Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

  • Mood:
  • Music:

Questions for a Music FAQ.

So, in an effort to distract myself from being sad...

I'm setting up the FAQ Pages over on my website, since it's a good way to keep my hands busy. One of the pages is, naturally enough, going to be questions about music and filk. I have three CDs, I attend a lot of filk conventions, it seems like a good thing to do. Now, I know that I have many non-filk readers on this journal. So I put forth this query:

What questions do you have about filk?
What questions do you have about my music in general?

Please let me know what it would help you to know, so that I can put all the pieces together coherently!
Tags: common questions, requesting things
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 47 comments
How is it, exactly, that you fit a fine lyricist, a composer, a singer, a mythology-builder, a continuity-builder, and a mad scientist into the same human suit?
Lots and lots and lots of caffeine.

Deleted comment

You are crazy-adorable sometimes.
What the hell IS filk? Are song parodies filk? That's how I first heard the term. Is it any geeky song? Or any song sung by a geeky person? Do you have to have a beard? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
*not seanan,but here's what I'd say...*

1: Filk is A) a parody of an existing song, usually with a SF&F slant, B) any original song that has a SF&F slant C) Folk music for SF&F fans, D) sometimes all of the above.

2: Yes. Weird Al's stuff? Totally filk, even if he doesn't know it.

3: Also yes. "Rocket Man"? Quite arguably filk, though that particular songwriter never wrote any other filks.

4: Often yes.

5: Gracious, no! There are a lot of female filkers!

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

archangelbeth

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

archangelbeth

8 years ago

hms42

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

hms42

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

I don't really know anything about filk, so any enlightenment you could give would be great :)

And this might not be the kind of question you were thinking of, but what music do you write to? (I'm just assuming you do write to music- I could be wrong)
but what music do you write to?

A question on the question: Are you asking what music she has in the background as she writes, or are you asking which types of music she draws from when working up a parody?

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

kathleenfoucart

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

When and how did you get into filk?
Check out the Music FAQ for the answer, and thank you!
Do you consider your music more in the comedy fantasy side of filk (with which I am FAR more familiar), or more in the serious medieval madrigal fantasy style of filk? Or somewhere in between, in the folk-gone-somewhat-awry territory?

What are your three most favorite filk conventions? Or filk-friendly cons, for that matter?

What's your favorite venue to debut new songs?

What's your current favorite song to perform?

Who do you consider to be some of the most inspiring and/or influential filkers presently performing? How about the most influential filkers you've ever heard perform or heard mentioned, past or present?

Do you have any plans to ever attempt a song-a-week endeavor, even for a short time, something akin to Jonathan Coulton's Thing A Week or Tom Smith's iTom?

What cons do you want to attend that you haven't yet been able to for whatever reason?

What cons are on your Must Attend list every year?

What sort of music inspires you?

What sort of music do you find most fulfilling to write?

Do you prefer to perform solo a capella, solo self-accompanied, with an accompanyist, or in an ensemble?

I think that about does it for now, but if I can think of anything else, I'll post again.

Deleted comment

All your questions have been answered in the Music FAQ! Thank you so much.
Are you going to post the stories and base canon for the songs in Red Roses and Dead Things like you did for Stars Fall Home ?

Oh, yes, knowing that there are base-canon and stories for the various songs is very cool to me. (Which doesn't keep them from lodging themselves in my headguts and pulling out entirely different stories sometimes. >_> )

(On the non-filk side of FAQness, will there be a fanfic policy of any sort? E.g., "okay, but I will never read it so don't send it to me!" or "please... just don't, 'kay?" or...)

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

archangelbeth

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

textileowl

8 years ago

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

Which comes first -- the lyric or the melody?

How do you remember all of those songs?

How do you come up with all the parts and make them fit together in things like Sycamore Tree or Fly Little Bird?
I was going to ask your first question!

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

Info on other web sites and resources that link to filkers, places to find filk music and filk conventions, etc., might be called for as well.
I'm spicing those in throughout, as they become relevant. :)
I don't have any useful questions, but here's another distraction:

Yersina pestis, the black-footed ferret, and the giant gerbils of Kazakhstan.
GLEE!
Some information on the Babylon Wood and your other song-scapes would be good.
I'm trying to figure out how to do that without being utterly baffling. I'll let you know if the clue clicks home!
I'm trying to remember some of the stuff that the seattle magazine guy asked us, that might make good FAQ fodder.

One thing, although this might not be general enough since the answer would be personal to each filker, was something like "why don't you try to go for a more mainstream audience?" He was basically asking why, if we were talented enough, we didn't try making a living at this.

It got into a whole discussion about doing it for love vs. for money, and about the nature of *community* being the driving force behind filking, and such.

For purposes of a FAQ, that might break down into a few questions, like:

Is filking just for professional/trained musicians? Is it just for people who can record CDs?
Then is filking just for amateurs?
Are there any professional filkers?
Why do you filk, anyway?
What does the 'filk community' mean, and who's in it? How do you know if you belong to it?

and then there's
Isn't filking just a bunch of people who can't sing? (No idea how best to phrase that one, but since it seems to be a BIG misconception among non-filking SF-convention-goers, you might want to address it.)

You *might* want to have some questions like "what do I do if I want to record a CD?" but since that could be a whole other huge FAQ on its own, if you choose to go there you'd probably just want to have some general answers, like links to other places where people can research that for themselves, or something.
How I adore you.

Deleted comment

Thank you!