Singin' The Blues: Press Pause

Songwriting is a process. The perfect song does not just instantly appear on paper or in a recording without working through flaws. Just as the lyrics of a 12-bar blues song typically lay out all the negative statements before stating something that is hopeful in the fourth line, each week I will share the struggles I may have faced when preparing each week’s New Tune Tuesday. I will also share some of the lessons I have learned both in the songwriting and recording process. From time to time, I will put the struggles and lesson learned in a 4 line stanza that could be used with the 12-blues musical format.

 Some of you may be aware that I did not post a a Singin' The Blues for Change My Channel last week. Well after writing the post twice (not online),  and strange mind games computers were playing on me, I felt defeated. With two different computers inhibiting my ability to successfully save my file and retrieve it, I figured it wasn't meant to be posted. I am determined to conquer technology this week, and not succumb to its wrath.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Press Pause came out of a piano improvisation. While playing it on the piano, I gravitated to a key that was not a friendly key to play on the guitar and that was two high for my alto voice to sing.When I began to transpose the song to play on guitar and sing more comfortably, I could not get the original key out of my head. I had to walk away from the song for a few days to reset what my hears where hearing.This little hiatus worked by resetting my auditory memory of what the song should sound like.

One other change that was made very late in the game was to the melody. There was one specific bar that was very difficult for me to sing well. Thanks to my lovely husband, he helped me rewrite the short phrase. It sounded a lot better after his help! :)

I am hoping all technology woes are behind me the rest of the week! I look forward to bringing you next week's new song!

Singin’ the Blues: “A Few Magic Words”

Songwriting is a process. The perfect song does not just instantly appear on paper or in a recording without working through flaws. Just as the lyrics of a 12-bar blues song typically lay out all the negative statements before stating something that is hopeful in the fourth line, each week I will share the struggles I may have faced when preparing each week’s New Tune Tuesday. I will also share some of the lessons I have learned both in the songwriting and recording process.I will put the struggles and lesson learned in a 4 line stanza that could be used with the 12-blues musical format.

If I were sinign’ the blues, the stanza for this week’s New Tune Tuesday would be:

Can’t find the meter of this new song

Is it 4/4, 3/4, or simply 6/8?

Notating it 3 times takes so much time!

Now it matches my original improv

While writing “A Few Magic Words” I struggled the most with notating the melodic line. I just could not determine the meter (time signature of pulse) of the song. It started out in a standard 4/4, but it didn’t have quite enough pep in its step. I then switched over to a ¾ meter, and I felt the melodic line had a little more bounce to it. But I finally settled when I switched the meter to 6/8 time signature. I know 3/4 and 6/8 have very similar feels, but 6/8 was just how I heard in my head. I don’t know why I had such a hard time matching the notes on the paper to what I was singing, but it all turned out well in the end. I now have a great song with a lot of adaptability and functionality. I used it for the first time the other day, and it provided a very successful verbal interaction for my client.

As I am working on the notation of the next installment of New Tune Tuesday, I have already been faced with another time signature woe. I was able to recognize it more quickly this time around, and did not need to notate the song 3 times! Which is good because it is a more lengthy song!

Make sure to stop by next Tuesday for my next song release! I can't wait to begin recording it this weekend!