PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Announcing... The Birth of a Song – Extended Version! (with Floyd Jane)

We recently shared the project we worked on with Floyd Jane: The Birth of a Song with a short (under 6 min) video link.

But it can take longer than 5 minutes to explain the songwriting process! The project is complete, and in this extended version of the video (it's over an hour long!), Songwriter Floyd Jane shows in detail the songwriting process from inspiration to performance and publication. (YouTube link: https://youtu.be/qPrejgnwb4M)



The idea for this project came about when many members on this forum and elsewhere were asking questions about the song writing process. There are many aspects, and many parts of it necessary to create a song, get it arranged, performed, and then published on the internet. So we asked the great songwriter Floyd Jane, who is a regular member on this forum, if he could help. Floyd agreed and was even able to collaborate with other forum members, Janice and Bud. The result is this video we put together that you can see on YouTube, called "The Birth of a Song (w/Floyd Jane)".

We hope this video helps other songwriters with their songwriting process, and also shows them tools that are available to them along the way. Also, we mention this User Showcase Forum, and hope to see many new aspiring or accomplished songwriters join this community blush

A big Thank You to Floyd for sharing your knowledge with the community and making this possible, and to Janice and Bud for your great collaboration!

Here is Floyd's original forum post for his song "A Little Bit Of Me": http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=433190

Check out Floyd / Janice & Bud’s music here:
http://floydjane.com/
https://www.janiceandbud.com/

Table of contents for the full length video:
CHAPTER INDEX:
1 - The Challenge - 01:23
2 - Inspiration for the Song - 01:57
3 - The Musical Hook - 02:58
4 - Writing the Lyrics - 03:21
5 - Writing the Chorus - 04:29
6 - Taking a Break and Refining the Lyrics - 05:53
7 - Adding the Musicians and Creating the Arrangement with Band-in-a-Box® - 10:56
8 - Exporting the Band-in-a-Box® Tracks to use in Studio One - 26:10
9 - Using Studio One to Record the Vocals - 26:59
10 - Importing Band-in-a-Box® tracks to Studio One - 29:14
11 - Microphone Setup - 32:51
12 - Recording the Vocals - 37:57
14 - Creating the Guitar Solo in Band-in-a-Box® - 42:43
15 - Recording the Electric Guitar Lick - 47:07
16 - Mastering the Song in Sound Forge & Follow up - 47:35
17 - Uploading Finished Song to SoundCloud - 51:09
18 - Posting to the Band-in-a-Box® "User Showcase Forum" - 53:53
19 - Concluding Thoughts - 58:28
20 - "A Little Bit Of Me" Music Video - 1:00:13

The original shorter version of this video:

Nice job on this Floyd and PGmusic!

Good idea to break it up into chapters too, I just finished watching a few of them, will watch more later when I have more time.

BTW, love your tele style guitar, Floyd! When I was a kid, 15 or so, I vividly remember seeing an off white tele with a white pickguard in the local music store, first time I had ever seen a Fender in real life (grew up in a very small town). Ever since then I've always wanted one with that particular colour scheme.

Very well done project!

An amazing and wonderful video. Had to watch it all the way through from the first glance.

A fun project for sure and would love to see more like this...

Inspirational.

With an hour video, really thought I'd get to see Floyd mow some grass...

Enjoyed this from start to finish.

Charlie

Really enjoyed this and learned a few things along the way. Very inspiring, which is what I need right before FAWM. Especially loved the music video at the end.

Thanks Floyd and PG Music for sharing this video – really interesting to see how others work with songwriting and the technical part of the production. Always some good tips and tricks to pick up. And the MusicVideo at the end – as Joanne mentioned above – great stuff!

@Dave (BlueAttitude) - Hey, Dave... tell you a "secret"... the tele is a G&L ASAT Classic that I picked up on the Musician's Friend Stupid Deal for $299. BEST! $299 I've ever spent! Out of the box, the intonation was perfect. The neck has a silkiness that is a pure joy to play - feels great, so smooth. It stays in tune amazingly well. I grab it most often now (over my Strat) as my "play a little guitar" guitar... love it. Keep an eye out for the Stupid Deal (they have run it again since I got it) - their return policy is good in case you don't want to keep it...

@Charlie - (congrats on your award!) Glad you enjoyed this - it is a lot to watch....

@Joanne - Thanks for watching. Really glad you liked the video at the end! We had a lot of fun making that!....

@Einar - Thanks! Pleased that you like the ending Video!

@Charlie Gannon - Thanks for all your work on this!

Very enjoyable to watch Floyd!

