Song-A-Week April 2-8

Found a new songwriting forum by my friend Charlie Cheney over at http://songmotel.com. One of my songs this week (Sci Fi Boy) was a result of a challenge there. You can check out my songs on my jukebox, or on songmotel.

Songs -

7 April 3.14159 http://songmotel.com/lobby/node/41
8 April Sci Fi Boy http://songmotel.com/lobby/node/42

Song-A-Week March 26 - April 1st

3 songs this week. On 31 March I realized I still needed 3 songs to hit my March FAWM so knocked them out that day. It used to be hard to do that until I started doing FAWM and 5090. My favorite of the 3 is Mia (my 3rd song) written based on a 48Hours Hard Evidence show about the murder of Mia Zapata, lead singer for The Gits. Heartbreaking story and the genre of "Mia" doesn't really fit that of the band, but the thoughts are there. Songs are on the jukebox to your right :)

31 March Sexybabe2813
31 March Honey Dos
31 March Mia

Thanks for stopping by

Billy Sea

Song a Week March 19-25

I think I need to start putting "Update Blog" on my Friday morning schedule so I make sure I don't fall behind :)

Only one song this week: I Can't See Tomorrow From Here.

Written after reading a Tweet from a Cancer fighter/survivor.

Catch you next post :)

Billy Sea

Song a week + 12-18 March 2010

This week was a bit of fun that I didn't think I was ready for. Heard about this album in a day challenge. The idea was to write and record 24 minutes of music. Took me 9 songs but that is fine, got it done and they all count for my goal of at least 14 songs every month of 2010 :)

As a reminder, the first number stands for the month, the second stands for the number song that is for the month.

Songs for this week, all written 13 March 2010

03-002 Standing at the Crossroads
03-003 Writing Sad Songs
03-004 Who Can Tell
03-005 Areia
03-006 It's Been A Long Long Time
03-007 Working on my Album
03-008 Running Out of Time
03-009 Scream for Ice Cream
03-010 Your Future Holds My Heart

One thing I started this week is to write an e-booklet on songwriters for non songwriters. I'll post up a link when it is done so you will know where to download it but it really isn't for anyone who already writes songs, I'm planning on it being a motivation for those who'd like to write songs, but never have :)

March 5-11 2010

I suspect my only song this week will be

Song 3-1 -- 9 March 2010 -Where Did My Tweetie Friends Go

I really didn't feel like writing any songs because I was so burned out by FAWM but this is way to early in 2010 to be giving up :)

FAWM February Songs

I wrote songs every day during February Album Writing Month. My jukebox is not up to date for my FAWM songs. I will update my jukebox and update this blog when I do. I went a little overboard with 161 songs (including collaborations) but it was great :)

I'll update this within the week. Thanks for stopping by.

BTW, if you want to see/listen to my songs, they are at http://FAWM.ORG

Song-A-Week Week Five Jan 29-Feb 4, 2010

Here we are at week 5 of the New Year :) Still on track with my song a week challenge and as of this writing and 2 songs shy of my JAWM goal of 14 songs in January. I have 3 more days to get there though so we'll see.

The BEST information though is that FAWM starts Monday. FAWM stands for February Album Writing Month and the goal is to write 14 songs in 28 days. It is not too late to sign up, just head over to http://FAWM.ORG and sign up. What have you got to lose? And you may even end up with a song or two (or 14) :)

Edit: Songs for the week:
29 Jan 2010 Nothing to Say
29 Jan 2010 FAWM, that's the way we roll
(these 2 songs give me my 14 for January and the weekend to relax until FAWM starts on Monday)
1 Feb 2010 He Dreamt of Her (common verse song, 1st verse provided by Mal)
1 Feb 2010 Happy Anniversary
1 Feb 2010 Oil The Zipper Of Your Jeans
1 Feb 2010 High On The Hog In Tennessee
1 Feb 2010 Long As It Goes
1 Feb 2010 Wet Clothes In Suitcases
1 Feb 2010 Little Bit Goth, Little Bit Country
2 Feb 2010 Her Name Is Grace (lyrics Geneva Keith, music Billy Sea)
2 Feb 2010 Not Sure How To Read Me
2 Feb 2010 I Wanna Be Your Yoko (a DylansDemise song)
2 Feb 2010 Don't Read Between the Lies
2 Feb 2010 Cyanide and Champagne (lyrics Lefty013, music Billy Sea)
2 Feb 2010 Crazy Day Blues
2 Feb 2010 Cold Dank Maine
2 Feb 2010 14 Songs
3 Feb 2010 Collaborate Please
3 Feb 2010 FAWMER'S BUFFET (lyrics Kathy Moran, music Billy Sea)
3 Feb 2010 I Walk Away (a DylansDemise song)
3 Feb 2010 Clone Away
3 Feb 2010 Pass That Bottle Round
4 Feb 2010 Take This Job
4 Feb 2010 Please Louise
4 Feb 2010 Number 1 with a Bullet
4 Feb 2010 I Want You - Twilight
4 Feb 2010 Don't Forget those Here At Home

Thanks for stopping by and will see you next time!

