Posts Tagged ‘singing’

Video 84.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Another original song that didn’t get onto the album “Sight Or Sound”. The title of this song is “Movement”. I was asked to compose something about the state of the world, by a friend. I thought over it for a while, and then came up with the idea of a global situation from the perspective of an animal. We sometimes use the movements of animals to help us to detect things, because they just seem to know.

So this is what I came up with.

Jeff Edwards - Movement (Original)

Again, this one didn’t make the cut for the album. There were other better quality songs that took precedence. I noted before that 10 songs from my album are on Youtube. I got lots of wonderful comments about my original songs that were uploaded to Youtube. Some of those comments now feature on my CDBaby purchase page. The small selection of comments are available to read at:

Jeff Edwards - Sight Or Sound

My Dad. Part 6.

Lulu wasn’t exclusively in my father’s bad books. P.J.Proby also made it into his hall of infamy. I was told that my father decked him for making advances to one of his girlfriends. Shame on him. I’m sure that sort of stuff went on all the time. It could also be that my Dad was opposed to his pretentiousness. He said that P.J used to wear tight trousers on stage, and that he had a bit of hosepipe tucked inside to give the impression that he was well endowed. I would imagine that any of those ladies that considered that sort of thing important, must have been met with disappointment. The truth will out, as they say. Literally.

Dad also used to do DIY for the family. His sister needed a bedroom painted, and Dad suggested that he would of course get his brushes out. For payment of course. It seemed that all went smoothly. He showed her the bedroom afterwards, and she was happy with what he had done. The pleasure was short lived though. A few days had gone by and because the room was freshly painted, she decided to arrange the room differently. That’s when she found out that all my father had done was painted around everything. There were large unpainted areas behind all objects that were against a wall. I have no idea what she said to him about it afterwards. Those comments seemed to have slipped his mind.

To be continued…….

Back to the present and the Youtube progress.

961 subscribers.

There has now been 22,480 Channel views.

378,848 video views.

The next original song features the talent of my good friend and guitarist Steve Morgan. It’s a song that’s been playlisted on a few internet radio stations!

Right beside you dear.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

82 videos done now. This latest one is my cover of the full version of “Run” by “Snow patrol”. A number of people have asked me to do this, and I didn’t recognise the song by the name alone, but when I found it and played it, I knew it straight away.

I love the song. I’ve used the imagery of roads and light for the video.

Have a listen and see if you like it:

Jeffstunes singing Run by Snow Patrol

My CDBaby webpage has received over one hundred hits now, and the digital album has been sent to 3 companies to date.

Amazon, Napster and Ruckus. I keep searching on a daily basis to see when it’s listed on those sites. There’s

nothing yet. The merchandise shop is currently under construction. If you would like to listen to some

short samples from my album you can visit my CDBaby webpage at:

Sight Or Sound - Jeff Edwards

Here’s the next installment of the extracts from my fathers life.

My Dad. Part 4.

The relationship between my mother and father didn’t last very long. Their first meeting was when she was going out with someone called Michael. After the break up with Michael, my father just happened to make it known that he was around. They are so different from each other. I think you could only uderstand the union if you had met him. He had an irresistable personality. An absolute charmer. Just about everybody loved him, and a lot of them knew what he was like. Perhaps it was that desire for unpredictability. It wasn’t long before my mother became pregnant with me. I’ve asked her what was the breaking point for her in the relationship, and there were a few things that swung it. One of those was where my father emptied out the electric meter, and left my mother to answer the landlord. My mother would not take anything from anyone, and she felt so bad to be accused of taking the money. In one sense she knew it was him, because apart from the landlord, they were the only two who had access to the house. She could only deny the accusations. The landlord loved my father so much that he didn’t believe it was my father.

The other event that helped to break the relationship was my mother’s eighteenth birthday party. My dad came to the party, but not alone. They were a woman on each arm. I think that would just about do it for most people. I don’t know if he did that deliberately to get her to end it instead of him. Knowing him, I’d say it was certainly a possibility.

So it was all over before I came into the world. My mother married someone called “Jeffrey” shortly afterwards. Now you know where I got my name from. He pleaded with my mother not to reveal to me the identity of my real father. Instead he wanted to pretend that he was my natural father. Everything was fine until his own child came along. There was a noticeable bias torwards his daughter. My mother believed in fairness, so as a counter measure, she showed bias toward me. Unlike my real father, my stepfather had a violent streak, and displayed that to my mother. This resulted in my mother fleeing with me as a baby to places of refuge. One such location was in the attic of a convent. The last time I remember living in the same house as him was when I was about 7. I never realised that he wasn’t my father until I was 18 years old, and i didn’t meet my real father until I was 21. The stories I tell about his life before me have been collected from him and confirmed by other family members. There’s more to come. I can appreciate why my mother tried to keep me away from him in my youth. She feared that I might follow in his footsteps, and I’m glad that she decided upon that course of action.

To be continued…….

Youtube time, and it’s the big race to the thousand subs.

I’ve had some good days over the last week and I now have 938 subscribers.

