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Hello andy.d - I agree with rogerguppy that it is helpful to carefully edit songs in your songbook.  Most songs have all sorts of 'chaff' and 'noise' that are not needed.

When you open a song using the 'edit' button at the end of each listing in your songbook, you will see what the song originally looked like before chordie's formatting wizard does it's voodoo.  The chordie formatter will automatically ignore some stuff, but other things you've just got to fix yourself.  Some of these problems include:

*Double-spacing of text (lyrics should be single-spaced)

*Unecessary line breaks

*Various notations or messages intended to be helpful

*Poorly-written tabs that just occupy space

*Misplaced or missing chords

All of these space-hogging features can be easily corrected or zapped while editing.  The editing can be very slow and tedious at first, but with just a little practice it get's to be very quick and easy.

I have found that printing a whole songbook is generally not desirable.  Rather, I print out individual songs once I have made my editing adjustments.

Hope this helps!

Wonderful song bud_wiser!  Beautiful expression of melancholy - makes me think of a particular ex-girlfriend from many moons ago.  I like it and hope to see more of your stuff.  James

Roger - I figured you would particulary like 'My Last Refrain' since you share my impish humor and are even a bit wiser than myself!  I'm willing to wait a very very long time for that microphone . . .

Hey y'all - just posted "My Last Refrain" in a new thread - another 'country chord' ode.

Roger, you are truly a romantic . . . such sweet sincerity and honest emotion.  James

Hello aragorn - The best way to start writing songs is to start with whatever you got to start with.  If you've already got some melodies, then that is where you can start.  Ideas for lyrics are all around you - just start writing about what you see or feel or think.  Jot down lots of ideas and then let those ideas simmer while stirring gently.  Keep a notebook with ideas and work in progress.

Have fun and keep it simple.  Not everything you write will be a gem - most stuff will be gravel.  Read the lyrics of songs you like and notice how the song is structured.  The more you try to write songs the easier the process becomes - but there is no perfect system for creating a perfect song.

Remember that a song is just a few words and some notes put together.  Have lots of ideas to play with - if one song idea is not working out it is not the end of the world.  There are always more ideas to play with.  James

Hello all in the Songwriters' Circle - I just posted another song, see "Flabby-Assed Buffoons" thread.  Another song in the Country&Western style . . . I seem to be stuck in 'country chord hell' lately.  Not a bad place to be, but everything I hear in my head lately has a country twang.

Roger - Here is a possible solution . . . not optimal, but a 'deviously doable' workaround that allows you to get the beautiful chordie formatting plus transposability and savability.  For lack of a better term, I'll call it:

"How To Hi-Jack A Song In Your Songbook"

1.  Copy the chrodpro text and chords of a song in the forum.  (Or, copy the text and chords of a chordpro-form song from anywhere.)

2.  Go to your chordie songbook - pick a victim - just pick a song that can't defend itself . . . a song that you don't need anymore . . . a song who's end has come . . .

3.  Open your chosen 'victim song' using the 'edit' button.

4.  Now - this is important - in the song edit pane, zap the whole song EXCEPT for the {t:Song Title} and {st:Subtitle} lines.  These two lines MUST stay put.

5.  Paste in your song right under the old title and sub-title lines.

6.  Change your own song's 'title' and 'sub-title' commands to comments by putting {c:Your Title} and {c:Your Subtitle} brackets and c: commands.  Each comment must each appear own their own line.

7.  'Save' the new hi-jacked song using the save button under the edit pane.

8.  If you copied a song lyric from the forum, the chord brackets will need to be replaced in the edit pane - the chords will be in the right location, just without any [ ] around them.

9.  Always exit the edit routine by hitting the 'return to songbook' button after saving your changes.  Your hi-jacked song will be in your songbook - but it will be listed under the original "victim song's" index name . . .

10.  You can now open up your new song now, as you normally would any song in your songbook - and you can now transpose, print, etc.  Your new song will always have the 'victim song' title and sub-title at the top though . . .

11.  Obviously, never make this hi-jacked song or songbook public since the indexing would probably get all fouled up . . .

Seems complicated, but it is a simple task.  Again, not an optimal solution - but a solution. - James

Yes - I have some songs in the oven now.  Have sort of violated my own advice and let one become too precious and am sort of stuck on it at present.  The one I'm stuck on will actually be 2 songs when it's done (same story from 2 perspectives).

Have a couple others underway, one about single-gender soap operas for the easily amused (sports), and another that seems to be about materialism (mini-storage facilities & what's inside all those little buildings).

Hello shawnmgray - anybody can learn to sing better.  Usually the first steps are learning how to breathe properly and how to provide your vocal chords sufficient breath support to produce a clear and resonant tone.  Just as you trained your finger muscles to play guitar, you must put some effort into training your diaphram, vocal chords, and mouth to work together to sing.

A web search on 'voice training' or similar words will turn up lots of stuff.  Here is a link to some basic tips:

<a href="http://singsmart.com/freesingingarticles.html" target="_blank">http://singsmart.com/freesingingarticles.html</a>

Anything is 'collectable', musical instruments included.  I don't begrudge anyone finding pleasure in owning any object and being fascinated by the details of it's construction and historical context.  The phenomena of guitars being highly prized is a natural result of people loving the music they can create.  So - folks who find such things interesting - hey, let them have their fun - it's neat stuff.

I do however strongly agree with you regarding the effect it may have on progress in creating new and possibly better-designed instruments.  Recent innovations in ceramics, carbon fiber compounds, polymers, metalic alloys have yielded woundrous possibilities for creating instruments using these new materials.

However, the primary focus of most manufacturers is to churn out 'new antiques'.  The Model T was a great car in it's day - but modern cars are constructed from better materials and have refinements that make them better cars.  I trust that some creative luthiers are experimenting with radical 'concept instruments' (just like the 'concept cars') using new materials and new ideas . . . but the guitar industry seems mired in a rut of nostalgia.

Oops! I just noticed the chordie songbook link I posted is not working . . . The songbook's name is 'Kid Songs - BIG FUN' and it is in the Absolute Beginner's category of the Public books tab.

Also, the book appears to have only 4 songs in it, but one of the listings actually contains 41 different songs all together.