Billy Sea
billysea.com
Twitter @Billy_Sea

Song-A-Week Week Four Jan 22-28, 2010

Week 4 of the song-a-week challenge is here. The days until February Album Writing Month over at FAWM.ORG are also now in the single digits...yes, 9 days and change until it all starts :)

There is also a music show at Blog Talk Radio featuring my friend and sometimes song collaborator Charlie Cheney. Details are at FAWM.ORG and he plays lots of songs that you may never hear anywhere else. Check him out won't you?

Songs this week:

1-22-10 February Album Writing Month
1-23-10 Inspiring Each Other
1-25-10 Pour Some Frozen Peas Over It
1-25-10 The Best Part of Waking Up
1-26-10 Going Down Town

On the jukebox, there is a second one called February Album Writing Month short. The difference is that the second one is, well, shorter :) I did that to try to get it as a demo on FAWM.ORG but as it is still over a minute (1:16) think it is still too long. At least it counts for my song this week. I've finished another set of lyrics, but don't yet have music for them so won't post them here until I do.

Thanks for stopping by and will see you next time!

Billy Sea
billysea.com
Twitter @Billy_Sea

Song-A-Week Week Three Jan 15-21, 2010

Getting over being sick and have been busy writing. So far this week I've written and put up a demo for one song, have written another song but don't have the demo recorded yet, have written one complete set of lyrics of a LOLly Catz songs (but haven't taken the time to do the electronic music it requires) and am half way through another set of lyrics based on a Folgers songwriting competition (details here). The song I'm coming up with for the Folgers competition doesn't meet all the requirements for the contest so unless I just do the chorus and submit it, I'll simply use it as motivation to write a song and leave it at that :)

So, here are the songs I've written this week

1-17-10 Don't bring a knife to a gunfight
*1-19-10 Jeff Zucker the Sucker at NBC
1-21-10 Zombie LOLly Catz

*yeah, Team Coco here. I think there is way too much drama over there at NBC who hasn't had a good show since the first season of Heroes (IMO). I am a Tonight Show with Johnny Carson fan and will always be. I never thought Jay was the proper replacement for Johnny and I think much of Jay's humor is mean spirited so this song is mean spirited at both Jeff Zucker and Jay Leno. I don't know how well Conan would have done had he been given the chance, but as far as I'm concerned, Zucker and Leno have screwed this whole thing up and I'm not buying Jay's "hey, I just do what they tell me" line. Anyway, this is too heavy for this early in the morning so I'll end it with....if you disagree or are a Team Chin fan, feel free to get inspired and write your own song about this. :)

Thanks for stopping by

~Billy Sea
@Billy_Sea on Twitter
www.billysea.com

Songwriting Collaborations

There is a discussion going on over at FAWM.ORG about collaboration. What it really boils down to is knowing enough about your co-writer to be comfortable with them. Once you've collaborated with someone a time or two, these questions no longer need to be addressed, but in the early days, it can be rough going.

Here is what I posted on FAWM.ORG under my bio (that I'm moving here to clear up some room there). It may not be complete, but it is a start on my feelings on collaborations. You may not agree and that is fine. There are many different styles of collaboration from "do your half and throw it over the fence" to "back and forth and back and forth and back and forth". Your style is totally up to you :)

The notes on February and 28 February reflect how these apply to FAWM.ORG but these can be modified for any use. Here are my thoughts:

Collaborations - I think that collaborations are hard and take much more effort than just writing a song myself. I do believe that collaborations are ways to grow as a songwriter though. Taking someone's music or lyrics and completing it is an awesome thing if the experience is good for both parties. If not, it could turn someone off to collaborating totally.

The more you write with someone the more you understand them and you get into a click. It becomes easier and easier and a whole lot of fun. But the first time....yep, that can be scarey.

Here are some general thoughts on how I approach collaboration.

If we collaborate, we are equal partners in the song. We both retain the right to perform the song on CDs, at shows, post to myspace, etc without first asking permission. Acknowledgment that it is a co-write and, when it comes up, who the co-writer is is polite. The is really no money made here anyway. If the song is going to be sold/leased/whatever, we are partners 50/50. I register my songs with ASCAP, you should register with your group

If I wrote the lyrics or music and you are completing the song:
-I don't mind changes to the lyrics to make it fit your music or even because you think a word/phrase works better...or to turn it into a call/response...or whatever. For music, if you want to add strings to it, or fade it out, or whatever...feel free. You don't have to let me hear the song before you post it. I did my part, you do the rest and post it and lets move on to the next song. Don't be concerned if I'll like what you did with my music/lyrics. I probably will, and if not, that is not the issue. The issue is song creation

If you wrote the lyrics or music. I will make my best effort at doing something nice with it. As a rule, I will not redo music for lyrics. Otherwise, I'm writing 2 or 3 different sets of music and only getting credit for one. If you want, I will let you hear it before I post it (if I have your email). I will even defer from posting it if you hate it, but we will likely not collaborate again because obviously our styles don't match

There may be other things that you have questions about and I'll modify the above as we proceed but this should be a good starting point. For me, the focus is on song creation, not on perfection. I do enjoy the challenges of collaboration, but I've done enough that I know everyone doesn't approach it the same way. It is better to find that out upfront, than on Feb 28th with hours to go until midnight, and a song unacccounted for.

