A mate of mine who has been pushing me recently about my webstuff - responsible for me setting up Jawmunji.com - "Do it now." "No." "If you don't, I'm going to do it." "Argh, okay, okay." - told me I need to find out what people want, and give it to them. He's far more an "internet entrepreneur" than I am. I've always given people what I like, and what I think they like...but it's a good question, what do people like?
If you were to use my youtube viewcounts as a guide, then most people are after classical and folk...but that doesn't sound right to me.
The reality is that Jawmunji.com exists because I like to ramble on about fingerstyle guitar stuff that interests me. And my mates keep it interesting by challenging my rambles, and giving me new ideas for new rambles. (I'm back to only 3 mates now, according to my blogger subscriber list, the other 18 got left behind at wordpress. I miss you guys)
But hey, one of the rambles I have called time and time again is - "play for an audience!" One of the subtleties in that statement is "know what your audience wants".
So my mate created for me a survey. It will be interesting to see what us fingerstyle guitarists - and the people who like to listen to fingerstyle guitarists - are the most interested in. So head on over to the survey, it's pretty short and sweet, I'll report back later on what the verdict is! :)
JAW
3 times, THREE times I have written an essay on here. 1st was long, and comp froze. The 2nd was an essay almost and I hit preview and lost it all, the 3rd I hit add profile picture and... lost it all.. so from over 500 words to this cause my finger hurts.
ReplyDelete1. we need to advertise! US the users, to get more people here.
2. maybe some more current music, this or last years top 40 (ever heard adele's rolling in the deep? thats a great song) some bruno mars, something bright shiny, new and current. popular.
3. am I subscribed?
4. how about a background pic?
I wish I could go back and put everything else back here but my god it was a lot and I was laughing about it the 2nd time.. the 3rd was just aggravating. I left a lot out because I have stuff to do but oh well. (btw I'm sure it isn't the blog, but the user)
Thank you for your time,
Ryan G
Hi.. i took the survery but i forgot to say which song i would like you to arrange..
ReplyDeleteTupac - changes
i love the song & melody... dont really care much for the rap.
I've just subscribed, however I'm not quite sure it means that I will receive an email for each post, as it was in your previous blog.
ReplyDeleteI didn't take the survey but you know me already, I was never looking for any tabs, only the rambling articles talking about fingerstyle, which is not a topic easily found anywhere else. Apart from that I like your Youtube videos (but it is more out of curiosity and for inspiration rather than wanting to learn the songs, but it's nothing to do with you, I very rarely learn other people's arrangements...).
I can still request a song that I mentioned once, and from your country (I was sort of playing it in a simple way, but a long time ago): Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil.
Ryan - *hate* that! I often fire up a text editor to type in the text, save it, copy and paste into the web form. I've lost stuff too many times myself. Argh!
ReplyDeleteYour points: 1...hmm, most people find their way here from youtube, I reckon I'm maxxed out...everyone who wants to be here is already here :) 2. I get that a bit. If only I listened to top 40 stuff, and/or liked it. Once or twice last year I heard a song that I quite liked, that I thought would be a good one to arrange, but Kel Valleau and Iggy beat me to it. 3. I don't know! I've just added a Mates gadget, on the left, right down the bottom. Dunno how it works, I'm sure it's googley if you have a google, um, gmail or something. 4. Background pic...nah. Maybe a banner pic, one day, how about that? In the meantime I just got my wifey to take a "promotional pic" of me. Geesh, it's scary (I'm 40 next week. They say 40s is the new 30s though...Naudo is 50 this year.)
Rom - Added the email updatey gadgety thing, give it a try, see what it does. Survey? no probs. I think we more or less understand each other :) Bed Are Burning...that's right, good call. I also played a basic version a long time ago. I reckon that would fingerstyle nicely. I'll try not to slap it too much for ya, it feels like more of a thumpy bass and plucked melody on the top. I've got a few in my bag of tricks like that. Yeah, I reckon I could do that; and I do like to fingerstyle Aussie Rock because not many people do (there are only 23 million of us). Good call.
