Moving on (songwriter group)
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:30 pmSorry, ths one is a long one.
I went to 7 meetings of the local songwriter group (missing the one this month) and got a lot out of it - getting feedback on lyrical and song structure early in the process is very beneficial. In the past most feedback I got was after I had already recorded the song, and at that point I have no real desire to go back and start again.
However, the circumstances now made me quit the group (or get kicked out simultaneously!) and friend Tammy (who is also here on BM - some of you may remember her posting here way back) and already quit the group a a week or so ago.
What precipiated it: in July it was discovered that the regularly-scheduled songwriter group meeting would be at the same day/time as a local Ukelele Picnic event - and at least 5 people from the songwriter group were expecting to be at the uke picnic. So Tammy sent out an email to all the group asking if everyone would consider pushing the group meeting back a week, and 3-4 people replied that they could do that. At the subsequent group meeting - there were only 4 of us there - we discussed it and voted to move the meeting, and we'd notify everyone.
Well, the group 'president' (self-titled) who started the group - and who wasn't at the meeting, and didn't respond to the email - and one other person (who didn't go to either July or August meetings) took offense that a minority of us (or me and Tammy, specifically) had decided to move the group meeting.
A few weeks ago, Mr President sends out a multiple page 'rule book' that he has put together himself, including all sorts of non-songwriting subjects he wants to make part of the group. And further, he comments that meeting attendees should NOT be commenting on every song (we used a 'go around the circle' method). He also sent out an email to Tammy pointedly saying the same thing to her. Tammy took a few days, drafted a nice email, sent it out to everyone saying, basically, 'thanks and goodbye'. We had talked aobut it before she did this. I was content to see how things developed, not wanting to burn any bridges prematurely.
I heard from 2 other members (both of whom had wanted to move the August meeting due to the uke picnic conflict) who were not happy about Tammy leaving the group or the fact that Mr Pres's actions had caused it.
Mr Pres rescheduled the August meeting back to the original date, went over these rules with whomever was there, and then this past Saturday sent out his 'new official rules' - 5 pages - by email and asked for comments. I waited a day, then made comments based on my own thoughts - that this was asongwriting group, and things other than songwriting should be kept separate, that comments on the songs WERE what it was about ... MR Pres wasted no time in sending out a scathing email to me, copying only the one croney on his email. He accused me trying to dictate everything in the group, that it was 'all about me', blah blah... I replied quickly back, putting the rest of the group BACK ON the email (so they could all seee what he was really about), telling him my email had been suggestions only, but if he felt that way, he could remove me from the email group and I thanked him for removing me from the Facebook songwriter group even before I had the chance to do it myself.
So that's one Saurday afternoon per month available to me again! Tammy said she has an idea for a new 'non-group' as she put it, and called the old songwriting group a bunch of grumpy old men - glad I don't fall into that category (too often!)
I went to 7 meetings of the local songwriter group (missing the one this month) and got a lot out of it - getting feedback on lyrical and song structure early in the process is very beneficial. In the past most feedback I got was after I had already recorded the song, and at that point I have no real desire to go back and start again.
However, the circumstances now made me quit the group (or get kicked out simultaneously!) and friend Tammy (who is also here on BM - some of you may remember her posting here way back) and already quit the group a a week or so ago.
What precipiated it: in July it was discovered that the regularly-scheduled songwriter group meeting would be at the same day/time as a local Ukelele Picnic event - and at least 5 people from the songwriter group were expecting to be at the uke picnic. So Tammy sent out an email to all the group asking if everyone would consider pushing the group meeting back a week, and 3-4 people replied that they could do that. At the subsequent group meeting - there were only 4 of us there - we discussed it and voted to move the meeting, and we'd notify everyone.
Well, the group 'president' (self-titled) who started the group - and who wasn't at the meeting, and didn't respond to the email - and one other person (who didn't go to either July or August meetings) took offense that a minority of us (or me and Tammy, specifically) had decided to move the group meeting.
A few weeks ago, Mr President sends out a multiple page 'rule book' that he has put together himself, including all sorts of non-songwriting subjects he wants to make part of the group. And further, he comments that meeting attendees should NOT be commenting on every song (we used a 'go around the circle' method). He also sent out an email to Tammy pointedly saying the same thing to her. Tammy took a few days, drafted a nice email, sent it out to everyone saying, basically, 'thanks and goodbye'. We had talked aobut it before she did this. I was content to see how things developed, not wanting to burn any bridges prematurely.
I heard from 2 other members (both of whom had wanted to move the August meeting due to the uke picnic conflict) who were not happy about Tammy leaving the group or the fact that Mr Pres's actions had caused it.
Mr Pres rescheduled the August meeting back to the original date, went over these rules with whomever was there, and then this past Saturday sent out his 'new official rules' - 5 pages - by email and asked for comments. I waited a day, then made comments based on my own thoughts - that this was asongwriting group, and things other than songwriting should be kept separate, that comments on the songs WERE what it was about ... MR Pres wasted no time in sending out a scathing email to me, copying only the one croney on his email. He accused me trying to dictate everything in the group, that it was 'all about me', blah blah... I replied quickly back, putting the rest of the group BACK ON the email (so they could all seee what he was really about), telling him my email had been suggestions only, but if he felt that way, he could remove me from the email group and I thanked him for removing me from the Facebook songwriter group even before I had the chance to do it myself.
So that's one Saurday afternoon per month available to me again! Tammy said she has an idea for a new 'non-group' as she put it, and called the old songwriting group a bunch of grumpy old men - glad I don't fall into that category (too often!)
