It's been a while since I last posted, and uploaded a video to Youtube. It's been a very busy month, and very little of that has been music related. I attended the wedding of a friend, and I have to say that that it was one of the best I've been to. The whole wedding party was looked after. Coaches were provided between all destinations, so that we could concentrate on the important things, like raising our alcohol levels :)

It took place on the Isle of Man. A highlight of the day was a tram that was hired out exclusively to transport us all to the peak of snaefell mountain. A bagpiper joined us. Together with plenty to eat and a sufficient supply of champagne.

I very much enjoyed the whole thing, and was extremely pleased for them both, that the event went so well, and the weather took a break from raining.

I finally got back to doing a couple of cover songs. This one is another Coldplay tune called "Amsterdam". It was from their album "A rush of blood to the head". This one is in my top 5 Coldplay songs. The video is just a slideshow of images. I admit I didn't spend much time on the vid, but the song was far more important to me :)

Check it out :)

There are a number other things I've been getting up to in the past month, though I'm not going to bother writing about it. It would fill several pages. I'm just update the Youtube stats.

Well. I may not have been doing much on Youtube, but the figures have been increasing very well on their own.

I now have 806 subs. I was hoping to get to the 1,000 by the end of the year, but at this rate, it looks like it's going to pass that sooner.

Channel viewings are now up to 18,423. They are rolling along well.

Last, but by no means least. The total video views have inreased to 291,498. The 300k landmark is less than 2 weeks away now.

I have prepared another cover version, and I am hoping that i can spend some time making the video amusing. It is another song from the "Crash test dummies". I would like to get that one up pretty soon. Rather than disappear for another month :)

I made a decision to seek out some local musicians to help me out with my album project.

The biggest issue I have with my songwriting is on the music side. I think that I pen good songs, and that has been confirmed by many musicians and industry pro's.

I am satisfied with my lyrics, and the general melodies, and hooks etc. The problem comes when I try to get the song out of my head into musical form. Because I only play basic guitar, I cannot seem to add the expression I want from the musical instruments. Like I can with the vocals. I'm quite sure that I will be more capable of that in time, but I would really like to release the album before the end of this year.

I was chatting to a friend of mine who goes to the odd karaoke, and I discovered that he was in a band. He has requested my company a number of times at an open mic night. So I finally went on wednesday.

I ended up getting up and doing 2 numbers, with the help of a guitarist.

I must admit that I really enjoyed the night. The venue sort of reminded me a bit of the cavern club (of beatles fame). It was all underground, and mainly arches. The acoustics were great because the long arches created a funnel effect for the sound. Nice and loud.

At the end of the night, I was approached by a few of the musicians. Who asked me to come down and perform again. So I agreed that I would gen up on one of the songs they perform, if they would learn one of the songs I like. There were no objections . So it seems I'll be up under the arches again soon.

All of this gave me an excellent idea. I could go to various open mic nights and get to know a number of local musicians. Then see if any of them are interested in helping me out with developing my album. I'll make a CD of a few songs for them to listen to. If they like it then we will take it from there :)

I'll keep my blog updated about this. I came across 2 potentials on wednesday, though nothing is for certain until they are recording with me.

What's been going on with the Youtube figures. Youtoube are constantly overhauling their interface, and I've just discovered that they have taken away the total video views. So I had to add up all the individual video viewing figures myself. Here's the lowdown:

My subscribers are up to 746.

The channel viewings have climbed to 17,049.

The total video viewings are now at 262,877.

You can visit my Youtube channel at the following link:

Jeffstunes Youtube channel

Right. I've got to go and learn "Afternoons and coffee spoons" for the next open mic night :)

I decided to change my choice of song, but stay with the same group. Coldplay. After I'd uploaded "Violet hill", I got quite a few requests to sing "Viva la vida". Too many requests to ignore really. So I set about recording that one. It's the second song of theirs that I've done from their latest album, which goes by the same name.

some consider that it's not very professional to cover songs with backing tracks, but I always find a use in everything I attempt in music. I really want to improve my production skills. It's ok to record all the right bits for your song, but if the mix isn't produced properly, then all that work means very little.

I've recently been trying to match the vocal production in the last few songs, to the original songs. I think it's made a big difference in the result, and it's teaching me how to produce my own voice in relation to the different types of music.

I've implemented vocal boosting on this song. Plus low to moderate plate reverb in the verses. Chorus and a heavier plate reverb in the chorus.

Here it is. Viva la vida.

Now for some up to date figures from my Youtube account.

