Dear Henry

I just finished writing a song inspired in part by that old comedic song "There's a Hole in My Bucket" except that in my song, Henry and Liza are at a breaking point in their relationship where they're very hurt, but trying to make it work anyway. And it most certainly is not comedic. Henry was unhappy and cheated on Liza, but they're trying to work through it. Very touching. If I had it recorded, I would post it...but I live in the stone age computer-wise.

It's Finally Paying Off!

Back around Christmas time, my husband bought me a How To Play Keyboard book because I sort of inherited one and always wanted to learn to play it. I started going through the lessons and was feeling pretty happy about my progress, until I realized I sort of hit a brick wall. I wasn't practicing enough, didn't really know what to practice so I kind of forgot about it for a bit.

Then recently I thought, what I really need is to practice moving my fingers over the keys and learning what notes go together and so on. I started practicing scales. First C, then G...then D and A, E and B. All major scales. I started learning where the black keys went and a lot of the theory was beginning to make sense. Then today in the shower I started playing around with a song idea. I really liked it and realized it sounded bluesy, so I looked up in the book how to play a blues scale. The first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale. I realized I wanted it to sound a bit dissonant so I opted for a minor scale, and A minor seemed to be a good range for me so I went with it. Now I've got a bit of a song....at least 2 verses! And it's decent! And played on keyboard! I can play a  blues song! My own blues song!

So...for future reference, starting on scales and learning the patterns really is the best way to go about learning music.

I'm Back, Baby

Back in my glory days a number of years ago, I went on a mad song-writing spree and wrote enough songs to make an album, and they weren't too bad either if I do say so myself. The plan was to save up some money and get myself to a  recording studio to make an album that I could then sell at shows (because obviously people would just want me to sing for them once I had an album). Sadly, university happened and my plans to save money to record an album were taken from me...for tuition.

I more or less gave up on my dreams and studied like my life depended on it. Having just graduated, I can now recognize my folly. There was no need to study that hard. A 70 would have sufficed, there was no need to make the Dean's list every semester (except for my irrational needs). I could have spent that time becoming a pop superstar...or a psychologist popstar.

Now that I have copious amounts of time to kill while waiting for employers to call me and tell me I have an interview, I've slowly been bringing music back into my life. Well, maybe not slowly as I joined a band before school ended and recorded a bunch of my songs for the whole world (read: for a couple friends and immediate family) to hear. But I was still nervous about one thing in particular: would I still be capable of writing music after all this time?

The answer: YES! I didn't think I had it in me anymore, but it turns out I do. I wrote a song today...mind you, it's not really totally done, but done enough to say I wrote a song. Like, a  few verses and a chorus with music. And what's more, I actually like it. It's simple and captures a feeling that I often have - not wanting to get out of bed when it's rainy outside. Ok, so that sounds lame, but I swear it's good. You'll see. You'll all see.