By Chris Moore:
It’s been a month now since I posted my tongue-in-cheek statement of goals regarding YouTube. Since then, September has been dominated by my teaching and my working for a class on literary criticism and research writing that I’m taking this semester.
In short, no recording this month…
While that is more of a bummer to me than I can properly translate into words here, this month hasn’t passed without some news to report. So, here goes…
First of all, I’ve written a couple new songs that have significantly altered my conception of the album. I feel great about having newer material that is, frankly, better than some of the songs I was planning on recording.
Since I last wrote, and up until the past couple weeks, I’ve also been playing guitar more than I have in a long time. I’ve been playing and playing and practicing on my own (I think my girlfriend Nicole knows the songs on the album by heart now!), and I’ve also had a couple of jam sessions with my friends and colleagues Dan and Larry. Dan is an accomplished performer and recording songwriter, so I’ve been trying to pick up whatever I can from him, and Larry is one of those people with an ear for music that can’t be learned. He must have harmonicas in at least seven different keys, and I’ve been picking up what I can from watching him alternate between them.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly of all, I’ve now played many of the songs that I’m working on for Mike Fusco, who has lovingly endorsed them as my best work yet. I don’t take this compliment lightly, and I keep it in the back of my mind whenever I’m tempted to stop recording because I don’t have the time, or because I don’t have an end in mind, or whatever other excuses one might develop to avoid the work necessary to properly complete such a labor of love as a full-length album.
I am still quite active with The Laptop Sessions blog, as well. I’ve been posting at least one installment of The Weekend Review each week (usually on Saturday or Sunday; big surprise, right?). I just reviewed Michelle Branch’s new EP on Friday, and my review of the new Broken Social Scene record just posted this morning. I hope you’ll continue to check in regularly at The Laptop Sessions page, for these reviews and all the other great material available there. Some people — friends, coworkers — have been asking what the future of the blog is, and all I can say is that I will complete my goal of 52 reviews by the end of the year, and reassess my role in January 2011. I have greatly enjoyed my years contributing to this ambitious blog, and I hope to continue to find a role that is meaningful and rewarding.
On a side note, I also spent the last couple weeks of summer putting together the manuscript for a poetry book that I’ve been working on since last year. I have much more work to do, writing more poems and revising the ones I’ve already written, but it’s tentatively titled 52 Pickup and I hope to release it as a companion piece to The 2010 Project.
Which brings me to my final piece of news…
I’ve slowly been coming to the realization that it is unrealistic to expect that the album will be completed before the end of the year. And I certainly don’t want to rush it out in a month like December, which would be tantamount to tossing all my efforts into the black hole of new music release months. Thus, I’m officially announcing that my plans are to release the album in the first few months of the new year. I feel good about this. And, no, it won’t be re-titled The 2011 Project. The title stands, as this is a document of a very important year for me (2010), one which saw me reshaping the way I perceive my world and the way I live my life. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life, more years than I’d like to admit, thinking about change and writing about it, but never actually accomplishing any of it. Certainly not on the inside. So, I will continue to record and write and practice — not necessarily in that order — and I will continue to post my recording logs here on my website.
I hope you’ll continue to come along for the ride!
Chris Moore Music 
My goal as a songwriter on YouTube
My goal as a songwriter on YouTube is a three-fold endeavor:
First, to write and practice a song that I can really believe in, a song that is emotionally charged and lyrically purposeful, a song that I hope will convey my thoughts and energy to the listener, particularly those listeners who have had similar experiences.
Second, to record the best version I can as a live acoustic performance, understanding of course that it is just a live performance, not a studio recording, and is an imperfect representation of the song as I hear it in my mind.
Third, and this is the important part, my goal as a songwriter on YouTube is not simply to post songs for others to hear — or not hear, as is, practically speaking, more often the case on a website literally flooded with original music by artists no has ever or will ever hear of. My ultimate goal, after posting a song, is to receive feedback in the form of criticism, tearing my song apart in every conceivable fashion, but concluded with a line about how it has “potential” or, better yet, with the all might smiley face because, when a smiley face is attached, it is certain that a person cannot and should not be offended on any level.
After all, it’s all in good fun, right?
Well, as much as it is in good fun for the commenter — usually a person who does not post original music of his or her own — it is not for fun that the songwriter posts music on YouTube. Someone such as myself understands that I am not releasing my videos to the viewership of thousands or even hundreds; I am, after all, realistic about my view counts on YouTube. With such an audience and so little commentary, it can be challenging to process the negative criticism when it is so… negative and critical. Music is something I love. I listen to CDs like they’re going out of style (which, I suppose, they are). I write not only because it’s fun and certainly not because it’s a hobby, but because I don’t know how to stifle the songs when they come to me. It is cathartic and it is exciting and, when I’m playing them for others, even if it’s only via YouTube, it is fun.
So, where is this all leading? To the explanation for why I have decided to refrain from responding to such comments on YouTube: because I do not record and post my original music to garner feedback and improve myself as an artist. I simply will not grow as an artist by heeding the advice of YouTube trolls critiquing my strumming patterns, singing voice, or overall compositional skills.
That’s what comments on my cover songs are for.
Feedback on cover songs is another animal entirely, the key difference being that there is an ideal composition that is acknowledged by all who know the original song. As such, criticism on cover song music videos is much more constructive and useful.
Comments that serve only — or even mostly — to deconstruct an original song in a negative fashion only distracts the songwriter from what is most important about his or her music. Even the songwriter who is an absolutely terrible singer or instrumentalist knows on some level that he is terrible. Unless he is being overly pretentious about his abilities, he doesn’t need — or, I would argue, deserve — to have it pointed out via the commentary of fools of an equal and opposite nature.
For a songwriter such as myself, one who is not embarrassing himself yet is not getting signed to a major label any time soon, I greatly appreciate anyone and everyone who will take the time to listen to my songs. (And I am impressed by anyone who can find them adrift in the sea of songwriting on YouTube.) I will not delete negative comments, but I can neither reply to them nor can I give them more than passing notice, at best filing away compositional topics — strumming patterns, singing abilities, all the aspects that I recognize can always be improved and am, in fact, always seeking to expand — to consider at a later date.
For now, this is my song, and I am not only singing it for you.