Subs have come and gone, but yesterday I awoke to the pleasant sight of 6 new subscribers. That puts the figure at 727.

The channel views are now up at 16,529.

My total video views have done it! They've broken the quarter of a million views. All of this within a year of posting my first video. At the last check, the number stood at 254,512.

Hopefully I can now go back and do that old Coldplay album track :)

Now for some cover versions. This one is a relatively new song, and it's called "Violet hill". It's taken from the latest Coldplay album entitled "Viva la vida".

I had several Coldplay songs lined up to cover, and I chose this as the first of the batch. I really struggled with the falsetto in this one, so I had to take the music down a key. I still struggled to reach the highest note, but did get there in the end.

It's been quite noisy in the skies above my village over the past weekend. I live a few miles away from a place called Goodwood. They hold a number of annual events and one of them is called "The festival of speed". So whilst it was in progress, I took a few pictures of the aircraft from my rear garden. I've put those in the video. All I'm going to say is that one in particular got very close, and it wasn't a small aircraft!!!

Have a listen to my rendition of this great tune, and check out my photos:

The Youtube numbers are still rolling along like a steamroller.

I've now got 721 subscribers.

Channel views are up to 16,254.

The total viewings of all my videos are a shave away from that milestone. 249,532. If nothing drastic happens, it should pass the quarter of a million tomorrow morning :)

My next one will probably be another Coldplay song. I've got my eyes on an album track from a few years ago :)

This is the 3rd of my old original songs choices. This is a song called "Winner". The lyrics can be interpreted in many different ways, but I wrote it for mistaken friends who need support.

This song was also co-written with Mick Paul. I finish off with details about what mick is up to now in his music career.

If you saw the video in my last post, you will no doubt have discovered that Mick played bass on a hit single for David Hasselhoff in the UK. There aren't many people who don't know who he is. He's been in smash hit shows such as "Knight rider", "Baywatch" and "America's got talent".

Here is "Winner":

Mick is quite busy doing the touring thing at the moment, with an outfit named "The David Cross band". David Cross was once part of a band called "King Crimson". They were very well known. If you come from Italy, There's a good chance that you've heard of David Cross. He's pretty popular there, and it's one of the reasons why most of Mick's touring takes place in Italy.

Now for some youtube statistics news.

My subscribers have seen a really good jump in the last few days. Racing past the 700 barrier to 717.

Channel viewings cruised to 16,017. That's the 16k barrier broken.

Finally the overall video views are still racing forward. They are now at 246,003. I was hoping that they might reach the quarter million by the 17th July. Which is the first year anniversary of my first video upload to Youtube. At this rate, it looks like it's going to get there on the 15th!!

I'm probably going to do a few coldplay covers in my next few videos, and I'm hoping to bring some more news about my forthcoming album release.

I've created a mailing list for album news. The email addresses will only be used for that purpose. It's so I can inform interested parties about events regarding the album, before I post the info anywhere else.

If anyone is interested in signing up for it then you can do just that if you go to the homepage on my website. Here's the URL:

Jeffs music

Until the next post :)

This is the second of three songs written by Mick Paul and I several years ago, that I have selected to upload. Ths one shows off Mick's Bass skills a bit. I wanted acoustic guitar and Bass only in this, and I think it turned out very well. The vocals are a little off key in places. This song, and most of the others were only written hours before they were recorded, so I'm not really surprised at the mistakes.

The song is about a very dark subject, though I'm not going to tell you here. You'll have to watch the video to discover it. I reveal the meaning near the end of the video. It gives a completely new angle on the words.

Getting back to Mick. Here's some information on this very talented guy:

Played on 2 singles in 1970.

Joined "The Hotshots" in 1973. They had a number 4 hit.

Joined "Union express" in 1974 and toured Europe for 2 years.

From 1978, he did some session work for the B.B.C. and for a various number of publishers.

He was also an in-house bass player at Abbeydale studios in West London.

Co-wrote the Labour Party campaign song in 1987.

Joined "More tea vicar in 1990.

He wrote and performed on a single called "Aquarius" for Yello records, produced by Tyrrell.

He played bass on the "David Hasselhoff" single "If we could only say goodbye" (Yes. It's The Hoff).

and more..

I'll give a web link to his recording studio in West Worthing, southern England:

Froosound Recording Studio

Mick is the person doing all the music in this song. He also did the music for the song in the previous post, and the next post I do.

The title of this song is "Losing my mind". I hope you like it, and the Bass playing :)

Now here is the latest youtube account stats.

A rise in my subs to 692.

Channel views are now at 15,540.

