Idea begets Idea

Since I seem to be at a temporary pause with my current song, the creative juices are flowing, just not in the direction that they need to be from my point of view. So a new song is in the works while the other new song sits and thinks about what its trying to prove.

Coolness, that this new groove comes together so fast. The challenge is to create a somewhat viable electric guitar sound out of a synth. It needs some teeth and edge and groove to work. Again we'll see. This whole Chroma Specter project is really one big experiment, carefully intended, but ultimately trying to be something new yet approachable to the casual and serious listener alike.

Anyway, the new tunes working title is "If I Ran The Circus"; taken from an obscure Dr. Seuss book, but also a phrase that means "I have an opinion!"

In other news: My young son and daughter attended a "Rodeo Party" today and rode horses (real cowboy work horses) for the first time. Quite a thrilling experience though my daughter who is almost 3 was also amazed at the manure on the ground and couldn't stop talking about that too. It's the simple things in life I guess.

Thanks for listening.

Lyric Block

It usually takes a bit of time to get the rust out of familiar tasks or skills that have laid dormant for a while. Such is the case with writing the lyrics to the current song that I am working on. I really had no idea where to begin. I knew the subject matter that I wanted to write about but was at a loss as to where to start.

In the past, my lyrics have usually come in fits and starts as they were tipped off by whatever muse worked the process. But again this time. . . nothing.

As you may recall from my first post, there has been a year of total inactivity in the music department of my life, due to a job layoff, major move and all sorts of recession scrambling. After some time thinking about trying to write some words to the music, I remembered one of my unusual methods that seems to work.

The steps are as follows: Begin listening to some music and lyrics that may or may not have a similar feel to my own song. Then I start to write phrases or sentences that seem to flow together and begin to create some coherent stanzas. At this point usually my mind takes over and the words start flowing freely.

I think that by listening to other lyrics and more importantly the flow and rhyme and meter of the words, my brain is able to start piecing the word puzzle together. For that is how I think of poetry, as word puzzle, phrases and words and couplets that fit together, referencing each other, forming interrelated symbolic phrases and an overall feel to the song. The amazing thing is that the finished product sounds nothing like the lyrics that I was listening to that get the juices flowing, but flow they do.

Now I just have to let the words sit for a little while. I'll re-read them in a few days and see if a fresh mind still thinks they work. There will be some tweaks and word changes, but by this point the song is pretty much complete from the lyrics point.

I'll leave you with a small snippet of my latest song lyrics that I particularly like. This section also came in a mad rush and was on the paper less than a minute after the idea came to me.

So here is a possible 2nd verse:

Hey Hey Little Dancer
Float On The Music In the Air
Let Us Ride The Rhythm
Take Away All Sadness & Cares

Next, to try and find a vocal melody that works with the lyrics and the song—I feel another creative block coming on.