final round against a Master, no matter how good the songs are that I submit. But I do get to write and share three songs before being voted off the island, and that’s great. I get to rise to interesting, creative challenges every couple of weeks, and present them to a wider audience. And I get to interact with people like Joe and Russ and Mike and Jarrett and Jutze and Bram and Caleb and Hazen and Travis through this experience — (I vote for Joe!) — as well as people like JoAnn and Borba and Matthew, and even riddle! Next to that, the voting is interesting, but relatively unimportant…

All the best! Long live Song Fu!

🙂

Edric

(Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!)

This competition has served as one giant confidence knocker, and sort of made me not really want to carry on doing songs. If my best can leave eleven out of twelve people cold, considering everything, it’s maybe time for me to stop trying to be a songwriter. I shudder to think how badly I’d have done if people could only choose one song.

Edric Haleen, a great idea for a ONE minute song! This seems as obvious as a ticking time bomb, but I hadn’t thought of it, and nobody else did either. That’s when cleverness is at it’s best, when it seems obvious in hindsight. I like how all your songs are distinctly different from each other, but are also all so distinctly YOU. You have a unique vision and style. I envy that.

Godz Poodlz, this is my favorite of our songs. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times. It’s not perfect, but Rod’s ideas of having a rhythm track of a ticking clock, a heartbeat and the drone of an alarm are so simple and very effective.

Steve Chatterton, the video for this is better than the song. The joke is very similar to the one at the beginning of Coulton’s “Big Dick Farts the Polka,” from MOSF#2. This is pleasant and moderately funny. But I didn’t have the emotional connection with this like I did with “The Only Way I Know” (one of my absolute favorites from MOSF#4).

Jutze Schult, without you telling me this had some connection to Dawson’s Creek, I never would have guessed. You have a great pop sensibility and I find your vocals and accent engaging and endearing. But the words came so fast, I had trouble following the thread of the lyric. The idea of a song about a dream that ends abruptly with an alarm is clever for a song with a definite time limit.

Jalapeno Habaneros, this is my favorite tune that I’ve heard of yours. I could understand the vocals without reading the lyrics sheet. It seemed like you put some effort into getting a better sound this time. I liked the Song Fu (inside joke) of missing Molly and Mike. There was genuine emotion in the song. And the sound effect at the end gave me a grin.

The Scribbles, I could hear a lot of development in the arrangement of this song. A strange song, but with honest emotional tones. Those are cool. This is also my favorite Scribbles Song Fu song. This is as good as “Robots.” This is one of the few ONE minute songs that I think would sound really good in an extended re-mix. For one, I want more Yeti vocal solo. Another verse might be nice. I’ve heard rumors of a possible Scribbles Yeti musical concept album! I’m all for it! I VOTED for this one.

Gorbzilla, “Minuteman” is like reverse of the classic “60 Minute Man.” The last line doesn’t quite scan right and so you stumble on it.

Darrell Macclaine, this is truly lovely. I like how you chose to slow down things down instead of speed them up for a challenge with a short time limit. I’d like to hear this song in a medley with “Golden Slumbers.” Maybe it’s because I want to hear MORE of this song, have it move to a chorus or separate instrumental part before coming back to this. Anyway, very pretty song. It got my vote.

Berg and Jerry, “Inside Jokes” is funny. But I can’t imagine that the song will have legs beyond this round of Song Fu. This seemed like it was knocked off pretty quickly. I’m very flattered that the Poodlz got a mention.

Denise Hudson, some interesting lyrics mixing images. From the lyric I had assumed that Queen Christina had died violently, like Anne Boleyn. Some of the lyrics are muddled. This is partly due to the recording and to the fact that they don’t quite fit, flow and scan. I like the harpsichord and really appreciate how varied all three of your songs are. This one just didn’t click as much for me as “Leave the Stone Alone” or “Anna’s Gerbil.”

Lex Vader, your sound (especially with this song) reminds me of Har Mar Superstar. Funky Pop. “Keen Dreams” reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes and his daydreams of Spaceman Spiff. I was surprised to learn that there is a whole series of Commander Keen games and that “Keen Dreams” is one of them. Clever song. The music fits the happy fun images really well. Well done.

Caleb Hines, “A Standard Song,” is entirely pleasant. It bounces along. I thought the lisp was a happy character voice. It works. It fits the loopy tone of the song perfectly. Just enough to give a light, silly tone to the song but not too much to be mocking. It makes sense that you didn’t overdo it, because it’s not an affectation.

Richard Clayton Spring, “Warp Speed” is a trippy Space Opera fantasy. I like the strange Jonathan Richman meets the Violent Femmes quality of your songs. You are unlucky that “Keen Dreams” is in the same round, because it has a similar theme and Lex Vader built a stronger spaceship.

