Filk Ontari-NO
Mar. 28th, 2023 09:09 pmLast weekend was Filk-OntariNo, the online version of Filk Ontario, so I attended from my living room.
It is so rewarding, after spending a month working hard on writing songs, to have people to sing with. It's better, of course, in person, in large part because internet lag prevents people from singing and playing along with you. But when you're at home there is no worry about driving home, or how many instruments you can bring, or even whether you can find allergen-free food to eat.
But I digress.
There was so much wonderful music, and I sang a lot! The zoom functions are really good at preventing filk hogging--most of the zoom filks are moderated, and people use the raise hand function, so there's no jumping in twice as fast as anybody else, unless, of course, the other people aren't raising their hands at whatever moment it is.
And I was all tuned up and my voice was doing great, and I still have new FAWM songs that people haven't heard (not counting the ones than I'm not yet ready to perform live), so when there weren't many people raising their hands, I did. Filling in lulls is a good thing, generally speaking. That seems to be better at inspiring people to sing than long silences or chatting.
I started out on Friday trying to follow my resolution to put songs back in their 3-ring binders after I sang them, but that didn't last long and then I had a pile of songs I'd sung already, like I usually do. I ended up with a thick stack, and kind of randomly decided to make a list.
To my surprise, I sang over 40 songs! 3/4 of those were my songs, and most of those were FAWM songs (14 from this year). Two were Iron Penguin contest songs--the Iron Penguin is an annual challenge at Filk Ontario, where you are given five words, one of which is always penguin, early in the con. The challenge is to include all the words in the song and then sing it for whoever shows up.
I did enter the Iron Penguin contest, as I usually do, and didn't win or place, but I have a new song I really like and will sing again, and that is always a personal win.
I played so much guitar, both onscreen and practicing, that my shoulder started to hurt (where the degenerative tendonitis and arthritis are) when I put my arm over even my slimmest guitar, so I tuned the autoharps and kept going (they let me hold my upper arm closer to my body, so that wasn't irritating the shoulder).
And my voice was just fine through the whole thing, which was such a blessing.
All in all, it was so much fun!
If someone wants to read the list it's here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-great-80696652
I am working on getting my songs up on Patreon as well -- lyric posts are always public. www.patreon.com/Wyld_Dandelyon Songs are generally posted under the song title, or you can search on hashtags filk and song. I plan to be posting songs on Bandcamp soon, and will be revising my level descriptions to include downloadable mp3s for patrons soon too.
It is so rewarding, after spending a month working hard on writing songs, to have people to sing with. It's better, of course, in person, in large part because internet lag prevents people from singing and playing along with you. But when you're at home there is no worry about driving home, or how many instruments you can bring, or even whether you can find allergen-free food to eat.
But I digress.
There was so much wonderful music, and I sang a lot! The zoom functions are really good at preventing filk hogging--most of the zoom filks are moderated, and people use the raise hand function, so there's no jumping in twice as fast as anybody else, unless, of course, the other people aren't raising their hands at whatever moment it is.
And I was all tuned up and my voice was doing great, and I still have new FAWM songs that people haven't heard (not counting the ones than I'm not yet ready to perform live), so when there weren't many people raising their hands, I did. Filling in lulls is a good thing, generally speaking. That seems to be better at inspiring people to sing than long silences or chatting.
I started out on Friday trying to follow my resolution to put songs back in their 3-ring binders after I sang them, but that didn't last long and then I had a pile of songs I'd sung already, like I usually do. I ended up with a thick stack, and kind of randomly decided to make a list.
To my surprise, I sang over 40 songs! 3/4 of those were my songs, and most of those were FAWM songs (14 from this year). Two were Iron Penguin contest songs--the Iron Penguin is an annual challenge at Filk Ontario, where you are given five words, one of which is always penguin, early in the con. The challenge is to include all the words in the song and then sing it for whoever shows up.
I did enter the Iron Penguin contest, as I usually do, and didn't win or place, but I have a new song I really like and will sing again, and that is always a personal win.
I played so much guitar, both onscreen and practicing, that my shoulder started to hurt (where the degenerative tendonitis and arthritis are) when I put my arm over even my slimmest guitar, so I tuned the autoharps and kept going (they let me hold my upper arm closer to my body, so that wasn't irritating the shoulder).
And my voice was just fine through the whole thing, which was such a blessing.
All in all, it was so much fun!
If someone wants to read the list it's here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-great-80696652
I am working on getting my songs up on Patreon as well -- lyric posts are always public. www.patreon.com/Wyld_Dandelyon Songs are generally posted under the song title, or you can search on hashtags filk and song. I plan to be posting songs on Bandcamp soon, and will be revising my level descriptions to include downloadable mp3s for patrons soon too.