Hello! I am writing, out of character, at the BEGINNING of the Month, and in the MIDDLE of the day. Shocking! But I had some thoughts I wanted to get down here, and I have a rare quiet moment, as Jerry is doing home maintenance and Zephyr is helping my mom at her jewelry show. SO.
I already have an idea for November's song, and I had a slight epiphany. I realized I can brainstorm and keep song ideas on Garageband -- I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I just recorded a vocal snippet of something that came to me as I was driving home from a women's retreat at Rocky Gap. It's just an idea, not even a complete thought, really, but now it is on there and I can let my muse percolate on it without fearing to lose it. I don't know if that will be a good or bad thing, but I thought I'd give it a try. I don't know how many ideas I have lost over the years because after I had the initial impulse, I had no way to record it, so I forgot it. Now maybe that will not happen!
In other news, Frankenstorm, I am glad to say, didn't do much damage around here. All my friends and family seem to have made it through relatively unscathed. And at school, some of my students and I have been writing songs together. They want to make music videos to go along with them. I don't think I will be able to put those on here, but I am hoping to get permission to post the final versions of the songs as bonus Song of the Month Club offerings. We tend to write rather wordy songs that are meant to help my students remember tough concepts. In past years, we already made two videos: one is about the verb "to be", and the other is about capacity. I don't have much video technology (no I-pads at my school, unfortunately), but the videos were cutely kitsch. The recordings were done live at school, so aren't very polished. I keep thinking it would be fun to re-record them with Garageband.
So these new ones, one about moods of verbs (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and so on), and the other about constellations that one student could find in the summer sky, are going to be Garageband creations. I used pre-set loops of drumbeats and basslines, and then supplemented them with some chords. The kids seem excited by how they are turning out. I've been bringing my laptop to school to show them the progress and to make sure the track fits the lyrics. Next will be to record their voices on a new track, and then we will try figure out how to film. Two years ago, I used the school's flip video camera for the other videos, but I am pretty sure that camera is broken now. So I don't know how we will film, but hopefully we can figure it out. So, you can look forward to hopefully hearing THREE songs this month, if all goes well. Wish us luck!
Oh yeah, and please comment about my latest song! I really value your feedback. Also, if you have any ideas about future song topics, please feel free to let me know. I am open to all suggestions! Hugs, Zoe
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
It's Frankenstorm! (I mean, October!)
Hello everyone! Thank you so much those of you who are taking the time to comment. I truly value the feedback. So it's just about the end of the month, and true to form I have been procrastinating - I mean incubating - until nearly the final hour. Except this time, I couldn't wait until the very end of the month, since the east coast is supposedly about to be hit by this tremendous tropical storm/hurricane. I realized the power might go out, thus ending my perfect record of one song each month, so I have been burning the midnight oil again to make sure I got this one out before the storm hits. "Work in Progress" is really still, well, a work in progress. I uber-experimented with the garage band capabilities this time. I'm not completely satisfied with the results. I mean, I can imagine certain things in my head, but I can't always find a way to translate them into this medium. I just don't know enough yet about how to do everything I want to do. But I am learning.
This song is supposed to be a bit clubby. And I was trying to see if I could write a song that basically didn't have any change between the music on the chorus and the music on the verse, which I have never done before. At first, husband Jerry said it was a bit repetitive. Son Zephyr said yeah, but that's the way dance music is, and he thought it was fine. I tried to compromise by changing the melody a bit more, and playing around with the instrumentation. However, I am not a sound engineer and have no real mixing capabilities, so some of the various sounds don't seem mixed-in the way I want. Ah well. Like I said, it's a work in progress.
