JPF Home Page Forums New Forum For Mentor Critiques: FAQ and Discussion

I'm am new on the forum,and glad to be here.I'm am looking for a mentor,so they can guide me to becoming a great songwriter.Thanks, for the help.

I'm am new on the forum,and glad to be here.I'm am looking for a mentor,so they can guide me to becoming a great songwriter.Thanks, for the help.

Hi and welcome aboard. This is really the wrong place for this type of post it would be better posting this in the general forum. My advice is to explore the boards and get involved. Post some lyrics in feedback forums 1 2 or3 and get involved in critiques. You will receive lots of help and advice. If you want to send me a Persoanl Message I will give youe stuff a look and give any help I can. Just click on my name and then click send PM Best of luck JIM

Brian..I'm relatively new to JPF ..I want to submit an mp3 and lyric for critique(mentor critique)..I know you only accept 50 entries..when does the clock start ticking on the entries for week 29.
I'm ready to post
Thanks

cool

I just saw The Shortest Verse had been up for one of these critiques a couple of weeks ago. I had no idea. I see nowhere else to post but here are my thoughts:

1) Joe's rewrite was too complicated, haha. he knows I think that.

2) the mentor critique was way too ultra-religious and complicated. the average listener with a beer in his hand doesn't think that way.

3) and so, as you might've suspected I prefer my original draft, which was a simple, spiritual lyric.

I really appreciate everyone chiming in and offering their thoughts.

Well, I didn't know you had posted Robert, and I might have argued with your about this two weeks ago, but today- after I learned to play the Billy Currington song, "People are crazy", I may have come around to your way of thinking about "The Shortest Verse". There is something about wrapping your voice and mind around a good song that helps you to understand why it is good. I see elements in that song that are similar to your original lyric.

In "People are crazy" there is an implied "spirituality" in the song without it ever being overtly expressed. That is the kind of writing I aspire to write. And that is pretty much what you did with "The Shortest Verse" in the original. I'm afraid I overly complicated the idea- and what has been created is a nice production with lyrics that are, as you said, too complicated. I can't say you didn't warn me because you did say I was introducing four generations of characters and that it would be hard to follow! But I am all about the song; so if another co writer wants to tackle the original lyrics, I will happily bow out. It is rare enough to get a song on the charts; and life is too short to bog down ideas that may have wings.

sjh

Is this still going on?

Hi Kurt,

We suspended it for a bit while we finished the music awards and our UK/Ireland tour. We're going to rethink how we've been doing it and hopefully we can figure out a way to get more folks to participate.

Brian

Howdy, I'm so confused as to whether this is a current event as of
Oct 20 2009, or just posts about an old event thats already been
completed. could someone please let me know? Thanks....Gus

Hi Gus,

We will be restarting the program. We put it on hold while we finished up the 2009 JPF Music Awards because so many of the participants were deeply involved in screening massive amounts of music. We will restart it again and post info, dates and instructions when it's ready to go. In the meantime there's a LOT to be learned in each of the previous sessions which is why we've left them all up there. Reading the various thoughts and discussions are very helpful to the writing process.

Thanks for the interest,

Brian

We are restarting this program. Get your entries posted ASAP! ?Read previous weeks for example on how it all works!

Brian

Hi Brian,

hey this is a great idea. I am new and a bit confused. I have been posting lyrics under the lyrics 1,2,3 forum. If I want to post under this forum do I post them here or on the link at the very beginning of this board? Also I know we're only supposed to post lyrics under one message board--so if I post them here can I also post them under lyrics 1 or 2 or 3 for example. Thanks so much,
Roger

Anyone want to restart this?

Brian

Just saw the date on this and said "Hey, that's current!". It was pretty hard to get folks involved last time around. I would support it if you gave it another whirl, though.

Kevin

Sure! It will all be new to me

Dottie

Yeah, I'm not sure where to post them either

aaaaalways Ready When You Are, Amigo!

Best Wishes, Big Guy-Hug,
Stan

Hey Guys,

This sounds like a great idea but I'm confused(nothing new there.lol). Is this current or no? If it's current where so we post?

Hell Yeah!!! I haven't been around much lately and almost missed this. You may want to inquire if anyone is interested on the General Forum as well, since most folks may have given up on this one. I think there are a lot of new folks who would be interested in giving it a shot. Make it so, Captain!

Ricki

I keep checking to see if this has restarted. I would participate.

We need at least 20 interested folks to do this. Everyone always raves about how great it is, but then we have participation issues. Suggestions?

And to the new folks, you can't post anything until we restart a session and line up a mentor. But I don't want to bother Harriet or Pat or John if we don't have the interest to make it work. To thrive we need 50 people.. but to barely get by at least 20 who are going to get into the discussion and who aren't just worried about getting picked.

Brian

I'm in if it restarts.

I would be interested as well!!
Kimberly

I'm in!
Yann

As I said, I'm in, but I really think this would get more attention on the general forum, especially for new folks who may not know to look here. Brian, it's good to know you're feeling strong enough to start herding cats again.