The channel have increased to 21,815 and the total viewings for all my videos are 364,724. I’m getting well over a thousand a day at the moment.

That’s the last of the cover songs for a little while. I’ve got a string of original songs to upload in conjunction with the distribution of my new album. The first four of these didn’t make the cut for the album.

My cover of Through the barricades.

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

This is the second of three songs in tribute to my father who passed away. It’s my cover of Through the barricades, originally by Spandau ballet. If you didn’t know what it was about, I’ll tell you. It’s about the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Check it out.

Jeffstunes sings Through the barricades

I mentioned I was going to say a few things about my dad’s life, and so I will. I only know a small part of what happened in his life. Still there’s enough to mention that will astonish even the most resolute.

My Dad. Part 1

I’ll begin with the basic stuff. His birthplace was a place called Hammersmith, in West London. His mum Lily was a loving and kind person, but his father sadly did not live up to that reputation. He was an Irish waiter. The dad used to beat his mother whilst John was there. It isn’t any surprise that he despised his memory. He didn’t stick around for long. His brothers and sisters all share a different surname to him. Fortunately they had a better father. As a child he used to get into many tricky situations. Perhaps an indication of what was to come. Just an indication though. Some of the people he was to mix with in life ended up doing pretty well, and a number of them making quite a name for themselves.

John joined the Navy at a young age. Though he only managed to hold in there for under 4 years before being dismissed. He got a reputation for fighting, and as a gambling man, he used to set up fighting fixtures with side betting. During his service, and many fights, he managed to get away with only one loss. Part way through his service, he decided to take it upon himself to leave the Navy, short of his compulsory term. Hiding with travelling gypsies, and eventually at his mothers house. This is where the Military police finally caught up with him. Picture the scene. The M.P.s talking to his mother on the doorstep, whilst John was escaping out of the back window. He didn’t get very far before they captured him and returned him to Portsmouth.

To be continued…

On another note. This is quite exciting for me. I’ve finally put together my first album. It’s titled “Sight Or Sound”. As finances are stretched to the point of breaking, the availability of the album will be through Digital sales only. It’s been difficult doing everything myself. The performing, mixing mastering and artwork etc. It’s helped with the costs though. It will be on sale in over 40 places apparently. Some of those include Itunes, Amazon and Napster. I don’t want to come across as an anorak, but I was really extremely proud to have got the barcode for the album. Hooray! It now has a global product identity, and that’s official :)

It’s looking like it’s going to be available to buy in about a month from now. Then it will spread to other online stores in the next few months. I’ll be blogging it when it does, and telling about any reviews etc.

Finally, it’s those Youtube stats again.

The subs have climbed up to 890. Only 10 away from 900 now.

The viewings on my channel have passed the 20k milestone, pushing forward to 20,672.

The total video views are now 343,712.

Next up is an acoustic cover. The third of my dad’s favourites.

Such a pretty garden

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

I decided to take a few days out from making my album, and I recorded a requested song, from a while ago. It’s a song I really wanted to do because it seems a very simple song, but it’s quite vocally expressive. The song I’m talking about is “No surprises” by “Radiohead”.

The making of the vid was pretty easy. Not much going on in it. Just me sitting in half shadow, throughout the song. The video of the original is just the man’s face in what looks like a space helmet, filling up with water. I didn’t use any water though.

Instead, I decided to think about different events in my life while singing, so my facial expressions would go through subtle changes.

Here is the result:

My cover of No surprises by Radiohead

As per normal. Here is the latest news on my Youtube account statistics.

677 subs.

14,891 channel views.

224,885 overall video views.

Until the next post :)

A face that’s different.

Monday, October 5th, 2009

I was watching Graham Norton a while back on T.V. and he went on a website that transformed faces into different ages and races. Such as an Afro-Caribean and a Manga cartoon. All you have to do is upload a front facing jpg of yourself, and you are ready to go. I didn’t hesitate to do it myself, and put the resulting images on my Youtube channel.

I made the video a challenge to other Youtubers. Requesting that they do exactly the same as me with their own pictures. Then post their video as a response to mine. That way, all our strange pictures could be accessible from one place.

This video was a slideshow, so I dug out a song I wrote a few years back, to use as the backing. The name of the song is “I understand”. This way I could get another of my tunes out, and have some fun at the same time.

Check out my video to see what happened to my photo:

Jefftsunes - I understand and funny faces

As per usual. Here are some Youtube numbers.

I’ve finally broken the 600 barrier with my subscribers, and they now stand at 605.

Channel views are 12,798.

Total video views are 186,136. So close to 200k now. It’s looking like it might pass that figure in the next few weeks.

Keep waking up

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

The reaction to the last cover I did, “Yellow” by “Coldplay” was really good. It got a good burst of viewings in the first few days. Over 800.

That was the most requested song on my list. Now on to the second most requested song. A fairly new number from one of my favourite bands, Travis. The title of the song is Closer, and it’s off of their latest album.

