Songs

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Worst Thing You Can Do to Me

In the songwriting context, that is. In the songwriter-education industry, there are lots of opportunities to get song feedback and critique, which I love and use. For the past couple of years, I've had access to an industry pro who's generally blunt, sometimes kinda caustic, and generally straight to the point from a commercial standpoint. I loved it. The first time she heard one of my songs, she hated it. So much. She thought that the verse was so long that she couldn't stand it (the chorus came in at about 45 seconds.) She wasn't rude or mean but she made it clear that the song was a little bit pathetic. I hate being treated like a beginner (it is, however, not The Worst Thing You Can Do to Me), and I was newer at this than I am now. I couldn't sleep that night and I felt raw and miserable from that kind of critical assessment. I can process all kinds of criticism and become grateful for it, but it's not pretty. She was right, and she helped me. A lot
Read more

salvation!

Image
What an experience. I had tracks from 13 singers and one incredible cellist. I wanted the video with a separate little window of each singer, but it turns out that was beyond my video editing capabilities (but it isn't now); my friend Margaret Andrea got it done. The response was affirming and wonderful. I hoped to get singers together, make something beautiful, and lift people up on Easter. I think we did that. here it is on Youtube :  https://youtu.be/k5Ehw6sp0AE Some thoughts: 1) sending a track to someone of you singing a choral part all by yourself is a really brave thing. Particularly if that person is either a stranger, or someone you think might be perfectionist or judgmental or more talented than they really are. ahem. I tuned and edited every track, not because yall sang badly, but just to fit everything better. I enjoyed the heck out of all the ad libs, and I'm going to put them all together one day : "this ought to be good" "I've done t
Read more

Leviathan

Image
I wrote plays in college and they ended up being produced. None of us knew about dramaturgy, the art of gently prying the script from the playwritght's hands and getting it into production in a way that benefits everyeone. I didn't know how to parse and understand criticism. I didn't know how to separate my powerful emotional wounds and colors from the ways that I needed to write about them.  So it came to pass that when I wrote my third play "All's Fair," I wrote about some personal stuff and I didn't have anyone to talk to me about how I'd written it and how to make it more effective, or anything. Playwriting had been incredibly lonely, even though the world was supportive and my shows seemed to do well.  "All's Fair" kicked me into a serious shame spiral and I had already been struggling with real life and my personal U-Haul of baggage anyway, and that's how I ended up "forgetting" about playwriting. I didn't make a c
Read more