My dad is a music LOVER! To describe my dad you have to include the music he listens to: eclectic, loud, mostly classical, thundering timpani, live canons and booming bass lines. Music playing all the time. Music is his life blood. We kids never had a chance to dislike music. My brother was named after Aaron Copland and I was named after “Beethoven’s Jena Symphony.” I later found out while attending UCSB that Beethoven didn’t write it. A composer by the name of Friedrich Jeremias Witwget (November 8, 1770 – January 3, 1836) wrote it. No mater, my dad loved Beethoven and passed that love on to me. Thank you dad! There are always those of us who are music writers and music LOVERS. A ying for a yang! A his for a hers! This could go on!
I grew up to music, obviously! I listened to lots of different styles of music because of my dad (and school)! So I know that music is universal.It is an important part of our lives. We as songwriters give our understanding of the universe, by way of our muses, a voice! And you don’t have to get personal about it either. Just write your emotions out in a story. Doesn’t even have to be your story. There is a place for everyone in the world of music. All you have to do is to listen to your song! It’s not easy. It’s a work in progress but worth the effort to achieve knowing oneself. The following paragraphs are from my book.
Here is an insert from my book, “Change World; Write Your Song”
From Chapter:
Songwriting methods – putting the Muse to work
Let’s put the Muse to work! In Greek, mousa (mousa means muse, and there were 9 of them: Erato, Efterpi, Thaleia, Kalliopi, Cleo, Melpomeni, Ourania, Polymnia and Terpsihori) is a common noun that means, literally, “song” or “poem.” The Muses, in ancient times, were Greek Goddesses who embodied the arts and inspired the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song, stage, writing and dance. Sometimes when an idea for a song pops into my head, I like to think that it is my muse at work. So, put your muse to work when you want inspiration. Inspiration is the seed, but songwriting is a work in progress.
Which comes first, the words, the melody or maybe both at the same time? Many will tell you; sometimes it’s both the words and melody because the scansion (words having a pattern and rhythm) is like a melodic phrase (notes having a pattern and rhythm). Sometimes we’ll hear just a melody. Paul McCartney used “Scramble Eggs”, temporarily to remember a melodic line until he thought of “Yesterday.” They scan the same. Beethoven’s motifs are full of bird sounds taken from his daily nature walks. From the book, The Victor Book Of The Symphony, they write about Beethoven’s love of nature, “To walk by himself in the woods, to sit in the crotch of a favorite tree and sketch his musical ideas, to be out of doors at every opportunity were to him the acme of happiness”. [1] Whatever the muse manifests for us; we must then take that inspiration and turn it into a working song.
O’Connell, The Victor Book Of The Symphony, 83.
Finding yourself – “To everything, there is a season”
A part of the buzz you get from songwriting comes from the “tension and release” of the songs’ emotional flow. What I mean by this is that tension is the feeling of conflict in the song or story and then the release is when that conflict is resolved. After finishing a song you will feel happier with all those little tensions gone! Just like that. All you have to do is to write the song! It is important to keep writing and examining your feelings because what you might of felt one minute may change by the time you finish the song. When I write a song because I am upset about something the feeling is usually resolved by the time I’ve finished the song. So, the song finishes on a positive. And that is songwriting therapy! So, where does a song idea come from?”
I hope that you write your song! Or at least find the music that fills your heart with the joy of being! You are the music. Let your muse take reign over your words and write them… Share them if you want or cast them to the wind… It doesn’t matter as long as you are able to express yourself…
Emotions are music.. They are intertwined. Let the muse speak your heart and then let your heart speak the words you need to hear and to share..
peace…
