More co-writing experiences

Songwriting with others:

During this past week I have not let any opportunity to co-write slip by. After work a colleague saw me tuning up my guitar and said to me

"I have an idea for a song for you."

I started to jot notes down as he talked to me about his life in NYC right now. I tried to get him to speak at least a full page of ideas straight out of his mouth without any editing as raw materiel to start with and to try to find a focus on a main theme, idea or starting point. I usually get some sort of lyrical hook and a melodic framework in and around the same time when I'm writing. This particular questionnaire method is a good way for me to write with others so far - I like to spill the guts and pick through the entrails for the pearls, gems and like the Roman priests get a sense of the future - beware the ideas of March!

He described his life as a Pendulum swinging back and forth as he tries to hold on to his life and also his frustration in general. After I landed on "to hell with it..." as the first line; I started to mess around on the guitar and got a rhythmic feel and chord movement going then fitted the line to a melody and worked lyrics/music through the chord changes.

We repeated process for each verse and he was surprised when I used an online rhyming dictionary and thesaurus. I grew up in a family home with a thesaurus, dictionaries and rhyming tools so it seems natural to me to use whatever tools I need to exactly say what I want to express.

Pendulum

To hell with it
on a clock that can't be stopped
Pendulum: dropping down & flying up
This is the rhythm of my life
... to survive

Holding on
circle round and go nowhere
sight's unclear
leaving everything that's dear
I want to stop and start to pray
...far away

© Lyrics/Music Author Copyright JM/SK

Each end verse has a refrain and a pause as the hook. There is no full chorus, lyrical bridge but a solo instrumental part is possible. I was time driven as I had to leave for a performance that evening so we completed five verses. SK was another good contributor to the process and paid full attention to meaning, rhyme structure and melody.

SK and I have talked together about writing 'the book' for the musical I am writing and I still feel he has a good visual comedic sense and witty observations.

I have continued to amend and work with CL by email on the previous week's songs to tweak them for meaning, time states and easy sing-ability - especially the Unemployment Blues. This one is real fast and I was concerned about the last 3 lines of verse one below.

The unemployment blues

I said I could do it better, I could do it all
Little did I know I was headed for a fall
I put in the trouble, I put in the sweat
I even sold my bed to see what I could get
Seven years in college to chase after my dream
Didn't want to end up with food stamps to redeem

I got the blues ...
I was laid off last week don't know what I will do
I'm gonna stand in line with the unemployment blues
I've got the blues ...

© Lyrics/Music Author Copyright JM/CL

Work, work, busy, busy

- I'm still writing: songs that is!

Well since I last wrote I have continued to work on co-writing which showed me a good side to my work method - speed. AC is more measured and structured - that's not me but I do note it as I pass by - "oh I need a bit here, that can be the Chorus and other self-talk as the process unfolds revealing another creative dawn. I have the ability to persevere at a single song writing co-write session and develop a fully fleshed song.

Yesterday we wrote a song called The Unemployment Blue's with an accidental co-writer CL and last week with my usual co-writer AC I sat down with her guitar came up with a riff and encouraged her AC to pitch in so she did and came up with a gem - 'Get the hell out of here' ... so we proceeded to work through the verses, after we exhausted that I continued onto a more MAJOR pre chorus and chorus. It felt good if a little short so I later added some extra lines to extend the impact of the chorus repetition. I pulled and encouraged as much unedited content out of her and added some of my own spices and we decided to edit it later. At that point I was scaring the neighbor's. Went home happy as it was the base of a great song if a little angry in tone...

Yesterday, Sunday at the NSAI chapter met on co-writing (Songwriters association or support group as my friend refers to it) "Hi my name is John and I'm a compulsive songwriter - "yes well just share the verse and we'll join in the chorus"

... anyway we were thrown together randomly and from CL's life experience we drew a song called the unemployment Blue's - its a very fast paced and timely story of modern laid off life.

I hope to appear at Ceol in Wednesday for the Wednesday Song Club so I need to pull along a few guests and spread the word - so if you are in NYC come along after 8 pm.

I am writing a musical

I never really thought about it but I realized I really like (some) Musicals such as "O Brother where art thou', Wiz of Oz, My Fair Lady, Willy Wonka and other fun and zany musicals like that and I love writing songs so I have put them together thanks to the idea of my co-writer Miss A.C. We are writing and developing ideas one or more musicals using our already fab songs and some more that we are working on right now.

'Work: the musical' and 'Love Sucks: the musical' are the working titles. I am really excited right now and am really psyched about the project. We are meeting regularly and we aim to have one finished by Mid March.

There are 3 co-writes in process. 'Murphy's law' - when things always seem to go wrong (at work) , 'Don't give up the day job' - that hopefully will be about the discouraging friend damning our songwriting dreams with faint praise and finally 'That's business' which is the most brutally funny one - its brutal and its funny.

Another song I feel I'd like to try is a positive message song which I already have one of but maybe one along the lines of 'Accentuate the positive' or "Enjoy Yourself -its later than you think"

Here are the titles of songs so far written.

Work: The dark side
Don't want to go to work tomorrow
The shareholder song
Its late December (its a money thing)
Do we never do enough?
In dark days
Workers of the world

Other Characters
Self made man - Boss/CEO
That's Business! ( New)

Love
I need some company
Found love
Cant stop thinking about you

Co Writes
Don't give up the day job
Murphy's law
That's business

Positive Message Song
Positive songs- treasure


Co-writing is going to be challenging and will definitely have growing pains while we form a working alliance together and negotiate content etc.

Things to do are to sort out the book and work out the exact plot lines - I have been working on that and am pleased so far but I could easily have some one knock the straw out of me or I wouldn't have the heart to go on or be able to think about it because I lacked the courage - sounds familiar its of course - the Wiz of Oz - but I digress my musical is about work ... that's it.

Goals Aims for 2009

Write Musical about Work and/or Love using Songs I have already and some more co-written ones.

Record piano tunes professionally with rhythm section backing band.

Record more home demo's and more pro demos with a variety of people and places

Do 1/2 gigs of any sort per month

Put out 1/2 CD's - mastered professionally with graphics for cover-art, merch and web

Set up alternate business to do e-commerce setups for 3rd parties to support musical output - Linked-in

Co-write with AC.

Promote Laughjohnlaugh online in all channel's - use adverts on my blogs and other sites

Go on Tour of New York City, State, Tri-State, College and Ireland to promote my CD - Radio/TV/Papers

Design Merchandise for sale at gigs

Work harder at marketing

Be more confident in every aspect

Do more music related courses like the Berklee Online Courses

Start a small TV show on BCAT - with humor and other practical spots - cookery technology etc for example Interview 1 musician /songwriter per week like the Artists studio -

Get support Gigs and build a network of support, fan base and help.

Do Gigs in Churches - get a special CD produced for that market - record my good Christian tunes.

Apply for Arts funding from someone somewhere somehow to support my Art- Unions, Government Art philanthropists

Go on radio Irish/USA Public Radio

Keep Writing more and more good songs

Network with more professionals

Get professional advice and feedback on my songs and learn as much as I can about craft. Go to Nashville again with some purpose and do some co-writes.

Visit some publishers - have product

Visit some record companies - make new recordings

Education - get more education in technology and music, practice more - sharpen the saw and keep it sharp.

Keep attending to my music lessons in piano ( Lyudmila ) and get more voice training with Sally Morgan Ace Vox teacher www.vocalpowertools.com/singers-singing-lessons.htm

Have more fun and enjoy life.

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I'm getting serious about this song-writing lark.. har har.

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