Voting For Composition Challenge 38

stratman3142 · September 2023

This is the combined Voting and Discussion thread.

Please use this thread to cast your votes for your favourite entries to Fretboard Composition Challenge

REMINDER OF THE THEME/GUIDELINES

In an attempt to encourage more entries, there was no theme for this one - so it was freestyle

Although, entrants were free to create their own theme.

Picture: In addition to the music, there was a task to create a picture that relates to the selected theme or song title. This wasn't mandatory.

VOTING AND DATES

Voting System - voters can pick their favourite entries.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

The entry with the most points wins.

Simply post in this thread your top three choices for winner in order, 1st choice first etc etc.

(Note for Entrants of the competition: Self Voting is not allowed)

Voting ends midnight 30th September 2023, and the results will be announced shortly after.

No prizes, it's just for fun.

THE ENTRIES

Below is a playlist containing the entries:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/composition-challenge-38?si=d70ffd96482643e68bfbda8a7beebccb&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

dindude · September 2023

I’ll start:

5 points - Are You Ok Inside - @TheColourbox.
getting nice laid-back John Mayer vibes and like the Piano motif, and the chorus is strangely ear-wormy.

3 points - Gloves On - @Stratman3142
Nice playing and tone one this one.

1 point - I Will See You - @TheColourbox. Another cool tune, this time giving me more Cat Stevens vibes.

thecolourbox · September 2023

Thank you Dindude for the very kind comments about my two. I'm not overly familiar with john Mayer's stuff to be honest other than the well known ones, but Cat Stevens I do really like so I'll take those two nicely, thank you.

I already did a little bit in the original thread, but I like to share some "liner notes" on these as hopefully they'll be at least marginally interesting and kind of explains the headspace they sit in I suppose.

Both songs from my "Introversion" project where I write songs about being miserable in general, usually they only make it to badly hand written scores or phone voice note demos because if I shared them with friends and family I'd just get interrogated about the lyrics and have to pretend they were about somebody else.

Are you OK inside?
Tried to write a piano based song, I guess I had kind of Kate Bush sort of thing in mind, so some sudden change to more free time and jazzy chords as a bit of contrast, and plenty of space. Originally both verses were sang over the piano riff but thought to give it some breathing room I'd pause a bit between the first lines of the first verse stanzas.
I've did a thread about how annoying it is that I can get nice bass sounds through my interface but it doesn't carry through to earphones elsewhere, so I will redo it at some point to sound better underneath the high piano and voice. I also want to pan the chorus vocals different than the verses.
The rimshot "metronome" thing was supposed to sound a bit like a ticking clock or bomb, like time is running out.
"Are you ok inside?" is what my boss at my last job said to me while I was on a Teams call amidst a full on nervous breakdown due to that job. She said Are you ok Matt? And I said yes fine thanks just a bit of hay fever, to which she replied "No, I mean...Are you ok...inside?" as my breakdown was fairly obvious to anybody that spoke to me. I added "like me" because I find that when anybody asks that kind of thing, it feels like they've only noticed because I'm not like them. Lyrics to first verse are pretty much what I was feeling or experiencing at the time (I worked as a property management surveyor), second verse was just about swimming in the sea and not intending to ever get out.
Plagiarism check (there's always something borrowed in my songs haha). The slow down bit, the tune is pretty influenced by the chorus to Kate Bush's Woman's Work, I know you have a little life in you yet etc. Quite pleased with the chord sequence for that bit though, The rest of the song is in A, that bit goes (loosely, with some suspensions in there) G#dim - F#maj7 x3 then Bm7 - Gmaj7 - C9 - G#7 - E.
Main chords are based around major and minor 7th chords on a pattern - down a third, up a 2nd, down a third, up a second. I like to think of it as two steps back, one step forward.
Recorded and arranged in Cubase, Piano is my Yamaha MX49, vocals through (I think) a TC Helicon MP75 mic. CLA plugins on vocals and master.
It's very quiet isn't it, sorry.

I Will See You
Wrote the chorus first when trying to learn some Cornell style acoustic songs, so lots of flattened thirds and trying to scratch my voice a bit. Then verses got added later and realised it sounded a bit more like a folky Laura Marling thing so went with it and did my own backing vocals to fill out the space a bit as the guitar sounds a bit sparse by itself. LOTS OF REVERBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.
Obviously it's about Covid lockdowns, sorry about that. It's one of only a couple of these songs that were actually a fairly hopeful lyric though, which is unusual.
There's something "interesting" about the guitar playing in this one, I won't say what until the end to see if anybody works it out, feel free to guess. How exciting for you.
Plagiarism check. The end of the climbing tune in the pre-chorus (with nowhere to go) is from Jeff Buckley's Forget Her, second verse. There's always something.
I was going to play in some string quartet parts mostly on the chorus but when I did the humming for the intro and verse, adding the MASSIVE reverb seemed to fill it all out nicely so I sang the parts that would have been strings instead.
Initially just had the chorus, then after a while the verses came. I spent AGES trying to force in a middle 8 or contrasting end section but couldn't get it to work, only to find now it's recorded that it's fine without it as just a short memo of loneliness but hoping for normality again at some point.
Recorded and arranged in Cubase, Guitar recording method is a secret, vocals through (I think) a TC Helicon MP75 mic. CLA plugins on vocals and master, and an Abbey Road tape machine style plug in on the master I think. The reverb was the built in Cubase plug in

thecolourbox · September 2023

After some deliberation (it feels really mean having to pick between only two songs!) I think I've decided my points. As I obviously can't (and don't want to) vote for myself, at least nobody gets the lowly 1 point option.

