Jeffstunes's Blog

I made a decision to seek out some local musicians to help me out with my album project.

The biggest issue I have with my songwriting is on the music side. I think that I pen good songs, and that has been confirmed by many musicians and industry pro's.

I'm very happy with my lyric writing, and the general melodies. The issue comes when I convert the song from my mind, into reality. Because I only play basic guitar, I cannot seem to add the expression I want from the musical instruments. Like I can with the vocals. I'm quite sure that I will be more capable of that in time, but I would really like to release the album before the end of this year.

I was talking to a mate of mine who goes to occasional karaoke, and I found out that he was in a band. He asked me several times to come with him to an open mic night. So I did on wednesday.

I ended up getting up and doing 2 numbers, with the help of a guitarist.

I must admit that I really enjoyed the night. The venue sort of reminded me a bit of the cavern club (of beatles fame). It was all underground, and mainly arches. The acoustics were great because the long arches created a funnel effect for the sound. Nice and loud.

Before I left, A few of the musicians came up to me and asked me to come back and perform again. So I agreed that I would gen up on one of the songs they perform, if they would learn one of the songs I like. There were no objections . So it seems I'll be up under the arches again soon.

All of this gave me an excellent idea. I could go to various open mic nights and get to know a number of local musicians. Then find out if they are interested in helping me develop my album. I will run up CD of a number of my original songs for them to check out. If they like what they hear, then we will talk :)

I'll keep my blog updated about this. I came across 2 potentials on wednesday, though nothing is for certain until they are recording with me.

What's been going on with the Youtube figures. They have a habit of changing things, and this time they've removed the total video views from their statistics. So I had to do a manual count up. Here's the latest:

My subscribers are up to 746.

Channel views have increased to 17,049.

The total video viewings are now at 262,877.

You can check out my channel on the following link:

Jeffstunes Youtube channel

Now I have to go and learn "Afternoons and coffee spoons" for my next appearance at the open mic night :)

It's all good fun.

I chose to do a different song, but remain with the same band. Coldplay. After I'd uploaded "Violet hill", I got quite a few requests to sing "Viva la vida". Too many requests to ignore really. So I set about recording that one. It's the second song of theirs that I've done from their latest album, which goes by the same name.

some consider that it's not very professional to cover songs with backing tracks, but I always find a use in everything I attempt in music. I really want to improve my production skills. It's great to record all the musical parts perfectly, but if the mix doesn't sound right, then all your efforts are for very little.

I've recently been trying to match the vocal production in the last few songs, to the original songs. I think it's made a big difference in the result, and I'm learning how to produce my vocals in different ways, for different types and styles of music.

I've used a vocal boost on this one. Plus low to moderate plate reverb in the verses. I've used the Chorus effect and a heavier plate reverb in the choruses.

This is the result. Viva la vida.

Viva la vida - Coldplay cover by Jeffstunes

Now for some up to date figures from my Youtube account.

I've had a few subs come and go, but yesterday I woke up to 6 new subscribers overnight. The total now stands at 727.

The channel views are now up at 16,529.

My total video views have done it! They've broken the quarter of a million views. All of this within a year of posting my first video. The current figure now stands at 254,512.

I'm hoping I can now do that old album track cover that I said I was going to do in the first place :)

Now for some cover versions. This one is a relatively new song, and it's called "Violet hill". It's covered from the new coldplay album "Viva la vida".

I had several Coldplay songs lined up to cover, and I chose this as the first of the batch. It was extremely hard to get the falsetto on this song, so I dropped the music by a semitone. I still struggled to reach the highest note, but did get there in the end.

It's been a bit noisy above my village this past weekend. I live a few miles away from a place called Goodwood. One of the annual events they hold is called "The festival of speed". So whilst it was in progress, I took a few pictures of the aircraft from my rear garden. I have added those to the vid. All I will say is that one aircraft in particular got extremely close, and it wasn't the smallest flying object in the world!!!

Have a listen to my rendition of this great tune, and check out my photos:

Jeffstunes singing Violet hill by Coldplay

The Youtube numbers are still rolling along like a steamroller.

I now have 721 subscribers in total.

My channel viewings are now up to 16,254.

The overall video views are so close now. 249,532. Barring disasters, it will pass the quarter of a million tomorrow :)

My next one will probably be another Coldplay song. There's a track on one of their albums that I've always wanted to sing :)

This is the third of my old original songs selection. This is a song called "Winner". The words can be interpreted in different ways, but the meaning I attach to it is for mistaken friends who need support.

This is another number that was written with Mick Paul. I've put some information about what Mick is up to now.

