For a change, I didn't have anything to do today (Saturday), so I thought that I would utilise the time to write a song. I took my trusty Washburn guitar, played around a little, and within 15 minutes I had the basis of a verse. Of course, when I came to transcribe and sequence the verse, I realised that it was a bit short and that I needed to add a little more. Once I had the verse, I found myself adding an introduction, a link between the first and second verses and a break that included a subtle modulation. Then came a simple middle eight in a new key ... and then I was stuck - how was I going to continue?
I may have downed tools at this point and taken the dog for a walk. I had determined that I wanted to use a standard structure of verse, verse, middle eight, instrumental verse, middle eight, verse, but that modulation had made things complicated. Where and what should I change so that the middle eight and final verse come out in the original key? Eventually I found the answer: have the instrumental verse in the modulated key, then subtly change the sequence at the end in order to have the middle eight. Then I added an extra bar after the second middle eight in order to ease the transition back into the original key.
As I wrote the song on the guitar, I realised that I should play fingerpicked guitar on the recording (when I get that far); this is something that I can't sequence and would sound much more natural if played in real time. This of course assumes that I don't transpose the entire song to make it easier to sing; I think that my range will be suitable. In fact, I could play guitar throughout the entire song, although I'm not too sure whether this would be a good idea, as I like to make changes in the instrumental texture. I don't have to fingerpick the entire song - I can 'lay out' here and there, and play single chords in the middle eights.
No words, of course, and no ideas. These will come in the future.
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 545 | The twins came to visit yesterday | Uncle | |
| 672 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Films, Obituary | |
| 802 | End of an era | Personal | |
| 924 | Problems with blogging | Meta-blogging |
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