Pancakes: Coursera on Songwriting

I took a Coursera on songwriting earlier in 2014 (link1 to main Coursera site). I spent some time working on a song called Pancakes. Briefly, the process taught involves starting with a story board with three boxes. Filling out a rhyme worksheet by identifying some key words and finding suitable rhymes. The rhymes include perfect rhymes, family rhymes, consonant rhymes. Then comes the writing of the lyrics. There are more steps identifying the stressed syllables, and the accents in the melody line. Maybe 10% of the course is about writing the music.

The boxes for the storyboard:
Box1: mom remembering her childhood, dad makes pancakes

Box2: mom remembering her fiance making pancakes

Bridge: teenage daughter comes late at night, in tears

Box3: mom makes pancakes for daughter, reassures the child

Here is the link to the music for Pancakes (link2). 

Lyrics follow:

Pancakes

I remember Sunday mornings

a kid without a care

scent of melting butter

sizzling in the air

Bedtime stories, pillow fights

tender kisses, warm goodnights

Daddy's making pancakes for me

shows me that he cares

fluffy golden pancakes for me

my happy dance on air

Through my sad times

through my bad times

dad was always there

I remember Sunday mornings

love is every where

scent of melted candles

our passion heats the air

Syrup dripping, sheets are rippling,

two hearts beat as one

My fiancee makes pancakes for me

shows me that he cares

lovely, lumpy pancakes for me

I love him without fear

Through my sad times

through my bad times

he was always there

Bridge:

I can tell you that you've been crying

You're not very good at lying

Tell me what is going on

tell me what went wrong

I can listen, hold my tongue

I remember being young

It is almost Sunday morning

pancakes are almost here

Mommy's making pancakes for you

to show you that she cares

- end -

Songwriting Coursera: Looking to Alaska

I recently completed a Coursera (link) on songwriting. The instructor is Pat Pattison of Berklee College of Music. It is a phenomenal course focusing on lyrics. Pattison is one of the biggest names in songwriting, so I strongly suggest anyone with an interest in writing songs with lyrics take the course. It will be offered again in October 2014 (and likely every six months after that).

My final project is a song called Looking to Alaska (link2)

The piano track is at (link3):

Mr. Pattison teaches a songwriting process that includes story development, rhymes, and lyrics. With lyrics, the length of lines, number of lines, parts of the song, emphasis, phrasing, are all subtopics. There are no prerequisites. For non-musicians, there are music loops. The assignments involve writing lyrics, and then recording vocals set to music (either your own music or the one of the loops).

I tend to be a process oriented person, so I liked the style of teaching. I'd guess that about half of the 25,000 participants are true beginners. Some other songwriting workshops focus on writing more songs, often to a theme or topic. I found some of the topics to be quite a challenge, and still struggle with some. The course gives a songwriter more tools, whether a person decides to use them is another question.

Lyrics follow:

Looking to Alaska

Verse1

There's this old photo

grandfather Amar

standing so tall,

Inuit proud

Verse2

Get's me to thinking

'bout my life here

too many people,

too many cars

Chorus1:

Looking to Alaska,

Land of soaring eagles

natural cathedrals

and my native home

Verse3:

So many worries

how 'bout the money?

how will I live there?

how 'bout the cold?

Chorus2:

Looking to Alaska

ocean breeching whales

wise old ancient tales

and my native home

Bridge:

I have to go there, I have to try

I'm gonna make it, I'll feel alive

Chorus3/4

Looking to Alaska

searching for salvation

find my revelation

and my native home

Looking to Alaska,

Land of soaring eagles

natural cathedrals

and my native home...

notes on music: the verses and bridge are all white piano keys. The choruses all black keys. The five black keys form a natural pentatonic scale, which gives a primitive feel to the music. I'm not sure about Inuit music, but there is a lot of Native American music uses a five note scale. The music is relatively simple, but I like the mood and tempo changes from verse to bridge to chorus.

notes on lyrics: The title is derived from the book title Looking for Alaska. The story came to me after going through the process, and there is this photo of the Inuit grandfather. I moved that to box1 because it is what sets the song in motion. I choose not to rhyme the words in the title, because the rhyming words feel clumsy. The name Amar is short for Amaruk, which is a popular Inuit name that translates to wolf. The focus of the song turns to the animals. I have some rhyming in the verses, but delete them to keep the verses unstable and also for matching verse lengths.

