Lesson Six....The Finish Line or a New Beginning?

Interesting six weeks...and tough going, especially in lesson five, when we actually had to not only create the lyric, but provide a melody to one of the loops provided...and sing it. Oh, that was difficult. At least for me. Painful.

Background on the lyric....I turned back time to my teenage years, and tried to remember how it was when I first fell in love with my husband. How he consumed all my thoughts. Now, songwriting doesn't have to be accurate, so I devised a story line about how the singer is infatuated with her best friends' steady boyfriend. Now she's conflicted, because she can't steal from her very best friend, yet all her emotions cry out for this special guy. So, she has to remind herself to concentrate on her school work, concentrate on anything and everything...except his lips, his hands, his eyes. Name of the song - Concentrate.



Once I had the lyric, I thought well why not try to set it in a hip hop type song...a little rap, a little  singing...a sorta blend. Well, I've never approached this type of genre before, and as my sense of timing is skewed, at best....let's just say that I jumped into rapping with all the gusto of a one year old toddling on his short legs, trying his darnest to walk.

And Pat had this funky loop that I just had to try out. Oops.Very disconcerting. Fell flat on my face a couple of times. Kept going. Okay,  so I'm still stumbling and falling on my face, but I went ahead and submitted week five anyway; although I admit I felt more than a couple of tinges of pity for my peers who are going to evaluate the song. 


But no worries, as I sailed into lesson six. I got that hip hop song out of my system, and now I could move onto something new. Not quite! In fact, now we had to re-do that same song. Only now, we had to concentrate on the phrasing. Front end or back end phrasing, depending on the emotion of the song. Of course the phrasing has to then match up with the strong and/or weak beats and/or bars, for prosody.

What? I can barely count out the 1,2, 3, 4 time. More tries than I can count, and still the timing and phrasing don't seem to match. Front heavy, back heavy. Good to go on the page. Not good to go when I try to rap it or sing it with the beats of the loop. Oh joy. If I could only turn back time. Why didn't I pick out a nice ballad in lesson five??

So, I try to confuse the listener. How about if I add some harmony. Some sections in two part harmony, some in three part harmony. My straight ahead rap type voice, with a higher and lower voice, harmonizing along at times. Confused, yet? Yeah, me too. Do I have a hip hop song? Who knows?

It's kind of a mess. But Pat's loop just keeps looping around with the beat. At least the beat is funky. Maybe my evaulators will focus on that, and forget about my rap/singing. Fat chance. They'll probably pass around the popcorn, and invite their friends over for a good laugh.


So back to the drawing board, so to speak. Back to foot stomping, and hand clapping. I need to hone up on rhythm. How hard can it be to keep track of 4/4 time? Well, apparently for some of us, like me (well at least I hope that I'm not the only one), it can be a challenge.

Darn you, Pat Pattison. From lyrics, I now have to learn more about melodic flow, and especially rhythm. Look what you started!

Lesson five….Writing the Song (or how to hang in there when the going gets tough)

Well, here I am going round the bend, almost on the home stretch. It’s been an interesting run. Eager to get going. Zooming out of the starting blocks, racing along in the lyrical sections, heart pumping, breathing out words and rhymes….then almost coming up lame in lesson four. What me? Provide a melody, and sing to it, yet?

Well I managed to keep on going, but barely. Eked out a sort of melody, and tried to sing my lyric, over and over again. Painful on my vocal chords. Painful to hear. But then I get the peer evaluation back, and one kind soul, writes "Wow! A real song! +1000000 points to you." I don’t know about you, but to me his comment seemed genuine. Okay, so I took it as a compliment….a somewhat misguided compliment, but just the same, it was enough to keep me going.

So, spurring myself on, I wrote a new lyric for lesson five, about teenage love, and tried to set it to a hip hop beat. Now, this is not a genre I’ve ever written in, let alone try to get a hip hop beat working; but it’s done, and submitted. I tried to kinda rap out the lyric in my best chilled down voice….but I still sound very geeky, and off the rhythm.

But hey, who’s gonna hear it? Embarassing – yes!!  But maybe, later I’ll give the lyric to a co-writer who writes in this vein, and see what happens. At the very least, it was an interesting experiment.

