Sparks from the Fire

Note: If you have not read my previous three posts, “The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1 2 & 3” first, I strongly suggest that you do that now, if possible.

So here’s where we left off at the end of Part 3:

I also had to throw out any notions I might have had about scanning verses simply because I could not change anything.  This proved to be the most difficult of obstacles and at times left me wondering if I wasn’t simply barking up the wrong tree.  To be continued…

As discussed in Part 1 of this amazing tale, scanning (the ability to match perfectly the word rhythms and accents from verse to verse to keep the repetition of the melody intact) is a crucial part of good lyric writing.  Without perfect scanning one loses his melody in a confusion of listener choices.

Writing from prose that offers me no possibility to change words, edit words, or move words around in a sentence, made good scanning an absolute impossibility.  This was a disappointment to the composer side of me because it meant that the use of the most powerful tool in music, repetition, would have to be forsaken.  Would this also mean that I would be forced by the prose to write songs where we would never hear the same melody twice in the performance of the song?

As it turns out, no.

As I worked compositionally, sometimes naturally, sometimes miraculously, I would find words that would fit previously stated melodies within the song and allow me to bring back melodies.  These melodies would not always scan perfectly, but often enough would capture the essence of the previously stated melody without jamming as long as I worked the words into the melodies naturally – the way one would really say them when speaking.  I began to term these kinds of melodies “reminiscent melodies” – melodies that would remind the listener of previous melodies, but were not, in fact, perfect repetitions.

When there were too many syllables and jamming would occur, I would simply open up the bar and add another beat to the music.

A simple solution for the lyricist, but then a rougher one for the composer.  Going from a 4/4 meter that has been established into a sudden 5/4 or 6/4 bar meant that I, as the composer, had to be extra smart and make the melody and song still flow naturally so that the listener would not even notice the change of meter.  Not an easy task…

But I figured that if Stravinsky did it so beautifully, the why not me?

So that became my method to eliminate jamming (too many syllables in a musical line).  I believe it has worked, by and large.  To me the songs feel natural because the prose is spoken/sung naturally with the original intent of meaning within the music.

It makes it, perhaps, a bit rougher on some singers learning the music if they are not accomplished professionals with experience in changing meters, but even the amateur will pick up the nuances of the music by careful listening and not have to worry about whether they are singing a 5/4 bar or a 3/8 bar.

I’m very fortunate to work with a highly trained vocalist, Julia Wade, who has had years of experience singing some of the world’s greatest music as an opera performer and even sings in 5-6 languages.  With her, I have to remind myself to write more simply sometimes so that many others can sing the songs as well because Julia can handle just about anything I throw at her. (more…)

I’m not particularly big on the word “religion”.  I find it to be oft times restrictive, non-inclusive and all too often divisive.  Though I have studied the world’s religions all my life, it’s not a field that I find myself associating with very often.  When anyone asks me if I am a religious person I often answer, “not particularly, but I am a spiritual seeker.”

There’s probably no greater cause of war throughout history than religious differences.  The only thing that comes close to it is greed.  I choose to stay as far away from the human element of religion in my spiritual practice, which, of course, is rather impossible, but, for me, preferable.  We humans (and I count myself as one) have confused the study of God, consciousness, reality, our world, matter, thought, spirit and the universe by dividing into groups and along the way, shutting doors and windows to alternative thought in an effort to protect our own.

It strikes me that religions often are more limiting than creative.  They often force the thinker into a box and essentially say, “think this, study this, here is the only truth – shut the rest out.”

If there is anything that I’ve learned in my life’s study of spirituality, it’s that nobody has a corner on truth.  Truth is truth.  Everybody has access to it. Every religion I’ve ever studied captured and illuminated much truth for me.  The only thing that really ever got in my way was the differences in language or the various definitions of words that are tossed about.  Most religious differences I’ve found to be based on a confusion of semantics.

So I choose to call myself first a spiritual seeker rather than a religious person.  I hope this does not offend you as I approach the writing of this post with the objective of unifying thought as opposed to dividing it.

