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.