I was really interested in your description of the harmonies and that you just use a 3rd above. When I did mine I wasn't sure and mostly did 3rd above with a 3rd below turned down much lower. Nice to know I won't need to work below.

Liked that you used the same 2688 Brent Mason soloist that I did. It's amazing that those soloists can cross genres so well. Took the tip in to generate the entire track a few times. I only did once. Like you, the solo part that was already aligned with my guitar solo section of the song and worked as-is and I didn't have to play with it.

Enjoyed the final music video on the song too. Good idea with the lyrics on the wall. Well done.

Thanks for spending the time in making this video for those of us that can use it as a learning experience!

Your new fan!

Hey Floyd,

This is awesome man!

What is that gorgeous old acoustic you are playing most of the way through?

How do you have it set up. Did you "drill it" are are you micing it?

Excellent video Floyd, thanks for sharing your method. I use a similar workflow, BIAB to Studio One.

I'm curious to know, do you use BIAB Audiophile Edition, or the standard BIAB?

Thanks,
Terry

I enjoyed this and learnt a few new things about BIAB. I just wish you also used Realband and Reaper! Seriously, I thought it was really well put together and I loved the Dylanesk bit at the end!

Finally found the time to watch the rest of this. Excellent!! And that video you did was pure fun, watched it twice.

Thanks for the tip on the G&L too, what a sweet looking guitar! I want one!

@steve - typically in this type song and production (which covers MOST of them) all you need for harmonies are a third above. And you can do a bunch of them. That makes the background big and fat - AND subtle - all important things...


@Mr. Snyder - the acoustic is a Yamaha FG500. Fairly rare. A GORGEOUS instrument. Like a well worn Martin. It was damaged years ago, which caused the saddle to release. I replaced it myself (with Elmer's glue and a new saddle). Mic? That is just my wife's iPhone recording what we did (she did a GREAT job of handling the videography throughout)


@Terry - I use the standard version of BIAB. For most of my productions it is all I need. I have heard a few things using the Audiophile version that make a difference - if your song is mainly acoustice guitars - and the cymbals are sometimes noticeable - but for productions that include electric guitars, I can't hear the difference... a matter of choice and styles...

That was awesome. You gave me some good ideas and I liked how you used Studio One. Since I’m a sonar user, I was looking at studio one as a replacement since cakewalk seems to have gone belly up.

@Neil - glad you got a little out of this. I hadn't really thought of the ending video as "Dylan-esque"... I had thought about doing just a lyric video and then decided to try more of a "hybrid" approach....

@Dave - thanks...again!

@bodhi65 - Studio One is a great DAW (imo). You might give Reaper a try, too...

I've downloaded the updated/extended version. thanks. It's a cool comparison of workflow as well as a few handy hints.

Top Notch!!!, anyone who writes music should watch this video. I will more than once. Floyd mentioned something about a line while riding a lawn mover, HA, how many songs have been started mowing a yard, or riding a tractor. A great video guys!!!

A big thanks to you, Floyd (and Janice & Bud) for putting this together. While PGM's instructional videos are very good, seeing another forum member use it really gives some insight into the creative process beyond the nuts and bolts of using BIAB. I'm thinking the only thing harder than the entire song creation process is DOCUMENTING the song creation process. So thanks for what I'm sure was a lot of work.

Floyd, I'd really like to see an interview style video on how you guys who were writing on music row went about coming up with song ideas and turning them into a finished song for a recording project. Hook, lyrics, music. Because of your 15 years on the row you have some unique insights to share. I think it would be fascinating.

Thanks for all your hard work and to the folks at PG Music who helped get it out there.

Bob

Late to the party, but just wanted to echo thanks for the video and demonstration. That dang song will be in my head until next week, at least. :-)

I smiled with recognition at the first parts, picked up some good pointers in the latter parts, and just enjoyed the video and complete play through at the end. I hope that lyric sheet is worth big money one day.

That was excellent, floyd - informative, educational, and really enjoyable.

As others have said, the video at the end was great.

I must admit that the promo film for 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' did come to mind immediately, but your presentation was unique and creative.

Many thanks for this.

I'm almost a year late in finding this, but very pleased to watch and learn! Good job to everybody involved in the project!

Watching it I am reminded what an analytical thinker Floyd is... as well as being a heckuva nice guy! Not everybody would take the time to share their knowledge the Floyd has. His presence on the User Showcase has really made a difference.

And it was also fun to watch Janice's whole-hearted immersion into the song. I doubt she ever does anything half-heartedly. I mean that girl rides a bike up hills that most of us wouldn't even want to WALK up! Nuff said.