A CONCEPT UNCOVERED

WHEN looking over my "Setting and Sound" post, I realised that there is a common theme in each of my songs, which is the deeply-rooted integration of technology in our lives. All the conversations feature an aspect of technology; the mobiles and internet access in Song 1, the ECG in Song 2 and the television left on in Song 3. 

Even when we are speaking to people in real life and having face to face conversations, we are constantly surrounded and bombarded by technology; from the phones vibrating in our pockets, to the laptops and tablets on our laps, to the radio sounds in stores and cars, to the constant hum of the family television. The more we become immersed into the virtual worlds, the more they effect our daily interactions in reality. 

I'm really pleased that this concept has revealed itself because I feel like it gives my work another layer and now I am able to explore it more within the three songs. 

MORE INSPIRATION

Music blows lyrics up very quickly, and suddenly they become more than art. They become pompous and they become self-conscious ... I firmly believe that lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on

- Stephen Sondheim

HAUNTING PIANO FEATURING ETHEREAL LIGHT

This is a sample piece for what I imagine Song 2 would potentially sound like. It has a melancholy feel, rises and falls appropriately, and is lacking a clear structure to echo the non-traditional structure of my songs. There is a climax (beginning around 1:49) – which would occur when the heart rate monitor begins showing negative signs – then a return to a more subdued and poignant melody as the song ends with the character realising she must accept her friend's fate. 

SETTING & SOUNDS

SONG 1:

Back seat of a car

SONG 2:

Hospital room, palliative care 

Hospital noises:

http://www.soundsnap.com/tags/hospital_machines (the first heart rate monitor in particular will be of use)


SONG 3:

Cosy living room

Ideas for programs playing in the background:

Friends theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vuaqDDr--Q

A Current Affair closer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-HQnADqxEI

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE MUSIC

THE SUCCESSFUL creation of the three songs relies not only on the lyrics and sounds, but on the music. Luckily, I have an extremely talented musician who has agreed to assist me, as well as play for me on the performance night.

I envision Song 1 as having acoustic guitar and Song 2 being accompanied by piano. I'm not quite sure about Song 3 yet. I want the music to complement the conversation, the pace, tone and nuances, and for the melody to differ slightly depending on which character is speaking.

The lyrics of the first two songs are already set to melodies that I devised, now I need experiment with different accompaniment. Acoustic guitar and piano are my top choices, as they would provide the simple, easily manipulated canvas that my conversations require. 

COMPARISON

I've been keeping in mind the idea of balance and contrast amongst my songs, in terms of characters, structure, sounds and overall tone.

Song 1:

• Male character (late teen/early twenties), female character (teen/early twenties).
• Equal amount of dialogue.
• Lovemaking at beginning (and end?), radio sounds, mobile phone noises.
• Comedic, naive.

Song 2:

• Female character (early/mid twenties), male character (thirties).
• Mostly one-sided conversation.
• Hospital noises, beeps, emergency. 
• Mournful, tragic.

Song 3:

• Female character (late twenties), female character (late forties/early fifties).
• Equal amount of dialogue.
• Television noises interspersing conversation.
• Comedic, heartfelt. 

I'm quite happy with the range of elements in the songs and I don't mind that it's female dominated, because, well, I'm a female who likes writing about women. 

Now let's see if I can put all this design into practice.

THE THIRD

GOOD things come in threes. Three wise monkeys, three blind mice, three muskateers, trio of desserts...

Thus, I have decided to write three songs. I already have the foundation for two and now I've thought of the concept for the third. It will focus on a conversation in which a woman in her late twenties, finally comes out to her mother that she is gay, while they are watching television (specific show is still undecided). I want to intersperse lines from the show with the conversation and fill in awkward moments, which is often one of television's greatest uses.

MORE INSPIRATION

"Lyrics that rhyme are for pauncy tossers prancing through dewy fields and meadows."

– Nolan White

This quote just makes me feel good, because I know I'm not going to be able to rhyme much and I have to accept that that's okay. Who needs rhyme anyway? Just because it's pleasing to the ear, doesn't mean it's nessacary to create an engaging song. And even though it's rewarding to come up with interested rhymes, half the time my own sound typical anyway. So I'm not going to worry about it.

Also worth noting:

"Absolutely forget about being orginal."

Good huh?