Sara Parsons, the non sequitur of the Manatee looking like your 8th grade gym teacher is very funny. It’s interesting how certain themes are popular from round to round. This round it was dreams and Meta-songs about the songs. This song pairs up against another dream song, “Joey Dumps Pacey” by Jutze. I felt more emotionally connected to the lyrics and story of this song. But I like Jutze’s production and catchy punch. If I could, I would blend your two dreams together. Maybe the two of you could virtually collaborate sometime in a “His Name is Legs” kind of way. Ah, I’m just dreamin’ now. But like Blondie says, “Dreamin’ is free.”

Ian and Mellisa, “Quickie.” This song struck the deepest emotional chord with me. The line, “I know that you’d rather have fallen first. But you can remember it in reverse.” That’s such a clever turn of phrase, almost like a magic trick. Seriously, you’ve packed a lot of punch into just one minute. I’d like to hear more instruments, a fuller sound, even if it’s just an egg shaker and a tambourine. Also, the harmony vocals are lovely, but too much the same all the way through. You might want to have just a solo voice on the verse and the harmony on the chorus. Or shift the harmony farther away from the melody line in the verse or chorus. Or have three part harmony on the chorus, just something to mix up the sound and make a bigger structural shift from verse to chorus. And there’s a sameness to the harmonies, always tracking about a third away through the whole song. But this was still one of my favorites this round. Lyrically masterful. And it got my vote. Any chance of an animated version of this song too?

The Perfect Place, “wtfpeople20.” Three distinct stories and two choruses in just a minute! Very funny and it didn’t seem all that rushed. The T-Pain verse is still my favorite here. Put some Auto Tuner on the first part of that, drive the joke home. In my head I hear a snare with brushes and a triangle sounding just after the words, “The End.” ding.

His Name is Legs, “Swan Song.” Again it’s an inside joke, but one that I truly appreciate. Especially the line, “Not a snowballs chance in hell of moving on.” For the record. You’ve made an impression. I hope you shadow the Final Round. And if this is the last we hear of “His Name is Legs,” you will be missed. I’ve tried to become MySpace iPals with you, but I keep failing the “Guess their last name or e-mail” quiz!

Caleb Lee, “Don’t Sing Along.” This melodic confection was the Meta-song (the song about the song) that I liked the most. I liked that the catchy melody made it almost impossible to NOT sing along. And after being initially annoyed with the one unintelligible verse, decided that was a sarcastic way to ensure that nobody COULD sing along with the song! This one got my vote.

Austin and the Pudaks, “Typo in the Lyric Sheet.” Too bad the F-bomb will keep this away from my kids and off my iPod. The guitar part reminded me of “Murder Mystery” by the Velvet Underground. Lyrically, I was reminded of “Heaven,” by Talking Heads, for obvious reasons. I really enjoyed this. I think you could pop an ocarina or hammer dulcimer solo in there and expand this out to 2:15 with another verse and/or even a bridge section. Seriously, I don’t exactly know how you should fill out the sound. I just close my ears and try to “hear” what is missing. Sometimes strange sounds like sweet potato or church basement piano come to mind.

Derek Thompson, “Fu in the Key of C.” This is annoying until you get to the part where you bring it down real slow and end real soft. That’s funny in an Adam Sandler kind of way. But I think just a tiny bit more spit and polish, just a little more effort in making the words flow or the “La,la,la” part melodic and you could have had a much funnier and catchier song. This was also a theme, the Meta-Song theme, “Gonna write a song about this song and the Contest,” that was explored several times this round.

Travis Norris, “Finite.” The lyric is obscure. I think it has to do with depression and trying to make yourself a better you by chemical means, in the first verse with alcohol and in the second with Lexapro. For what it’s worth, this was my favorite song from you so far in MOSF#4. This was just a very near miss from getting my vote. Too many good songs this round. Maybe happier, lighter subject matter would have steered me toward a vote. I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to change this song except see it longer, explored and developed more. I liked the instrumentation and whatever weaknesses there are in your voice actually work well in the context of this song.

None of the songs got the number of votes that they deserved. We can all be content in the knowledge that the number of votes we have only reflects a small percentage of the people who actually liked our songs and didn’t have enough votes to vote for every song they liked or weren’t able to vote because the system was locked up.

@Scribbles: Word of mouth is truly a force to be reckoned with when the mouth is talking to impressionable teenagers. Well done!

@Berg: I thought he specifically said that you -don’t- lack talent? Easy reading mistake to make though. Dumb comment threads…