Rob checks levels as Jesse strums my ukulele and Swinky vocalises in my bedroom.
Months have elapsed in the quest to make a song for the World Hoop Day Dance project. Shortly after writing the previous post in mid-March, I gave up on the lyrics and turned to the music.
Huw and I created the chords that guide the song. There are only 6 of them, C D7 F Bb A G7, but it took a while to get them in the right order. Huw put together the main part and I loved it. Then I decided to try to make a chorus. I sat with my ukulele in the park torturing toddlers and their mothers for several hours as I plucked and swore and made a lot of bad noises. But I got something that I liked. Then Huw and I fussed with it until the chorus came back around and fit neatly with his part and voila! It sounds great. So the base of our music was ready.
There were still no words and no melody. I recruited Jesse and Swinky to the project. Jesse writes a lot of music and is great with words. Swinky sings beautifully and works with Jesse on many of his projects. Over a drunken dinner and a very late night that ended in a sleepover and annular eclipse viewing the next morning, we got some awesome verses and a melody. Rob recorded what had been created. Progress!
The chorus was left behind that night. Everybody got busy and nothing happened for weeks. Since it's my song and I want to make sure it gets finished, it fell to me to do something about it. I employed a favorite technique of mine: propose something crappy and people will fix it.* I wrote some lyrics and warbled them to a tune I invented, then sent the recording to the team. It wasn't long before I had musical suggestions from Huw, Jesse came over to rewrite the lyrics, and last night I had everyone over for another dinner and recording session. More progress!
Now we have something to work with. Rob takes the lead from here. He'll add beats and create an arrangement with ProTools. Eventually we will get into a proper recording studio for the final recording. But at this point, I can start to think about the WHD Dance choreography, which is the whole point of the project, so I am really happy.
Can't wait to share the song with you when it is done.
* This works for almost any endeavor (maybe not cooking). Don't wait for people to approve something you think is good. Give them something to fix and they will crawl all over it. Your final product will be better and more importantly, it will be finished with everyone's approval and ownership.
I once wanted to be a composer and wrote various pieces of music. But I never tried to write a dance tune, especially one accompanied by the ukulele. I`m curious about how your song will turn out to be.