3 points - @stratman3142 Gloves On. I enjoyed this, really feels lively and full of movement. Also that's a really nice tasty solo tone. You have some excellent unexpected note choices as you go further through which adds a nice bit of variation and an element of surprise/unpredictability. I enjoyed the slight breakdown bit around 1:57, gave a nice pause before the final section. Great stuff - I would find it really hard to do only instrumental and keep it interesting, so when I hear them in this section it kind of puts me off trying even more as I know they wouldn't be as good as the ones here.

5 points - @Dindude Get Gone. Enjoyed the groove of this one and the vocoder action. Gives me a similar vibe to a Jack White song called Get in the Mind Shaft, after the intro. But it's obviously very much its own thing. Nice rhymes on the words as well. Just has a nice feel to it of moving through things without really going out of the same room, if that makes sense. Nice work

dindude · September 2023

Cheers thecolourbox

Yeah the track isn’t harmonically, melodically, or lyrically complex for sure! I tried to push my production efforts for this one to keep the interest and ended up with 37 tracks to balance!

The “vocal” is a text to speech converter pitched and mangled to within an inch of its life!

thecolourbox · September 2023

37 tracks!! Jesus, I think I'd lose my mind dealing with that much, I tend to aim for a maximum of 8 with a buffer of another 4 if I'm doubling up some things for panning etc etc.

I sometimes watch the Jacob Collier Logic Session videos on YouTube and my brain dies a little inside when he's using like 500+ tracks at times, just insane.

stratman3142 · September 2023

@thecolourbox ; has the (unfair) advantage of a great voice that I really like. It's vaguely reminiscent of Al Stewart to me, but with your own distinctive sound.

5 points : Are You OK Inside : @thecolourbox ;; : I loved this one (and so did my wife). Really good voice and lovely layered vocals. Sparse, melancholy and atmospheric, with a hint of jazz.

3 points : I Will See You : @thecolourbox ;; : Another good tune and vocals. You should make an album. I'd buy it.

1 points : @dindude ;; : Great sounds and a clear mix. Catchy. Good use of space and dynamics. Catchy. I really liked it. It would have been higher, but how do we compete with 'that voice'?

thecolourbox · September 2023

Thank you Stratman, that is really too kind though - my voice is very limited really but I know what it can or can't do, and I kind of know roughly how to "treat" it once recorded now to get the most out of it, if that makes sense. I'm sure proper recordists or producerists would recoil at my methods (and final results) but as I don't possess their skill or experience, it has to do. Obviously it's easier to accommodate my limitations when writing compared with the cover challenges as I can just rewrite anything that I can't do or that sounds bad. For example, the "layered vocals" you mention, I assume you mean the chorus? That's just pitch corrected an octave up using the stock Cubase plugin, hence it sounds a bit warbly. But i find that sound with a bigger reverb mixed with my normal octave pitch seems to work, so I do it a lot (same effect on the chorus tune of I Will See You also, it's just much lower in the mix).

Re making an album, i did, nobody liked it and the main comments I got back were "too depressing" and "too much reverb", which to be fair is what I like, but yeah, nobody really liked it. In fact, my dad took 6 weeks to say anything about it, and even then it was when i pushed him to see if he'd listened to it, and he said "Well, I didn't like it to be honest and me and your mom are worried you're going through one of those phases again". So as I say, mostly now I just do stuff privately and share the odd bits on here, these are I think the only two I've shared which were part of the specific project that I don't share, if that makes sense. Other stuff I've entered into the challenges here are usually written especially for that so sound a bit more...acceptable? I guess? I dunno.

Anyway, thank you for the kind comments. Very much enjoyed yours as well, if i could have given both you and dindude the 5 points I would. Writing and playing instrumentals is well beyond me, my playing is merely texture to accompany something else. I don't have the technique or imagination to play proper good rhythm or lead lines, or anything to sustain the kind of interest required for a whole track. We can only work with what we've got right?

stratman3142 · September 2023

Voting ends tomorrow (30th September) at midnight.

stratman3142 · September 2023

Voting closes tonight at midnight.

dindude · September 2023

Must feel like pushing water up hill @stratman3142. You do a great job of organising these challenges and I really thought an open ended approach this time would draw more entries and interest.

stratman3142 · September 2023

dindude said:

Must feel like pushing water up hill @stratman3142. You do a great job of organising these challenges and I really thought an open ended approach this time would draw more entries and interest.

It's fine. Interest for these things tends to ebb and flow. I think I'll keep the next one open ended as well.
Your participation is much appreciated.

stratman3142 · October 2023

Voting closed.

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Voting For Composition Challenge 38

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