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!