Also, this song is a bit of a tribute to all my fellow Creative Pulse-ers. I tried to get almost every artform I could into this song in some fashion, in honor of the amazing art work and creativity each of you has. So, enjoy! It will be posted as soon as it is done finalizing! So there, Frankenstorm! You can't stop the Song of the Month Club! :)
This song is supposed to be a bit clubby. And I was trying to see if I could write a song that basically didn't have any change between the music on the chorus and the music on the verse, which I have never done before. At first, husband Jerry said it was a bit repetitive. Son Zephyr said yeah, but that's the way dance music is, and he thought it was fine. I tried to compromise by changing the melody a bit more, and playing around with the instrumentation. However, I am not a sound engineer and have no real mixing capabilities, so some of the various sounds don't seem mixed-in the way I want. Ah well. Like I said, it's a work in progress.
Also, this song is a bit of a tribute to all my fellow Creative Pulse-ers. I tried to get almost every artform I could into this song in some fashion, in honor of the amazing art work and creativity each of you has. So, enjoy! It will be posted as soon as it is done finalizing! So there, Frankenstorm! You can't stop the Song of the Month Club! :)
Sunday, September 30, 2012
It's September!
Yes, I know, the month is almost over. And notice the time of this blog? Ah well, it is becoming a habit, I guess, this late-night thing. So I will keep this brief. This month's song is originally inspired by my wonderful advisor, Karen, who said I should write a song about the "bittersweet" quality of the fall: the end of summer, going back to school, etc. I could understand that, and I loved that word, bittersweet. Then I found out that our class pet, a sweet guinea pig named Twiggy, had died over the summer. Her brother, Ziggy, who had lived at our house, had died last year as well. And then my son came back from camp pining for his first real love, a darling girl named Alison, for whom he forgot to get any address, phone number, email, or even last name. It may seem funny in a way, that he didn't ask for her last name, but he was heartbroken. Bittersweet. Made me think of all the times in my life, and his, that there have been some not-so-happy endings. But then again, we have moved on and continued to thrive. We just had to know when to say goodbye, when to let go..when it was time to go. So all of that and more mixed together into a sort of poem. And the poem evolved into this song. I decided to try some percussion with this one, as well. It's a bit experimental for me, but I like the results. I hope you do, too. Don't forget to give me feedback! Thanks!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
August Song of the Month: Three AM
I just realized that if you look at the times when I posted last month's song and this month's song, they are both after midnight. Funny. So here it is, in all its late-night glory. Don't forget, I am really looking forward to hearing feedback and comments about my work, so please feel free to comment! Thanks, and enjoy!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
It's August!
Well, this has been a hectic month. Yes I have a new song, and I am working on getting it recorded and posted in the near future. (Whoo hoo!) I thought I would write a bit about my process, though. Some of you Creative Pulsers (fellow graduate students) thought it was quite a feat that I wrote the July song in an hour, and someone made a comment like, "Just think what it would be like if she had a whole month!" I don't know who said that, but whomever you are, thank you, because you were probably the inspiration for this whole Song of the Month thing.
However, I want to dispel a myth about songwriting. I don't think having a longer time necessarily means a better song. I have been thinking about how it is that I write songs. I never really analyzed my process, but I remember as a kid wondering about some of my favorite song writers, and wanting to know how they did it, or what was the "proper" way to write a song. Did the melody come first, or the lyrics? How did they decide what to write about? That kind of thing. In looking at my songwriting history, I realize there isn't one correct way, but there is a way that it usually happens for me.
The way it tends to happen is that I have a feeling, or an idea about a song. Then it percolates in my mind; it incubates for an indeterminate length of time. There is no forcing it, really. Eventually, it either comes or it doesn't. When it does come, it usually comes out all in a rush, almost as if it is writing itself. I think what happened with "Follow the Child" was that I had been thinking about being a teacher for the whole time I was at Creative Pulse, so that time became the incubation time. Then when we sat down to write, it just all came out. It seemed to be instantaneous, but in reality, had been in process for quite a while.
