Jeffstunes's Blog

I'm going off line here to discuss a certain European song contest. Music being my focus.

I watched the Eurovision song contest last night. The only reason I watched it was to be entertained by the commentary of Terry Wogan.

Those not in Europe may not be aware of this competition, but in Europe, it's normally a big event.

The overall result was of little surprise to me. With neighbouring countries patting each other on the back with their votes. Especially what I like to call Eastern Bloc Europe. So Russia won it this year. What a surprise!

I had to laugh when one judge said "The best song in Europe", and one of the judges unknowingly got very close to the truth when they said it was a "Great concert", because a concert is pretty much all it was. It's not what I would call a fair competition any more. Terry Wogan said something like that. He is even considering not commenting on the competition next year, I mean concert :)

Am I sore that the British song came joint last with votes from ony 2 countries? No, I'm very shocked though, because I considered it one of the best 5 songs, and I would like to think that I know a bit about music.

It's even more astounding if you look at all the European music charts. There's always British and American songs in there somewhere. And why is that? Well, because it's cutting edge.

I thought it was between Turkey and Norway for the title. Turkey's song was a modern sound, that was not too far removed from a band called Muse, and for pure songwriting craft, you have to give it to Norway. Well at least those two got into the top 10. The British composition was a pretty good one this time around, and deserved a top 10 placing too. My sympathy to Poland and Germany too (The Polish entry was pretty good) who were holding up the table with us. I wonder when Europe started seeing them as politically close to the UK? Political, you hear me say?

That's right. The competition now has a new name for me. The Eurovision Political Popularity Contest. Well, it's certainly not about the merits of the compositions. I think that was made blindingly obvious last night.

So what are my thoughts on Europe?

I adore it, and would love to travel to all the European nations in my life, and enjoy time with indigenous population. I'm just a regular guy who enjoys meeting people and doesn't colour them for the actions of their fellow citizens.

You can accept or refute my views. I wouldn't say I am qualified to pass judgement on that show. After all, I'm just a Songwriter :)

Well, it's nearly a year on Youtube now, and I've been thinking about what achievements I've made to date. In my opinion, not very much. In relation to lots of others, the Youtube progress is probably quite good, but not as far as my aspirations are concerned. I'm only about 250 subscribers outside the top 100 UK musicians of all time. That appears to be great, but it's not supported me financially at all.

Basically, I'm a singer/songwriter. I write what I consider to be good songs, and that's been backed up by good friends and industry professionals. I realise that at the age of 42, I'm no spring chicken. So I'm not aiming to be a performer. The logical route is for me to write songs, and then push them out to signed bands. In the hope that they would like them enough to want to record and release them. Age doesn't matter. As long as you pen good songs that artists will want to sing and record.

This reflection came about from watching the Jonathan ross show last night. The featured guest was Mr Neil Diamond. He started his career as a songwriter. Writing great songs, such as "I'm a believer", which was a hit for "The Monkees". I'd be more than happy with 1 percent of Neil's success. Neil is someone that my vocals have been strongly compared to.

So I'm not throwing in the towel yet. It's true that the longer you make an effort. The more credible you become to the music industry. The more tunes you compose, the greater the chance of someone important wanting to use them. I've recorded over 100 songs now, but I've only put out about 20 of them. I'm even in the middle of writing a new song at the moment!

Some advice to songwriters. Never, ever give up. You might achieve nothing, but at least if you make an effort. You'll know whether you could have had success. That's better than not knowing at all, and looking back and thinking what if?

If you don't have good financial backing, then it can be a massive sacrifice. You can get to a point where you have almost nothing at all. If you are determined, then you will not let that affect your efforts.

I'm going to finish this post with a link to my Youtube channel, and the current Youtube stats.

Here is my channel. You can listen to some of my original songs there.

Jeffstunes Youtube Channel

Current Subscribers = 621

Current Channel views are 13,352

Total video views are 195,657

I'm going to be building the basic structure around my new song today, so I'll enjoy that.

Until next time :)

I have started writing a new song, so there probably will not be any new videos in the next few posts. I thought it would be a good idea to mention some of my comments and messages, because I get so many of them now.

First of all, my "Fun with faces" video. I've now got 8 response videos to it, and more are promised. This is great fun. If any of you are a member of youtube and fancy trying it out with your pic, then be my guest. Post it as a response to my video. The link is below:

Fun with faces

This has been my best perfoming video, as far as the honours are concerned. At one stage it had 20. The one that shocks me the most is that my video is in the top 100 Most responded comedy videos in the UK, of all time!!!!

Astounding!!

I had a comment a few days ago from someone telling me that I look like a guy called "Miroslav skoro". I've never heard of the guy. So I did a quick search. It turns out that he is a Croatian singer. It's really difficult when you try to compare yourself to someone else. I just can't see it. The only comparison I can draw it that the hair is quite similar in some vids.

Well, how's the lay of the land on the Youtube stats situation.

I've now got 616 subscribers and my channel views are now 13,110. I've noticed an increase in the speed of those in the past week. My total video views are 191,821. The way the numbers are climbing at the moment, I think I'm looking at less than 2 weeks before it hits the 200k mark.

It's almost been a year since I joined Youtube. June 2nd will be the anniversary. I'm going to try and get my new song ready by then. It's going to be interesting to see what the second year will bring.

The fun with faces video I uploaded has had a really good reaction. As I explained in my last post, I saw the website used on T.V. and decided to try it myself, and make a video out of it. In that video I urged other Youtubers to try it with their own pictures and then post their own video as a response to mine.