So, I’m still trotting along. Wondering what lesson six will bring. Maybe I will reach the finish line, after all.

Lesson Four - Shapes

Shapes….today I’m thinking about shapes. We, as a species, come in all different shapes and sizes. However, when it comes to our language, how we communicate with other, there’s a certain shape to our words, by necessity. We need to understand each other.

We emphasize, or stress, certain syllables, so they become more pronounced and higher in pitch. So in a word such as ‘often’, ‘oft’ is higher in pitch then ‘en’. In a sense, we create musical tones even when we are speaking. We can think of sentences then in linear shapes…the highs and lows of the syllables. 

We don’t stop to think about where we put our emphasis’; we simply speak like we normally do. When we create a song, we need to give it some thought…..so that we match the stressed syllable with the stronger beats in the bar…..Preserving the Natural Shape of the Language….and creating prosody. Of course our lyric theme should also suit the setting or melody of the tune.

So, I thought I would analyze Chuck Barry’s song: Johnny Be Good (a rock and roll classic from 1958). Its been covered by so many artists throughout the years (would you believe John Denver, Meat Loaf, Celine Dion, Prince, Buck Owens, Elton John, Jimi Hendrix....the list goes on). Do the strong stresses of the words match the strong beats in the song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JULmUlGDA

"Johnny B. Goode"

   /        /       -    -   / -  / -    /     -     /       /   -    

Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans,

  /         /      /   -     -    /         -   /        -   /   -    /
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens

  -          /      -   /    /   -      /       -     /     -       /
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood,

 -             /     -    /    -     /       /         /    -     /      /

Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode

  -       /  -     / -        /        -    /      -     /     -     / 
Who never ever learned to read or write so well,

-      -     -        /      -    /    -    /      /     /      -    -     /
But he could play a guitar just like ringing a bell.

[Chorus:]
/      /

Go Go

/       /    -     /      /
Go Johnny Go Go

   /       /    -    /   /
Go Johnny Go Go

/       /    -     /      /
Go Johnny Go Go

/       /    -     /      /
Go Johnny Go Go

/       -    /     /
Johnny B. Goode

-      /    -    /  -     -    /   -    -   -  /  -      /

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack

-      /     -   /     -     /       -     -    /    //        /
Go sit beneath the trees by the railroad track.

 /       -    /     -    /     -      -   /     -      /   -    -    -      /
Oh, the engineers used to see him sitting in the shade,
    /        -       -       -    /    -     -     -      /   -       /

Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made.
  -     /     -     /     -      -         /          /      -      /

People passing by, they would stop and say
-      /      -    -      / -       /   -      /        -          /

Oh my but that little country boy could play

[Chorus]

-       /   -      /      -       /        //    -    -      /    -    /

His mother told him someday you will be a man,

-         -     /     /    -    /      -   -   -   /     /       /
And you will be the leader of a big old band.

 /     -    /   -      /      -     -        /       -  /
Many people coming from miles around

-        /     -      /       -      /    -    -       -    /        /        /
To hear you play your music when the sun goes down

 /    -      /      //       -       /        -     /   -    /
Maybe someday your name will be in lights
/       -    /      -    /      /           -   /

Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight.

[Chorus]

Well, I have to say that this song has all the energy and prosody that anyone could ask for. Stressed syllables on the stronger beats. It all works.

As for my assignment this week, I was supposed to put my lyric to music. A toughie for me. As a lyricist, I rely on my co-writers to supply the music, adjust the lyric as necessary and to sing the song. Last week, I had written what I thought was a hot and steamy (literally) lyric, called Volcano.

So…..I listened to some of Pat’s loops, choose the rock ballad one, and tried to warble along. It was easier to ID the lyric stresses than to sing them. I realized that I should have changed some of the lyric lines to make it easier to sing, but too late. I was supposed to sing to what I had written. So I did just that. Oh boy. Not proud of my melody or singing; and I sure hope that nobody in my SAC group gets to evaluate my effort.  

Two more weeks of this?? I wonder if I can hold on.