For the rest of the very blunt, but surprisingly useful article (despite it's atrocious replacment of all apostrophe's by this strange symbol: â€™) go to: 
http://www.ultimateguitar.com/columns/general_music/lyric_writing_for_crap_lyric_writers.html

SOUND TEST

I MENTIONED previously that I want to put sounds in my sounds mimicking or symbolising the setting of the conversation or things that are occuring before/during/after it. This is a rhythm I came up with to begin and perhaps end the first song, about the confused couple.

Please excuse the slightly disconcerting gazes of my stuffed animals, the file wouldn't upload as plain audion so I had to record a video.

CONVERSATION NO. 2

I’VE HEARD that doing a menial task frees your mind and allows it to more effectively ideas. This was certainly proven today, as I spent my three hour shift at work folding clothes, and writing almost an entire song in my head. Singing under your breath is a great way to freak customers out, especially when you’re making facial expressions and changing the pitch of your voice to suit the person talking. 

I became deeply involved in the emotion behind the song. Although (fortunately), I have never had a direct experience with cancer, I've heard enough stories, read enough books and talked to enough people to get a general idea of the heart wrenching feelings it creates. At one point I actually started getting teary and was forced to sniff away the emotion when I realised people actually wanted to ask me things.

Here is the song so far, the conversation is between a male nurse and his terminal patient's best friend. The nurse starts. 

I don’t know if I’m ready. There’s so many things I haven’t said, there’s too many things we haven’t done. She’s sleeping now, so I’ll wait. You know, we were gonna start a blog, we were gonna be famous. We were saving up for Africa, because she wanted to help the children. Also, I think mainly because she wanted to ride an elephant, and she loves giraffes. And if we ever married, we’d be each others maid of honor. And I was planning a magician for her birthday, cos magic always made her laugh. 

Sounds like you’re a great friend.

Yeah, but listen to me now, how selfish do I sound? Talking about all the things I won’t get to do with her, when it’s not about me, it’s about her life cut short, her lost dreams, her family and the hole in the world that she’ll leave when she’s gone. Look at her lying there, she seems so frail. 

It’s all the chemo, she’s lot a lot of weight.

You should have seen her in high school (something something)

I hate when people say, oh what a tragedy, she’s such a beautiful and intelligent girl. What does that have to do with dying? We’re not gonna miss her cos she’s beautiful, we’re not gonna miss her cos she was smart. We’re gonna miss her because she was kind, and there, and her and she held our hearts. 

Where are her parents now?

They’re just downstairs, having their thousandth coffee today. They haven’t slept in weeks. They’re taking a break from staring and feeling useless. Are you sure there's nothing you can do?

I’m sorry, you know I’m just the nurse. Her doctor told just to monitor her heart rate.

[Beeping]

Something’s wrong, you have to leave.

What-what’s happening?

I’ve called the doctor, someone get her parents, you have to leave, family only. 

But I didn’t get to say goodbye!

I’m sorry, but you have to go!

[Beeeeeeep]

The girl's friend dies in the end (or it's assumed that she dies). I don't really know why I chose this upsetting conclusion but it just seemed to feel right, to flow from the rest of the piece like a slowly meandering river inevitably reaching the treacherous rapids and waterfalls. 

Happy endings aren't abundant in real life, so I suppose they shouldn't be constant in writing intended to reflect reality. 

INSPIRATION

Author Quote Posters

CONVERSATION NO. 1

WHEN I attempt to contemplate my project (and most assignments in general for that matter), my brain tends to switch off, overwhelmed by the pressure of coming up with something amazing. I've found that when I don't force myself to think about it and just let it come naturally, I have the most lucid ideas. Here are some (disjointed) lyrics I came up with when walking around the house:

That was...

It broke.

What do you mean it broke?

What do you mean what do I mean it broke? It broke, it ripped, it tore in half, oh my god, what do we do?

Now that’s okay, everything is fine, we’ll find a way, to work this out. 

Okay, okay, no that’s not okay. How can we fix this? (add something here)

Wait a minute, what are you worried about? This is why you started taking the pill, to never feel this doubt.

Obviously you weren't listening when I told you I skipped it yesterday. Remember I had that interview in the morning, and by the time I remembered it was too late.

Oh. Oh, how did that go anyway?

So now you decide to ask?

Look, I’m sorry, you know I’ve had a lot going on lately. Work's been hard and mum's still sick and I just keep forgetting things.
I know, it's okay. It actually went well. But that's not important right now! (add more) 

You’re not the one that has to live with the consequences.