So far I have 6 responses, and each one of them are very different, and very funny. Here are the 6 users that have responded to my video so far.

gersing

UpDownMostly

beachfrontal

grandplans

Midnightsongstress7

yeuxlumineuxNtx

You can take a look at their responses by visiting my vid, and clicking on the video responses below it.

Fun with faces

I've discovered in the last day, the web site has adding more transformation options, since I did mine.

If I get several more responses to my video, I might do another update post. I am having great fun with all this, and it does my music good as well, by giving it some exposure :)

I was watching a T.V. program hosted by Graham Norton last night. and he went on a website that transformed faces into different ages and races. Such as a child and an East-Asian. All you have to do is upload a picture of you, and you are ready to transform. I didn't hesitate to do it myself, and put the resulting images on my Youtube channel.

I set it as a challenge to the Youtube community. Asking them to go to the site and do the same with their picture. Then post their video as a response to mine. That way, all our strange pictures could be accessible from one place.

I wanted to use music as a background to the slideshow, so I found another old song I wrote, and used that. The song is called "I understand". This way I could get another of my tunes out, and have some fun at the same time.

Go take a look at my video to see what transformations were made to my photo:

Jefftsunes - I understand and funny faces

As per usual. Here are some Youtube numbers.

I've finally broken the 600 barrier with my subscribers, and they now stand at 605.

Channel views are 12,798.

Total video views are 186,136. So close to 200k now. I estimate is should take around 2 to 3 weeks to get there.

The reaction to the last cover I did, "Yellow" by "Coldplay" was really good. It had over 800 viewings in the first 2 days of being uploaded.

That was my most requested song. Now on to the second most requested song. A fairly new number from one of my favourite bands, Travis. This song is called Closer, and it's taken from their latest album.

I've had some good ideas for new videos, but I wanted to keep the best ideas back for my own original songs. So I decided to do something funny for this one. The opening sequence on this video, really gave my video editing software a run for its money. I'm pleased with it though.

See what you think of my rendition of Closer by Travis. I hope you enjoy the humour in the video. It made me laugh when I made it.

The Jeffstunes cover of Closer by Travis

I've put several videos out over the last few weeks, but it doesn't seem to be affecting the growth in my Youtube figures so far. I've got 597 Subscribers now. Only 3 to get to 600.

My channel has now been viewed 12,631 times and the total figure of all the viewings of my videos is now up to 183,585.

That's all for now.

Now on to the 67th video, which has recently been uploaded. This is a Coldplay song of their first album "Parachutes". I have been asked by many people to do a cover of this song, so it is high time I did it.

This is a number I used to sing quite often, and it's a favourite of some of my personal friends. I find Coldplay songs enjoyable to sing because of the scope for versatility in the vocals, and the chance to do falsetto, and this song is not short on that.

See what you think:

The Jeffstunes version of Yellow by Coldplay

My Youtube numbers are still on the march, and here is the latest update.

Iv'e now got 589 Subscribers. I'm closing in on 600.

The Channel views are 12,360, and the total video views are now 178,166. Nearing the 200k mark.

A number of my Youtube friends recommended that I apply for the Youtube partnership program. I tried it, but got refused in a gentle way. It seems that the quantity of my original material is insufficient, or I don't get enough constant traffic to my videos, to qualify yet. I will probably try again at a later date :)

In 1995 at 23 minutes past 1 in the morning, my daughter came into this world. And this year she becomes a teenager. It has been a fantastic thirteen years, filled with wonderful memories for me. Over that time I've gone through a lot of pictures and video, and I'm so glad I did. It's all there for me to re-visit, and live the memories again.

So many people have fallen under my daughters spell. Probably because she has eyes that you just can't say no to. Lol. Maybe I think that because I am her father. All parents think their own children are the most beautiful creatures on earth. I most certainly do :)

One of the things I am most proud of, is that she has a beautiful nature too. That's a rare thing. She is totally unselfish, and would give what she has to make others happy. She doesn't ever ask me for anything except my company.

When I was a child, I used to write poetry, and it seems my daughter has followed suit. I just found out that one of her poems has been selected from an international competition, for publication in a book. One of only a few from her school. How proud I feel.

I decided to cover a song, and change 2 words in it to suit my message. The song is "The air that I breathe" by the Hollies. I changed the line "Making love to you" to "Making part of you". I sung it, and put together some clips of my daughters first year of life.

Check it out, and watch out for those eyes :)

Me singing The air that I breathe by The Hollies

These are the up to date numbers on my Youtube channel.

I have 577 subscribers.

The channel views are 12,095.

The overall video views are 174,676.

I thought it was about time to get a rally of covers up. It's my attempt to try and catch up a bit with my request list. The chances of me getting to the end of the list are about nil. It's well over a hundred songs and climbing. They are coming in faster that I can do them. Lol.

I thought I'd change the way I do things with my covers. Rather than singing in front of camera, I will be recording the songs first, and then I will make the videos for those songs at another time. I'm hoping that this will give me better quality sound, and mixes. I will also have a bit more freedom with the videos I make.

So the first one I chose to do was "Tears in heaven" by Eric Clapton. An emotional song by Eric. Following the death of his son. I couldn't begin to comprehend his grief.

Here is my rendition of this song.

Me singing Tears in heaven by Eric Clapton

The Youtube figures are as follows.

Subs = 569

Channel Views = 11884

Total Views = 171739

I've got a load more covers to put up. I haven't decided which one on the list is going to be next. I'll be recording a number of them. Then I will select from that bunch :)