I’ve come to realize I’m posing way too much on this thread...I’m so sorry guys! I’m just teeming with lyrics and ideas! This one is about two lovers, one is drowning with stress and other things. The other feels unrequited love and is drowning in his sorrows with our realizing the other person is also drowning and dealing with their own stuff...

“Two Drowning”

Can you feel it today What I’ve given to you Do you only feel okay What I’ve given so few

It isn’t worth much Only yours to touch It isn’t worth much Only yours to clutch

Hold my gift tightly It’s not to be taken lightly What I’ve given to you What I’ve given so few

Can you hear me Drowning so softly Can you feel it today Do you only feel okay

What I’ve given so few Isn’t worth much What I’ve given so few Only yours to clutch

Hold my gift tightly It’s not to be taken lightly Can you hear me We’re drowning so softly

We’re drowning so softly Holding so tightly Words taken so lightly We’re holding so tightly

What I’ve given so few I have given to you Can you feel it today Are we doing okay

Kinda got like a chain gang sorta vibe from it...

“Trudging”

I keep trudging along Oh I keep trudging along Passing faces judging Oh passing faces judging

I keep on trudging along I hear a train chugging Oh I keep trudging along Oh I hear a train chugging

Im walking when I fall The trains on the haul Oh I’m walking when I fall Deaths running the long haul

I keep trudging right along Passing faces judging Oh I keep on trudging right along Passing faces judging

I feel alone oh God throw me a bone But I know God’s Judging Oh I know God’s Judging As I’m trudging right along As I’m trudging the endless haul

Written about an on again off again “I’m a person of my word even though I’ve betrayed my word and your trust several times” relationship...

“The Cycle”

I’ve been told many things My lips spoke of shiny rings Planning time for eternity You spoke of maternity

The past becomes the present The present becomes the past The patterns path is evident The actions seem to cast

Round a circle round we go Round a circle actions show Feelings hurt feelings low Round a circle nowhere to go

The pattern was evident This goes to show The past becomes the present With nowhere to go

I’ve been told many things My lips spoke of shiny rings Planning time for eternity You spoke of maternity

The past becomes the present The present becomes the past The patterns path is evident The actions seem to cast

The patterns path is evident Now my mind is definite Your actions were evident Now my mind is definite

I kinda get a Pearl Jam vibe, Or at least that’s what I was envisioning when writing this, complete with some Mike McCready solos!

“Ghost” by me

I know we never meant the things we said I know we never meant the things we did Tonight we shall lay in a separate bed Thinking of things we shouldn’t of hid

I’ll be your ghost an emptiness The fading memory of our past Longing for our day at last

We carry the shame for our actions Constantly fluctuating never steady We carry the blame for the lack of passion Always willing but never ready

I’ll be your ghost a haunting memory I’ll be your ghost a daunting energy Nothing more than a fleeting memory A future that we will never be

Hey r/ThePeoplesBard, I've come to you with a humble request.

Background: I've been writing a continuous story over in r/writingprompts in a unique way, by jumping from prompt to prompt. It's gotten pretty long now, pushing several hundred pages by my best guess.

Request: A day or two ago I responded to a prompt about a bard singing of a hero's tale, so I tried my hand out at writing some simple lyrics to a old-style medieval/fantasy tavern song. I also tried to put it to some chords, and I think it plays nicely- but I'm not a very good singer and player at the same time. I came to an unfortunate conclusion I should table it until I remembered there was a subreddit for musicians who go around making and singing reddit-related songs.

The Post is linked here and the concept chords I came up with are linked here

It would mean a lot to me if someone took a stab at it.

Thank you either-way!

I was reading about the scandal that's going down in South Korea right now, and I could help comparing this situation to how Rasputin dominated Russia in the early 1900s.

By chance, I stumbled upon Boney M's Rasputin and this situation just screams for another parody version.

Bonus hilarious Rasputin music video.

People will be asked to submit 1) a pic, 2) the cat's name, and 3) a brief story. Then I'll go to work. All day. I want to write a lot of cat songs. I plan to do all the writing and recording live on Periscope @thepeoplesbard. As appropriate, I'll post them on Twitter @PeoplesBard, too.

Any and all of you are welcome to submit your cats and contribute musically. Just look for my post in /r/cats that morning.

--TPB

Hey all, my fiancé and I are getting married next May. We want to have a violinist play for first dance and want to use the song mentioned in the title. However, we have not been able to find a sample or cover of it on violin. Anything you could provide would be amazing.

Oh boipussy, what're you doing to me

Oh boipussy, why did you hurt me...

Oh boipussy, why did you desert me?

Oh I love boipussy, I love boipussy

Boipussy is the best, like a sausage fest with big breasts...

