Straight Up Paula Abdul

I recently did a cover on YouTube of Paula Abdul's song "Straight Up", a favorite of mine back when it first came out. Another musician on YouTube, Clint Hollinson, added his backing vocals and a band arrangement to my video and I love it! Be sure to visit Clint's channel and subscribe, he has some great songs up. Both covers and originals. And when I say covers, I mean full band covers, which is pretty amazing. Check out his cover of Coldplay's "Politik".

The meaning of lyrics

"Drops of Jupiter" by Train is one of my all-time favorite songs. I remember the first time I heard it. I was in Pasadena, California, and I was watching a top 20 countdown on VH-1. Well, I was mostly just listening while getting ready to go to school. I was enrolled at the LA Music Academy at that time, and classes didn't begin until mid-morning.
The song came on, and I guess halfway through it, I thought "Wow, this is good". Listen to the strings, the piano, the delicious rhythm throughout the song. It's a classic, in my opinion. I came to love the song, bought the album a few days later, and also bought the album that came before that.
I always thought the lyrics were just about some girl the singer liked.  But as you'll discover in this video, the song is really about the singer's mother and how he believes that even though she has passed away, she's still around somewhere- in the atmosphere. Knowing the meaning better makes me love the song even more, it's so beautiful.

ScribbleTunes.com

Yes, it's finally here! ScribbleTunes.com
Still under construction and lots of things to be done there, but I need you to help me! Write me your comments and suggestions. What would you like to see/hear on the website?
Please take a look at it and let me know. There's a contact form on the website.


ScribbleTunes.com

Reverb Nation

I set up a site on Reverb Nation today. I'm not so crazy about MySpace anymore, plus today it denied me access because of the browser I'm using. As I can't update my Firefox-browser at the moment, because I have an older OS on my Mac, I've decided to make the move. I'll probably leave my MySpace as it is for now.
Reverb Nation looks really good, and it allows me to make my songs available for download as well as a lot of other interesting features that I'll explore soon.

Have a look at reverbnation.com/scribbletunes

See you there!

New YouTube video - Everything's Okay (original)

Lyrics:


Everything’s Okay

Darkness all day
The sun is hiding its face
caught in a haze
I bet you’ve seen better days

when everything is in your mind
you learn to live like you were blind

shout it out baby
don’t make yourself crazy
I am here to
Make it better
I know it’s not funny
When it’s not sunny
Keep your faith
Everything’s okay

Just yesterday
You found it hard to get away
Come out and play
I know God loves you that way

when everything is in your mind
you learn to live like you were blind

shout it out baby
don’t make yourself crazy
I am here to
Make it better
I know it’s not funny
When it’s not sunny
Keep your faith
Everything’s okay

BRIDGE

Chorus x 2

Does it get any better than this?

Minnie Riperton - Les Fleurs



LYRICS

(C. Stepney - R. Rudolph)

Will somebody wear me to the fair?
Will a lady pin me in her hair?
Will a child find me by a stream?
Kiss my petals and weave me through a dream.

For all of these simple things and much more a flower was born
It blooms to spread love and joy faith and hope to people
forlorn

Inside every man lives the seed of a flower
If he looks within he finds beauty and power

Ring all the bells sing and tell the people that be everywhere
that the flower has come
Light up the sky with your prayers of gladness and rejoice for
the darkness is gone
Throw off your fears let your heart beat freely at the sign that
a new time is born

Michael Bublé interview

Something in this interview spoke to me.

Robert Francis

Through Jason Mraz' newsletter I just discovered this new artist, Robert Francis, I'm falling in love with his voice. He's very authentic and rustic sounding. At first he reminded me of Jakob Dylan, others compare him to Bob Dylan and Neil Young. At one point Robert gave up guitar, then got some lessons from John Frusciante, nice!
Check out his MySpace and also the video below.

Song of the morning

Ooh, isn't this nice?

Brooke Waggoner - Heal For the Honey

Michael Jackson - This Is It (cover)

Lyrics and chords below

Lyrics & Chorus for "This Is It" by Michael Jackson

Lyrics

Verse:
This is it, here I stand
I’m the light of the world, I feel grand
Got this love I can feel
And I know yes for sure it is real

Pre-chorus:
And it feels as though I’ve seen your face a thousand times
And you said you really know me too yourself
And I know that you have got addicted with your eyes
But you say you gonna live it for yourself.

Chorus:
I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

This is it, I can say,
I’m the light of the world, run away
We can feel, this is real
Every time I’m in love that I feel

And I feel as though I’ve known you since 1,000 years
And you tell me that you’ve seen my face before.
And you said to me you don’t want me hanging round
Many times, wanna do it here before

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

This is it, I can feel
I’m the light of the world, this is real
Feel my song, we can say
And I tell you I feel that way

And I feel as though I’ve known you for a thousand years
And you said you want some of this yourself
And you said won’t you go with me, on a while
And I know that it’s really cool myself

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand


Chords
Verse: Bb Eb
Pre-chorus: Fm7 Bb
Chorus: Cm7 Dm7

New original on YouTube - That Something

Lyrics

That Something

Verse/Chorus: Am7 D
Bridge: F D

Verse:
Ooh, do I really wanna stay
Is it better where I am?
Something in me wants to fly away
Never to return again

Chorus:
I wanna do that something
That keeps me up at night
I wanna do that something
That makes me feel alright

Verse:
What exactly do you wanna do?
Where are you gonna go my friend?
I think I know what you're supposed to do
When are you coming home again?