Now hold on, of course I do! We’re in this together now, don’t you know how much I care about you?

Well thank you. But that isn’t gonna help. We need a plan and we need one now.

Why don’t you just take the morning after pill? 
Does that work if you're already on the pill? Isn't that bad for you or soemthing?
I don't really know. Wait, I'll Google it. (add more here)

So now that everything’s sorted, and our plan makes sense,  I just have another question, do you wanna go again?

This is a conversation between a couple who have just finished having sex and realised that their condom has broken. I haven't included who's saying what, because my final piece will be devoid of labels and it seemed fitting to reflect that here. However, for the purposes of the reader of this blog distinguishing between the characters, I will tell you that the male character begins starts every paragraph except the third, and then each new line symbolises a change in character. 

THE CONFRONTATION – LES MISERABLES

THIS EXCERPT from the recent film version of Les Mis contains multiple conversations that could have easily (and so much more simply) been spoken. From the timid greeting between Eponine and Marius, to the scheming of the bar owners, to the discovery of Jean Valjean by Javert, each conversation varies in musical tone and is distinguishes the dialogue.

NOTES – PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

THE PHANTOM of the Opera contains absolutely brilliant examples of conversations that are entirely sung. I couldn't find one of the better ones between two people, but this one is still very inspiring. 

MUSICAL MUSINGS

AS I'VE been attempting to give random conversations a melody and imagine some musical accompaniment, I've realised that the product is reminiscent of musical theatre. As an avid musical fan myself, I like the idea of having an element of the genre in my songs. Some musicals such as Les Miserables, Cats and Phantom of the Opera have little to no spoken dialogue at all, yet the conversations are easy to follow and endearing to the ear.

My own songs, however, will not be as theatrical, because I don't want to overdramatise the conversation and the characters behind them. I want to keep the lyrics realistic – which means most likely sacrificing a lot of rhyme – and also entertaining, whether by being amusing or otherwise engaging.

Also, the instruments that I plan on using will be very simple, limited only to an acoustic guitar or keyboard. Ideally, I'd love for the melody to vary with each character speaking and to make vocal sounds to reflect the setting of the situation. 

This is actually becoming exciting!

A NEW DIRECTION

THANK goodness for my peers. Without them, I would still be stuck in a confusing whirl of half-formed ideas. Finally, I feel that I've found something worth pursuing. 

In class we were split into groups of students hoping to work with or create projects with similar forms. My group was working with sound and we immediately launched into a discussion of our individual projects. We realised that all of our ideas had the potential to be connected by one umbrella theme:

 Conversations

This lovely, multi-faceted word (as well as the encouraging suggestions of my classmates) led me to the premise for my project. Which is... drum roll please... songs made up entirely of a conversation between two people. 

There will be no dialogue tags, no set up, no description, just pure dialogue. Hopefully, I'll be able to perform them myself, singing both sides of the conversation. I think it could turn out quite interesting! But, once again, I need content. 

I have a lot to think about, but at least its purposeful, guided comtemplation this time. 

STORY SONGS

INSPIRATION has been a little hard to come by so far, but I have had one relatively solid idea. I could write short stories, then make them into songs. They can be short, witty pieces, with a limited amount of characters and revolve around a small event.

I enjoy writing short stories, however I feel like there are quite a few things I have to consider with this idea:

• How are they going to be structured? Traditionally or including flashbacks, etc. 
• Is there going to be dialogue? If so, how do I differentiate between characters if there are multiple characters?
• What are they going to be about???

I guess I'll just have to keep thinking. 

WAKE ME UP – ED SHEERAN

OFTEN there's this bias against mainstream artists that have risen up reasonably quickly and get plenty of air time. A lot of people just don't see their value, or respect them as musicians. I have to admit, in many cases this view is warranted. 

However, I believe Ed Sheeran is a significant exception. He writes all his music and not only that, but his lyrics (in my opinion) are fantastic. They're honest, blunt and no matter how much he tries to squeeze into a sentence, he still manages to make it fit the melody. 

This song is one of my favourites, it's about love but avoids a lot of the cliche's (such as "you're everything to me", "you make my dreams come true") and instead focuses on his feelings toward a particular relationship. He talks about Shrek, video games, drinking and even seems to question his love for her while describing it. 

Some of the lines in this song are an absolutely brilliant use of words and description and I can't help but share them here:

"I could do without a tan on my left hand where my fourth finger meets my knuckle" (What an amazingly composed way to say I'd like to marry you!)

