Week 16 of the 20/20 project and an ‘open source songwriting’ invitation

September 10, 2007

Well, here we are at week 16 of the project an this time I’ve come up with a simple Gospel song with an Americana ballad feel, something I haven’t really done before.

I’d like to throw this song open for co-writing, I’ve got a verse and pre-chorus going on here but not much else at this stage.

I haven’t fully articulated what I’m about to share with you before, but this seems like a good opportunity to unveil an idea that I have had for a while.

Open source songwriting. I have this hunch that there is a wealth of creativity that could be tapped into if the the songwriting process could have an ‘open source’ shared ownership to it.

Here’s how I see it working:

I’d like to see a community of songwriters, musicians and lyric writers

One of us has an idea, maybe a lyric and a bit of a melody or perhaps a couple of complete verses but no chorus. We share our embryonic idea and invite others to contribute suggestions. Other members of the community take what’s on the table, add their creativity to the original idea and share their version of the song. This process gets repeated as often as necessary until the originator of the idea is happy with the final product. The person who initiates an idea always retains the right to accept or reject other contributions.

So who owns the end product then?

My suggestion is that the person who initiated the project owns at least 50% of the song. The other 50% is equally owned by whatever number of other contributors work was accepted. For example, if the suggestions of three other writers were used in the final song then they each own 16.66% (50% divided by three).

The beauty is that it is potentially win-win for all parties and contributions can be covered by the Creative Commons licensing process which allows free sharing of ideas as long as they are not used for commercial gain with out permission of the owner. This means that ideas contrubuted, whether used or not, still belong to the person who came up with them – yet by contributing them to a project they could create something greater than the sum of it’s parts!

Anyhow, I’ll write more about this in future – in the meantime here’s the song for your comments and/or contributions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License

Some of the lyrics weren’t clear in the video basically becasue I tried to sing it in a key that was too low!

Here’s a much clearer mp3 if-you-counted-sin.mp3

Posted by Andy | Filed Under 20/20 Project - 20 Songs in 20 Weeks

Comments

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holly

andy, this is a pretty song! i like the guitar sounds and the ballad quality of it.
i have several half finished songs and don’t know what to do(am not very proficient on guitar)! so this project interests me…
holly

andy, this is a pretty song! i like the guitar sounds and the ballad quality of it.
i have several half finished songs and don’t know what to do(am not very proficient on guitar)! so this project interests me…
http://elmstreetmission.com ben palm

Wow! Love the song so far. A song from the heart. My parents were hippies so love the folk guitar playing. I couldn’t get a whole chorus but continued singing after you stopped with these words. Started from the last strum you did.
Nothing but Jesus
Nothing but His great love
Nothing but Jesus

God Bless Ben. Oh yeah thanks for relaying message.
http://elmstreetmission.com ben palm

Wow! Love the song so far. A song from the heart. My parents were hippies so love the folk guitar playing. I couldn’t get a whole chorus but continued singing after you stopped with these words. Started from the last strum you did.
Nothing but Jesus
Nothing but His great love
Nothing but Jesus

God Bless Ben. Oh yeah thanks for relaying message.
http://elmstreetmission.com ben palm

I forgot to mention that I like the idea of the project you were talking about. I have a couple songs God gave me but I don’t play a lead instrument. I’m sure some of the words could be tweaked to help it out.
http://elmstreetmission.com ben palm

I forgot to mention that I like the idea of the project you were talking about. I have a couple songs God gave me but I don’t play a lead instrument. I’m sure some of the words could be tweaked to help it out.
http://fayesmithmusic.com Faye Smith

I’ve gotta be honest. I’m not feeling/loving the Americana thing. It reminds me of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood a bit.

I really, really like the first line. Right out of the gate it speaks of humility, which is the currency of the kingdom.

I’ve worked a fair bit on this. It came out a bit…well…radically different than I think you originally intended!

“I Come Clean”

If you counted sin who could stand
I’d be a soul condemned
But pardon mercy freedom and life
(rest) you grant instead

pre
And all because of Jesus’ love
And all because of Jesus’ blood
Washing over me
And I come clean

ch
Jesus I come, Jesus I come
And I come clean
A former casualty
I come willingly, I come (repeat all)
I come……..
And I come clean!

Bridge
I am accepted, I am adopted
I come clean, that’s what you offer – It’s what you offer
http://fayesmithmusic.com Faye Smith

I’ve gotta be honest. I’m not feeling/loving the Americana thing. It reminds me of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood a bit.

I really, really like the first line. Right out of the gate it speaks of humility, which is the currency of the kingdom.

I’ve worked a fair bit on this. It came out a bit…well…radically different than I think you originally intended!

“I Come Clean”

If you counted sin who could stand
I’d be a soul condemned
But pardon mercy freedom and life
(rest) you grant instead

pre
And all because of Jesus’ love
And all because of Jesus’ blood
Washing over me
And I come clean

ch
Jesus I come, Jesus I come
And I come clean
A former casualty
I come willingly, I come (repeat all)
I come……..
And I come clean!

Bridge
I am accepted, I am adopted
I come clean, that’s what you offer – It’s what you offer
http://fayesmithmusic.com Faye Smith

Hold the presses! (haha) My husband Mike just walked in (guitarist extraordinaire) and I played it for him. He said it needs to (1) have a 2nd verse; (2) nix the bridge; and (3) when I repeat the chorus to have additional phrases in the place of “A former casualty, I come willingly”. He said, “Hey Faye, I think you wrote your first Darryl Evans-sounding song!” –Which is a huge compliment! So now I’m off to work on this! Yay!
http://fayesmithmusic.com Faye Smith

Hold the presses! (haha) My husband Mike just walked in (guitarist extraordinaire) and I played it for him. He said it needs to (1) have a 2nd verse; (2) nix the bridge; and (3) when I repeat the chorus to have additional phrases in the place of “A former casualty, I come willingly”. He said, “Hey Faye, I think you wrote your first Darryl Evans-sounding song!” –Which is a huge compliment! So now I’m off to work on this! Yay!
http://www.mattmcchlery.com Matt McChlery

Hi Andy

This song collaboration idea sounds fantastic! I have recently been asked to head up the UKCMA’s (UK Christian Music Alliance) songwriting department and this would be a great idea idea to pursue further. Let me know of any developments.

Been working on this song – put together an MP3 with my ideas. Will email it now. Let me know what you think.

(had fun doing it!)
http://www.mattmcchlery.com Matt McChlery

Hi Andy

This song collaboration idea sounds fantastic! I have recently been asked to head up the UKCMA’s (UK Christian Music Alliance) songwriting department and this would be a great idea idea to pursue further. Let me know of any developments.

Been working on this song – put together an MP3 with my ideas. Will email it now. Let me know what you think.

(had fun doing it!)