The title of this blog entry refers to a lyric from a song by Josh Ritter. I went and saw him last night at Club Passim, where he played a benefit show for a friend of his who is trying to pay off exorbitant medical bills because of her recent bout with breast cancer. It was a noble endeavor and I’m fortunate that I got to see a night of great music in an intimate venue. I’m not going to gush about how fantastic of a live performer Ritter is because I did that back on in entry on October 7th, I think. He is fantastic though and it was great to see him perform.
I’ve been having a little trouble lately writing lyrics for songs. Now that the songs have been tracked for the studio (though I’m still waiting on the early mixes and am nervous about things panning out for this weekend), I am turning towards writing new songs. It was incredibly difficult to write during the summer because I’d spend four hours a day at Faneuil Hall and be worn out physically and mentally when I got home, so I didn’t write many songs. Now is prime time, it would seem, because there isn’t a whole heck of a lot going on but like I’ve stated before, my confident goes in waves. Right now, as a lyricist, it is pretty slow.
I think I’m going to start by studying lyrics by artists that I admire. I think it’s weird that I have never really done something like that before. I have certainly mimicked artists that I enjoy but I haven’t taken the lyrics that they have composed out of the context of the song for dissection. I think at this juncture I can compose good rhythmic guitar parts fairly easily. Then I need to get the lyrics and I’m putting a much stronger focus on melodies. When I was working on music last week, I was trying to compose harmonies for some songs but was not able to. I asked for Scott’s (from Cahill) help because they have fantastic harmonies and it basically came down to a matter of being able to simplify the melodies enough where they can be easily played on keyboard or guitar. If they are basic enough, then putting simple harmonies on them comes easily. Though I don’t knock my sense of melody (in fact, I like to think it’s pretty good) I want to see if I can force myself to write more harmony-friendly melodies if for nothing more than an experiment.
I have also been spending a lot of time lately working on ear training. I have a book that employs a combination of rhythmic exercises, solfege exercises ( think “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do” ) and sight reading. It’s been tough but I’ve tried to spend an average of forty-five minutes a day on it and am making some progress. I think that will help things sub-consciously as well as consciously and am looking forward to the results.
So, other than that I’m preparing today for the Paradise Lounge show tomorrow which I think is going to be a very successful night. I haven’t had to break my back to promote it and have been getting good vibes. Brian Packer is coming over tonight so we can finish working on his lead guitar parts, which will be good. All in all, I think tomorrow will be a nice way to cap off what has been a crazy year.
Now, I must move to studying lyrics. Today I’m going to check out Josh Ritter’s lyrics. He may be leagues above me right now as far as sophistication goes, but I have to have something to shoot for.
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