Boipussy, give me that boipussy.

it tastes like candy and it smells dandy, unlike Mandy... Oh yes

Boipussy, it feels so fine, yours and mine - having a wonderful time

That's just a rough "draft" that I came up with in my mind, but I feel it's workable.

Hi everyone! I was wondering if someone could make a song of the bitter sweetness of graduating high school (I'm doing that in about a week) and have some mixed feelings!

Also, /u/thepeoplesbard I was wondering how you felt about posting non lyrical music. I enjoy writing music in my spare time but I can't sing worth crap. Basically capture a mood of someones comment/request. Is that Allowed? I can always show you of something I've written.

Anyway, hope you all have yourselves a good day!

I hope my message finds everyone well!

I was going through the reddit threads as I usually do, when I came across thePeoplesbard comment about his love for writing songs and taking requests that inspire him. I created my first reddit account for the sole purpose of contacting him and I am glad to see that there is now a subreddit dedicated to creating music and giving people something special. Recently I celebrated my two year anniversary with my boyfriend Ged and since I have been feeling sick the last days, apart from writing him a letter I couldnt think of anything to make it special. The idea of him having a small song sounded amazing. We met the first week I came to Australia and have been together everyday since. Hopefully will be for many years to come. Being with him made me realize that sometimes things are just easy and I was right not to pursue anything that didnt feel right before. I am not the creative type (he on the other hand loves writing poems) but I try to dedicate him songs by inputting his name in popular songs. Hopefully he will get to have his own :).

Wishing you a great day

Here's ours: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4lfhr1/whats_the_worst_date_youve_been_on_nsfw/d3n0e56?context=10000

What do you guys got?

Hello, everyone. I'm glad to be finally writing this because a lot of people ask me for advice on songwriting. This sort of embarrasses me because in a lot of ways I feel like I'm just fumbling my way to a song. So, I'll say up front: I'm probably not the best source of advice on this topic. I'm certain most professional musicians and audio engineers cringe when they hear my songs. Technically speaking, my craft is very raw. But that's mostly because we have different goals. I usually am creating in an improv manner (including on reddit); I want to be able to respond NOW. In general, the songs you see on reddit were written and recorded in 15-20 minutes. And, really, much of that time is wasted on technical limitations (more on that later). I do not enjoy the art of rerecording a track and polishing it to death. I respect the hell out of people who do, but it's just not for me. And I'm not into this for business; I'm into it for fun. I'm a technical writer in my day job, and that is an endless process of edits and reviews. I don't want my hobby to be anything like that. With all that said, every once in awhile I pause and reflect on the last 100-200 songs I wrote, pick the gems, and carefully record an album. Just because it's healthy to think about my craft in that slow way. In essence, I would argue that my improv songwriting style is about mining for gems. In my mind, roughly one in every ten songs will have the potential to be worth a damn (an interesting progression, a special chorus, etc.). With that in mind, instead of writing 10 songs in a month and getting 1 that's worth a damn, I try to write 100 songs in a month and get 10. Hence the subtitle of this post; I want to teach you how to mine--quickly!--not write a perfect symphony.

I'm now going to discuss the key elements of my songwriting and recording. Songwriting has two components, music and lyrics. You'll notice that my advice is pretty squishy and full of feelings on all fronts; again, I'm just not a technical person. To that point, I'll make one major overarching squishy comment: To get good at this, you have to do it every day. To do it every day, you have to want to do it every day. And you can't fake "want to". Unfortunately, getting good at this hinges on the same thing as everything else: practice, practice, practice. And not everyone will love this process enough to want to practice it every day. I do. I wake up all hours of the night thinking about songs. I take my guitar with me everywhere because I'm not comfortable being away from an instrument. My heart beats for three things: my wife, coffee, and the raging erection I get for a good chord progression. I want you to love songwriting because I love it. But at the end of the day our desires are unexplainable magic, and I fervently believe that people shouldn't waste time cultivating a skill they aren't passionate about. You just won't really get anywhere. That passion is the part you can't fake, and I can't tell you how to get it. Though, in the spirit of this blog, I would highly recommend writing songs for other people; that gives the whole process a more noble purpose and might really fire you up.

Music:

1. Take a music theory course. I took one semester of music theory in college. That is all you need to understand how 99% of every song you've ever heard was written (jazz complicates things). If you can't take a class (or just sit in on one at your community college?), then read online resources. There are hundreds. I like this chord chart, for example. And this random chord progression generator--which I play with when I have writer's block--is based on basic music theory principles. At the end of the day, theory is about understanding the MATH in music. Uh oh, I used the M word. Trust me, the math is easy; and I say that as a liberal arts major. The math is mostly about patterns and predictable directions for you to take, from one note to the next. The most startling thing you learn from music theory is how simple songwriting is. And not only is it simple, but if you stray from the predictable rigidity, you have a good chance of making terrible sounding garbage. Once you learn the rules, you can experiment with carefully--modestly--breaking them to add character. But first you need to learn the rules.
2. I've never taken a guitar or vocal lesson. I'm sure they're great, but my approach has just been very slow improvement over many, many years. The best advice I can give to would-be guitarists or singers is play the song all the way until the end. It's easy to get discouraged when you're first starting because you suck. But just champion through the song until you play that last note. The feeling of completion is satisfying. It will encourage you to try again. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good when you're starting. JUST DO IT. I have learned to read tabs over time (they're intuitive), and sites like these fueled my interest in guitar in my early days.
3. Melody writing is the hardest part of songwriting, I think. I often fall back on safe melodies (singing the bass note of each chord in a progression, for example). Lately, I've been trying two pretty interesting things: first, I read somewhere to try drawing your melody. I'll take a sketch pad and make a random up down squiggle, then I'll try to hum the squiggle (up higher pitch, down lower pitch). It's just a silly way to make yourself do something new. Second, let the lyrics make the melody. If you have a solid phrase, say it out loud over and over. Feel it in your mouth; words have natural syllabic breaks and tend to arch up and down. Respect and emulate those natural cadences in your melody, and it will probably be more memorable.

Lyrics:

1. I'm a poet first. I actually picked up a guitar because I wanted to add something extra to my poetry. And like all writers, I'm a reader. I encourage you to soak up new language in any way you can. And when you're listening to music, pay attention to the lyrics. Many people don't. In fact, I think this is a big way in which I am different from many of the aforementioned technical experts. How many perfectly polished pop songs have you heard that are about NOTHING? They have no real beating heart or energy? Oh, I like those songs when I'm lifting weights or dancing. But that's not why I songwrite.
2. I've had thousands of people send me poems and snatches of prose over the years, and what I always recommend are more concretes. Concretes are words people can taste, see, smell, hear, etc. New writers tend to fall back on abstractions like love, sadness, depression, confusion, etc. What do these words mean? Something a little different to everyone. Instead, convey those abstractions with concretes. My wife's warm skin when I climb into the sheets. The last pill at the bottom of a bottle. The heavy fog in my mind, with no lighthouse in sight. Etc. Etc. Give people language that stimulates their senses.
3. This relates to my first point on lyrics, but it's admittedly totally subjective: my lyrics have a point. Usually I'm telling a story. Or I'm even being didactic (sharing my sense of what's right and wrong). Lyrics don't have to be like this, but they are for me (even when I'm just being comedic). This is why some Beatles songs--though musically genius--don't do anything for me. They're lyrical nonsense. Maybe they would have made sense on acid, though.

Recording:

1. Don't break the bank. It's just not worth it. The diminishing return on the dollar is just not worth it for most hobbyists (nor most professionals). I sort of laugh when people tell me how much they've spent on guitars. My first guitar was $200 used; it's a Fender, but it doesn't have a model name. My electric guitar came in one of those guitar/amp starter packs my sister got one Christmas. I found my other acoustic in a dumpster in college. It still has the same damn strings on it. Again, this goes back to my perspective on polish and technical perfection. Even if you were skilled enough to eek the perfect tonality out of a $2000 guitar, does it have a serious impact on the song or the listener's experience? I would argue not. Most people with expensive musical equipment are like people with diamond rims on a lime green Dodge Dart from the 80's that is rusting. Do you have a strong progression and melody? Are you telling a story that people need to hear? Are you singing from the bottom of your gut like your life depends on it? Until you can say yes to all of that, save your cash.
2. You can see my set-up here. I use a digital 8-track recorder, the TASCAM DP-01FX. I bought it rather randomly on Ebay for $100 used. I've now used it to record roughly 2000 songs. It has a quality reverb effect, two EQ knobs per track, and some fun built in guitar/vocal effects (though most are useless). I almost always record my guitar and vocals at the same time, and I use a condenser mic (not in this picture). Again, it's a brandless used piece of junk I got on Ebay for $100. If you like my sound, I recommend condenser mics over dynamic mics. Condenser mics tend to have a bigger, more throaty sound. They capture more. This is a problem when you are trying to keep white noise out of your recordings, but I'm not. I like the raw and honest sound. I like to hear my exhales and fingers on the strings.
3. I record my tracks on the 8-track, mix a master with slight reverb and EQ adjustments (I tend to slice off the high end to get rid of buzz), then I export the .wav to my laptop to post on reddit, via Soundcloud or /r/Clyp (Clyp was made by redditors; check it out!). Would it be faster if I recorded with a mic directly into my laptop? Hell yes. But again, my budget is very low. My junky laptop has latency issues when I try to use it to record live. It just won't work. Plus, I'm sort of married to my 8-track process. When I make an album here and there, I use an old copy of Fruity Loops I have to do some better mastering.

