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Thanks for listening/watching and commenting guys.

I agree regarding the song length, but 'it is what it is', - songs channel through me more than me 'writing' them. Reworking it shorter would involve chopping the chord pattern drastically (no lead-in pattern 1 time before each chorus would only cut out 20 seconds, removing the same pattern at the end of each chorus would remove another 40 seconds. Removing the lead bridge 15 seconds, removing 1 whole verse/chorus would be 90 seconds, but lose the meaning of the lyrics.
Hey, go tell Pink Floyd and King Crimson their tracks were too long!

John - yes lip-synch (pretty obvious!) I couldn't repeat the lead guitar parts without a huge amount of re-practicing, which I didn't want to do. I did all the video against a black backdrop so that when I superimposed the sun/clouds video, it would effectively disappear.
As to finishing songs, I find it works best for me to work on tracking only one song at a time, I just keep recording track after track after track. If I'm doing a lead guitar part, I'll record it, mute it, then do another one, then keep repeating that for each part. Same thing on vocals, record a track, mute it, record another one. "Oh maybe some keys will work on this" - I'll record piano, or organ or strings tracks. When I think I've got all the tracks recorded, I'll go back to the drum track and start finessing it a little more, than just dive right into mixing the rest of the instruments in.

Please yourself Mike, take the rest with a grain of salt.

If they want to critique your technical aspect, fine.
If they want to critique your creative aspect, f**k off.

Shorten a tune? Yikes, maybe at the very beginning.
Otherwise, if it's long, it's long..

You ask yourself, "will it change the song dramatically"?

If so, that's a bad idea.

It's good to understand where your tune is going.
If you chop that up like so much cheese steak, better have extra condiments to try and save the sandwich.

I guess I am trying to say badly that if you like it, that's all that really matters unless it's badly recorded/mixed/mastered.
(Just say "no" to sabotage)

"Don't make my cheese-steak a tuna fish sandwich, cause I hate Tuna.."

Or as a friend of mine said (he's the one who mastered my first CD and right now is on the road with Neil Young on his Lincvolt electric car tour - how cool is that?!) - "just knock off the lip synching!"

bump

bump

Did you hit your head (bump) Jahva?

More like banged...

Jahva are we bored today?

Mike I didnt mean to critisize the length of your song, I just pointed out that I struggle with the length of songs myself, and have come to realize that most peoples attention span isnt long enough to really listen to longer songs.

I watched the video again and its great, keep up the good work man!

Jahva are we bored today?

Mike I didnt mean to critisize the length of your song, I just pointed out that I struggle with the length of songs myself, and have come to realize that most peoples attention span isnt long enough to really listen to longer songs.

I watched the video again and its great, keep up the good work man!

No problem, John - I agreed about the length! I had a 6 minute+ song on my first CD (the final song, Everything Fades), but other than instrumentals, its the longest song I have recorded to date. I'm not much concerned about today's ADD crowd of youngsters anyway.

Mike I think what it is for me is I have a preprogramed mind toward commercial music. I use that to judge my stuff and sadly other peoples also, when in the end it doesnt matter if the writer wants a 45 minute song or a 2 minute song then its ultimately up to them.

I studied music in college and it was geared toward radio airplay, and it just raises its ugly head every time I listen to anything.

Im like if the hook isnt in the first 20 seconds something it wrong, if it doesnt fit a normal verse chorus type format, then my mind gets confused, kinda like finding the one on a 3/4 or 7/8 song.

I draw inspiration from Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick - 1 song, 2 sides of an LP, 45 minutes long! Drives me crazy when I hear them play the chopped-up version on the radio.

But there is no question that the average attention span for avereage people these days is about a minute. Maybe my next album will be sixty 1 minute songs!

Mike a lot of times when Im working in my office I will tune into old Yes and ELP albums and many of those are long.

I think peoples attention span is shorter than a minute, I dont know how long you really have to grab the average persons attention to a song, when I studied song writing years ago, there was the idea that something has to happen to rope someone into a song in the first 10 to 20 seconds, but I dont know these days, that may be long.

When I write what I call commercial music it tends to be somewhere between 4 to 6 minutes, its hard to get all I want in there in less than 4 minutes, I think as a song writer it might be good sometimes to practice writting songs that are shorter, kinda of like how an author would edit down a song.

Im with you, I hate hearing songs that have been edited for the radio format. One of the first I remember growing up was the Doors Light My Fire, they would cut a huge section of the solo section, when I bought the album I was shocked it had been butchered up, but then over time I found many songs are cut.

Doors - how about the length of Celebration of the Lizard? Or even the much shorter (but still long) The Soft Parade.
Remember Creedence Clearwater Revival's Heard It Through the Grapevine at 11 minutes long? Cream's I'm So Glad from the Goodbye album, 9 minutes long. Traffic's Dear Mr Fantasy, Neil Young's Cowgirl In The Sand and Down By The River ...
Besides Yes, ELP and Pink Floyd long tunes, these are the songs I grew up with!
I don't care if my songs get played on the radio or by anyone more than the one time after they get my album - I do it for me, so the length they are is the length they are. I am what I am what I am...