If you saw the video in my last post, you will no doubt have discovered that Mick played bass on a hit single for David Hasselhoff in the UK. There aren't many people who don't know who he is. After being in such shows as "Knight rider", "Baywatch" and "America's got talent".

Here is "Winner":

Winner - Jeff Edwards and Mick Paul

Mick is spending a good deal of his time touring at the moment, with a band called "The David Cross band". David Cross was once part of a band called "King Crimson". They were very well known. If you come from Italy, There's a good chance that you've heard of David Cross. He's quite popular there, and hence the reason why Mick does most of his touring there.

Now here's the regular Youtube numbers update.

My subscribers have seen a really good jump in the last few days. Racing past the 700 barrier to 717.

The channel views have rolled along to 16,017. Another barrier broken.

Last but by no means least. The total video views. They are 246,003. I hoped that they might possibly get to the quarter of a million by the 17th July. Which is the 1st year anniversary of my the first vid I uploaded on Youtube. At this rate, it looks like it's going to get there on the 15th!!

I'd like to get a few Coldplay covers done for my next videos, and I'm hoping to bring some more news about my forthcoming album release.

I've created a mailing list for album news. I will only be using the email addresses for that purpose. It's so I can tell anyone interested about events regarding the album, before the information is made public.

If anyone wants to to join it, they can go to the homepage on my website and register. Here's the address:

Jeffs music

Until the next post :)

It's the 2nd of 3 songs written by Mick Paul and I a while back, that I have selected to upload. Ths one shows off Mick's Bass skills a bit. I wanted acoustic guitar and Bass only in this, and I think it turned out very well. The vocals are a little off key in places. This song, and most of the others written with Mick. were written hours before they were recorded, so I'm not really surprised at the mistakes.

The song is about a very dark subject, though I'm not going to tell you here. You'll have to watch the video to discover it. I reveal the meaning near the end of the video. It gives a completely new angle on the words.

Returning to Mick. Here is some information on the history so far of this very talented guy:

Played on 2 singles in 1970.

Joined "The Hotshots" in 1973. They had a number 4 hit.

Joined "Union express" in 1974 and toured Europe for 2 years.

From 1978, he did some session work for the B.B.C. and for a various number of publishers.

Did a stint as an in-house bass player at Abbeydale studios in West London.

Co-wrote the Labour Party campaign song in 1987.

Joined "More tea vicar in 1990.

Wrote and played on a single called "Aquarius" for Yello records, which was produced by Tyrrell.

He played bass on the "David Hasselhoff" single "If we could only say goodbye" (Yes. It's The Hoff).

and more..

I'll provide a link to his recording studio website:

Froosound Recording Studio

Mick is the person doing all the music in this song. He also did the music for the song in the previous post, and the next post I do.

Anyway. This one is called "Losing my mind". I hope you enjoy it, and the Bass :)

Losing my mind - Jeff Edwards and Mick Paul

Now for the Youtube stuff.

A rise in my subs to 692.

The Channel views are 15,540.

The total video views are now at 237,970. Still on schedule to reach a quarter of a million by the 17th. Rising at roughly a thousand views a day.

Coming next is the third of the old original songs, featuring Mick Paul.

I'm still working hard on the album. I had a song in my head, as I was waking up yesterday. A strange way to discover a song, but I thought it was very good. So I'm going to put it together to see what it sounds like, and if it's good enough, it can go on the album.

I'm going to go back in time a little with three selected songs I composed when I first started recording my music seriously.

A few years ago I wrote and recorded 9 songs in about two weeks with a very talented guy called "Mick Paul".

Mick plays a mean Bass Guitar and has been busy in his career up to now. He owns his own recording studio, and that is where all of those 9 songs were recorded.

I've picked 3 of those songs to upload to youtube, and this is the first of them.

The title of the song is "Amber falls". The meaning is quite dark. I wonder if you can work out what the song is about, before the video tells you near the end.

Check out the video here:

Amber falls - Jeff Edwards and Mick Paul

I've included some information about Mick in the video, and I will be putting more information in the following 2 videos from that collection. There may be a name or two that some music lovers might recognise.

I put a warning in the video description of this song, because the song contains what is known as "Speaker busters". Extremely deep high volume bass notes, that can cause damage to a bass speaker when it's turned up full. So be warned :)

Now for a youtube update.

I only need another 10 subs to get to 700. So the current figure is 690.

The channel viewings have increased to 15,424.

My total video viewings are 235,621. At this rate, I might get to the quarter of a million by the first anniversary of my first video upolad to youtube.

Coming next is the second of these three old original songs.