Wednesday, 14 Jan 2009
Post Season Christmas Song
I’m writing a Christmas song. Not a traditional one but I’ve decided to call it ‘Jingle Bells’ to piggyback off the success of the predecessor. Here are my notes from this rendition of Jingle Bells in bullet-form:
1. A strong vocal melody can carry you through the entire song writing process from start to finish much longer than you otherwise would have thought. It’s the “hook” that keeps you going.
2. I started this song back in Taiwan a couple weeks ago while tinkering on the piano. It might have influences from Jay Chou’s “說好的幸福呢” particularly the Am<>Em chord progression. It is loosely derived from Jingle Bells from which I pull the riff.
3. There’s a disconnect between hearing what I’m playing while playing and hearing what I’m playing when I’m not playing. When I hear myself on recording, I don’t understand how I played what I played or even what I just played.
4. This is perhaps the first song I completed that really utilizes the optimized dynamic range of my voice. It’s not too high and not too low. I can really belch the notes for this one without “reaching”.
5. The lyrical portion of the song should not be “cerebral” though for me it often times is. Sometimes I’ll sit in front of the computer and just think about what I want the lyrics to say/sound like. But the best lyrics are the ones that follow the song/melody at the point of contact/inspiration.
Looks like the flavor of the week for me is music… Christmas songs even! Lyrics and demo soon to come???
