Sound Legion - Steemit Music Community - Open Mic Judge - What I look for in a OpenMic entry - My Musicial Journey Outline

in steemit •  7 years ago  (edited)

For those who don't know me yet I am Shavon Bonnie Legion.   I am a California Singer Songwriter, multi genre recording artist and collaborative artist.   I run my own multi genre collaborative music house (Sound Legion), sharing and promoting original music I have created, and collaborated on with artists and producers from all over the globe.   I also showcase other independent artists like myself and some of there collection works.   

I joined steemit in November of 2016, off a friends invite @apolymask who thought it might be a great place to start earning rewards for all the music I was making and sharing.    Steemit has undoubtedly changed my life in terms of finances, and because of the rewards system I am now more easily able to pay my way through life so I can keep creating on the level I want to.    There is still so much to be done and I have so many plans in the works that will take some time to see through now that so many new doors have opened.  I have 8 years under my belt in online multi genre collaborations and original solo music releases before Steemit. I was both collaborating over the wires and also international and nationwide travel here in the US, working with artists, bands and producers.   

I had a fire spark at the end of 2008 that completely transformed my life.   I started to pursuit my questions for the first time, cause unlike what everything around me was saying, I had this strong feeling that I could and that I needed to.     I was in a very confusing and hard spot in my life and went from christian house wife and mother of two, to a spiritually explorative, freedom seeking, globe trotting musical chameleon looking to find the meaning of life.    The details of the journey up to this point are pretty enthralling and I am sure over the years I will get into more and more.   If you have been a long time follower and fan you have seen these pieces of the journey being thrown out all over the place in every direction through music.   

I don't limit my sound or my taste in sound to one genre or a handful of genres, I like the whole spectrum.   I am a lover of sound.   I love the emotions that can be risen up inside when hearing a song or even one note.   One mighty blow from a trumpet can shake the hearts of man.  The calming dance of wind chimes can sooth the mind to peace.  A songbirds voice, can bring heavy contemplation into the heart.   Every instrument has its own personality, brought to life even more by the unique personality of the player.   Fusion and experimentation are always high on my list when creating original pieces, and I also like to take on certain molds.    I started out playing only acoustic (I am not the best of players, I mostly construct with my guitar) and traveling around to places in the US and also Scotland, meeting with other musicians and songwriters.   I then moved into the genre of pop and hip hop, starting to work closely with producers and artists in New York.    During this time I made a collaborative connection with a hip hop group in UK and we formed a fusion band together and started releasing tracks and albums.   I was also traveling around the states, Colorado, Arizona, Alabama and Georgia, meeting with artists and working on new pieces acoustically.   I started traveling back and forth from the states to the United Kingdom to work on new songs, new ideas, videos and promotions.  It was through these travels I met the Clyde to my Bonnie, UK rapper "Majik" and completely changed from recording under the name Shavon or Sounds Like Shavon to my alter multi genre ego Bonnie Legion. [ Bonnie & Clyde Legion ]  I was getting into a whole new sound of UK hip hop with everything I was learning from Majik and ideas were just spilling.   We started doing a lot of global fusion sound releases with many different producers from around the globe.    I then started working in Electronic Dance Music, making tracks in Hardstyle, Progressive House, Deep House, Trance, Glitch, Grime and more.   I began collaborating with my head producer today @qrittix Netherlands Sven Qrittix Driesen as well in this time and it was through out collaborative work that Sound Legion was officially born.    We live to express life through music and every joyous, incredible, shocking, angry, happy, lusty, wild moment emotion that comes with it.    For me life is a Journey through sound.   

To give you an example of the variations of music I work in and tracks I have created, collaborated on and released,  here are a few selections to entertain you in various sounds. 

*This is my Chameleon Collection of past releases in various genres of music. I start it out on a slower more chill side of things and expand it out to many different sound places, with some incredibly talented producers.  

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Want Something direct and specific in a certain genre?? click below

Rock  HeavyRock  Grime  Acoustic  AnthemPop  ElectronicRock  Hardstyle DeepHouse  ProgressiveHouse  HipHop  Rap  Pop  Dance  Downtempo  SwingPop Electro  


I discovered Musicoin shortly after joined Steemit.   I was looking for alt coins related to music release and found that Musicoin allows artists to earn per play.    I thought in my head of all the times I said If I just had a penny for every play I had, I could have something to stand on so I was eager to sign up.     Btw you make more than a penny each time someone plays your song.   I believe its been as high as .10 cents.    seriously artists Sign up for Musicoin.   