"I'll take you to the beach and we'll walk along the sand and I'll make you a heart pendant with a pebble held in my hand. And I'll carve it like a necklace so the heart it falls where your chest is, so now a piece of me is a piece of the beach, and it falls just where it needs to be and rests peacefully, so you just need to breath to feel my heart against yours now." 

 Simply beautiful.

GENIUS NEXT DOOR – REGINA SPEKTOR

SIMILAR to New Years Eve, this song is almost like a narrative put to music. A strange narrative at that. It contains a sort of protagonist (the Genius), an event (something happening to the lake) and a complication that isn't quite elucidated but I feel like it's there. It's certainly very interesting.

THE MAGICAL REGINA SPEKTOR

AN ARTIST I've admired for a long time, Regina Spektor, has a knack of writing absolutely perplexing, yet wonderfully compelling lyrics. Her songs stray far from the traditional theme of love and cover themes from youth (Dance Anthem of the 80's, Carbon Monoxide), to historical figures (Samson, Oedipus), to art (All the Rowboats) and politics (Ballad of a Politician). 

Many of her songs almost seem like nonsense, but meaningful nonsense at that. One whole song, Two Birds, is dedicated to two birds sitting on a wire on contemplating whether they should fly. Spektor revealed that it is actually about a gay man being too scared to come out, however, this revelation was a rare occurrence, as she is notoriously known for not commenting on the meanings behind her songs. 

I like it better that way, as it allows the listener to create their own meaning, in a very "Death of the Author" kind of manner. One of my favourite things about her songs is if upon first hearing, I ever try to guess the next lyric, I get it wrong. Also, her chords and the musical patterns/progressions she uses are greatly varied, so that many of her somgs sound completely dissimilar. 

Perhaps I could write similar styled songs. 

NEW YEARS EVE – FIRST AID KIT

I LIKE these lyrics, they've got a story-telling feel. The structure of the song diverges a little from the traditional verse/pre-chorus/chorus/verse/pre-chorus/chorus/bridge/chorus which is nice, and the guitar has a haunting, slightly grating sound.

FORM WITHOUT CONTENT

I REALLY want to write some songs. I do. But I need something to write about. 

For this project, I really don't want to write songs that sound like something you could hear on the radio. Where's the distinctiveness in that? The problem is, I just can't seem to channel that "I don't know what the hell these lyrics mean but they sound so cool" vibe that you get from some interesting songwriters. Additionally, I don't think I'm philosophical enough to come up with some deep, meaningful and lyrical comment on the human psyche. 

What's left then? I could do a stream of consciousness thing. But then again, are my thoughts that fascinating? Perhaps a parody of typical popular songs. That could be fun, although it's been done to death on YouTube. 

Sigh.

Okay, time to start listening to some good/intriguing/unique lyrics!

WHAT IS THIS?

THIS, my friends, is a blog detailing the creation of my major work for the Writing & Cultural Studies subject called 'Writing Lab'. As with many assessments relating to this major, the scope for creativity is huge. Basically, we can do whatever we want. As long as it's innovative, substantial and contains some form of writing. Also, we must consider the work's capacity to be distributed, exhibited and/or published.  

Great, I thought, there's so many possibilities! Wait. There's too many. What should I do?? 

I don't want to write a short story and I really don't want to write yet another essay. I long to be daring and creative with multimedia, but know I don't yet have enough skills with things like film or photography. I'd like to give poetry a try, but to be honest, it scares me a little. 

So I've decided to pursue something that I've recently started dabbling in. 

Songwriting. 

When I have something to write about (yes, lately it's been love. Cliché, I know) the words seem to come naturally. As a singer, I love making words sound that much better by giving them a melody and putting them to music. 

However, I often have trouble with rhyme. Should it have to rhyme? Why does it sound wrong when it doesn't and why does it sound too familiar when it does? Also, writing music gives me a headache because the piano skills that I had cultivated throughout highschool have been withering away ever since the HSC. Nowadays you'll usually find me banging my head on the keys in the hope that some suitable chords will come out. 

But, I shall give it a try. There's no right or wrong in writing, right? Although, there is a pass or fail in Uni. And don't get me started about wanting a HD. If I do my best (whatever that means), hopefully it'll turn out appropriately inventive and academially valid. Let's go!

Now to think of some actual content...