MAB Q&A

MAB,

I recall that song now.  Good one.

Hey RiDawn Raelette,  what are you doing up at this late hour???   I sure hope you aren't having trouble getting to sleep because of thinking about the Old Dog.

I'll admit I was thinking of you too Love.  I was up trying to find proof of my gym membership.  I know I have a receipt here somewhere.  
I swear that was just a few months ago I joined......... or was it a few years ago.

Anyway Love,  the Old Dog is going to work at achieving three push ups and at least two sit-ups before I meet you.  
Don't try and stop me Love, it's a guy thing.

OD

 

 

I think there were a few with the old kilt and sporran but many felt that the 'culture' part would backfire.

It's a funny one actually.  Scotland has a sense of being an independent country, and although we have our own parliament, we do not have all the important powers.  It seems to have been forgotten that before WWI, Scots, and even unionist Scots felt they were from a difefrent country and were in a partnership only.  Obviously fighting two wars together would erode that a little.

It has changed the political landscape of the UK though.  Those wanting Yes were more for social change for the better for all - and there is a big movement for that now.  What really disappointed me was the way the UK government used the BBC and other media to lie, scaremonger and produce totally biased reporting (some democracy!).  It's damaged the BBC in Scotland.  That, and the fact it seemed that having 92% of North Sea Oil was a problem because one day it would run out (even though we'd be the only country, small too, with oil in the Eurozone).  Crazy and poor political behaviour!

Anyway, enough on politics.   I will catch up and should start to add more too.

Thanks

Nod

LOL!  It is a difficult one.  In theory we are like a territory within the UK but most Scots are Scots first.

Basically 300 years ago, the English got fed up of the hairy Scots causing them hassle they decided to bribe the nobles and elite with land in England and gold to make the union of parliaments.  It took 3 attempts for them to try and sign the deal as the good folks of Edinburgh were prowling around trying to stop it happen.

The original idea was to get Home Rule or DevoMax for the devolved Scottish Parliament but the UK government wouldn't allow people to vote for that as at the time they were organising this referendum, the unionists were 70 - 30% to those wanting separation.  In the end, the leader of the campaign to keep the union admitted they wouldn't have won without scarmongering, which is hardly democratic!

But there has never been such an interest in politics and I think this will strengthen Scotland's position.

Cheers

Nod

LOL, OD!  I'm trying to find my gym membership receipt too!  I seriously had insomnia -- even took 1/2 a benadryl to no avail ....   I should not be posting threads at that ungodly hour as I totally missed a sentence or two regarding MAB's cougar song :O    Anyway, obviously have a few pages here to catch up on so better get to it!!

So what's the latest count for FB this year from SongRamp? 

 

 

OD, thanks for your input! Now I would like John Westwood or Eddie Minyard to chime in here if they would. We currently have our Open Mic, which is the same as it was n the old site. That is where members put songs they want "praise" on, NOT necessarily "feedback". At least not public fedback. That is a place you listen to the song and if you like it you rate it and leave a positive comment. If you don't like it you simply say/do nothing.

Now, there is also something here called a Private Room or Private Page. This is set up as an invite only page where members post stuff, including songs, to be shared with invited friends only. This would be similar to the peer-to-peer forum. I have set up one of those pages, but don't know exactly how to use it. I have posted one test song there, but only sent one invite out to The Kid. (Who is suddenly MIA. Hope everything is O.K. with him.) I THOUGHT the way the private room would work would be you post something, then "invite friends" to view it. I thought the Ramp system would then send some PM to the friends there was something new in the room for them to view. But it looks like you set up the room and friend invitation once. Then I guess you send friends a PM or post on a forum like this. SO OD and Kevin; I will add you two to the invitation list now. If you don't get a PM to go there by this afternoon, either PM me or post here. See, I have no idea how you are even supposed to find my private room, or how you view it. Any way, this Private Room would be where I would post "songs in work" that I might want suggestions on.

phil g.

Post a song there and let's find out if I can see it.

oops, I meant to add a song to my private room, but it ended up on the open mic page!!!  I'll have to investigate a bit more.

Kevin, part of my problem with this "Private Page" thingy, I have NO IDEA how someone is supposed to find it. I just went to your (Wall I think?) and I didn't see any links to your Private Room. There is a really good video on how to set one up, but nothing (I have found) that explains how friends are supposed to get to someone's Private Room.

phil g.

I have only  ,yesterday, set up a PLR for myself. I havent had time to delve into the mechanics of it tho.  My understanding is that  you invite folk to your  page. I assume that the invitation would stand and that  folk would  be able to drop in whenever.

I do not  know  if notifications can be sent  out automatically by Songramp . Ithink  not.

  There are Many many parameters that can be adjusted  yourself.

