| every so often when i am in a mood swing extremity, either extreme happiness/contentedness or sadness, i come up with a 30-40 second long tune that i sing to accompany my emotion. then i feel all good about myself for having thought of a song, and i always hope to write it into a full length piece. but then i let a few days go by, and i realize that the song that was playing in my head actually sounded a lot like that one song that somebody else already wrote. so i'd sigh and once again set aside my fantasy of becoming a songwriter.
it is misery indeed to be a musician and not be able to make something you can call your own. gives me a reason to envy visual artists, i guess. or maybe i just lack the talent. or probably the technical training. i hardly know more than the bare minimums of music theory.
but anyway, i wanted to tell of a wonderful day this summer: friday, june 20. it started out not so great. from 9am-3pm, i spent my time on the phone calling airlines trying to book tickets for a group of ten, which as the day progressed, diminished to a group of 8, and so by 2pm, the group rate no longer applied, throwing me into a frantic fury as i tried to book the cheapest tickets i could find asap. i rarely ever get that frazzled. but what was good about that day is i spent the next 4 hours with volleyball kids and the following 3 hours with ultimate people. when i got out of the shower, i said to myself, "hey. today was a great day." i put on a towel, sat down at my desk, and sung a little tune. then i got dressed and went to sleep, promising myself that i would finish writing it later.
a couple days later, i started figuring out the accompaniment on my ukulele, and as i was strumming, i could definitely feel the muscle memory in my fingers working. and i thought, "uh oh, maybe (yet again) my song isn't as original as i (always) hoped it to be." but i ignored that haunting feeling and kept singing me song, but i couldn't shake it.
- one part of my song sounded a lot like another part of "black horse & a cherry tree"
- the chorus sounded kind of like gavin degraw's "chariot"
- i was using the same chords as regina spektor's "on the radio"
- which also used the same chords as "save tonight" by eagle eye cherry
- which also used chords similar to rihanna's "umbrella"
- and the chorus of "fair" by remy zero also uses the same chord progression as "on the radio" so, surprise, my song sounds like "fair" too.
so as i was singing my song/writing a medley of all the aforementioned songs, i stopped being so sad about my a failure as a songwriter. and instead became angry at popular music. nothing is original anymore. everyone is just copying a contemporary or someone who preceded them. i can tell you (and so can 5 other ultimate players) that even beethoven stole some material, quite often from mozart, and mozart probably stole from bach, and bach... you see my point. but i'm wrong in calling it stealing. because no one invented music. it was just something that was always there but needed to be "discovered" in the same way the americas were "discovered" by cristobal colon. unlike the americas, however, and fortunately so, music is everywhere and everyone's. in conclusion, i decided not to give a damn and sing whatever it was i wanted, whether it had been previously performed by the beatles or not. so with this self-encouragement, i worked more on my song last night, and it's up to 2 minutes now. maybe i'll leave it at that, maybe not. it's a little phoebe buffay-esque, but i'm not writing it for anyone but myself so it doesn't really matter. it's not called "smelly cat."it's called "a little birdie pooped on me today."
just kidding. that's actually only the first line of the chorus. hopefully, i'll think of a better title.
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I'm so happy and so not studying for finals right now!
