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Symphonic Saturday – Writing Songs

music1I've been involved with music for decades now. In elementary school, they started us with recorders, which sounded terrible and I am truly sorry for our teacher's ears that year. I still have my recorder. I should pick it back up and learn to play it properly.

From there, they bused us to another school for wood shop, home economics, and music. I next took up the clarinet. I never got good at the clarinet, but maybe in the future I'll get back into reed instruments. The following year, I tried the trumpet, but wasn't given proper breathing instruction and headaches made me switch back to clarinet.

In high school, I took classes in music and also joined music-related clubs. I was a member of the choir, though never a lead singer. I played clarinet in band and in class until the year a new teacher came and formed an all brass band. I picked the trumpet back up and loved it. The months I couldn't play due to wisdom teeth extraction were horrible. I took a guitar class and almost ended up singing during the performance, but allergies make my hearing not great sometimes and nerves overcome me when it comes to singing in public. I once performed some songs on trumpet solo for an elementary class, though I didn't feel it was my best work. We had many performances from massed bands composed of music students from all the schools to those at art gallery nights, morning Christmas carol accompaniment, and graduations.

All this to say that I'm happy to be making music a bigger part of my life once again. I'm now writing songs and I'm finding it thoroughly enjoyable. Not only do I get the soulful release, but I create something.

In starting this path, I spoke with a friend who is a music teacher about where to start. I wondered if I should choose my key first, the genre, etc. Where I ended up starting was the lyrics. Then I chose a rhythm. Then I trialed chords. Then I broke the chords down into their notes and played around with that. I'm not done yet. I haven't added dynamics like loud points and soft points.

I'm mainly using my guitar for this as my piano skills are lacking and it sounds better on guitar. Those two things might be related...

I don't know when or if you will hear these songs I'm writing, but I just wanted to talk about where I am with music today. I feel more energized and happy than I have in a very long time.

I hope you have things in your life that you can be excited about.

Also, if you haven't read Onder Magazine Issue #5 yet, you should. There is an article in there where I ramble on about how writing songs and writing stories is similar. The magazine is inexpensive and there are a bunch of great stories and articles to read on writing and music.

Salut,
R~
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