Please come listen to some of my latest releases and tracks on musicoin.   You will also find a lot of my songs on dtube and dsound.   Although I have releases spread out to lord knows where across the internet I am currently focused on promoting anything to do with Blockchain.   

Weekly Steemit OpenMic Competition

I discovered openmic shortly after joining Steemit when invited by @luzcypher to the weekly contest.    I did quite well a few weeks in the contest and as the music community really started growing and we all started to get to know each other a little better, I was approached by @krystle asking if I wanted to jump in as a judge for the contest as the entries were starting to flood in.    I accepted this challenge with great excitement.   I love listening to other peoples music,  I get a lot of inspiration from it and getting to help showcase others talents is something I am absolutely driven to do.  I find it quite hard to promote my own music, its easy for me to put out how I feel in a song, but online text, type talk, is hard when it comes to getting people to listen to your work, I always feel uncomfortable with it.    One of the biggest tips I can give to other artists out there is to discover and share talented musicians you find with your peoples, collaborate with these artists and involve yourselves with them.   Collaboration and genuine praise and excitement for someone else music can reward back to you in so many ways as you progress in your career.   Music is not a selfish thing, this is something your putting out to the world as an audible gift in conjunction with many other artists.   Music is about expression and coming together for me,  there is a lot to be said on all the different part of a song, and all the different parts of a person.   If its all about you in your own head,  your gonna find yourself on a mountain of your own shit, with no one around to help you down and away from the stench of your own ego.    

What I look for in an Entry

What I look for in an Entry when judging the Steemit OpenMic Contest put by on @luzcypher and Sponsored by Steemit Witness @pfunk with other judges @verbal-d @passion-ground and @krystle, is for you to turn my feelers on.     I want my skin to react to your song or performance, my body can tell me a lot with a tune in just about any genre.   Does this song provoke a physical reaction.    There are a lot of things that can do that,  from instrumentation, vocals, lyrics, visuals, but its mostly all in the attitude.     You might not be able to carry a tune bucket as they say, but if you got some great lyrics and a serious passion for the message, your gonna turn some heads.   

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If I enjoyed your performance its very likely your gonna get a comment from me and of course an upvote.  My upvote percentage on openmic entries on judging days are generally low as I have to many entries to upvote.  I do upvote more for entries I enjoy more.   I score each entries over all feel on a scale of 1-10 and I break this down to the decimal point if need be.    I write down everyones name who scores above a 7 and I create a top picks list from entries that scored either 8 or higher or 8.5 or higher, depending on the level of entries that week and the time I have.     I then break down my top picks into my official top 5 and my honorable mentions.   I used to limit my honorable mentions to 5, but I have been doing as much as 12 cause I just cant bloody well decide. 

OpenMic has been a huge success here on steemit.   The entries are gonna be reaching close to 1000 a week here really soon and there are $thousands of dollars in steem prizes being given out.   With potential for earnings just by entering and engaging in the contest.    

If you are interested in joining openmic check out this last weeks winners and join us with an entry for week 69

https://steemit.com/openmic/@luzcypher/steemit-open-mic-week-68-winners-see-who-won-open-mic-and-join-us-this-week

Steemit Artist Music Compilation

Another musical Steemit venture I took on shortly after joining steemit is the Steemit Artist Music Compilation.   This compilation is comprised of multi genre original songs recorded and performed by artists currently on the steemit platform.    Its been a learning and growing process as each volume has come together but we already have 3 successful volumes of talented artists sharing there music with us.     

I collect entries for each volume and showcase and albums worth of material in the form of a fully packaged digital album free to download,  a stock footage clip video just for fun with 20-30 clips of each track.  I do artists spotlights awarding my favorite tracks on the Volume album and I also award the artist with 100% of the post payout off the 4 official posts created for each volume.     If you guys wanna check this out and havent yet take a click on the post below.  Volume 4 Submissions are coming in Feb.   I am expecting a good turn out of entries.  I will be calling some of you openmic contestants out directly to remind you. 

https://steemit.com/steemit/@soundlegion/did-you-know-there-are-3-volumes-of-the-steemit-artist-music-compilation-featuring-multi-genre-music-available-for-download-from


Currently I am focusing a lot of my time in with Steemit Music Community projects and Outside Steemit Sound Legion projects.   I have quite a collaborations request list that has had to be completely set aside in this time.   Unless I contact you directly for a project idea I am not accepting anymore collaboration work.   I have over booked myself out that end and I have been letting many people down on my ability to get back to them with the project.    I apologize to artists and producers at this time who have been waiting to hear back from me.   If you have not this is just cause shit has hit the fan this side of the room.    I am not even able to get to all my messages on across all the sites im attached to, some I have had to ignore completely as to the stress and discord has been a nightmare for me so I really try to avoid it untill I absolutely have to get on there.     I really apologize for this guys, as my year settles in, I am gonna have a bit more freedom coming and a change of scenery.    