Chorus:
I wanna do that something
That keeps me up at night
I wanna do that something
That makes me feel alright

Bridge:
It's a song that keeps you up at night
It's that dream that makes you feel like you're alive

New original on MySpace "Talk About It"

There's a new original on MySpace, finally.
http://www.myspace.com/scribbletunes
Your comments are welcome, either here or on MySpace.

(October 10th edit: The song is also on YouTube now, with small lyric changes)



Here are the chords and lyrics.

Talk About It
Verse: D Dm7 C G/ D Dm7 C A
Chorus: D G C D / F F G G


Verse:
Sometimes I can change it all
the world is at my feet
next time when I look around
there's no hope left for me

talk about a million things
but I can't do the walk
I wanna write a killer song
that's never heard before

Chorus:
All this time you're wasting now
you'll never get it back
Worry never added much
to the time that you got
well the world won't stop turning
it won't wait around
and every place you go to
trust that you'll be safe and sound

Verse:
why is it that inspiration
is sneaking out the door
and then I get that same old feeling
like I've been here before

I can't help but think too much
about what might have been
I'm tryin' hard to find a purpose
to live this life I'm in

Chorus:
All this time you're wasting now
you'll never get it back
Worry never added much
to the time that you got
well the world won't stop turning
it won't wait around
and every place you go to
trust that you'll be safe and sound

talk about a million things
but I can't do the walk
choices got me all confused
now that is food for thought

List of Songs

Three years on YouTube amounts to a lot of videos! It was fun to actually compile a list and see it in writing.

The videos are listed in reverse chronological order, so the newest first. I've divided the list into covers & originals.

Covers:
Sheryl Crow – There Goes the Neighborhood
Adele/Bob Dylan – To Make You Feel My Love
Jack Johnson – Better Together
Diana Krall – Cry Me A River
Petula Clark – Downtown
Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me
Whitney Houston – My Love Is Your Love
Todd Kuffner – Tether Pole
Shanice – I Love Your Smile
Alison Krauss – Goodbye Is All We Have
KT Tunstall – Stoppin’ the Love
Jack Johnson – Inaudible Melodies
Dionne Warwick/Diana Krall – Walk On By
Gabriela Cilmi – Sweet About Me
Fugazi – Waiting Room
Sam Philips – I Need Love
Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good
The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
Michael Jackson – Human Nature
Jason Mraz – Who Needs Shelter
Juliana Hatfield – This Lonely Love
Sufjan Stevens – Chicago
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Lauryn Hill – Everything Is Everything
Jason Mraz – I’m Yours
Paula Fuga & Jack Johnson – Country Road
Nelly Furtado – Turn Off the Lights
Patty Griffin – No Bad News
Marie Frank – Symptom Of My Time
Sixpence None The Richer – Us
Sheryl Crow – It Don’t Hurt
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
Justin Nozuka – Criminal
U2 – Angel of Harlem
Tasmin Archer – Sleeping Satellite
Hootie & the Blowfish - Hold My Hand
Norah Jones – Nightingale
Beck – Loser
Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight
Radiohead – Karma Police
Roachford – The Way I Feel
Sixpence None The Richer – Kiss Me
Michael Jackson – Give In To Me
Jack Johnson – Breakdown
Jason Mraz – The Beauty In Ugly
Blind Melon – No Rain
Stevie Wonder – I Wish
Alberte – Du Elsker Bedre
U2 – Mysterious Ways
Sublime – What I Got
Sheryl Crow – Everyday Is A Winding Road
Ben Harper – Steal My Kisses
Blood, Sweat & Tears – Spinning Wheel
Justin Timberlake – What Goes Around
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
Alanis Morrisette – Ironic
Sarah McLachlan – Building A Mystery
Jackson 5 – I Want You Back
Jack Johnson – Middle Man
Jason Mraz – The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)
Jack Johnson – Rodeo Clowns

Originals:
Sleep Tonight
Every Little Step
Can’t Help It
Give It Up
Alright (Best of Both Worlds
Happiness Comes And Goes
Get It Back
Let Me In
What Do I Have To Do?
Change
What’s Your Story?
Life Is A Banquet

That's it...:)

Three years on YouTube

Tomorrow, I celebrate three years on YouTube.

The first video I uploaded was a cover of Jack Johnson's "Rodeo Clowns".

As you can see, it showed mostly my arm. I've become less shy since then. I never knew what to expect of that first post really. I had just moved to a smaller town and it was hard to find people to play music with (except for the 1st graders I was teaching). So I thought, why not see what everybody thinks about my singing voice and guitar playing.

And here I am 5,825 subscribers later. Pretty cool!

