In addition to writing about forests, my student and I were also working on the theme growing up. This was my little musing, filmed in the reflection of a photograph of myself taken right before I detoured into music.
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This is yesterday's song. I didn't spend ages on it, but I did engage myself fully in the research, writing and recording process, which I must admit I haven't been doing recently. I'm perhaps regaining control over the project, and the other parts of my life too, and it feels very nice.
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Here's last night's piece, just a little acapella improvisation. My starting prompt for this one was gumboots and the text is the result of a 90 second writing exercise. As an aside, it's finally jumper weather in Melbourne, which makes me really happy. I love this time of year.
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Sunday's song, continuing with the moon theme. The rhythm and harmony were pulled from serial composition using the word moon, and the unusual 9/8 ostinato took a lot of practice to sing over. I'm not going to write any more about this one, as I need to take some time to relax before starting today's song, and it's supposed to be a public holiday today in Melbourne.
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One of the songwriting tools I use regularly is an etymological dictionary. Looking at the origin of words is a really fascinating way of finding links between seemingly unrelated objects and ideas. My original starting point for this piece was umbrella, and the origin of that word comes from umbra, which is related to shadows and also to phantoms and ghosts. It is an interesting coincidence that the words shade and umbrella are linked, as shade also appeared in the previous day's piece. I took the ghostly route, and worked off the idea of trying to imagine a loved one back into existence.
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I concluded yesterday's blog post by saying that I would let interest and enjoyment be my guide, and I think that's something that deserves a little exploration. It's not quite as simple as just doing what you are enjoying, especially if you want to develop your skills at something. What is good for you may not necessarily be enjoyable, and it is easy to become bored or to feel like your practice is stagnating if you don't work outside of your comfort zone every now and then.
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Just a quick post today, before I go and get a decent night's sleep. I kept on with the sea theme, and this piece is a kind of continuation of yesterday's story. Sonically it's structured in three sections: the sound of the waves above water, then the sound in your ears when you plunge under the water, and finally the sound of bubbles as they rush from your mouth.
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Week three down, only 49 to go. The end is nowhere in sight, but I'm still mostly enjoying myself. Yesterday was a first for me in terms of improvising on guitar and voice at the same time, today's piece is a first in that I've never really used my loop pedal with a guitar before, only with my voice. Each of these daily compositions give me a chance to try out new ideas, but they also give me a chance to struggle at actually performing them without much practice.
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I have a young guitar student who is incredibly cute, and likes to take off his shoes before he starts his lesson. He says he's "just not comfortable" until he does. He always informs me while removing his footwear that he has tan-bark in his socks, and he inspired some of the lyrics for this piece
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