Wikipedia states, “A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge.  In a more restricted sense a scientist is an individual who uses a scientific method.  The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science…  Some perform research toward a more comprehensive understanding of nature, including physical, mathematical and social realms…  This is distinct from philosophers, those who use logic toward more comprehensive understanding of intangible aspects of reality that lack a direct connection to nature, focusing on the realm of thought itself.”

If we’re to accept these definitions put forth by Wikipedia, then I suppose I’m sort of a scientist/philosopher, a combination of both.  I do engage in a “systematic activity to acquire knowledge” and also I do “use logic toward more comprehensive understanding of intangible aspects of reality…, focusing on the realm of thought itself.”

All said and done, I prefer the word “scientist”.  I find spirit to be actually quite tangible the more I study it and matter to be less and less the reality.  So I call myself a spiritual scientist. (more…)

Everybody lies occasionally.  We all do it.  And so lies come with different monikers describing the weight of the occasion – names like: white lie, fib, exaggeration, etc.  But they’re all lies – just different levels of lies.

Fact of the matter is that it’s one of those few things in life that is black and white.  It’s either the truth or its not.  If it’s not, it’s not truth-full and so the part where it’s not the truth, is the lie.

A white lie is often told to protect someone’s feelings – like when your wife just spent $250 at the beauty parlor and had her hair cut and the goofball ruined it and she comes home proudly, but looking like somebody else, you say, “Hey honey, you look real cute.”

Fibs are harmless lies that really don’t matter like telling your neighbor that you didn’t come to their party because you weren’t feeling well when you really went out to a movie instead.  Fibs and white lies both fall under the same confusing category.  The term “white lie” is pretty laughable when you think about it.  Does the word “white’ make it OK?  Is the lie more pure because it’s white?  Is it cleaner?  Pretty confusing.

And then there’s exaggeration – a fault that I’ve been accused of probably too often.  I like to say when accused, “Well, I’m in show business.  Think of it as promotion – making the success or the adventure or the story just a tad more interesting or dramatic or even a bit more heroic.  But truthfully, I’ve learned to see that they’re all just a bunch of lies and that, essentially, if we slow down and think things out and live higher and more noble lives from moment to moment, we do not have to lie.  Lying is just really a bad habit.

And then there are the inveterate liars…  These are the people that have a disease – a dis-ease with the truth.  They lie so often that they lose consciousness of the truth and lose the ability to discern between the two.  Their lying becomes so habitual that they lose their connection with the reality of the truth and lie so often that they begin to believe their own lies  — in essence, they lie so much that they even lie to themselves about lying.  A vicious circle.

In my life I’ve suspected several and absolutely identified two. (more…)

I’ve been working on a song – a song for an outside client whose album I’ve been producing and orchestrating.  It hasn’t been working.  I’ve tried several different approaches – woodwinds, guitar based, drums/no drums, stronger/lighter, and nothing I did seemed to bring the song to its musical realization supporting the lyric, content and intent of the song.

And it’s a good song.  I know it is, because it’s been running around in my mind for several weeks now.  I wake up singing it and wonder for a moment where it came from and then realize, “Oh yeah, that’s that song!”

The client keeps coming in when I’m finished with my latest iteration and she sits and listens and nods her head as I play it for her and then when it’s through we nod and agree that we’re not there yet.

In the original session, her pianist and writing partner came in and recorded the piano and she the scratch vocal.  They were kind of ornery with each other when usually they’re a happy team.  I stayed pretty quiet as he kind of ran roughshod over her as they worked and he laid down the piano part and she sang the scratch vocal.  It was not an inspired session.  At one point I remember exclaiming kind of in fun, “Boy, you two are like an old married couple.”  The session was more about their momentary troubles than the song itself and the song was basically a love song!

As he got more and more depressed and actually meaner to her, she became nervous and hurt, embarrassed and withdrew into an uncustomary quiet.  But we were getting the work done.  He’s a fine pianist and though he was not particularly inspired that day, his playing was solid and mistake free.

