Here's another of my songs with guitar. It began as a song for me to sing with piano (that arrangement was in a lower key and had better voice leading), but when I worked it out on guitar, it seemed to fit the spirit of the song better. Maybe I'll record the song with the piano accompaniment and see which you prefer. . . . But that will be another day and another post.
I've been on a little guitar kick recently after having some much-needed adjustments made to my Fender. I had the action lowered so it is much easier to play now. And who knew--I am practicing more! At any rate, here's one of several songs I recorded at home on the second day of the new year. Hope you enjoy it.
Now that I have been exploring blogger a bit more, I have added an email subscription form to the right. Please consider adding your email address if you would like to be informed of new posts. My goal is to post once a week until Challenge no. 1 is complete. (And then I'll have to come up with a new challenge!) Now on to today's song . . .
I have always thought it is much easier to write sad songs than to write love songs. Here's an attempt at a love song. It is also one that uses guitar for accompaniment rather than piano. I am a better pianist than guitarist, but with a little creative scordatura (the G string is tuned to G-sharp) and my best attempt despite technical limitations and never really learning how to play the instrument properly, it will suffice for a song that only uses three chords (but not the three chords that most three-chord songs use). Whatever. Enjoy!
Today's video is a recording of a song I wrote over twelve years ago when I was going through a rough time. I wrote 11 songs that year--probably my most prolific songwriting year, and also probably the worst year of my life. Glad I got through it and I still have all these wonderfully depressing songs to sing! (Ha ha!)
(BTW For the music theory nerds among you, there is an awesome N6 chord in the bridge but it resolves in an unorthodox way. Enjoy!)
It's time to shed the self-doubt, the debilitating perfectionism, the crises of confidence, and finally put some of my music out in the universe. Inspired by my creative and supportive family--especially my Aunt Lynn and her kids, my cousins, Casey, Jessica, and Rita--I'm setting up this blog to post my musical creations. I plan to set up a series of personal challenges in order to make this happen. The blog will document the journey. Cool, right?
Challenge no. 1 for 2013: to record videos of me performing all of my favorite songs I have written and post them. One of the things that has stifled me in the past is that I always wanted what I record to be perfectly awesome--everything in perfect balance, every note perfectly in tune, and so forth. And its no wonder I never got very far because, guess what--I am not perfect, I don't have great equipment, I don't have all the audio production skills I'd like to have. I realized that I had been using this seeming "perfectionism" as an excuse to not share my music with others, and in turn I allowed it to stifle my creativity. With all of this in mind, my rules are simple: for these videos, I'm using my iphone and doing videos in one take with no audio editing. So if a note isn't quite right here or there, so be it. If the audio quality could be better, so be it. I am going to try to record one song a day until I run out. And then I will write some new songs!
All of that said, I have not had difficulty sharing chamber and choral music I have written with audiences. In most cases, I haven't performed my own music--others have, and up until recently I have been pleased with that arrangement. I am a music professor so composition of a more academic nature (so-called "art" music, BTW I hate that term because it implies that other kinds of music isn't "art" . . . so whatever) has felt like a more acceptable thing for me to share with others, and it is something I have done since I went to college, now some 18 years ago, which makes me feel ancient. I do plan to share some of this chamber and vocal music I have written on this blog at some point, but the main focus for now is going to be to share a different side of my music--personal songs I have written just for me to sing and play with no audience other than myself and maybe a close friend or two over the years.
