A "work in progress" for the Coursera Songwriting course by Pat Pattison. I didn't adhere to the requirements of the course and got low marks but high praise for the song. Let me know what you think: feedback is priceless for a budding musician.

-- Some comments from my peers -

- You haven't done what was asked in the assignment. Instead you've written a song your own way which is fine, but then it can't be assessed in the context of this assignment.

- You are a gifted songwriter already. Again creating a consistent rhyme scheme for all the verses was part of the exercise. I'm sure you could have if you wanted to.

- Your ideas translates very well into sound----just looking at the words it was hard for me to hear...it seemed very irregular. But the audio was very flowing, organic and gutsy---just like an old blues recording. Stark but powerful!

peer 1 → I saved my verbiage for this box. I liked the tune, and I totally understand your crafting of it. To me, the quarter pulse is perfect for this, because its sparsity reflects very well the bleak message, and the straight pulse speaks of a steady march toward destruction. Very cool and full of imagery. Props!

peer 3 → Here we go again, setting the melody to music was part of the exercise. I hope you are not too pissed of by all the 2's I gave you because I really like this song a lot. There is nothing wrong with breaking the rules and I like the song just the way it is without the rigid structure and with no music and without your wife:-). But, the assignment is meant to push you out of your comfort zone and challenge you. I hope you rewrite and re-record this song for the final project. It doesn't need much music just one or two chords so you can fulfill the stable and unstable tones requirements of the assignment, even if you have to hum a chord and copy/paste it throughout the song. This song is a diamond in the ruff, it just needs a little polishing. Unfortunately there is no way for me to follow you on SoundCloud unless you change the song from private to public. I want to be a fan!

peer 4 → You've not written a bad song. You've just not done the assignment that we were asked to do. That's fine for songwriting but not very useful for coursework.

The Fall Mixdown

The Fall Mixdown 002

2017 0623 - If I Was Yours

A phone recording of a spiritual from the Baptist Hymnal that I remember singing in church with my family. I am not a religious person, I sing this song to honor my mother who, I think, really loved this song.

2018 10 22 - Leaning On The Everlasting Arms

A phone recording of that song, you know the one. This is the first time I ever tried it. I was trying to get my kids to go to bed. It worked.

StephonA