 

Again, my understanding is that  it is a Personal songramp within songramp  so as  the admin of your PLR  you should be able to adjust  settings.  I beleive there is a video link  provided by eddie  to  show  you how  to do ( some ) stuff.

Ill see if I can  spend some time on  PLR's  before I fly out to UK  on Saturday.... 

 

 

Looks like I might  be having an cowrite  afternoon in the  Paris studio  of a songwriting buddy while I am over there.

 

"sfunny. It has taken me  forever to get to second base over here in Australia  and  yet I have cowriters in USA UK and France .

 

J

Hey guys. I have invited Heather Morris Wheeler to come over and join us here. I met her here on the Open Mic, and on Face Book (I think?).. She has some pretty good songs on open mic and has a really good voice. I would encourage all of us to try and meet new folks through the open mic and invite them to join us here.

I have also invited her to come down to Frank Brown in Nov.

phil g.

Phil,

If it is the Heather Morris I know, she is already a member here. She is actually someone I have worked with a good bit. A great singer, but kind of dropped out of music a while back to go to a Carribean island to go to Vetenary School. I got a few songs from her over the past few weeks as she is trying to get back in and pick things up. I hope she does come over. If it is someone else they are always welcome too. But I'm pretty sure I know her.

MAB 

 

MAB, yes, it is the same Heather. She posts her songs on our open mic here all the time, but I haven't seen her here on our forum discussion. I think we could all benifit from her experience.

Again, I also would like to encourage all on the forum here to go listen to open mic songs and meet new people. Then, invite them over here. However, please remember, the open mic is not the place to post critique type feed back. If you like someones song, post what you liked and then give it a rating. We have a peer-to-peer forum for critiques, but no "private" place to put the songs-in-work. Eddie is working very hard on fixing the "Prvate Room" feature here on the Ramp where we can upload a "private" version of our songs for critique feedback. it will be very similar to the old SongRamp site.

phil g.

Ooops! I take some of that back. We USED TO HAVE a Peer-to-Peer forum. It has apparently been taken down? It looks like folks post in the Writers room. But, it looks like they are only posting lyrics and rough song ideas drafts. I guess as soon as we get the Private Room working that will be the place to get feedback on songs (with music).

"Cousin Nod,  good to hear back from you again also.  I hope Dad continues to improve and get better.  I don't know what you were up to with a visit to Hong Kong; but I would guess you have an invention you are trying to get to the public.  I hope it works out for you. Remember your cousin OD when you are flying around the world in a private jet.  We won't have to be great songwriters, we will just fly great writers to join us on your privately owned island.  We'll hire The  MAB to bring in a group of writers from Nashville and we'll all party and write songs for a few days.  The Old Dog is on it cousin,  I'm in contact with The MAB,  now go out there and sell your latest invention to make it all possible."

Hi Cousin OD. Great to hear from you. I was in Hong Kong to lecture 5 nights about innovation at one of the universities. Fantastic people. Hope they get what they want as it's sounding a bit dangerous over there at the moment.  I'd love to head over to see everyone (I know, if you know any universities that want someone to lecture about innovation, I'm happy to oblige!!! )

So I wasn't doing anything on new ideas that I'm involved in myself but there are a few things ticking over.  In a better place time-wise so that I can start to look at songwriting, etc.  And thanks for asking about my Dad.  He should be home from hospital next week.  He has real memory problems but is well looked after at home.

I'll be getting the guitar out this weekend to work on some things I'm way behind on.  So I'll be keeping an eye on here.

Cheers

Nod

 
 

   

 

 

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Why not?

Respect? If you want to tell them what you like, that's good. But if you want to tell someone what you think is wrong with the song, should it done in public or private? That is a public (forum, for lack of a better term) where most folks are trying to show off their songs; Not get criticism feed back. That's all. For you and me, it's a little different. I guess I don't mind, but I'm not sure about most folks who post there.

With all that said, unless a listener clicks on the open mic song title to see the comments, they won't see what anyone else has had to say. I usually, if I like the song, will click on the title so I can leave a "this is what I like" comment and give it a star rating. Even your songs, I try to leave only positive feedback. Because, I don't need, and I think you don't need, the whole songramp knowing what, if anything, I didn't like about the song.

phil g.

Phil,

I would love to have Heather over here also and have talked to her about it. But the reality is she has had bad luck in forums before. She is a very attractive girl and has had some "creep' factors before, and also gets a little shy about sharing things she has done. She came over a few years ago but dropped out. Just doesn't really like to be a part of conversations.

In almost every writer who particpates in things like this, they often get into controversy's people with egos or attitudes that just run them off. There are people who drive them crazy privately and they sometimes even have to change email addresses. Some people who do this can be really jerks. We have them over here from time to time but they don't stay on very long. They feel like they have to "challenge' people and come on saying and doing all kinds of weird things. They just make people angry and create bad feelings.There is no reasoning with them, so we try to discourage them. Most of the time it is going off on topics that don't relate to what we talk about here, which is why I have always tried to keep this focused on music or the family type relationships. When it veers into anger, bitterness, politics, or other subjects,it just gets nasty.

