So much music is pouring out of me right now! Wow! I guess it’s this time of year where the busyness of summer has wound down and the introspection of fall is starting to settle in. This seems to happen every year and it’s kind of like being on a horse that’s ready to bolt out of the pen.
So I’ve been writing on this new song called Beneath the Moon and I’m totally in love with it!
So how this song came about is pretty typical. I was on my way to Oregon a couple of weeks ago to pick up the last load of things from storage when it hit. I almost always get my best ideas when I’m driving or in the shower. So I set up my phone on the phone holder in my van and recorded ideas as they came all the way down Hood Canal (one of the prettiest drives I know). The song stuck with me during the whole process of moving things and on the drive back home. When a song does this, I know it’s chosen me as a conduit.
My next step was to set up my gear and start recording what I was hearing in my head, which was the following – guitar playing this delicate finger picking style, bass, backing and layered vocals, a glass harmonica adding this angelic quality and some sort of percussive sound that wasn’t actual drums.
Here’s how I put things together.
I worked out the chords and recorded the guitar part first along with a vocal just to get an idea of what it was going to sound like. Next I recorded the bass. I should confess here that when I’m in this stage of things, I never use a metronome so things often don’t line up rhythmically. I do this because I figure I can work out the timing later once I can get some initial ideas down. Once the guitar, bass and lead vocal were down, I could then start working out the timing of things – what the time signature is, how fast it will go, where entrances and exits are and laying out the basic structure of the song. Because the initial ideas that came through were so clear and because I recorded them on my phone, it made it easy to put the puzzle pieces together when it came to structure. Next, I recorded the layered vocals letting them harmonize with the lead. All of this was done in a space of two days so far. Here’s a clip of what it sounds like at this point.
There’s still a lot of work to be done but you can at least get an idea of what it will sound like. My next step is to decide on whether or not to sing words in English or my own language. I think I may do a mix of both. I like doing this because it opens the song up to be interpreted by the listener. Words we understand can sometimes get in the way of allowing our own feeling for the music and how we perceive it. So to have the verses in my language (known as idioglossia) and the chorus in English feel best to me. Who knows? Perhaps later on down the road there can be an English translation.
So why am I sharing all of this with you? I love bringing people in on the process I go through. Sometimes when you read about how other people do things, it can open a door and inspire us to try things a new way. I’ve had that happen many times both with music and life!
Thank you for taking the time to read this if you made it this far. And thank you for listening if you took some time to have a listen. Let me know what you think! I would love to hear it! Until then, take care and stay amazing!
Love, Pam