Wrote this song based around an open G chord

Inspired by Justin’s lessons on using simple chord variations I wrote the attached mainly using an open G.

‘Sunshine All Day’ (I was feeling pretty upbeat when I wrote it and it reminds me a bit of Mungo Jerry’s In the Summertime).

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Good stuff, I can sure hear the similarity to in the summertime. Nice to hear a song with really positive lyrics. Have a super day.

Hi John, congrats on writing your own song! I haven’t gotten into songwriting at all and I’m always impressed by anyone who can pull that off.

If I can give a little bit of constructive feedback on the recording itself, there is a big slice of dead air at the beginning of your track. When I hit play and didn’t hear anything, I started to wonder if my headphones weren’t plugged in, or I had the wrong output selected because there was no sound at all until about 6 seconds in. You could definitely trim those first 6 seconds off.

Thank you direvus. One of the (many) challenges I am finding with songwriting is hearing the song as others do. I habitually leave a long ‘dead air’ lead in to give me time to prepare for recording overdubs. I then think nothing more about it but of course for the listener it is offputting to say the least. I will edit it like you say.

You too Tony!

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:clap: :clap: :clap:
Welcome to the Community, John, and what a way to introduce yourself. That said, maybe pop over to #community-hub:introduce-yourself and post up an intro to share a little personal background, guitar history and goals/aspirations you have here.

Love the vibe of the song, well played, sung, and produced. The solo was a real highlight for me.

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Congratulations on your first AVOYP posting and on the song writing as well. Something I really fancy but I don’t think I have it in me.

I thought the song was great John and some nice playing in there as well.

Welcome to the community. :slight_smile:

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@SgtColon

Stefan, if you really fancy it then I reckon it is in you waiting to be discovered. So keep your senses open and at some point you may find yourself inspired by a fragment of something … chord progression, melody, words … that can be grown into a song. I can’t say I have found it easy to produce originals, some folk just seem to do it so easily, but it is fun and may well be the most fulfilling part of my experience when one of those moments happen and become a song.

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Thanks David, I’d never thought of it like that.

I suppose once I have more of an understanding of how it all works, it may not seem as daunting and the, “how do they do that” might lessen.

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As you say, a bit like In The Summertime and upbeat. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. Well played and sung.

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Hi John,
Cheerful first post, :sunglasses: :clap: fits completely with the sun shining on the flowers and plants here… (although I think a little less cheerful about 30c+ from tomorrow) …
So you’ve been doing this for a while longer ?..
Greetings ,Rogier

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Nice work John! :slight_smile:

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My own experience is that there is nothing more daunting that a blank page. Unless you’re a McCartney or Bacharach level melodic genius it is very hard to come up with a melody off the top of your head. I take inspiration from John Lennon who sometime would just take the chords from a song he liked then mix them around and improvise a melody line off the top of that. So - start with a chord progression and then hum along to it. Add a few more chords for the chorus/bridge (a bit of theory is helpfull here but nothing you can’t pick up in 20 minutes) and add some lyrics once you have the song structured as you want. Or get a songwriting partner to add lyrics. I reckon anyone with the will and an adequate musical ear can do it, as long as you don’t expect to make your fortune off the results. Put it another way - if I can bash out a tune then so can you!

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3 years playing guitar and 6 months writing Roger, although I’ve been practicing a lot in that time - maybe 2-3 hours a day playing plus learning about songwriting on top of that.

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An upbeat fun song John. Well done , I’m always impressed by people who can write a song.

Maybe it was the platform I was listening on but the timing of the various elements didn’t match up for me. The vocal, the rhythm, the lead guitar didn’t quite sync. Did you record each track separately and then put it all together?

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Yes, that’s right sairfingers. My timing is wayward at best and when I don’t have a drum track to follow it is particularly challenging! One of many things I intend to improve over the coming months and years, although I’m not sure it will ever become second nature.

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Very nice and pleasing to listen to :heart:. Yeah, as to what sairfingers referenced, the timing needs slightly adjusting to improve an already beautiful original.

Also nice to meet you and hope you head to the “introduce yourself” link so we can get to know you better.

Once again, loved it!

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If you’re recording this into a DAW you just make the drum track silent in the recording but audible through your headphones, alternatively just use a click track.
I found that the subject and general content was good but it was let down by detail, timing issues made areas of it excessively busy and muddled; but a bit of work to improve it and you’re onto a good one! :+1:

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I did try it with a click track Darrell but I kept losing the beat and could never get to the end. My guitar playing just isn’t up to snuff yet. I might try playing at a slower tempo - I do use a DAW so if it sounds too slow I can always speed it up digitally. Thanks for the feedback!

Hi John, first post and it’s an original! Congratulations! Guitar player, singer, session musician, composer, producer, audio technician, each a trade on its own but you can get better on each one with a bit of time experimenting and deepening your knowledge and skills on each. Sure the friendly advice provided here can help a lot as others have attempted and at different levels succeeded with what you are doing. About not being able to follow a click track I see something to work on. In my case I am working on a cover of Yellow Submarine and being able to switch between different strumming patterns for different sections and following a backing track I created has been very challenging. It is a foundation issue that I am dealing with going to the basics, how to strum on time, keeping the beat count and counting bars.

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