I am always gonna be making music.   This is my Journey as a Songwriter,  you are all apart of that journey and I thank you for listening, taking the time to read this.   I thank all the artists who are joining openmic for putting there sound art out there for us,  I understand everything that goes into doing something like that and highly appreciate what your all doing.     I want to thank all my steemit artist music compilation folks, those on the albums and those who support them, you guys rock, you are inspiring the music community and myself on big levels.   Massive love goes to @luzcypher this is one seriously awesome dude right here.    Big shouts and love to the talented @verbal-d and the fire passion of @passion-ground  and the absolute shining cherry on the top of the music community @krystle who pulls shit together like  she made of glue, this girl is a top organizer, motivator and communative expert.   Nothing but love for you @krystle and all the energy and vision you bring to everyone here in the music community on steemit.     Everyone follow @krystle and go upvote everything she has,  this is a girl who takes her earnings and pours them back into the community.    Go vote @pfunk for witness here on steemit he's really supporting these huge payout on openmic and making possible for everyone to see such great rewards.     I also want to do another shout in this post to @meno for his songwriters challenge that has gone off brilliantly showcasing some of the top talented songwriters here on steemit.   

Big shouts to one of the coolest contest creators on Steemit.com @papa-pepper! This guy brings wild wholesome fun to the steemit community with full time engagement on some pretty awesome levels including sending out these really cool shirts.   Its been a while since I got mine and finally getting to show it off in post form as things just been so busy.   @papa-pepper you rock and tell your @little-peppers I love the steemit bracelet it hangs on my travel bag.  ;)  

Shavon Bonnie Legion

www.soundlegionrecords.com

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Dont Post for Free!!!!

EVERRRRR!!!

Wow, I loved reading your journey through music and meaning. I too have departed from the world of Christianity and have found a different spiritual path. It’s definitely been a journey from feeling restricted to being incredibly open to life. Can’t wait to see more of your story sprinkled in your posts. 😊

It was so enlightening to read how you judge open mic!

I want my skin to react to your music.

What a beautiful way to approach it. Trust your body’s reaction to the music.

Thanks for being YOU and sharing your amazingness with us. 😊

You’re beautiful woman 😍😍 honestly you’ve come a long way in this commiunitybsnd the world has so much more to offer, you always have my blessings and love. Xoxo

I like the shirt and I want one too.

Hello Sound Legion, aka - Shavon Bonnie Legion. @apolymask also invited me here and I also am a music creator. I'm listening to your music now at musicoin. Never heard of this website. Is it related to steemit? Have a good day.

Musicoin is not related to steemit. Its an altcoin set up as music platform where artists can upload there tracks and you they get paid per play. @apolymask rocks! he has brought a slew of folks over. best luck for you here on steemit, its been pretty awesome.

Read this from top-to-bottom and man, girl - you have sprinkled it with quite a few gems together with several pearls of wisdom all throughout this incredibly thoughtful and well-written post! Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
I LOVED IT!

nothing but love for you my friend you rock!!! I love your wild energy SMiles to you :)

Oh lovely your truly too kind, you just melted me a little.

I caught this post when it came out, but I struggled to find the words to respond adequately - but I had to come and say a massive thank you for your generous words, it really means the world to me.

You are one of my absolute favourite people on steemit, your generosity and compassion are beyond compare - the work you do for Open Mic and the music community here in general is phenomenal!

The fact that you do this on top of your super demanding job and family life never ceases to amaze me, you welcomed me into the music community here and I have never looked back - if it wasn't for your kind words then I wouldn't be here working with you each week and it's truly an absolute honour.

Your passion for music is unparalleled, your support of musicians is your top priority and your just an all round amazing person - Thank you for all you do, it really is beyond compare! <3

@krystle thank you girl! its folks like you who have made this place very inviting and encouraging. big love

Loved reading your post @soundlegion and am so grateful you are such a big part of Open Mic. Lending your ear and passion for music is a gift to the Open Mic community on Steemit and working with you on this project is a blessing.

Thanks for all your wonderful music and contributions.

luz you rock my genius friend!

