The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I was going to say what JimT said.
-bill

PS I am interested in the 1/2 song element, and am looking for other FAWMers for collab. PM me should you want to take care of that challenge nice and early...

j$ ... is that you that they mention on the FAWM help page (about the concept album)?

I'm also becoming quite inspired to do a concept album ... all I need is a concept.

Reïst wrote:j$ ... is that you that they mention on the FAWM help page (about the concept album)?

I'm also becoming quite inspired to do a concept album ... all I need is a concept.

*cough*Maki*cough* Though you couldn't use the origional song in the album, it could give a decent starting off point.

yeah, thats our j$ on the help page. i remember when he was doing that concept album, didn't you have a website explaining each song and with a picture of the sign it was based on j$? Thats not a bad idea.

FAWM certainly seems like a good opportunity to experiment with an albums worth of songs that are connected somehow.

Yup that's me in the spotlight; it was called 'Signs of Life' and the concept was I took fourteen pictures of signs that I passed on my journey to work and then wrote songs inspired by each of them. I ran a mini-site for a while, with each song having the picture, lyrics and any explanatory notes alongside. It came out pretty OK.

I am toying with the idea of doing another concept album, got a few ideas takin' shape. It all depends on the time I have to get it together before kick-off. It's easier just writing 14 songs (which I did the last two FAWMs)

j$

SO it looks like the goal here is merely "writing," the recording piece is minor. Do most folks do pretty fully realized demos? What is this like?

it really varies.
some people do lush productions.
some to person+instrument stuff.
one guy, larry jones, just posts lyrics. last year he had like 50 songs that were just lyrics.
some people just post titles (which is technically all you need to do to have a "song" count).
but, if you want comments, i would suggest posting a rough demo, which is what most people do.

The Weakest Suit wrote:it really varies.
some people do lush productions.
some to person+instrument stuff.
one guy, larry jones, just posts lyrics. last year he had like 50 songs that were just lyrics.
some people just post titles (which is technically all you need to do to have a "song" count).
but, if you want comments, i would suggest posting a rough demo, which is what most people do.

Thx. It's an interesting difference say between AAW in which you produce an album in a week, and FAWM, where you write an albums worth of material in a week.

Ross wrote:Thx. It's an interesting difference say between AAW in which you produce an album in a week, and FAWM, where you write an albums worth of material in a week.

A month, surely?

I would say based on three years' impression, the number of people just posting lyrics turns out quite low, over the month, in relation to the number of people posting songs.

Personally, I am really concerned due to work commitments that I might not get FAWM finished this time out, so I am considering doing an AAD of 14 1/2 songs at the beginning of the month, then spend the rest of the time re-arranging and re-recording any bits that I don't like ....

j$

j$ wrote:

Ross wrote:Thx. It's an interesting difference say between AAW in which you produce an album in a week, and FAWM, where you write an albums worth of material in a week.

A month, surely?

Right - a dumb typo.

I certainly would not be just posting lyrics, but it seems like 14.5 solo-acoustic renditions would fill the bill, without falling short of the task.

Ross wrote:I certainly would not be just posting lyrics, but it seems like 14.5 solo-acoustic renditions would fill the bill, without falling short of the task.

Do it (or not) according to what you want to do, and don't worry too much about someone else's arbitrary definition of how much you need to do to accomplish "the task."

Actually I was thinking of doing another all-instrumental album, but if all you need to do is post lyrics, well, I guess I win already! Go me!

This has been said elsewhere, but I believe that FAWM is looked at as a writing process more than a polished-up song challenge. If you can or do polish, great, but it's about the creating of it all. Other challenges, such as RPM, are maybe looked at more for the recording process, although not necessarily all spiffed up ones, and some people use it as the motivation to finally record what they've been writing for a year, or years, or whatever.

Good stuff, both, but it'd be nice if they were in different seasons from each other.

JimT said it right.
I'm going to try and do a first songfight, and a few AAD's; and then flesh the best songs out a bit. That's something I didn't do before.

FAWM is more traditional songwriters challenge. Many people never record demos, never mind produce their music. I'm leaning towards RPM as they seem to focus on the full production process as well...to produce an "album" of recorded music.

g4meboy wrote:

Reïst wrote:j$ ... is that you that they mention on the FAWM help page (about the concept album)?

I'm also becoming quite inspired to do a concept album ... all I need is a concept.

*cough*Maki*cough* Though you couldn't use the origional song in the album, it could give a decent starting off point.

i assume the Maki *cough* is in reference to me.
well, that week i had the idea to record a j-rock sounding song in japanese about the singer Maki from High and Mighty Color. i spent all week trying to program the perfect drums and i never actually got around to writing the song and finding a translation program for the lyrics. it was too ambitious for the time i had. so, i wrote the minute long thing that was submitted. it was a quiet number because my girlfriend was alseep in the next room. but i filed way the idea to write a song about Maki (since i like the title and the band HaMC so much) for when i had more time. well, i had more time in feb, when all i did was write and record. unfortunately, to make room on my recorder i had long since erased the drums i had programmed, so i had to go and do it again from scratch, and then actually write a song around it. then i had to translate it and create a melody for it. i worked on this song for most of the first two weeks of the month. i altered the title because it is nothing close to the idea i had for the songfight song and was finally able to properly write the song.

The Weakest Suit wrote:

g4meboy wrote:

Reïst wrote:j$ ... is that you that they mention on the FAWM help page (about the concept album)?

I'm also becoming quite inspired to do a concept album ... all I need is a concept.

*cough*Maki*cough* Though you couldn't use the origional song in the album, it could give a decent starting off point.

i assume the Maki *cough* is in reference to me.
well, that week i had the idea to record a j-rock sounding song in japanese about the singer Maki from High and Mighty Color. i spent all week trying to program the perfect drums and i never actually got around to writing the song and finding a translation program for the lyrics. it was too ambitious for the time i had. so, i wrote the minute long thing that was submitted. it was a quiet number because my girlfriend was alseep in the next room. but i filed way the idea to write a song about Maki (since i like the title and the band HaMC so much) for when i had more time. well, i had more time in feb, when all i did was write and record. unfortunately, to make room on my recorder i had long since erased the drums i had programmed, so i had to go and do it again from scratch, and then actually write a song around it. then i had to translate it and create a melody for it. i worked on this song for most of the first two weeks of the month. i altered the title because it is nothing close to the idea i had for the songfight song and was finally able to properly write the song.

... I assumed it was in reference to me.