The overall vid views are 237,970. Still on target to hit a quarter of a million by the 17th of July. climbing at about a thousand views a day.

Coming next is the third of the old original songs, featuring Mick Paul.

I'm still working hard on the album. I had a song in my head, as I was waking up yesterday. A strange way to discover a song, but I thought it was very good. So I'm going to put it together to see what it sounds like, and if it's good enough, it can go on the album.

I'm going to go back in time a little with three selected songs I wrote when I first started recording seriously.

A few years ago I wrote and recorded 9 songs in about two weeks with a very talented guy called "Mick Paul".

Mick is a fantastic bass player and has done a lot in his career to date. He also runs his own recording studio, and the nine songs I recorded with him, were done in that studio.

I've selected 3 of those 9 songs to put on youtube, and this one is the first of those choices.

This one is called "Amber falls". It's a pretty dark song. I wonder if you can work out what the song is about, before the video tells you near the end.

Here it is:

I have put some snippets of info about Mick in this first video, and I will be adding more to the following 2 videos. There may be a name or two that some music lovers might recognise.

I put a warning in the video description of this song, because the song contains what is known as "Speaker busters". They are very deep and loud bass hits, that can possibly cause some damage to a bass speaker when it's on high volume. So be warned :)

Now for a youtube update.

I only need another 10 subs to get to 700. So the current figure is 690.

The channel viewings have increased to 15,424.

My total video viewings are 235,621. At this rate, I might get to the quarter of a million by the first anniversary of my first video upolad to youtube.

Coming next is the second of these three old original songs.

It has been a mad rush week. I've done some work on my own website, so that I can get it ready for the release of the album. I've updated some of the info. Added some links. I've also put an email registration on my home page, so that people can register for updates on the progress of my album.

I pointed out that the email address will only be used for album updates, and will not be given to anyone else. I have also added that same registration feature to another website I have a page on.

So now I can finally give out my website address. I've had it for a few years already, but it's just been sitting there :)

So here it is. My own website:

Jeffs music

There is a music player on there that has got a selection of songs that I've created over the last 4 years. I could have removed them, because the recording quality is not very good on some, and the vocals are less than perfect on a number of them. However, I want them to stay there for a while to show how everything started. Including all the mistakes and flaws.

The next bit of news is really interesting. I was contacted by a friend on Youtube, who had started up a live internet TV channel, and he asked if he could feature my tracks on his shows. I agreed, of course. He informed that when the first show aired, it received over 1,000 viewers in the first 3 hours!!!

This is a link to that channel:

Music for you - Live channel

This guy needs some more original music videos for his channel, so if you write your own stuff, and want it aired on a live internet broadcast channel, then go to the link above and contact him via his email address. It could provide you with some essential exposure, just like it has for me :)

Last but not least. The Youtube number counts.

I gained 2 subscribers, but then I lost 2 :( So it's still 681.

The channel views are now at 15,146.

Another increase of a few thousand on my total video views. The are now 229,501.

There's been another cover version of one of my original songs. The tune this time is "Broadcast fantasy".

It was performed by "PetesBehr" on Youtube. His recording of this song is a bit like an unplugged version.

He has done a cover version of one of my songs before.

This is quite different from the original, but I like it. It's interpreted in a completely different way, and that is something I really like hear people having a go at with music. Especially my songs. Putting their own influence into it.

First of all, here is the original version:

Broadcast Fantasy - Jeffstunes

Now you've heard the Original. Check out his cover of it:

It feels good when other people like your songs enough to want to record their own versions. It makes me think that I must be doing something right :)

Now, the regular Youtube digest:

I have now got 681 subscribers. Only another 19 to go to get to 700.

My channel views have raced forward to 15,037.

The total viewings for all of my videos are 227,028. Only another 23k to the quarter of a million, and it's moving at about a thousand a day at the moment.

I've been working on my own website recently. I thought that if I'm going to release an album, I might as well bring my site up to date. So I'm updating the info, and changing a few things around. I'll be pumping out the URL when I'm happy that it's ready, for anyone who may be interested :)

I decided to take a few days break from putting the album together, and I recorded a requested song, from a while ago. It's one I've always wanted to do because on the surface it seems such a simple song, but it has so much room for expression. 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. I'm just sitting in and out of a shadow, through the entire 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 concentrated on bringing moments of my life to mind that have strong emotional connections, so that there would be subtle changes in expression.

Here is the result:

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

677 subs.

14,891 channel views.

224,885 overall video views.

It would probably be a good idea for me to get back to making the album now :)