Jeffstunes's Blog

This is another Original song from me. I first put this song up for Valentines day, as it is a love song. I noticed a lot of love orientated videos being put up in the lead up to Valentines day, so I thought I'd chip in.

It's name is "When I grow". It's an expression of promise and dedication.

This is it :)

Original song - When I grow

A little while back I changed the description on my channel. Inviting people to cover my songs, or use my music in their videos. I figured that this would be a good idea to help spread my music around. I'm bringing that subject up in this particular post, because someone did a cover version of "When I grow". If you go to my channel on Youtube, you will see a playlist which is called "Covers and uses of my songs". You will also find 4 other videos that someone has used the instrumental versions of my songs in.

Last, but not least. The Youtube bits and bobs.

I now have 516 Subscribers. So well clear of the 500 now.

My channel views are now 11,009. So they've breezed passed the 11k target.

The overall video views are at 146,277. Only another 104k to make it to a quarter of a million :) On current form, that should take 3 to 4 months :) Still, you never know. None of my videos have been featured by Youtube. Along with many other Youtube members. If, by chance that should happen in the short term. The figures will go beserk.

Back to a cover version next. A lesser known song by a fantastic band.

My next song was another cover version. Last year, I was asked by several people, if I could do a number by "The fray". I finally managed to get around to doing one a short while back, because of the backlog of request that I have. I ended up going for a song of theirs called "How to save a life". Those of you that watch Gray's anatomy, will probably know this song.

This is one of the videos that a hater decided to try and unnerve me. That was a bad mistake for them :)

This inspired me to put together another video about the experience on my other Youtube channel.It was a comical look at the situation. There are those on Youtube that block a hater on their first comment, but I chose not to. Instead I got into conversation with them, and the outcome was surprising. They actually blocked me!!!

If you go to Youtube and check out the comments on this video, you'll get an idea of the conversation that was had. They started commenting on another video, and it all wound up on this one.

Moving on to the tune. This is my version of "How to save a life" by "The fray".

Me singing How to save a life by The Fray

Back to the Youtube figures again.

I've now got 509 Subscribers.

The channel views are 10,986. Only 14 to go until I hit 11,000.

All video views add up to 144,696.

There's another of my Originals coming up next :)

On to video fifty five. This is undoubtedly one of the best songs that REM ever produced, and is probably my favourite of theirs to sing. I can't recall how many times I have performed this particular song, but I know it is many, many times. It's the one that goes by the name of "Everybody hurts". A song you can really get your teeth into vocally.

Here is my attempt at this wonderful song:

My rendition of Everybody Hurts by REM

Now for the Youtube stuff.

I have done it! I've passed the 500 subs target. This was helped a bit by someone else on Youtube featuring me in one of their vids. So here are the numbers.

My subscribers are now 508.

Channel views = 10,981.

Total viewings = 143,916.

Next, is a more up to date song, and was also one of the videos that a hater reared their head.

This song was recorded before all the other originals I've put up on Youtube. It was recorded about 4 years ago. It was recorded in a studio in West Worthing.

Here is the tale behind it.

I am not really a fan of entering competitions, but my local pub ran a karaoke comp, and all my friends kept on urging me to go in for it. I refused at first, but they wore me down, and I entered. There was a qualifying round, and a final. To cut a long story short, I won the competition.

The first prize was a day in a recording studio, to record one song. The man who owned the studio approached me and asked me what song I wanted to record, so that he could get the backing music. That got me thinking. I asked him if it was ok if I did one of my own compositions. He was very happy about that, and even seemed excited.

I ended up spending a few weeks in the studio. Paying for the extra time myself. I ended up recording nine of my own songs. Being ever self critical, I was not best pleased with my vocals in the mix. I never am though. They were a bit pitchy :)

Anyway. All the instrumentation is performed by the studio owner (his strength is the bass guitar). This is one of those nine songs, and it's called "You are".

A few people mentioned to me about how strange they thought the song ended. The idea behind that was that the story is not over yet, so I wanted to leave the song hanging, so as to speak.

This is "You are"

A Jeffstunes Original - You are

Now for a statistical update.

I now have 499 Subscribers. So, so close to 500 now.