Phew. I'll edit this as I find more resources over time. Now GET OUT THERE AND SONGWRITE, friends. Do it for others, and tell them The People's Bard sent you.

-- KC

Would you happen to have the time to record this song I wrote based off the Irish folk song Mountains of Mourne? I was listening to the Don McLean version the other day and I thought his arrangement was quite pretty, but every time they get to the part with "the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea" I would mentally replace it with Dark Lord. The inspiration flowed from there. Any recording I would make would be extra potatoey.

Here's the song:

Mountains of Mordor To be played to the music of "Mountains O'Mourne" by Don McLean. (Piano accompany not necessary)

Oh, Rosie, this Mordor's a horrible sight,

With ash clouds here causing perpetual night.

These wastes won't support any flowers or seed,

And yet gangs of orcs thrive here like kingsfoil weed.

At least when we got here our task's nearly o'er,

Though I'm just the hired help and a vegetable grower

I will see this job done though it brings me to be

in the lands where the Dark Lord rules all but the sea.

Believe me while in Mordor you'd wish you weren't here,

This is no place for fair ladies or damsels, my dear,

I'm not faring much better, the lembas is gone,

I'm hungry and weary but we have to go on.

Oh I've seen me some sights that would turn your hair grey,

Sometimes you can't tell if it's night or it's day,

And I think of you, Rosie, 'til i'm weak in the knee,

But there's no place that the Dark Lord can't look and he'll see.

There's no beautiful elves here of any such kind,

Just millions of orcs which 'ole Morgoth designed,

These wart-riddled monsters need topical cream,

I see one more huge spider and I'm going to scream.

And if off this narrow road you venture to slip,

The long fall will precede a hot lava dip,

So we'll trudge up this mountain, we're almost home free,

I just hope that the Dark Lord doesn't turn 'round and see.

You remember young Baggins, Mr. Frodo of course,

Well he's here as well, though increasingly by force,

I see him some days while he fiddles that ring,

I sure hope he remembers where he's bringing that thing.

But we talk oft' of days in the Shire, long gone,

While that red eye of Sauron's won't do else but look on,

I tell you, dear Rosie, there's no'ere I'd rather be

Than back home where the Dark Lord's cruel eyeball can't see.

Hey, friend!

Sorry for the delay in my response. Thanks to that /r/AskReddit thread the other day, I got a lot of requests. I'm going to try to answer them chronologically (by when they came in). That may take awhile, but I wanted you to know I got your email. Also, getting them all made me realize I need a way to manage the requests, and my responses...this is the approach I'm going to try to take:

1. I'm going to post the songs I write for people on my subreddit, /r/ThePeoplesBard...For example, this first one for /u/SageofHalo that I just posted: https://www.reddit.com/r/ThePeoplesBard/comments/4ha06m/youre_crazy_for_usageofhalo/

I'll try to email you when I do this, but you can also look for your song to appear directly there.

2. I understand that details of requests are often personal, so I won't share those in the post by default. BUT I would encourage you to comment on my post for you (once it appears) with the details if you're willing. Either a copy and paste of the request, or an edited version. I think it would help with the community building for people to see what exactly inspired me.

3. Community building? Yup. I don't want monetary reward for my songwriting, or even fame, but I would like to create a place on the internet where song requests are made and fulfilled. If you would like to help me make this community in thanks for my song, I'd gladly accept your help. What do I need?

Just subscribe to the sub and comment and talk to people. About music. Or anything. Anything goes. Just be nice to people. Ambassadors of the gift of song. See someone commenting somewhere that looks like they could use a song? To cheer them up or make them laugh? Then submit a link to their comment on /r/ThePeoplesBard. Don't even tell them you've done it. We can collude together and then SURPRISE them with the song. Surprising people is half the fun. Don't limit yourself; you can submit for any reason, silly or serious, and for any place on the internet, reddit or otherwise. Other musicians/artists. I have a day job that often requires unplanned overtime. I won't be able to answer requests all alone. And I'm also not delusional about my skills; other people could be doing this better than me. In my ideal world, I'd be the spiritual adviser for a community of art giving, with The People providing most of the energy and doing most of the work. If you'd like to do some of the artistic lifting, or know someone who might, then please do. It's a great opportunity to learn and grow as an artist and feel satisfied. Someone with CSS skills to make the subreddit pretty. I'd be happy to make anyone a mod who has ideas about how to build this place. Though music is my craft, I equally value visual aesthetics. I realize this probably sounds like I'm trying to start a cult. Maybe I am. The energy of that /r/AskReddit thread created an opportunity to really make something amazing, and I'm going to try to make most of the moment. If you aren't interested, and just want to take your song, that's cool, too. I just hope you smile when you see my username out in the wild.

Thank you for reaching out and inspiring me. It's more empowering than you can know. Hope to see you on the sub and elsewhere.

Yours most truly, Kavalier Calm, The People's Bard