I had a few ideas for the video, but I wanted to save the best ones for my original songs. So I ended up making a video for this, which was humorous. The opening sequence on this video, really gave my video editing software a run for its money. I’m pleased with it though.

Check out my version of Closer by Travis. I hope you find the video amusing. I was laughing whilst making it.

The Jeffstunes cover of Closer by Travis

I’ve uploaded a number of vids in the past few weeks, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the growth in my Youtube figures so far. I’ve got 597 Subscribers now. Only 3 to get to 600.

The channel viewings are now up to 12,631 and there have been a total of 183,585 viewings of my videos.

That’s about it for now.

Me doing Yellow

Monday, September 14th, 2009

This is the 67th video, which I uploaded last year. This is a Coldplay song of their first album “Parachutes”. Quite a few people have requested that I cover this tune, so it is high time I did it.

I used to sing this song quite a lot, and a number of my close friends really like it. I find Coldplay songs enjoyable to sing because of the scope for versatility in the vocals, and the chance to do falsetto, and this song is not short on that.

This is my attempt at Yellow:

The Jeffstunes version of Yellow by Coldplay

Well the numbers are still steadily rising on Youtube. Here’s the latest.

My subs are now up to 589. Not far away from 600 now.

12,360 Channel views, and an overall video view count of 178,166. I should pass the 200,000 within a month, the way things are going.

A few friends suggested that I try out for the Youtube partnership program. Well, i did, and got politely turned down. It seems that I don’t have enough original material, or enough regular traffic to my channel yet, to justify inclusion. I shall keep on trying :)

For my darling daughter

Monday, August 24th, 2009

On the third of May 1995, at 1:23am. My daughter was born. In 2009 she hit 14. It has been a fantastic fourteen years, filled with wonderful memories for me. Over that time I’ve gone through a lot of pictures and video, and I’m so glad I did. It’s all there for me to re-visit, and live the memories again.

So many people have fallen under my daughters spell. Probably because she has eyes that you just can’t say no to. I would say that though. I’m her father. All parents think their own children are very beautiful. I definitely do :)

One of the things I am most proud of, is that she has a beautiful nature too. That’s a rare thing. She is totally unselfish, and would give what she has to make others happy. She doesn’t ever ask me for anything except my company.

My daughter has also started writing poetry, which is something I did as a child. Even better. One of her poems has been selected for publication in a book of childrens works. Onla a few have been chosen from her school. That makes me feel really proud.

I decided to cover a song, and change 2 words in it to suit my message. The song is “The air that I breathe” by the Hollies. I changed the line “Making love to you” to “Making part of you”. I sung it, and put together some clips of my daughters first year of life.

Enjoy the song, and those eyes :)

Me singing The air that I breathe by The Hollies

Here’s the latest state of play on the Youtube numbers.

There are 577 subscribers.

12,095 Channel views.

The overall video views are 174,676.

My rendition of Tears in heaven.

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

I decided I should start putting up a string of cover versions. It’s my attempt to try and catch up a bit with my request list. The chances of me getting to the end of the list are about nil. It’s well over a hundred songs and climbing. They are coming in faster that I can do them. Lol.

I thought I’d do things a little bit differently now though. Rather than singing in front of camera, I will be recording the songs first, and then making the videos for them. I’m hoping that this will give me better quality sound, and mixes. I will also have a bit more freedom with the videos I make.

So the first one I chose to do was “Tears in heaven” by Eric Clapton. An emotional song by Eric. Following the death of his son. I can’t imagine the sadness that must have been in his heart, and probably still is.

Check out my version of this wonderful song.

Me singing Tears in heaven by Eric Clapton

The latest on the Youtube Jeffstunes figures.

Subs = 569

Channel Views = 11884

Total Video Views = 171739

There are plenty more covers to come. The next one will be a hollies classic. :)

It’s a sign

Friday, August 14th, 2009

This next number was a collaborative effort with a Canadian musician. I came across this guy a few years ago, before I started posting videos up on to Youtube. He is quite a prolific writer and loves to co-write material. So he would send me the music that he created, and I would attempt to put words and a vocal melody to it. It’s a bit like Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The difference was that we made absolutely nothing from it :)

We got through several songs, and we both quite liked the final results. In july, last year, I started posting up my videos to Youtube. Earlier this year I encouraged my musical friend from Canada to start posting his stuff on to Youtube. He did quite well, and that’s well deserved.

Now to the point of the post, and the song in question. He posted up some music, inviting others to put words to it. It was a pretty good tune, as most of his are. I could hear the words in my head, so I proceeded to write the words and vocal melody. The resultant song was called “Traffic signals”. I used some imagery in the video, which is symbolic of the meaning.

Here is the result of our effort:

Traffic Signals by Jeffstunes and Songvibe

The last time i checked he removed all his videos from his ‘Songvibe’ channel on Youtube. Which is unfortunate really. He had some really good stuff on there.

As per usual. This is the latest on the stats.

539 Subscribers. Still on the climb.

11,121 channel views.

156,734 total video views.

So to the next post. It’s another original song that has a guest guitarist.