The channel views are also approaching 11k, and currently stand at 10,913.

My overall video views are now 140,131.

For my next trick. An R.E.M. anthem :)

Now for another original. The title of this one is "So blue". I penned this one two years ago. The idea was to try and start with one style. Then move into another style throughout the song. It all matched up quite nicely with the lyrics. The first part showing a happy face, and the second part telling the truth behind the facade.

Here is "So Blue".

Original song - So Blue - by Jeffstunes

There's been a bit of a boost to my Youtube stats. I woke up this morning to plenty of emails, and a jump in my subscribers. The cause of all this was another channel on Youtube. It's a channel that picks 5 musicians a week, then features them on a video. This week I was featured in the video :)

So this is how it all stands at the moment.

Subscribers = 488

Channel views = 10,890

Total video views = 138,755

Next up is another original song from further back :)

Here's another song that I have sung a number of times, and it's quite popular among my friends. It's probably one of the most well known David Gray songs. It goes by the name of "This year's love".

See what you think of my performance of it:

Me singing This years love by David Gray

Now for the regular Youtube stats update, and then something extra :)

I have 475 Subscribers now. Getting real close to the 500 landmark.

The channel viewings are at 10,866.

The total video views are at 137,810. Not too far away from 150k now :)

Now for that something special.

Whilst I've been on youtube, I've always shared my videos with my friends list. Very rarely I will share a video made by someone else if it really makes an impression on me. I'm going to give you the link to someone's youtube channel.

It's a 12 year old girl singing. Her mother runs the channel for her. Go over and take a look, and remember that this girl is only 12 years old. Wow! what a voice, and what potential. I think we are looking at a future star here. She doesn't have a lot of subscribers at the moment. I'm glad to say I'm one of them. I'm sure she's going to end up with thousands in no time at all.

This is the link to her Youtube channel. Go over and take a look:

Amazing singer

Next up is another one of my original songs.

I've bypassed 2 videos, because the weren't really relevant. The first one being a Christmas song. I don't think there will be too many people celebrating Christmas at the time of this post. The second was was a thank you video, to all the people that left comments for me.

So moving straight on to the 51st video I uploaded to Youtube. The first time I heard this, was by George Michael. A while later I found out that Bonnie Raitt was the first to have a hit with it. I purchased both versions in time. I found Bonnie Raitt's original to be relatively low in key for a female vocal. George Michael's version was reasonably high for a male. I wondered what it would sound like if I did it with a low male vocal. I thought it might sound a bit more intimate.

Check out the results:

Me singing I can't make you love me

Here is the latest on my Youtube progress.

My Subscribers have increased by 4 to 456.

10,774 Channel Viewings. That's a very small increase. I'm happy with any increase at all :)

Last, but not least. The total viewing figures are at 130,781. A bit slower than other days, but still pretty good.

The 52nd video is a David Gray tune. One of his best known songs.

Now for some Billy Joel.

I have had a go at a number of Billy Joel songs, and this is one of his songs that I like an awful lot. It just feels good to sing. The song is "Honesty".

I also talk a little about one of my rarest vinyl discs :)

This is an all round great song. Take a look at my version.

Me singing Honesty by Billy Joel

The movement of my total video viewings were impressing me in their consistency. So I took a closer look at hows those views were being divided. Some of my videos were getting more views than others, but the surprising thing was that all videos were being viewed regularly. So all videos were contributing to the regular increase.

These are the current figures.

There are 452 Channel Subscriptions.

Channel viewings are up to 10,768.

Total video views are now 130,056.

Another cover next. This is one of those songs, where I heard the cover version, before the original. This inspired me to go out and buy the original. Now I've done my own cover of it :)

The song I chose to do next was one of my all time favourite Coldplay songs. It was on their second album entitled "A rush of blood to the head", and this particular song is called "Warning sign". I had to use my guitar with this one, because I don't have any backing music for it. So it's just basic chords again :)

I also put in some random information about europe and bananas. Those two go together really well.

Check out my version of Warning sign (Don't hold out too much hope for the guitar playing)

Me singing Warning Sign by Coldplay

The next post is another one of my all time favourite songs to sing. By the one and only Billy Joel.

