Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 May 8

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May 8

"Songwriting"

Hello Everyone...! I just wanted to know the secrets of how to make a perfect song like all musicians write and I have perhaps the most trouble trying to create chords (both treble and bass) for my song and the melody. I don't have any problems with lyrics (I just sing what comes out of my head)! Can anyone help?

--Writer Cartoonist (talk) 02:57, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Writing music is nothing different than any other form of artwork. If you want to write good music, write tons of bad music until you get good at it. You can copy hints and tips from other people, but you'll end up writing their music, not yours. Similarly, if you want to write great books, write tons of bad books until you get good at it. If you want to paint great paintings, paint tons of bad ones until you get good at it. There's no secret. It just takes a lot of practice. You'll recognize when you hear chords you like. You'll recognize when you like how one sounds after another. My real suggestion is to find someone you will allow to tell you how bad your music really is. It helps. Consider the Beatles (who had a many hits). Lennon and McCartney bounced songs off each other and allowed each other to be brutally honest. It may have hurt their friendship in the end, but a lot of great music came out of it. -- kainaw™ 03:05, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm not a musician, but I am a writer. I hear the old "there's a million bad words in you, and once you've written those out, the good ones will start to come" thing a lot, and there's a lot of truth to that -- practice does make perfect. But personally? I believe I've found reading more useful than writing in becoming a good writer -- seeing what other people are doing with words, what their sentence structures are meant to accomplish, etc. And it's not a question of copying them, I should stress, but learning from them, analyzing them and understanding what they're doing and why. There's a difference between simply reading a book for entertainment and reading one with an eye out specifically for the language, structures and construction of narrative being used. Not that I'm saying that practice isn't useful or necessary, mind you; of course it is! But it's probably far more useful to combine practice with learning from those who already know how to do it than trying to reinvent the wheel by yourself. At the very least, you can skip a lot of the obvious mistakes. I'd be willing to bet the same applies to music. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:53, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Hi Writer Cartoonist, two things: you might need a music lesson or two; or get someone to write the music on a score, learn it by heart and just make that one your party piece. Be brave, make mistakes, have fun. The Captn D. and Kainaw are right imo, you are going to have to actually do some of this work: take a few steps, make the rubber hit the road. You've had a lot of good advice on this before so think about starting. Cheers, Julia Rossi (talk) 14:22, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

You know you don't have to make up your own chords, there's lots of predefined named ones that you can use. In my songwriting days I used to just start playing different things until I got something I liked, then I could work out what direction I wanted to take the song in from there. Sometimes I liked what i got, sometimes I'd spend hours working just to get total crap. I have to agree that having someone to bounce your songs off of is great, but most of all just try, if you don't have much success, get some more musical training, unfortunately there's no magic bullet for it. Mad031683 (talk) 17:04, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean by having trouble creating chords. Do you already know how to play a guitar or piano? Those are probably the best two instruments for songwriting. If you're singing whatever comes into your head, you already have a melody. I'd suggest learning a bit more about how music is put together. Get a piano or guitar if you don't already have one. Friday (talk) 17:10, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Have a look at Music theory and the pages that link from there. Those things are useful even if you'd write heavy metal or something. 71.236.23.111 (talk) 17:49, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Forfeit

Does anyone know the abbreviation of "forfeit" (in reference to sports) when used on box scores? Like "postponed" is "Ppd." --Howard the Duck 07:53, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Hi Howard TD, I found these: FF = Forfeit; FF = Force Forfeit (online games); FTG = Forfeit the Game[1]. Julia Rossi (talk) 14:34, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Nice. Thanks. --Howard the Duck 15:44, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

I need information on the Softball game in New York today

I'm the grandma of one of the players on the softball team that is in New York playing in the Regionals today. My son told me I could stream the game in on my computer to listen to it, but I don't know what time it starts or quite how to accomplish that task. Can anybody down there give me some answers as to the time and the steps I might have to take to fix it so my Dad (who is in the hospital - but I can get him a laptop to listen to the game if it's possible) can hear all of the action? Thanks a bunch for any help you can give. Grandma Bobbi 24.239.255.25 (talk) 12:26, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Hi, I'm not from that area, but maybe I can help. Are you talking about the NCAA softball Regionals? If so, it would be helpful to know which college to look for. If it's not an NCAA game, we'll probably need more info about the game to help you out. Kreachure (talk) 13:36, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Is this co-written by grandma and grandkid or something? Just curious, Julia Rossi (talk) 14:14, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Not necessarily. Kid = 20, mom = 40, grannie = 60, grannie's dad = 80. Not unreasonable. --Nricardo (talk) 04:20, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