She has dealt with some of that before and I think just wants to post songs and stay away from any controversy. but I will send her a message and see if she will join us.

 

MAB 

 

 

I don't think "respect" is the right word here.  Look, I know MAB agress with you on this point, but I just don't.  Almost no one here are pros (except with a few notable exceptions) and telling some one that their song is great when it isn't is maybe a lack of helpful honesty.  On the other hand, I also don't have any issues with back patting.  Heck, at FAWM and 50/90 there is isn't a lot of constructive critism going on.   

Isn't the writer's room for feedback -- why not the "open mic"?

Kevin, I guess it's a personal thing. My mama and papa always told me, "Son, if you can't say anything nice to someone, don't say anything". And I totally agree you should not be patting folks on the back if there songs aren't any good. i just don't believe you should talk down someones song in public. Even if in your mind it is constructive criticism. Again, most folks who post over there think there songs are "finished" and ready for public display, and just aren't looking for suggestions on how to make them better. Maybe, "courtesy" then?

I guess the point I was trying to make was, go listen to the open mic songs, and if there is someone there you like, invite them to come over here and join in the conversatioin.

Nuff said on the subject?

phil g.

What am I agreeing/dissagreeing on? I think we are having several different discussions going on. 
On the subject of "feedback/critiques" I have always felt like the point of a place like this is to find three or four people whose opinion you trust, and contact them PRIVATELY when you want to get different feedback on. Putting things in the open forums, open mics, etc. are always going to result pretty much in back patting. That is just normal. If you want "deeper information" on it, I would contact the people you trust and know about.

I don't know if that means "respect" or what.I think that is earned. But I think all of this requires going 'deeper" to find out deeper information.

MAB 

 

Probably so, you make some good points.  However I will keep doing what I am doing -- and if you add any more of those drum beats I am going to keep complaining (ha, ha).

KevMo,

You have opened a can of worms about commenting on open mic songs.  It's been my experience almost "no-one" wants to hear a constructive comment that may make their song better (from a peer).   I have contacted writers about their songs in private and even then they don't really want to hear what I may have to say.  They always say "Thanks" and may sound appreciative for my taking the time; but most don't want to hear it (of course there may be one or two exceptions).

I guess what I have concluded is; what determines the term "Great" , referencing your comment about giving a 'pat on the back' and telling their song is great when it is not.  Well, maybe their song is great coming from them and their songwriting level.   So a beginner starting out may have a song that is not 'great' by industry standards; or our standards but it is a great song for them.

A beginner writer may post a song, that in most cases, will not be as good of a song as a mid-level writer (most of us), and a mid-level writer may post a song that is 'great' for our level but not near as good as a song written by a Pro writer.  

So a truly "Great" song by industry standards will either be written by a Pro writer, with a Pro writer, or by someone writing a particular song at the level of a Pro writer, even if they get lucky and write one great song.

Awe Man, you guys are making the Old Dog think too hard.  I need a beer.  

OD

 

MAB, the discussion is on wheather or not we should be leaving constructive criticism feedback on songs in the Open Mic, because it is a public forum. You and I agree that if we want feedback on our songs we should contact friends through PM's for that feedback. Unfortunately, right now, the only place to put your songs, on this site, is in the public Open Mic. So, I personally don't mind, and I don't think Kevin minds, if friends here listen to a song and leave constructive comments. I just personally would not listen to a "strangers" song and leave a, "this would make your song so much better", type comment on a public forum. I listen to a lot of songs there by folks I haven't met yet, so If I don't like it, I just don't say anything. If I do like it, I tell them what is good about the song and rate it with the sites star rating system. And then, some of them I will PM about our discussions here and invite them to join in.

phil g.

I do try and take where someone is "coming from" and adjust any comments accordingly.  Truthfully, it is one of the reasons I don't spend a lot of time listening/commenting to songs here.  I'd rather do it over at JPF.  Now the same thing goes on there -- everyone wants their song to be great and don't want to hear constructive criticisms (ha, ha) -- but constructive criticism is more accepted over there.  It is what the lyric/mp3 forums are all about.

Have a beer for me, I am taking the week off!

No Kevin!! Save your off time, (or is that time off?) for the Frank Brown in Nov!! LOL

What is JPF?

phil g.

MAB, about Heather. We'll just warn her about OD and assure her he is harmless. LOL!  Everyoone here is just so super nice I think she would really like the friendship. I've been PMing her about Frank Brown also. I think several of her songs would be well received there. Don't know if she'll come or not.

phil g.