When the session was over I was relieved to move on in life.  I began, several days later to orchestrate the song using his piano track and her scratch vocal as a base and it all seemed to go downhill from there. (more…)

“I want all of you to get up out of your chairs.  I want you to get up right now and go to the window.  Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’  I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’  Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to … stick your head out, and yell, and say it: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

Back in 1976, newsman Howard Beale, played by actor Peter Finch in the movie Network, uttered these immortal words that, for those of us who saw the movie and Finch’s riveting performance, have stuck with many of us for a quarter century.

Back then it was a grand idea as, in the movie, thousands rushed to their windows and did just that.

Today it’s really happening.  And it’s a good thing!

Bloggers now take down selfish companies.  Egypt’s people stage a peaceful revolt and take back their government.  Bank of America abandons its plan to charge customers a $5 fee to use their debit cards for purchases. Only a month earlier, the bank had announced the new charge, immediately setting off a huge uproar from consumers.  The Occupy Wall Street movement grabs the attention of millions and whether you’re for it or agi’n it, you have to value it as the great American dream of free speech in action.

Netflix‘s video subscription service lost 800,000 customers in the third quarter —the biggest exodus in its history— even as its earnings rose 65 percent. (more…)

I am one of the many whose hero is Steven Jobs.  In 1985 I bought a Mac XL computer from a little known company with a funny name and became a devotee of both Apple and it’s wondrous leader for the next 26 years.  In that time I’ve owned nearly every successful product they’ve created.

Periodically I watched Steve’s addresses to his company touting his company’s new ideas and features with religious anticipation regarding what improvements he would bring to my life and work.  My life centered around the Mac computer both in the studio and at home.  I’m on the computer so much that I’ve learned to mouse equally with both hands – a left-handed mouser in the studio and a right-handed mouser in my home office.

Steve, with his clever wit, cool demeanor and sparkling eyes, was always three steps ahead of the game and out front of the pack.  I didn’t always agree with his choices, but I used them and grew to deeply respect his individuality.  He was the rare combination of artist, inventor and businessman and hugely successful at each — a true American hero.

Recently I read his sister’s eulogy, given at his memorial, and found him again to be leading me in yet another one of life’s endeavors.

As most of you know, I’m pretty consumed with my Goin’ Home – On Heaven And Beyond CD project these days.  In short, it’s about the transition we all face going from this world to the next and the meeting of it head on with open eyes and wonder. It’s about the eternality of life and its various preparations and speculations on the hereafter.

Right in the middle of the climactic phase of the project, my hero up and takes the journey himself.

His sister speaks about his last days in her eulogy: (more…)

A Community…  A gathering of people who have like-minded purpose… Not at all people who are like-minded, in fact, better that they are all original thinkers, formulating their ideas, their life plans, their social structures, their life work, their religions, and creativity from a truly internal impulse.  Not followers, but leaders and thinkers and doers.  People who like people.  People who are positive supporters of the good in all people.  People who are an Inspiration to others.

This is our growing community. These are our Facebook friends, our tweeting family, our hands across the world.  The come from Africa, from Europe and South America, from Down Under and all across the U.S.  They are a world uniting to make a better world.

Sounds like a pretty high-falutin’ idea, but, in fact, it’s a reality.  It is organizing and it presently exists through social media, through mutual music appreciation, through spiritual seeking, through friends of Watchfire Music and even through a new CD project called Goin’ Home – On Heaven and Beyond.

It’s an idea that has created itself – not anything that anybody set out to create, but an idea that sprang up from necessity and natural evolution.  I see it coming and I simply try to open the road ahead to let it gain its own momentum in its own natural way.  This community has no leaders and no followers.  It’s a gathering of individuals, of originals, supporting one another with whatever it takes at a time when man really needs to reach out to his fellow man to survive.

I am eternally grateful for this community.  I am a member and I feel its value, its support and its bonding every day.  I watch it grow.  I fan the flames.  I sing its praises!