MARCH MADNESS SALE - OH WAIT - WAT? Ohhhh, Welcome to SOAR'S 2nd ANNIVERSARY

A soaring celebration :)

In march 2009, a group of rl friends who  had created a rather large catalog of beautiful original songs together, took a risk and entered secondlife to share their music with this amazing virtual world.  From the start, they werent sure how it would work or how the world would accept their music.

Two years later, with an ever growing catalog of original  songs, over 425 SL performances, and most importantly a wealth of friendships thru sharing their music, Somerset Oh and Rhode have reached their two year anniversary in second life and we invite you dear soarings, you who have made all this possible with your support and friendship, to celebrate with SOAR.

Over the next three weeks, starting this week, we invite you to participate in the first SOAR trivia contest :)  Each week, for the next three weeks, we will be releasing a set of eight questions.  there will be hint boxes to assist you on where to find the answers, scattered around the colour factory.  Some answers and hints will be shared in chat over the stream at soar shows; but many answers will be found by doing a bit of research at the colour factory or by taking a peek at brightoh.com or bbbright's blog;

Submit your answers by NOTECARD to MARI by 8pmsl time each thursday; the weekly winner(s) will be announced each Friday at the colour factory show;  winner(s) of course will be those who submit the most correct answers :)

The grand prize winner(s) will be announced at the SOAR 2 year anniversary show at the colour factory on Friday March 18.

Information will be updated here, on brightoh dot com, and in our secondlife group.

happy hunting soarings :)  
Mari :)

and from all of soar to all of you,

thank you for making musical dreams come true

hugz from bright, charlie, ex

and the butterfly of the bongos


WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!! We have two winners in our first weekly TRIVIA CONTEST. YAY for Whisper and Precious :)

SECOND LIFE MUSIC REVIEWS

I have explained before how i don't listen to many SecondLife musos when i'm performing and writing myself. I really like hearing a couple of songs from the people playing before and after SOAR, especially if i haven't heard them before, but then it all goes in my memory banks for another time. However i do like to read a good review of fellow SL musos and i have recently found one done by a SOARING, Gold Cazalet. Detailed, generous, interesting and appreciative reviews that i am going to use to help me find performers in SL that i'm a good chance to like.
There is a link in the sidebar of this page - over there.
Sweet work Gold, and thank you for your lovely review of SOAR and for proving once and for all that i am a fashion guru, with a wonderful selection of SOAR photos in your review :)


Bright

OMG WE JUST LOVE DOING NEW SONGS

Yesterday, or was it Thursday, somewhere, i said that i would list the names of a bunch of new songs that SOAR is currently finishing. At the time i thought this would make for a better tease than adding a demo here for you to listen to as we have done previously with new songs. I still think this is the case. Chuckle.
The list will also help keep us focussed and not let any fall into the SOAR Vault. Now it could get a bit confusing if we go and change the titles of the songs but that in itself will just give me something more to talk about in our shows :)
And a bunch of new songs to play during March sounds like a nice thing to do in the month where we celebrate our second anniversary of playing in SecondLife.
For the record then here is the list of songs written in Jan/Feb 2011 -

RISE
SILENTLY
THE MOUNTAINS WHERE WE LIVE
SONGBIRD   (debuted March1)
ON OUR KNEES (debuted April)
STORY OF LOVE     (debuted March1)
STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART
CATHEDRAL  (debuted March 5)
MY WANDERING MUSE (debuted March 22)
FLYING BACK TO CANADA
THE HUMMINGBIRD AND BEE (debuted Mar 20)
PARIS HILTON'S CELL PHONE (truly)
GONNA GIVE YOU REASONS (debuted March)
ONLY YESTERDAY (completed Dec 2012)


We will mark them off as they are debuted in SecondLife :)
Thanks for reading and listening.


Hugza.
Bright

The secret SOAR handshake - and much more.

Today we begin the search to compile all the words and phrases that belong to, and with SOAR, to create a comprehensive SOAR lexicon phrase and gesture resource. When it outgrows this blog and SOAR's website we will make the move to wikisoar.org - ohhhh, hey Bright! add wikisoar to the list.
It is obvious where all this is heading of course and that is to the creation of a secret SOAR handshake for use wherever two or more SOARINGS are gathered together in real life and naturally the creation of a secret SOAR handshake animation for use in SecondLife.


WE NEED YOUR HELP


Please send Bright (via the blog or email watever) any words, phrases or gestures that have become such a fun part of SOAR concerts, and we will compile them into one big, huge like, list.
Thank you sweet peoples :)

Spewin!!!! This is a travesty or sumfin.

As many of you would know SOAR dedicated 2010 to its pursuit of a GRAMMY AWARD, in particular the Grammy for BEST LINER NOTES, though others would have been gratefully accepted. In one of the biggest upsets at the Grammy Awards, ever, we missed out, we didn't even get BEST SUPPORTING LINER NOTES.
Bring on 2012 i say.
Bright

When is a song a good song? Songwriting - the SOAR way. Part 1

Well we all do know the answer to this - it's a song that we like. In part this explains why there are songs written that we don't like too. It is subjective and gladly so. But you know that band, guy, girl that you are really into - you have all their CDs - they sell zillions of them - well how the hell did they ever release that last CD that was just rubbish!!! Yep they all do it. But how does it happen when they are so talented, have access to the best producers, friends in the business etc. Prolly a combination of a record company telling them they had to release a new CD by Xmas, the fact that they are a songwriter/performer and feel like they should be writing new material, and a bunch of friends who weren't honest with them and didn't tell them their new stuff was BAD!
In the mid nineties i was fortunate and smart enough to go to a John Denver concert in Australia - as it worked out his last tour of this country, and he told a story about songwriting and how it can be a difficult and complex road. Now he may have made up the story, and i may well embellish it a little from my memory of it, but here it is. John said that one day he was out riding his horse in the Rocky Mountain (yeah well he would wouldn't he :) ) when into his head came a melody - da da da da da da do do do do do do - and then some lyrics - you fill up my senses like a night in a forest da da da da do do do do. He turned and headed for home all the while singing the melody over and over to himself so he wouldn't forget it. And yes he had to slay dragons and cross flooded rivers to get home, and well yes he did make it seem like he was actually riding all the way back from the Appalachians, but his point was well made :). 
Finally he gets home. Rushes inside and heads down/up to his home studio where he works diligently and euphorically on his new song. Some hours later he wanders down/up stairs seeking out his wife. Hey baby he says, do you wanna hear my new song? Well sure munchkin i'd love to - after i've finished the dishes and brought the washing in. John fiddles and paces the floor. Finally his time has come. Sit down baby and get comfortable he says. He begins - 


You fill up my senses like a night in a forest

Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses come fill me again.


Yes the wonderful Annie's Song had had its first airing.
What do you think of it John eagerly asked.
It's not bad, but it's not one of your best Annie replied. OMG hehehe.


Whether you/we/i/Annie like Annie's Song or John Denver's music isn't the point because i think the point is more like this - at some point there isn't a song and then there is. And somehow from the moment when the first da da da or melody came to the writers head they found their way through the labyrinth of things that can go wrong (most of all amongst these things your partner not liking the song) and made it onto a CD and onto radio and into our lives.
And i am so happy that they do that i will forgive the other songwriting process that somehow lets really bad songs make it onto CDs and radio as well.


Part 2 of this blog entry will be about how SOAR write songs and make their way through this labyrinth. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
Bright