I sit down sleepily at my computer on the fifth day of my challenge, and I have to say I’m feeling a little smug right now–despite the fact that I am now officially behind schedule. I finished writing the day 4 song last night, on schedule, but it was too late–and I was too tired–to get the recording done. I ended up spending quite a few hours on it this morning. It’s a tricky song to play, trickier to sing, and because of that, tricky to record. It’s ironic that I might write a song that I can’t play, but it actually happens all the time. And as far as singing: I’m not a great, or even mediocre, singer. I have trouble hitting and staying on a note. Which is not to say I don’t know what note I’m looking for. (That’s a separate problem) It comes from being afraid to open my mouth in front of people until the age of 30. When I write a song, I often have an idea of what it should sound like, but not the ability to produce it. Hence, I find myself having to learn my own songs.
The guitar part on this last song (No One But You) highlights a similar problem, but with the accompaniment. The progression I use over the verse is a standard jazz turnaround. In fact, the song started with the simple thought: I’m going to write something jazzy. I started playing the turnaround, and the rhythm of the lyric just came out. I also had a vague notion that this would be a love song. So the first line that spilled out of me (thank you, Muse) was probably very similar to the one actually on the page. From there it was pretty easy to construct the verses. But the chorus was a problem. Here I was basically rapping (I use the term advisedly) the verses, but the chorus had to be different, and it didn’t seem like there was going to be any way to actually get out of singing in this song. The chorus was going to have to have a melody. I couldn’t use the same moving bass line, either; or at least it had to slow down and use different notes. And I was never going to be able to write a melody over something like that.
So I was looking for some chords. Thanks again to an inexplicable process (the muse), the melody for the chorus just came to me. But that’s where the trouble began. I had a nascent melody, but no progression to carry it–and basically very little experience writing in the genre. I didn’t even know what chords I could draw from–except for the very basic minor II, minor III, etc. But jazz draws from a wide spectrum of musical colors, and I was playing with a three-piece crayon set.
Well, turns out I did have the background, or just enough to produce the rudimentary demo I offer up here. It was a watershed moment, really. I have come to the same impasse with other songs. I’ve actually spent untold hours, on one song in particular, trying to figure out just such a progression, and to no avail.
But the process was still laborious–and time-consuming. Which is why this song not only didn’t get finished last night, but took up so much of this morning. I ended up having to take the individual notes in the melody, and looking for chords that contained them, but which also went along with each other and the song. I’m still not sure about a couple of them, but I’m fairly pleased overall.
My mission this evening is to go for a song that draws from what I know–so I can get more than five hours sleep tonight. Wish me luck