This month, it was harder. I was trying to force myself to write. I had several ideas, and even wrote several lines down about being a "work in progress". Then in a fit of cleaning our house, I lost the paper I had written them on, and for the life of me, I can't reconstruct what they were. So that song hit a dead end. Most of the month, I just worried about whether I could really do it, really write a song on command. Then, a couple of nights ago, literally in the middle of the night, after tossing and turning, I woke up with lyrics in my head, and a rhythm, and a sort of tune! I was tired, and half asleep, but I realized if I didn't write them down, I would probably forget them like I did the "work in progress" song. I couldn't do that. So I stumbled around finding paper and pen, trying not to wake my husband, and scribbled them down in the dark. Once they were out, I could finally fall back to sleep. When I woke up, the song was there, just needing some work on the piano to find the right chords, and some tweaking of the lyrics. Not surprisingly, the song is about getting creative inspiration, and honoring it whenever it comes. That is one big thing I am learning about myself as a songwriter. I need to be prepared to follow the inspiration through when it comes, or I might lose it.
I can't wait to share the August song with you, which right now is entitled, "Three AM", but I am open for suggestions on the title. I really hope you enjoy it. However, it is not quite ready yet due to technical difficulties. I have been working on my creative space in my house, and it is slowly coming together. I finally was able to get my keyboard set up, which I need to use to record the song. But I don't have the correct cable to connect the keyboard to my Mac. Hopefully today I will get it, and tomorrow will be able to get a rough recording out. We shall see. Anyway, thanks for reading, and please check back in a couple of days to hear "Three AM"!
However, I want to dispel a myth about songwriting. I don't think having a longer time necessarily means a better song. I have been thinking about how it is that I write songs. I never really analyzed my process, but I remember as a kid wondering about some of my favorite song writers, and wanting to know how they did it, or what was the "proper" way to write a song. Did the melody come first, or the lyrics? How did they decide what to write about? That kind of thing. In looking at my songwriting history, I realize there isn't one correct way, but there is a way that it usually happens for me.
The way it tends to happen is that I have a feeling, or an idea about a song. Then it percolates in my mind; it incubates for an indeterminate length of time. There is no forcing it, really. Eventually, it either comes or it doesn't. When it does come, it usually comes out all in a rush, almost as if it is writing itself. I think what happened with "Follow the Child" was that I had been thinking about being a teacher for the whole time I was at Creative Pulse, so that time became the incubation time. Then when we sat down to write, it just all came out. It seemed to be instantaneous, but in reality, had been in process for quite a while.
This month, it was harder. I was trying to force myself to write. I had several ideas, and even wrote several lines down about being a "work in progress". Then in a fit of cleaning our house, I lost the paper I had written them on, and for the life of me, I can't reconstruct what they were. So that song hit a dead end. Most of the month, I just worried about whether I could really do it, really write a song on command. Then, a couple of nights ago, literally in the middle of the night, after tossing and turning, I woke up with lyrics in my head, and a rhythm, and a sort of tune! I was tired, and half asleep, but I realized if I didn't write them down, I would probably forget them like I did the "work in progress" song. I couldn't do that. So I stumbled around finding paper and pen, trying not to wake my husband, and scribbled them down in the dark. Once they were out, I could finally fall back to sleep. When I woke up, the song was there, just needing some work on the piano to find the right chords, and some tweaking of the lyrics. Not surprisingly, the song is about getting creative inspiration, and honoring it whenever it comes. That is one big thing I am learning about myself as a songwriter. I need to be prepared to follow the inspiration through when it comes, or I might lose it.
I can't wait to share the August song with you, which right now is entitled, "Three AM", but I am open for suggestions on the title. I really hope you enjoy it. However, it is not quite ready yet due to technical difficulties. I have been working on my creative space in my house, and it is slowly coming together. I finally was able to get my keyboard set up, which I need to use to record the song. But I don't have the correct cable to connect the keyboard to my Mac. Hopefully today I will get it, and tomorrow will be able to get a rough recording out. We shall see. Anyway, thanks for reading, and please check back in a couple of days to hear "Three AM"!
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