Songs for 2018

Down to the wire once again, but this one is actually finished at the wire. I started it on Wednesday. I went to my trusty binder of potential lyrics and found several that I thought I might use. Chose some lyrics that were rather odd, rather philosophical, and which I have no memory of writing. I worked it quite quickly into four verses, and then wrote a short chorus to be the unifying theme. Strange, it's the third song that I've written within the last year that uses "on and on" as lyrics. Does this have any deep significance? Ultimately, this song seems like it's about death, sort of. Well, winter is coming, as is the winter of my life. I certainly didn't sit down and say, hmmm, I think I'll write a song about death. Strange how these things come from the subconscious mind and manifest as something that needed to be said. I started off on piano, but switched to guitar, which suited the plaintive feeling I was looking for. A new key for me, E minor,...

Well, once again, down to the wire. I won't get this one finished tonight, but at least the idea is there, and some of the melody is there. I was watching a YouTube video yesterday featuring Rachel Wooding singing "You Took My Days With You" and I was inspired by the beauty of the song, and the emotions that it brought up. How can a beautiful song do that? Reveal such powerful emotions, and bring them up from somewhere so deep inside? So, I started writing down some lyrics, in wonder at how a song can take you away from reality and transport you to such an altered state of mind. Everyday cares are gone, and it's just a feeling of beauty and absorption into that timeless beauty. Really, there are no words to describe what a song can do. It's the magical and transformative power of music. So technically, I'm cheating a bit, cause really the song is only about 50% done right now. But I know that I never give up on a song, and that I'll finish it over the ...

Yes, squeaking in at the last minute for this month, but better late than never, so they say. I was watching a video of a dancer, dancing to a song called "Mercy" by Sean Mendez, the young Canadian pop star. Not that I'm into his music. Somehow, this inspired me to sit down at the piano and start noodling around, and I came up with the chorus - never give up - and the theme of this song. It's another in my "advice to self" songs cause so many times I just want to quit playing music, and I feel like I'm stalled with my bass playing and though I know a way to get out of this slump I'm in, I haven't actually started following through with my plan. So, the song chorus: never give, gonna rise up, no never give up, gonna rise up. This song is for piano, in B minor. Never Give Up Sometimes you're falling, then you're crawling, And you don't really know where you're going to. Then you're smiling, hands high-fiving And the...

August: Back to the Garden It's 7:32 on the last day of August. Where did the time go? Wow, procrastination and I are becoming more and more well acquainted when it comes to writing songs these days. Song writing is definitely NOT an easy process for me anymore. The "write a song a month" challenge in 2017 seemed like less of a challenge than this year. Is there any deep significance here? Any lessons to be learned? Undoubtedly, but I don't know what they are right now. As I write this, I'm still procrastinating! This song is about gardening. I wrote the lyrics a while ago, so thank goodness for my little black notebook where I write things down when I get some inspiration.......you just never know what will cause the words to flow. Hmmm, didn't I write a song about that a few months ago? The funny thing is, once I get down to it, I can usually come up with something. This song is in the "cute little ditty" song category, like my other ukulele ...

I've written another song with the same title! That was a very different song, however. Squeaking in under the wire again. Thank goodness for my little black book of lyrics I write at odd moments. This song is based on the interesting sound of a major/minor 7th chord. The notes, in this case are (from left to right) LH: C Bb RH: C Eb G B. It's a very distinctive sounding chord, and when I was working through "Jazzology" I played it, and thought it was a strange, but very captivating and atmospheric sound. So, today when I knew I had to write a song TODAY, cause it's the end of July already, I found some lyrics in my trusty notebook, written when I was walking along the Avon River in Stratford. I was watching couples walking along, holding hands, and the lyrics started coming. The song is based on these original thoughts, but has morphed and changed, as these things do. In fact, as of this writing, they're still morphing and changing, I started noodling a...

It's 9:20 p.m. on June 30. This one is down almost to the last hour of the month. I started this song at around 4:00, after procrastinating for the rest of the month. Of course, there were report cards and meetings and farewell parties and concerts and exhaustion to deal with in the last month of school, so I guess those are all good excuses. Earlier in the month I had looked at some other lyrics I had written, sort of a futuristic look at Vancouver when no one lives there anymore cause no one can afford to and mostly it's empty houses and condos. The lyrics are complete, but I wasn't finding the music for the song, or feeling like this was the song I wanted to write. Where did this song come from? I was looking back at rough drafts of lyrics and came across a page with a few ideas, and found myself wanting to turn them into a song. It's a melancholy song, reflecting my mood as this challenging school year is finally over. The song is about the breath as a way to ...