Saturday, July 09, 2016

SAC Songwriting Challenge #1 I Do Not Speak The Language

So...
I have not written a blog for ages. And I do have a website via WordPress under construction. But I keep spending my money on recording, and mastering, and so forth. So the web site design has had to wait. Therefore, this old blogspot will have to do for the challenge. If others read it, well so be it - I am pretty sure it is linked to my fb page.

As  I told North, I must have been out of my mind to accept a spot in this challenge. My time this summer is very limited. But one advantage of being an a Capella songwriter is that it can be done in the background of the brain while, oh, I don't know, taking the grandkids to Wild Waterworks, for instance. Or the market. Or to buy penny candy at Bulk Barn while I buy gluten free cornbread mix to make for dinner. 

However, and what the many of you who are musicians will not understand, I do not speak the language of chords and riffs. Consequently, I was about to bow out and leave my spot for someone else. Rosanne suggested that I find two notes to build a melody over. Hmmm. Maybe. Both explained that a riff was like a repeated melody or line. Well, that gave me a starting point. All I have been thinking for days is, "people, please, put down your guns." So, that is what I built a gentle little folky protest song on, and I finally posted it to the group. 

Now, I do not know if we are supposed to critique ourselves. I will wait to hear if I met the challenge. What I do know is that to me the song is repetitious, a little precious, a lot trite, but somehow heartfelt. And sad. Because nowadays it all seems so impossible. And yet, 50 years ago, it is what we did. Regardless of Put Down The Guns future as a song, there is a starting point in it that may develop into a song or poem that I love somewhere down the road. 

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