You know he became a pollie - still is! :)
(Where you at with Bubble Booble?)
JAW
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ReplyDeleteHmmm. I'm sure you thought you were maxed out before I came along :) There are more out there who, like me, will love fingerstyle, they just need to know that a place such as this exists. A place big enough to have tons of info but small enough so that your voice is heard.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that there are too many top 40's I like. Hell i cannot even name some from this year. In fact we just brought in a 20 yr old drummer so we would have someone who is still into that since the rest of us are all oldies/classic rock. but... What it comes down to, I suppose, is how much you like a piece. I know I wouldn't spend hours tabbing up a piece unless I love the song. One day, hopefully, I will be making my own tabs :)
hey! Maybe that's a video lesson or two in itself. A lesson on tabbing songs. Not sure how you could do it though..
I think im subscribed now..
Yeah, in my 1st 3 i mentioned how i love the "Google" simplicity of the site. There is beauty in minimalism. I was thinking of pictures of your guitars or Naudo's, or Emanuel's, or anyone your greatly respect. It would be nice to see a nice image of where this splendid music comes from. But, as I said, I understand ;)
I see the poll that was on the left went down. Canon (even if it's hard) was the number one choice.. I picked ABTDust. I did see that a long time ago you had a tab of Come Together or maybe you simply played it. Is there anyway I could get that if it exists?
Nice, I once thought you were one in a million. Now I know its one in twenty three :)
Thanks,
Ryan
Bubble Bobble, I left it aside when I realized it would take a lot of time to make the arrangement, and even more time to practice. It is all with a constant alternate bass and a fast melody, I can't rely on my usual tricks that are suitable for pop music and that normally allow me to arrange very fast and without much trouble as long as I know the chord. Bubble Bobble really has to be tackled like a classical piece. I guess it is the same with Super Mario, or Canon D.
ReplyDeleteBut I have been playing other songs...
Now it is a sunny day, another excuse! Who in their right mind would like to be cooped up indoors recording when it seems that the whole world is outside drinking beer in the sunshine? (considering that we see very little of sun for many months). the ideal thing would be to do like in one of your videos, recording sitting on a bench (the one where your little daughter walks in at the end) :-)
Jaw, unless you want to make profit out of this, you are doing nothing wrong with your ramblings. Whats more, this is what I love about it. It is directed at a very specific group of people, that is definetely BAD for popularity. But I'd hate if you tried to please everyone, or turned this into a "learn to play gutiar" website.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the key of the question... and I selfishly expcet you stay true to yourself.
I think you could just separate your blog audience and your guitar audience. I don't want this blog to turn comercial but I understand that you play popular songs, I do that too.
In fact, I used to just learn songs I liked, but noticed that when I played an unknown song, people lost all interest. I enjoy playing music, but my final motivation is to entertain people. So I turned as much comercial as I could (and found out that childhood cartoon songs worked out the best).
I'll tell you something, this is the only blog I've ever followed in my life. And there is just one thing I don't like... I always want more ;)
Nil
Roman - Bubble Bobble; I hear ya. Some songs I tackled I wished halfway through I never started :) Whereas the ones that "fit the pattern" you can churn out in a few days, yah! But I appreciate when I have forced myself through a classical hard one; overall it brings up the skill level and provides some difference to your playing. And you are right, it's the classical style pieces that are the hardest!
ReplyDeleteNil - well my mate who is pushing me to "businesserize" this site would have me do those things you mention, but I don't think I could. I only have one operating mode, and this is it. Ramble on about things I half understand, enjoy the physical challenge of guitar without the music theory what I'm doing (RG will try to change that :)), and share my findings with the world. And as you are probably aware; my motivation is also to entertain people. Childhood cartoon songs - which ones?!
So don't expect much to change, I don't think I'd be able to! :)
JAW
Any disney classic I guess. Aladdin's A Whole New World for instance.
ReplyDeleteIt connects with people's childhood and they like it in a different, deeper way than other songs.
I don't know if 'Doreamon' exists there in Australia, but just playing the starting riff made all room turn to me haha.
Nil