Blog Four...Passion unleashed...Dreams and Schemes

Canadian Music Week in Toronto. Surrounded by musicians and songwriters. Creativity pouring out the doorways. Inspiration and dreams bubbling over.   

I struggle to keep my bearings among all the talent.... young faces eager to show off their versatility.....seasoned faces burning with passion.

Seminars and showcases. Filled to capacity. Cramped hallways. Pencils and iPads. Sessions on the music business. Workshops on promotion and social media. Stories from the pros to fuel your muse. 

Nighttime streets alive with music. Venues overflowing. Fingers strumming guitars. Voices spinning song tales of love and life. Time evaporates.

I feel like I've filled up at an oasis.

So here I am. heading back home to Vancouver. Song ideas are sparking. Plans for promotion and marketing are circling round.

Ah, but what about Pat Pattison's course? I'm glad you asked. I managed to get week three done, but barely. Not enough time to listen to his lectures, so I just dived in with the quizzes and assignment. 

Does my lyric have the proper rhyme scheme and rhyme type? I can't be certain. But it does have a lot of passion. A lyric about passion....the hottest lyric I've ever written. Toronto, what have you done to me?

 

Blog 3 - Stable versus Unstable

When watching and listening to Pat Pattison, everything seems so clear and logical. He has a knack for bringing you up close and personal with his ideas, and explaining them in an easy amusing manner. Right. I've got that. Easy/peasy. 

Sure, I can count out even and uneven line lengths, matched or unmatched line lengths. I can count out number of lines (even or odd numbers). I know the difference between stable and unstable. 

Now where do I get a cool shirt like Pat has? Declare my intentions to the world. Only, I might have 'stable' written on the front of it.

Then it's time to do the assignment......and suddenly, it becomes a little, well a little confusing. I would say overwhelming, but hey I don't want to ruin my street cred.

Okay, so I buckle down to work on my lyric. In our first assignment I had chosen to work on "Home Brew". This was going to be a tender song, about a woman reflecting on her upbringing; how good it was, how well the family members got along (home brew); and how fortunate she was to grow up in this stable loving environment.  Now she's expecting her first baby, and hoping to create that same "Home Brew" feeling with her budding family...which I was going to introduce in the third box. The 'why' of the song, the meatiest part of the song.

In other words, a song centered around a loving home. Everything nice and cosy. No tension here. 

Then this assignment arrives. Make the first verse unstable. If the first verse is unstable, the meaning of the lyric has to match the mood (prosody).....unsettled, confusing, or uncertain; perhaps melancholic, or sad, or some sort of situation that is unstable. Ack! The exact opposite of where my song was going.

Time to re-arrange my thinking cap. I had put the situation to my muse. Told her I was going to sleep, and gave her instructions to work on it. Don't wake me with the answer. Just give it to me in the morning. But, I think she went to sleep too. She's full of surprises like that.

Now, here I am writing this blog about my situation. However, I've been giving it some thought as I type this out. How about if I introduce a little doubt in the first verse? The singer is uncertain if she can be as good as her Mom in bringing up a child. She expresses this to her best friend who has dropped over for coffee. There....a little instability. 

Next I need to vary the line lengths, and maybe make it a five or seven line verse. 

Moving on to the verse, which is supposed to be stable. Now here the singer can relate how great her home life was. That's as stable as it gets.

Right. Now all I have to do is write it. Hopefully on time to submit it. Luckily Pat is only asking for a verse and a chorus, with or without music. No music on mine. Not sure how I'll develop a second verse to be unstable, but I'll deal with that when I have to. Maybe that will be the next assignment.

My three boxes have suddenly shifted and fell off the truck! 

 

Blog 2 - Storyboard Boxes

Week One.....The Storyboard

In a book or a movie, the story has an arc.....a beginning, a middle, and an end. Usually the story is laid out chronologically; but sometimes the author crosses over the time dates forwards and backwards in time, depending on his methods and skill in developing the story line.

Here in week one, Pat talks about the storyboard of a song. It's laid out in three boxes....a beginning, a middle, and an end. Each box grows in importance as it builds on the storyline (or concept) from the previous boxes.....and ends with the climax in the third box. The 'why' of the song.

The song title I chose to work with was "Home Brew". I see this as our home upbringing. How we are raised, and what we experience at home, has a big impact on our future lives. Words that sprung to mind (along with some help from the dictionary):

Verbs: brew, simmer, steep, ferment, make, develop, shape, bring about, create, give rise to,concoct, distill, soak, form, blend, infuse, stew, prepare, cook, gather, mingle

Nouns: brew, combination, medley, hodgepodge, mixture, result, jumble, outcome, yield, output, concoction, blend, infusion, fusion, potpourri, blend

Luckily, we didn't have to write the song....just outline the bones of the song in those three boxes.

Box 1 ......the singer describes her upbringing, her home and her family (the ingredients for the brew)
Box 2 .....describes how her family relate to one another (the blend)
Box 3 ..... describes how her upbringing impacts her future life (the impact of the brew)

The singer is the relating this to her best friend. The April sun is streaming through the kitchen window, and over the table where they are drinking coffee. The singer is pregnant with her first child, and is telling her girlfriend how fortunate she was to grow up in a stable loving home environment, and that she hopes that she and her husband can recreate that same 'home brew' feeling for their up-coming family.

Blog 1 - The Journey Begins

Blog 1 - Where are you in your songwriting journey?  What do you hope to gain from participating in this challenge?

Where am I in my songwriting  journey? Well, sometimes I feel like I’m just starting out, taking tentative footsteps, then striding forward,  before falling back. Sometimes my head is held high, and I’m certain I’m heading down the right path.  Other times, I’m scuffling along, questioning if I have what it takes to continue onwards. 

Yet, when I look back over the past two years, and see the distance that I’ve traveled, the inspiring songwriters that I’ve met along the way, the new friendships that I’ve made, and the creative spirit that seems to flow among us…..well, let’s just say that I’m still moving, still striving, still seeking that perfect word, that lyrical line that will jump off the page to resonate in a true and honest way into a reader's or listener’s heart. 

And that is what I hope to gain from this challenge.