Hello again, I hope you and your family are doing as well as you possibly can. And I hope this post and the accompanying video will encourage you. I have written a second song called What's Your Excuse? I share some of my life's accomplishments in a way that I hope will challenge people to overcome the excuses that are holding them back. When you listen, please remember that I am not a professional singer, song writer, arranger, editor, or performer. I'm a guy who does the best he can at the moment given the circumstances at that time. This song has scared me more than most things I have done. Read below if you want to learn more about the process and how I finally overcame my fear to share this with the world. It started in February of 2021. I fell in love with Better Together by Luke Combes. But I wasn't crazy about some of the lyrics in his chorus. So I re-wrote them and recorded it. After hearing that, a friend from church challenged me to write a song of my own. That lead to my writing and recording If You Don't Ask a song about asking for help based on an expression my dad used to use all the time. That one came out in March of last year. At the time there were a few friends who encouraged me to write more music. And maybe record an album. lol Then I got busy with the Holman Prize and the beginning of the WYE, What's Your Excuse, podcast network. I helped my friend Emily Trepanier launch her show Shredding For Gold. Finally, my good friend Lorraine Reguly reminded me about my song writing during one of our fairly frequent calls. She even got me started by suggesting that I do something around the What's Your Excuse? line. So many people have said if Max can do it, then what's my excuse. So, I took up the challenge and started the writing process. The chorus was the easy part. The words and rhythm just came to me right away. But that made coming up with the verses so much harder. Because in my mind that meant that the lines of words couldn't have more than about nine syllables in them. I finally came up with a couple of verses. I recorded myself singing them and then shared them to social media. Addressing Criticism There was a lot more critical feedback this time than there was with my first song. It was positive, but it still put me back on my heals a bit. I did my best to incorporate as much of it as possible. I re-examined all the lyrics to find words that could be eliminated or replaced with ones that better fit the melody. I practiced singing the song while tapping my fingers or slapping my pants leg. I tried to learn a bit about editing my audios using audacity, but I'm afraid I didn't make such a great student. It might be easier for me to learn that software in person. I listened to suggestions for more powerful lyrics. However, I chose to stick mostly with what I had as I had already started memorizing the original lines. And I thought about ways to change up the tune so it isn't so repetitive. But I just couldn't figure that out. Trust me, I know this song could be so much better in a technical or professional sense. And I'm open to working with someone to do just that. If and when I meet that person. But I doubt it could be much better as an example of facing our fears, overcoming our excuses, and bravely putting ourselves and our work out there. I finally had to remind myself what I have told aspiring podcasters in the past. That by putting our work out there we give our audience the opportunity to find something to love. Why So Nervous? In all honesty this song still makes me nervous. Even more than releasing that first song. And I think I have finally figured out why. You see since I went online for the first time in 2007 and started selling amusement equipment on the Midway marketplace I have always done it first and asked for opinions later.
