August 2013 Song of the Month: Let's Make This World a Better Place

Sorry to make you all wait! But here is this month's offering.This month we were away most of the month in Cozumel (I know, but someone had to sacrifice...) In any case, one morning while there, I was lounging at our rental home. Most of the adults I was with had gone out to the market shopping, but I had offered to stay back with the kids.  I was reviewing my songs and playing some of them on my computer. My young, creative friend Ari (11 years old) looked up from her Ipad and asked me about my songwriting process. She said she had an idea for a song chorus and really wanted to figure out what to do with it next. She sang the chorus for me, and I asked her if she had GarageBand on her Ipad. She didn't. I told her she should ask her mom to get it, and proceeded to show her the basics on my computer. First I showed her the looped drums, and together we picked a couple that seemed like they would go with her chorus. Next I made up and recorded a bass line that fit her chorus and had her sing the chorus over top of it. She started getting really excited about the results, and wanted to add more to the song. We discussed songwriting, and lyric writing. I showed her the way I write verses. We talked about what she really wanted to get across. I told her about the magic of threes, and she got busy writing.

Once she started writing lyrics, I would offer constructive criticism along the way (yeah, that works. no, that's too silly, you need more syllables to make that line work, how about phrasing it this way, and so on.) She never faltered. Once she had one verse down, we experimented with how to put it with the chorus. We found some cool background loops that made the verse music sound different from the chorus, and she recorded the first verse. The second verse came more easily, and we laid that track down, too. I started adding harmonies to the chorus, and we added a few more musical parts. We got a little silly then and played around with the vocal filters and various sounds (you have to be able to have fun while you create, after all). She wanted to finish the song, but was starting to get tired. The last verse took more guidance, but she eventually figured out what the big message was. I had to make more suggestions on this one, but finally it was to a point we both liked it. It needed a bridge, though, or something to keep it from being too much the same. Luckily, I was able to find some piano loops that just seemed to be made for it! She loved how they sounded, and then we added the last verse.

I was very impressed with Ari on the final chorus. I told her she needed to give it extra pizzazz for a big finish. I gave her a bit of an example, and she ran with it. She was a great songwriting partner!

We probably spent about 4 hours together creating this song. When the rest of the families got home, Ari proudly knocked her parents' socks off with her song. I had originally thought I would write something else for this month, but I decided to honor Ari, my songwriting partner, by creating the video to go with our song. I used many images from our trip, many of which were taken by Ari's mom, some by her dad, and some by me. The rest of the images (ones not involving the Caribbean) I got from the internet. I know this isn't me singing, but I definitely was involved, and I am hoping I have inspired Ari enough to get her using technology to help her get her own music down more independently in the future - Look out world!
So there you have it -- I hope you enjoy our song!

Here it is - July 2013 Song of the Month: You Hear That, Creative Pulse?

Oops! Sorry, guys, I actually had this ready a couple of days ago, but I am on vacation in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico, and, well, it just sorta slipped my mind while I was relaxing on the beach and snorkeling in turquoise water... :0)

 

Anyway, for those of you who don't already know, this song was created for my final personal performance at the Creative Pulse program this summer. I decided this time I wanted to collaborate and perform live, so I wrote the song on Sunday, recorded this version as a practice tape, and sent it to the very wonderful and talented musicians who agreed (thank you so much!) to perform with me. Then we got together for one amazingly satisfying and tons-of-fun rehearsal, and we performed it for the rest of the Creative Pulse folks on Friday. I absolutely loved working with Kevin, Morgan, Loree, and Kevin's friend, Casey -- it made me realize I want to find a group of people in Frederick to play with more regularly. And I also absolutely loved working with all my amazing, brilliant, imaginative, loving, fabulous colleagues at the Creative Pulse over the past two years. So this song is for them, with so much love. But it could be for anyone who is creative and learning and teaching others. So enjoy!

June Song of the Month: Heart Stone

       Hooray! This makes my 12th song of the month -- can you believe it's been a year? I am back at the Creative Pulse, where it all started, working and creating with fabulous artists, educators, and staff. During our first week, we had a class about the naturalist intelligence (one of Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences). We had to go out into "sensuous surroundings" (i.e. nature)  each day, and take time to really let nature in. It was a wonderful experience to have the time to really reconnect with the natural world. I found myself down by the Clark Fork, which runs through the middle of downtown Missoula. The city seems to have a beautiful relationship with the river in general, and it is very inviting to just walk down to the shore and wander among the pebble. In our class, we had to make a collection of natural objects, and I found myself collecting the river stones -- smooth ovals and of course, heart stones, which always make me feel like the Earth is sending me love. Here was my final collection:

    
     But I didn't want to stop there. A tune found its way into my head over the next week, and finally came together in this song. It was a bit challenging, since I didn't have my keyboard here, but I experimented with using the computer keyboard as a piano (not my favorite). I also wanted to use actual clips of the Clark Fork, my inspiration, so the footage was taken on my phone! :) Enjoy, and get out into nature!

