O.K.....why I change songs from their original posted format....
Right off the bat, I want to make it clear that I don't feel that I am in any way "improving" on what the original poster has submitted and I'm a tad uncomfortable with the "Correct Song" description.
My intent, when editing a posted song, is to save it in a format that more closely matches how *I* hear the song in my head when I think about it. To suggest that I am "correcting" a post would, for me anyways, be the height of arrogance.
I'm one of those guys who will never in a million years, be able to memorise the chords for all the songs I know in my head.
What I do here, is find a song I like in a format that is as close to how I hear it as possible, then save it to my songbook and bring it as close to what I hear as possible with the editing tool provided by Chordie. Once I've saved it to my songbook, I can then print it out and add it to my growing collection of printed material.
Some songs are fully edited, with chords listed for every verse (and that is the ultimate goal for every song) and some just have one verse and one chorus set with chords....usually songs that are easier to play and do not require having the chords visible for playback.
Anyway....I do it so that I can play them more easily in the future, rather than fumbling through chords that don't sound quite right or timing that is just a tad off to my ear. I published my songbook purely because I hoped that people might give me a bit of feedback....either a "Right-On Dude...you nailed it!" , or, the much more likely "Geez man, you really live up to your Screen-Name!...What the Heck were you thinking!?!?!".
I'm always hoping to fine-tune the songs I have and welcome any and all suggestions.
What I *don't* get, is why people publish songbooks that are nothing more than compilations of songs I could find simply by searching Chordie to begin with.
It seems to me, that a songbook should reflect not only your personal tastes, but how you hear the songs you have included in it and, as such, the songs included should have at least some of yourself in them...i.e. a couple of chords that are different or in addition to the original post.
Of course, that's just me......maybe everybody in the world hears songs exactly the same way and I'm the only one hearing them differently which would explain the high edit percentage in my songbook versus the norm.
Can you tell it's late and has been a long week?
Anyways, that brings me to another thought...I think it would be great (for me anyways) if there was an option to search songbooks based on the percentage edited along with the ratings and date posted. I pretty much do that already, as I pass by new books that show 0 editing and always check into books that show a higher percentage of edited songs.
It just says to me that this songbook has actually had some thought and effort put into it.
I may not hear the songs the same way the poster does, but I definitely recognise and appreciate the effort.
Cranky Old, Quitting Smoking Guy AKA Tunedeaf