Ricki

Hey Brian,

I'm up for it too. I got some great input on my lyric "O Mama" (the second to last one chosen before we had to take some time off from the program)... so I know it's a valuable exercise for all participants.

I'm also with Ricki...a shout-out about this on the General forum would be a good way to garner interest.

Thanks in advance .

Beth

I'm interested in submitting if the forum restarts. Thanks.
-Emmanuel

http://www.broadjam.com/emmanuel_lawrence
http://www.reverbnation.com/emmanuellawrence

Count me in...glyn

I'm ready too.

I spoke with Harriet and she is willing to restart this at the start of 2011. I need to fontact some of our other mentors to see if they have time and willingness to also get involved. We used to do this weekly... then bi-weekly.. then monthly... then every few months. It's a great program but I really need AGGRESSIVE help from all of you to get others involved, not just in posting something for consideration, but also and far more importantly to get involved in the critiques and then the discussions. That is the actual point of this, to learn how to critique and why a professional may see things differently. It isn't about right or wrong, but rather a process and reasoning as to why you could or should see things a certain way and how you can take back the things you learn to use on your own music.

It's kind of the old "Give a man a fish..." speech. We want you to learn how to disect your own work and justify how your lyrics or complete songs work to make the best reasoned AND creative decisions.

We have 8 or 10 folks here expressing interest... when we have 20 diferent names or more we'll start up again either with Harriet or one of our other Mentors.

So get out there and get your friends and folks you've met here on the MP3 boards or Lyric boards or elsewhere and have them get involved. And explain that it doesn't end if your work isn't chosen.. that's simply an added bonus to 1 person.. this program is really for all those who are NOT chosen.

Someone let me know when we hit 20+. Thanks!

Brian

I would be more than willing to offer critiques, as in depth as I can, with suggestions, comments and atta boys, whenever its needed:) I am not a pro, but I will do my best

Count me in

Kimberly

I'll participate. Count me in.

Peace,
Nathan

I've been extremely busy with personal issues but am interested in this. I would be happy to join in the discussion whenever possible. Hopefully by the time it starts things will be better for me and I'll have more time. I will keep checking back.

Is this still up and running? I have something I'd like to post
Tim

Hi Brian,
I am just now getting back to JPFs but I dont plan on leaving again anytime soon...I really received alot of great feedback on my song when it was chosen.I feel that it is VERY helpful...so I would definitely be interested in participating..I havent had a chance to read through all of the more recent posts(there are so many),but was just wondering(as I believe a few of the others mentioned),that it may be helpful to post somewhere up closer to the top where it would be seen and perhaps draw more attention as I only noticed this because someone else had recently posted a comment here.Many of the newer folks would probably be eager to help if thay knew that this existed...There is just so much information at the top of the boards that I rarely make it down this far...just a thought...but yes,I would definitely be interested....Michelle

I am definitely in
Tim from forgotten Idaho

Okey Im in the game too...

Allright!!!! I think we have 21!!!
Tim

Hey Folks, is there interest in starting this back up?

Also, I need a volunteer to work on an online book project using all the lessons that has come out of all these previous 56 Mentor Critiques which could be used to educate all our users including new writers who come through. I might even be able to pay a little bit of money to someone if they have the time and abilities to pull out the good stuff and turn it into a primer of sorts.

Let me know!

Brian

PS: If no one here is interested, I may look outside the boards, but I would much rather use a member here.

I would participate. Again, I'm less concerned about having a lyric chosen, as I was fortunate enough to be chosen before; I'm certainly happy to give back the time in terms of participating in the group critique and sharing thoughts.

Hi Brian,

I am very interested in the mentor critique!

I don’t think I’m qualified to write a book but if you tell me what you want done I’ll be more than happy to do it, and I don’t want any money.

Dottie

Dottie,

You don't have to be an author, just an editor of sorts. It's not a literal book, but more of a permanent "best of" summarizing all of the learning points/comments from both the Mentor and members who critiqued, not only what they said about the lyric, but also about what people learned about how to critique and what to look for.

Brian

Ok I'll do whatever you need me to do.

Dottie

.

Samuel, you say so little but so much at the same time. =)

Dottie, do you want to just pick one and experiment?


Brian

I'm just now able to come back into the fold-moved almost a year ago and have taken some time to settle in--I hope we can start this up again- I really enjoyed this
Tim

Hi Tim,

It's hard to gauge the interest right now. I am hoping to go on a recruiting binge to get more folks posting here. I think with 100 new users we should be able to resurrect it. We also need to set up some Roadtrip plans and our next music awards. So hang on a bit!

Brian

Hi Brian,

I'm also wishing you could get this restarted!
This is an invaluable tool, that we've let get away from us!
Thanks so much for helping us here,and Harriet of course is the Best!
I really miss her voice around here!-Dana

Dana,

It's really a matter of finding at least 20 (preferably closer to 50) people to participate. I am going to promote it in the newsletter a few times and I am hoping that might spur some activity. Perhaps in honor of us finally passing 20K registered board users we'll do a new one.

Brian