Yes! Yes! Yes! It's Time to Vote!

Hello all! I hope you have enjoyed the Song of the Month Club so far. I am getting ready to present my progress to my graduate school faculty in just a few days! I am hoping to take this last bit of data to them, and would like to get your collective opinion on which song(s) were the most effective. So you can vote for your favorite song just to the LEFT of this post, above the "About Me" section!  (I changed its location since it seems like it is hard to find. Is this better?) Please vote! This is my first try at adding a "widget", so I'm hoping it works!

As far as the blog, I am hoping to keep it going in the coming year. Your thoughts? I really do value your feedback. So vote, give me opinions, just say hi, whatever you'd like! Thanks for your support!

May Song of the Month: Let Me Be (Your Bungee Cord) Caution! Explicit Lyrics!

Okay, well there are only a couple of questionable words. But they are in there, especially in the rap section, so I thought you should be forewarned.
So. This song is quite a departure from my normal style, if I have a normal style. I wrote this one directly for my son, Zephyr. I know he's come up quite a bit this year; he's kind of like my muse, because he fills up so much of my heart and thoughts that he can't help but seep into my creative work. However, this one is even more directly linked to him. It's my first attempt at...wait for it... DUB STEP. If you've never heard of the genre, Google Skrillex for examples. Yeah, I know. I'm no expert, but Zeph loves dub step, and I wanted this song to reach him where it counts, so I gave it a whirl. I'm proud of a couple of "drops"I made (dubstep term for deep weird bass parts where everything else kind of pauses) that caused Zephyr to bow down before me in awe. :)
If you've read any of my earlier posts, you probably know this has been a tough year for Zeph. Most recently, social relationships at school have led to Zephyr making some scary comments (although he assures me they are just talk), like wanting to jump off a bridge. High school can really suck, even for the most typically developing person. And we --the unusual, creative souls -- often get put through the ringer. So I wrote the lyrics for him, again, to remind him of the amazing person I think he is, and how he's got backup for the tough spots.
I also have been wanting to try using a classical song and updating it. As a high school student, I really loved the Billy Joel song that he based on a Beethoven sonata. I thought it was really creative. During that same time, I went overseas for the first time to Amsterdam with one of my best friends. While we were there, we went to the movies and saw "Amadeus" -- I loved it, especially the opening number: Mozart's 25th Symphony. After the trip, on the plane home, I found the 25th Symphony on the airline music selections, and listened to it over and over. Mozart really rocks out on that one. And he himself was such a unique, misunderstood, brilliant, badass -- perfect for my purposes! So I decided to try to incorporate the 25th Symphony in the song.
Finally, I wanted to incorporate Zephyr directly into the song. So I offered him a section over which to rap. Right now he is still writing it, so I don't really know how it will all turn out in the end. But that's the thing about life. We just don't know what will happen next. But at least we've got each other, so we can enjoy the uncertainty of it all. Get ready!

PS. Sorry this is so late -- I am still learning that collaboration takes longer than doing it by yourself!

April Song of the Month: One by One

Hello, all! I'm not going to say much about this song. It's just after midnight, technically May now, but I have been working all evening trying to get this song finished, as usual. I am not so happy with this song, but it is what it is. Can't hit 'em all out of the park, right? I think the idea is a good one, but it seems wordy and ungainly to me. I was trying to experiment with non-rhyming lyrics, since I am usually a slave to them. Anyway, here it is. I am going to sleep! Enjoy!

March Song of the Month: Little Song for Spring

So for the past three days, I have had the great pleasure of being at my mom's house, playing Scrabble, writing music, and, for the first time ever, fusing glass! For my birthday (which was March 10), my mother bought us lots of supplies, I ran away from home to play with her last Thursday (okay, so my husband knows exactly where I am, but still!) and we have been glass-fusing maniacs ever since. It is a new art form for both of us, but it is totally addictive! And what better activity to do in the spring than something brand new! Speaking of brand new, my son was also engaged in a novel activity this past week: he went to New Orleans with his teen group and built homes for Katrina victims. So it was a perfect time for me to get away and spend quality time with my mom. Yay, mom!

All this comes together in my song this month. It is just a little song for spring, for change, for rejuvenation, for new beginnings. And since I have been embarking on something new, I used pictures of my first two firings of glass as the background. Sorry, some of the pictures are fuzzy. I still haven't figured out how to take good pictures of small artwork. But you definitely get the idea of what we've been up to, fuzzy or not.

Also of note, I used my phone again to get my ideas down, which helped me not lose seeds of songs. Thank you, smart phones! And also thank you to my brother, Kevin, for inspiring me by sending me a TED talk of Cyrille Aimee, a french musician who uses vocal loops. I tried that out here, and I like it! I hope you do, too! Enjoy spring!