Finally, a numbers update from Youtube.

Subs are up again to 451.

The channel viewings are up too at 10,762.

Overall video viewings are still racing forward and now stand at 129,349.

Things are going well.

Another tune off my list of requests. It's Eternity by Robbie Williams.

I said before about how my list of requests was growing too fast. So I decided to stop taking any more. It hasn't had much effect at all. I'm still getting more that 5 for every video I upload. I have to resign myself to the fact that I will never get through it. A business colleague of mine once said to me that more demand than you can cope with is a problem, but it's a nice problem to have. So I'll stick with my nice problem :)

there have been almost 2,500 viewings for this video alone, up until now.

Anyway, here's my rendition of Eternity.

Me singing Eternity by Robbie williams

I'm still playing catch up with my videos, but the end is in sight now. It looks like I will probably achieve that within a month :)

The Youtube stats are still going strong. Here they are.

448 Subscribers

10,752 Channel viewings

128,599 Total video views

It wasn't long ago when I started putting this information in my posts, so in time, it's going to be quite interesting to look back over the posts and see the changing statistics. Well, it will for me anyway :)

Coming next. Some more Coldpay and my guitar gets an airing again :)

Sometime last year, one of my friends asked me to do "America" by "Neil Diamond". After clearing up the other songs on my request list before it, I eventually got around to doing it :)

Needless to say, he was very pleased.

I'm not going to say too much else about this one.

This is my version:

Me singing America by Neil Diamond

A little while ago, I offered out my instrumentals for people, if they wanted to cover my own songs, or use my music in their Youtube videos. I've already had 4 takers, and many more promises. One couple did an acoustic version of one of my slow songs, and another has used my music in three of her videos. That's a good start. Quicker than I anticipated :)

Here's the regular stats information.

My subscribers went up one. Then down one. Then back up one again. Which gives me 438.

There are 10,702 viewings of my channel.

The overall tally for viewings of all my videos are 125,856. Still maintaining that average of about 1,000 a day.

What do we have next.

Ah yes. A bit of Robbie Williams :)

This is the first video that I used my guitar in. I've still got a way to go to become an able player, but I'm practicing. Rhythm play is about the level I'm at, at the moment. So I picked a song with some basic open chords. This song was originally recorded by a band called "Tears for fears". It was the first of their singles that I bought. This was in 1982. A lot of people will also know this song, ans being sung by a man called Gary Jules. He did a cover of it. The tune is "Mad world".

This video has had quite a few viewings on it's own. Up to this post, it's had 2,801.

This is the video in question :)

Me singing Mad World by Tears for Fears

Well, there's been a boost in my youtube statistics, since I made that comedy video for my other channel. These are the latest numbers.

I now have 438 Subscribers. It's looking like the 500 target might be passed in April.

My channel views are moving steadily and now stand at 10,698.

The total video viewings are now at 124,781.

There is another Neil Diamond song coming up next. Another request, but then most of the songs are :)

Before I move on to the next song, I'm going to tell you about a little episode I had on Youtube, and a video I made about it.

I must be getting somewhere on Youtube, because I had my first "Hater". Their treatment of me was no different to what I have seen on other Youtuber's channels. Lots of insulting behaviour. The hater hid behind anonymity. There's nothing out of the ordinary there. The way I dealt with it though, was a bit different. Most Youtubers will block Haters after they have made their first comments. I thought I'd approach it in another way and decided to talk to them. It all had a pretty ironic ending. I'm not going to reveal that now though. It would spoil the surprise.

After it was all over, I decided to make a video about it all, in the style of a silent movie parody, using the music of Elton John. I uploaded this to another channel on Youtube called "Jeffhasspoken". I created a second channel because I wanted to do other videos, but I didn't want to mix them up with my music vids.

The comments went ballisitc on this video and it ended up being the 2nd most discussed comedy video in the UK for the day, and is still getting a good flow of comments. I didn't realise that other people would find it so funny :)

If you've got a spare 10 minutes then watch the video, and find out what happened.

Funeral for a Hater / Hate lies bleeding

I'm going back to the music vids next.