Soundlegion! I am screaming it out

We are the Legion. We are the Sound :D

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I loved this post! and found it so inspirational as a poor musician! 🎶 I've signed up this past week on a recommendation by my YouTuber friend @huwsnursery and entered the open mic week 69! I'm actually blown away by the comments and feedback from complete strangers here on steemit ! I'll hopefully earn enough steem to buy new strings this week! 😊 So, form one musician to another... THANKS FOR CREATING THIS AWESOME MUSICAL STEEMTRAIN! And apologies for raising my voice) #excited
Cheers!
Darren.
https://steemit.com/@mrbloom

Your Musicial Journey is out class. Feelings, sentiments, love, all there in your music and its your brilliant success. Your high quality work is on top. i really appreciate this amazing work from your side. Thanks for the detailed post about your self.

I really appreciate all your comments and support my friend you are really a great spirit of encouragement much love to you

seems interesting. I will read once im free today. :)

I really appreciate all you do for the musicians on steemit. It's great to see more joining up. The open mic contest is huge now and I just can't keep up with it. I'm doing what I can to support and encourage musicians. They have a lot to gain from this platform. Rock on!

@steevc you know i got huge love for you! one of my favorite personalities that stands out to me, I wish you great success and will be following your journey and helping to support it with absolute pleasure :)

I'm happy to say that I'm one of the musos that @steevc has influenced to join Open Mic.
Took me a while, but I got there :-)
Cheers buddy, your support and encouragement is greatly appreciated.
& Rock on @soundlegion \m/.

First of all... Love the shirt. ;) Second, it was nice hearing about your musical background! I've always wondered how you started and what your interests were!

You have a very rich musical history. I listened to your clips many times and should note that your achievements in the world of music are above all praise! Your Steemit OpenMic competition is one of the best on the Steemit, as it gives people the opportunity to express themselves through music and that's fine! Thank you @soundlegion and continue, because you are on the right track!

huge love to you my friend those are big words of praise and I really appreciate it humbly. OpenMic has been def tremendous, all credits for starting openmic go to @luzcypher and @verbal-d . Luz really puts in the time each week going through and organizing all the entries and promoting this things like a champ. also the huge support of @jessamynorchard and @passion-ground and also @krystle whom I stated above has been a real champion on presentation and getting things together in the music community, I come along just doing my thing, and I wouldnt dare take an ounce away of credits to any of these people, I would bow down on my knees to each of them like a super fan at a stones concert.

Always good to get more of the back story. Thanks for being an awesome judge. I can’t imagine the time it takes to listen to all these entries haha. Music coin....hmmm. Will have to give it a look!

The back story was nice. It is life/death/rebirth, and your rebirth into a free life following your new musical path and a more free expression of spirituality.

Thanks for sharing Bonnie. Now I understand why you haven't answered the email from Eden. She is in New York at the moment - heading for Vegas soon and then will tour many parts of the USA. You mentioned you'd be happy to meet with her but how can she get in touch with you?

[email protected] [email protected] skype Soundslike.shavon
these are good ways to get at me. I have had a flash ton of work thrown on my plate. I would love to talk project sometime this year with Eden and I hope the opportunity shows itself. I didnt get any message. On discord you can find me under SoundLegion, I am not as quick at replies as I used to be.

Thanks so much for the quick responseBonnie - I'm going to get Eden to forward the mails she sent to these addresses - what are the 4 digits behind your name on discord. She entered with a song from Dan Shaw this week but I haven't seen anything from Luzcypher like we usually do They will be playing at sofar sounds across America and hopefully pick up a few extra gigs as well. I'll let you know when they plan to be in Cali

ok mail has been forwarded to bonnielegion@yahoo - strange because it was sent to soundlegionlabel on Jan 9th - attached to previous email about ICU which she sent you - so maybe got lost that way. So both Eden and I have mailed you now. Hope it gets to you this time - or you may have to look in your junk mail if song file is too big

Proud of you, sister, and grateful for the extraordinary efforts you (and the other facilitators) make each week in the Steemit Open Mic. Thank you so much! It's been the single most important thing that keeps me coming back to Steemit, being a treasured area for sharing, listening, learning, connecting... and growing together.

@soundlegion your music life is really inspiring. I love when you said you really want to know whats the meaning of life.... and found music. Encouragement to others who still not discovered their passion and purpose. Same at @openmic and @luzcypher and @pfunk they are giving Steemians an opportunity to feel the music life.