Tracks in the Snow, dedicated to dad

Tracks in the Snow was the piece I was working on when my father passed away. 



My dad was born in the month of December, and passed in November of 2013. While the music has 
no direct connection to him or his life story, the title is also a metaphor for the trail each of us 
leaves behind as we live our lives. 


The MP3 is the one to listen to (link1). Musicians might be interested in the MIDI (link2), or the PDF (link3) of the sheet music. It is D major with a few G-sharps.

Peace be with you.

A Thousand Years from the Twilight movies

My upload for the November Adult Beginners Forum virtual recital is A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri. It is from the Twilight movies.
mp3 link

Hummingbird - a simple children's song

Perhaps my simplest song yet, Hummingbird. It is based on a true story. The music doesn't sound like much, like I said it sounds like a simple children's song. 

There are three files: MIDI, PDF and MP3. It is in Eb major (three flats: Eb Ab Bb) most of it is based on simple repetitive Eb F ostinato variations.

Lyrics follow:

Hummingbird

Precious baby hummingbird
Lying on the ground
Fallen from a nest up high
Clicking fear out loud

Frantic Momma hummingbird
Where has baby gone?
Fallen from a nest up high
No where to be found

A kind person rescues me
saves the baby bird
Nurses baby back to health
So it can fly on

Precious baby hummingbird
Flying with its mom
Both click thank yous for my help
then they fly on
-end-

August ABF recital: Avenue D

Avenue D is my August virtual recital piece (link). Avenue D started as an improvisation that I would play after my Canon in D practice (my previous recital piece). The only constant to the improvisation was the ostinato starting phrase. I lose myself in the music, improvising off that one phrase. As recital time drew near, I sort through the best phrases and codify it into a set piece. 

There is a mistake in the submission. It is meant to be played ABAB, and the recording I uploaded is ABAA. I may eventually upload sheet music, but transcribing is still a slow and arduous task.

 

How I got started in Songwriting: 50/90

Songwriting is something that I wanted to do. Many years ago, I asked a friend of mine, a former concert pianist who also composes, for advice. His advice was to listen to music that moves me, that has meaning for me.

When I started I had no formal music training, zero training in theory, only basic skills on a melody only instrument. For many years, I wrote about a song a year. Like so many beginners, I wrote when I felt inspired. After many years in the wilderness, so to speak, I stumbled upon an Internet group 50 songs in 90 days.
http://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/
I didn't believe that kind of output was possible. I became curious and at that time a person had to register to read what others were posting. So I joined the group.

After I joined 50/90, songs began to come to me. My mind shifted. One day, maybe a week in, three songs or parts of songs came to me! This is for someone that wrote one song a year. Later that year, a startling conclusion came to me: that the ratio of what I consider my better songs to the so-so songs remains near constant, no matter how many songs I wrote.

While there is some bare minimum amount of time to write a song, or sketch out a song, it is a lot lower than many beginners believe. Another friend, writes a song at his live gigs, using a title voted on by the audience. It is an amazing process to watch, even tougher to try to do. This friend is an accomplished professional songwriter with over 100 songs released with his name in the writer credits. Many pro songwriters that aren't big time performers have this ability to work very fast. This person can sketch out a reasonable song in five minutes that is better than my stuff after five weeks and a dozen revisions.

For any beginners, I encourage you to join 50/90 even if it well past the July 4th start date. I started late my first year and still got a lot done. The 50 is just a number, and most years I fell short. What I tried to do and always tell people is to spend time on songwriting every day. Hopefully at least an hour a day. Some turn off the TV, or cut back on their computer time to make room for songwriting.

Songwriting has been a life changing experience. My original music has gotten me through some very difficult and dark times in my life. There are few things more satisfying than writing a new song, perhaps recording it, or performing it live.

More than a few beginners seem to be looking for a pill to take or a magic hat. What they don't understand that for most of us, the ability to write original music has been acquired like many other music skills. By good methods, repetition, and a lot of time and effort. Yes, there are some gifted songwriters, just as their are those that have an aptitude for sight reading or a natural ear for music. That said, most everyone can write music, if they make the effort, if they have some passion. Like beginner musicians, beginners songwriters may not sound very good. Most of us, write a lot of so-so songs, as part of the learning process.