When you put it that way... of course. = ) Julia Rossi (talk) 09:34, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Table Canons

Could anyone please provide me with example(s) of Table Canons? Preferably I'd like to see one by Bach. Thanks, Neil9999 (talk) 16:08, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

I hadn't heard the term "table canon" before -- sounds like a kind of Mirror Canon and Crab canon in one. I think one of the canons from The Musical Offering by Bach might be a table canon. This page has examples of the scores -- you can see how some of the canons use two clefs, one upside-down and another rightside-up. Check out "Canon 9. Canon a 2 Quaerendo invenietis", that looks like it fits the definition of table canon. Of course like the rest of the Musical Offering canons it is also a riddle, and can't just be played right from the score without "solving" it first. Pfly (talk) 07:23, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Spidey class photo

Could someone please name all the Spider-men that appear in this image? I know some of them, but I'm stumped by who many of them are supposed to be. Thanks! Kreachure (talk) 17:06, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Alright, here's some help, from left to right (and up to down ^^;):

First Row

1. Bombastic Bag Man

2. Symbiote suit

3. Lizard Spider-man?

4. ??????

5. Hulk Spider-man?!?

6. Man-Spider (with six arms)

7. Not sure...

8. The teacher?

Second row

9. ???

10. No idea!

11. Nope!

12. Still nothing!

13. Spider-Ham

14. WTF??

15. Scarlet Spider (Clone of Spider-man)

1. 11 is Spider-Man 2099, I believe. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 01:43, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Last row

16. _________

17. Captain Universe

18. Seriously, no idea

19. Friendly neighborhood vanilla Spider-man

20. Wow, extremely stumped

21. Armor suit

Help appreciated... Kreachure (talk) 22:41, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

1. 11 is Spider-Man 2099 I think. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 01:43, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Here we go

First row

1. Amazing Bag-Man (ASM#258)

2. Symbiote

3. Spider-Lizard (PPSSM #40)

4. Honet (Identity Crisis)

5. Spider-Hulk (WOSM #70)

6. 6-Arm Spider-Man (ASM #100-102)

7. Spider-Man (Ben Reilly)

Middle row

8. "Masked Marvel" AF #15

9. Spider-Man Unlimited (tv series)

10. Spider-Man 2099

11. Negative Zone (one issue, PP:SM #90)

12. Spider-Ham

13. Prodigy (Identity Crisis)

14. Scarlet Spider

Last row

15. Spider-Man 2211

16. Captain Universe (ASM #329)

17. Ricochet (Identity Crisis)

18. Classic

19. Dusk (Identity Crisis)

20. Spider-Armor (Web #100

Excelsior! NetLace (talk) 02:25, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

What else can I say but thank you and, back at ya, Excelsior! Kreachure (talk) 14:38, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Film about flying

I can't remember the title of this film. It's a 1930s movie set on an isolated South American airfield with a company owned by a guy who's so cheap he only buys worn-out planes, which are flown by disgraced pilots he hires over the phone. His latest hire brings his wife and she falls for another pilot. In the ending, the husband forces the cheapskate boss into a plane and takes off. Then he either parachutes out or dies, leaving the guy to crash. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:16, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Never mind. I found it - Flight From Glory. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:45, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Theresa Lopez Fitzgerald Crane mentioning the title of the soap opera Passions

Did Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane mention Passions in the ending of the series finale of the soap opera? Ericthebrainiac (talk) 22:31, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

• It's too early to ask. The final episode doesn't air until August 11, 2008, according to the article Passions. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 07:38, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Can you help me find a movie?

There was an animated movie made in the eighties about a young man going on a rock'n roll adventure. The movie featured characters such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. I have a vague memory of it being called something like An American Rock'n Roll Tale or something close maybe. This has been plaguing me for years now. Please help me if you can.Damntheman7784 (talk) 23:25, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like American Pop. --Joelmills (talk) 00:30, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, that sounds right. The title you're remembering seems to be a mix of Rock-a-Doodle and An American Tail, two Sullivan Bluth Studios films, neither of which is close in plot to what you remember, but both are from the same era. -- Zanimum (talk) 01:05, 9 May 2008 (UTC)