Es sabroso saber que a quienes puedes conectar con la música tengan un espíritu tan amplio para la percepción de sonido.. Me encanta tu recorrido, me inspira y se que a muchos en esta comunidad que crece rápidamente.. Que sigan tus exitos y que el viaje sonoro te lleve al infinito..
Montado en la ola! Gracias por el apoyo, Un abrazo!

muchas gracias. Esto significa mucho para mi

This is a bread with jam! Maybe because I'm a musician.
I love it and I identify with the brave phrase:
"I'm always going to make music. This is my Journey as a songwriter".
I embrace you and I wish for the best! I thank you in the soul for having shared my video clip, you have no idea how much you have helped me.

You are such a talent my friend ! I look forward to promoting your work more. Its like a big family growing here of some very talented folks and you are among them. We see you my friend! with them good eyes ;)

Mil gracias!

You're beautiful, @soundlegion! Thanks for everything you do!

Well I have walked in your shoes as a music critic and talent judge, I must say we've got something in common, we have a knack for fairness and quality.

I play the piano, but I am not too good at it. I hope I can do the little I know on the Steemit open mic.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

@soundlegion, we have so many things in common, starting from the peculiarity of our names @sandex, aka soundgod LOL From your post and detailed explanation, you are a great soul and a great musician. I am happy reading your post and meeting you here. We can Collabo possibly, Imagine Soundlegion+ sandex= BOOM!!! Skryaaahh! 💝

SoundLegion & Sandex I like it!! much thanks my friend will give you a follow.

Intriguing to learn your back story and how you rate musicians. You have my respect and love...and yes DON'T POST FOR FREE!!!!! DAMNIT!

LOVE THE SHIRT LADY!

Excellence is never an accident, it is the result of intelligent and continuous hard work. Thumbs up for your great work.
You have got a nice shirt too, really love it.

I really loved reading this... I've been reluctant to participate in this competition because I'm a rapper, a lyricist and i didn't think this community could really relate to Hip Hop but after reading this, I'm going all in. Thank you 🙇

This was a really enlightening read for me! I want to get involved in the business of music promotion so it's always great to read about the experience of others who are doing just that! I love that you are open to and interested in so many different types of music as well. Really great stuff. Thank you.

Hehehe Don't Post free :)
I Love your great Journey. Thanks @soundlegion. You are a melodious Singer and Steemit Queen.

@soundlegion your music life is really inspiring. I love when you said you really want to know whats the meaning of life.... and found music. Encouragement to others who still not discovered their passion and purpose

music is my escape

i am a little busy right now to read the post... but i am upvoting in advance and saving it for later.. cuz.. i am sure it is gold! haha.... and also ... needed to say i LOVE your t shirt!! haha .. made my day!

"you lookin for your life over there honey, you know where your life is? your life is waiting like god damned fool right here' for you man... " Janis Joplin

Magnificent music, exceptionally decent workmanship, astonishing post, a debt of gratitude is in order for sharing

Great information! I'm looking forward to take a bigger part in this great community and start contributing some open mic gigs :)

this music is realy cool.....i like it...i like to follow u for more music....

Thanks for sharing your story with us. I'm happy for you, this platform is great opportunity for you and you luckily met it earlier :) Good luck, all the best.

Thanks for this an explanation of you and your journey. God will honor your serios search...

It's a very nice thing to love music.
Most people just listen to music but really make wonderful people music :)

hi @soundlegion followed you ♥

It seems you've been doing a lot of work in music, Shavon. I want to share one of my original songs. Although it is in Spanish I hope you enjoy the lyrics as well. Thank you very much for your support to our community, hope you continue having a beautiful life surrounded by music. Bless.

20180122012555.jpg

promit

Perfect classical music, I listening :)

music is always sweet and is more sweet when it is expressed with emotion..

Wow,this photo its amazing

Thank you for sharing this with us! :)

Well I have walked in your shoes as a music critic and talent judge, I must say we've got something in common, we have a knack for fairness and quality.
Thanks you @soundlegion

Follow me for votes

Great post Shavon! I too have had life throw a few curves in my 40 years as a pro musician and I so FEEL your post. Thanks for following your greater journey as it always lightens others path.

I am just adding valuable comments to posts I'm interested and know something about. That keeps me pretty busy (Day One), but I'll definitely follow you to learn as much as possible about the Steem Community

What great function. Good music function. Nice post.

Excellent music, very nice art, amazing post, thanks for sharing

nice openmic, wonderful community, great music, nice post, thanks for sharing