I can attribute much of my current guitar playing style to Jack Johnson. And also to Jason Mraz. I covered his song "The Remedy" in my second video. Both artists were major influences back in 2002. I learned good stuff from watching and listening to them, and I'm still listening.

In honor of the three years on YouTube, and because I wanted to, I tried to design a new background for my Youtube channel today. On my computer screen it looks pretty good, if it looks really weird on your screens, please leave me a comment! :)

Also, do write me requests!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Petula Clark - Downtown cover

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks to those people who subscribed to this blog to be my, hopefully, regular readers.

Here's a new video I posted on YouTube yesterday.


I heard the song on the radio last week. I've always thought it was such an uplifting song, and the orchestration on the original is beautiful.

Petula Clark was born in 1932 in Surrey, England. With more than 70 million records sold worldwide during her career, it's pretty weird that this is the only song I know by her. Or maybe I know some of her other songs without knowing it? Maybe you know a song by her I should know?

70 millions! That makes her the most succesful British female recording artist ever. Wow!

Here are the chords for the song, the way I play it in the video:

Capo on the 1st fret (optional, and so is the capo change towards the end :))

Verse:     D D/a G A
               D A G A
               D Bm D Bm --> F#m7

Then the tricky part ("the lights are much...")
               G A several times...then E7

Chorus: D A G A

In between verses I play D D/a a couple of times.
Each chord has two beats. Happy playing! :)

Choices

So, I quit my job. Then I spent the beginning of August writing applications for other teaching jobs thinking that it might be better at another school. I went to three job interviews and was offered a job in every place. But I turned them all down (WHAT!? in the middle of the financial crisis!:)) I couldn't get myself to say yes because I'm sure it would be much the same as the job I had before, and I don't really want to teach again.
And I applied for a couple of other jobs recently. They're not teaching jobs but still in the world of education. If I should get them, I'm not sure I would want them...

I've been doing the YouTube/MySpace thing for three years now, and it has taken up much of my sparetime. There has been times where I wanted to close everything down, thinking it was no good. At other times (which is most of the time), I think it's pretty fun, and I enjoy reading the comments and mails from people around the world.
Most messages are thank you's and compliments. Some are questions about guitars, strings, mics and recording equipment. All of which I don't know a lot about, but I do my best to answer everyone.

Once in a while, the messages contain offers:
-  Sing in a fancy hotel in China
-  Sing on a train driving through parts of Canada
- "I'll be your manager in the UK"
- "I'd like to build your website for free"
- "Are you sure you want to be a teacher?...you should come to New York City and record with me"

I choose carefully which offers I want to follow up on. That last message, about New York City, was from Kenli Mattus.

Here's Kenli on MTV with his band The Classic Futures


I went to visit him in NYC and we recorded some songs. And it was a great experience.


"Can't Help It" was one of the songs we recorded during my one- week stay.




Meanwhile, Kenli relocated to Los Angeles with his wife.

It's funny; when you suddenly have all the opportunities in the world, it's hard to make a decision about what to do.  I think too much. Paralysis by analysis. I have a gazillion opportunities, and I recently read that the brain runneth over when it has just seven choices, which makes going to the supermarket a real workout for your head.

Anyway, the most apparent opportunities I have right now might be:

Stay where I am (Smalltown, Denmark)
Pros: family, friends, security, use money to buy professional recording equipment, better camera
Cons: no music scene, no inspiration, boredom, day job (ugh!)

Go to Los Angeles (Bigtown, USA)
Pros: entertainment capital of the world (sorry, Bollywood), record more music, play gigs, network of musicians, meet new people, weather
Cons: Hmmm... Okay, plane ticket, extra rent, possibility of earthquakes. And it's a little scary, too, just a little.

I'll let you know what I decide to do.  Feel free to leave suggestions and comments.

I Want You Back chords

Here are the chords for The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" (KT Tunstall style:))

The chords for the into/verse are: E (022100) A (x776xx)  Four bets each and then it goes E*, B*, A, E, F#m7, B7, E (add your pinkie on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string)

For the chorus, play: E*, B (7998xx), E*, B (7998xx), A (577600) (hold the A four beats)
then it goes (like in the verse) E*, B*, A, E, F#m7, B7, E (add your pinkie on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string)




List of chords used.
1. E
2. Esus
3. 9x999x (E*)
4. 4x444x (B*)
5. A
6. E
7. F#m
8. B7
9. E
10. Eadd9
--------------------

I hope that helped you a little!

Scribbles

First blog

Hello Everyone!
If you came here you probably know that I'm a musician posting videos on YouTube and uploading original songs on MySpace. Know that if you have ever made a comment on one of my videos or songs, or if you've ever written me a nice mail, you are loved :)
I'm thinking I'm going to use this blog for a variety of things; telling you about things I like, writing up my lyrics, writing chords to the songs I play, and maybe something completely different, too. I guess I could put up mp3s here, too, but I'm not sure you can even do that yet. Maybe I can link to a place soon where you would be able to download them.
For now this is my first post (yay!) and if you want you could also suggest things I could write about here.

All the best!

ScribbleTunes / Lene