Thanks for reading
~Billy Sea

Song-A-Week Week Two Jan 8-14, 2010

I've been sick since the afternoon of the 4th but with songwriting, it seems like there are always as many reasons for not taking the time to write, as there are in taking the time to write.

In any event, I knocked out my 4th song of the year, and my song for week two on the 8th. I don't know if I'll write anymore this week, but if I do, I'll modify this post to add it in later :)

My song for week two (8-14 Jan 10) are:
1-8-10 - The Happy Sick Song - Folk-Country

Thanks for stopping by

~Billy Sea
@Billy_Sea on Twitter
www.billysea.com

Free MP3 CD Download - I Love You, Hello

Cut and pasted from my facebook page :)

I've decided that I have way too many songs and that if I don't do something with them, they will die when I do (not that I'm planning on that anytime soon).

Anyway, just because, I'm going to put out monthly(ish) CDs on my reverbnation page (FreeBillyCD) until either the cows come home, or they stop calling collect.

My first CD is called "I Love You, Hello" and the song of the same name is because when I was in the Navy overseas we would sometimes get to call home, but would normally get disconnected by the operator for higher precedence traffic. Got to be where we'd say I Love You right off the bat just in case.

Anyway, this one is all accoustic and all country/folk and is located here

Hope you enjoy it.
~Billy Sea

www.billysea.com
twitter @Billy_Sea

YouTube Videos - Yes You Can

If you already know how to post YouTube Videos of your songs then this will not be something that interests you. But if not, you can make simple videos and get more exposure to your songs with a few simple steps. All you'll need is a free program called AquaSoft SlideShow for YouTube: http://www.aquasoft.net and MS Paint (free program that came with your windows machine) or better but will cost you PowerPoint.

My YouTube account is http://www.youtube.com/user/billyseamusic and I'm currently using two styles. The harder one is to find a bunch of public domain pictures on the internet and run them as a slide show. The easier way is to create a single slide and only use that. You can see examples of both styles on my YouTube.

Once you have a slide (or slides) you want to use, take the first slide and if you only have MS Paint, open the program, center the picture so there is a border and type your title, name, and a url or whatever you want onto the page. I recommend this go into the border as MS Paint will leave a white border around your words and it doesn't look that great :) Save it as a jpeg and you are ready to import it and your song into Aquasoft for YouTube.
If you have PowerPoint point, you can put the text right on your picture without creating a white border around the words. Once you have the PowerPoint slide the way you want it, hit control-alt-print screen on your key board, open up MS paint and trim the slide, then save it as a jped and you are ready to import it and your song into Aquasoft for YouTube.

I try to make sure my url is on my slide. Right now though I own BillySea.com, I don't have a webpage up, so I've forwarded it to my reverbnation page. I still use BillySea.com as my starting point though just in case I ever do something with my page, I won't have to go back and update. You can also use the tag section and the comments section on YouTube to point people to your other music and/or sites.

I did get a Flip video camera for Christmas so will try to do some "live" recording but until then, the method above is the easiest way I've found to get your music up on YouTube.

Let me know if you have any questions and see you on the videos :)

~Billy Sea
@Billy_Sea on Twitter
BillySea.com
That's about it. If you have any questions about something here

Song-A-Week Week One Jan 1-7, 2010

Perhaps it was the eggnog or perhaps too many pieces of fruitcake (yes, I like fruitcake) but I've decided to try to write at least one song a week for all of 2010. If you'd like to join me, a pdf file to track your progress is located here

I will be keeping all of my songs for 2010 (FAWM, Steel Bridge, 5090, whateverelse I write) on my songwriter challenges page on reverbnation and I've put a jukebox widget in the column to the right of this post.
I'm not sure if there is a limit to the number of songs you can put on a reverbnation jukebox, but we'll see :)

Anyway, enough chit chat for now. My songs for week one (1-7 Jan 10) are:
1-1-10 - I'll Be Still (I Will Not Fear) - Southern Gospelish
1-3-10 - Writing A Song For You - Folk-Country
1-4-10 - Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants To Die) - Southern Gospelish

If I write any more this week, I'll update this blog post, and of course, the jukebox player will automatically update when I add them to my reverbnation page. Otherwise, you can expect at least weekly posts to my blog on this (hopefully) year long adventure :)

Thanks for stopping by

~Billy Sea
@Billy_Sea on Twitter
www.billysea.com