Following the footsteps of my NaNoWriMo friends monkeyman and gruberman who write and post short stories every week, I've decided to do the musician's version. I'm going to write and record an original song every week, and each Monday, I will post it on my new website! An insane goal to be sure, but one that I hope will get me into the habit of writing regularly and not being afraid to share it. Feedback of course (positive or negative) is welcomed!

The first song is called In the Wings, and was posted yesterday. Check it out!

Passing on the info for my June 3rd Concert in case anyone's interested!

Yesterday we gave two free concerts in the gardens of Casa Loma as a part of Doors Open. It was wonderful and laid back to sing outside on a beautiful day in such a lovely spot. And unlike other concerts, there was lots of time for photos! My dad came with me since he can't make the big concert next week and took a whole bunch of us while we were singing. Afterwards we milled around Casa Loma taking more photos and then went for dinner at Kensington Market.



( Knock, Knock... )

The full set of choir photos is here; the Doors Open pictures are all here.

I watched the last few minutes of the Leaf's Game, and couldn't believe that they started to play that first song in Rayman with the dancing taiko-like bunnies! Some of you know what I'm talking about.

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This is the quick little song that emerged when I made official time to futz around with my guitar and see what came out of it. I was looking for something light and stress free, so I didn't try to wrestle it out of it's rough form lyrically, and spent minimal time recording it. It's not particularly deep but it's kind of grown on me. Plus it's obviously the right time of month to be posting it.

I've been getting frustrated because the songs that I feel are really important for me to write are not coming out. Browsing through my notebook of jotted down lyrical bits, I think that explains why I've been unsuccessful as a songwriter; this phenomenon does not seem like a new one. You may have noticed that there has been very little of me in what I've written so far and it's not for lack of trying. It's often just that I can't identify what it is I want to put in there.

This song is a good transition because I am in there but in an easy, fun way. Also, since it's Valentine's Eve and people are into spreading the love and all that, this is a true song.

Unvalentine's Day.

Yup, it's official. I need to stop taking so much time recording songs, and start taking more time writing them. Or eating. Or sleeping. Or going to the gym wouldn't hurt either.

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All I can say is that if my piano teacher could see what I've done to the only song I remember how to play from our lessons together, she'd probably strangle me!

I guess I should probably start at the beginning. It began just five days ago when someone on the Anagram Thread of the FAWM Boards posted that "Wow, those could all be lines in the same song. A very disturbing song." turned into "Beethoven's Howlingly Melodious New Bass Guitar 'n' Strangle Disco" when shoved through an Anagram program. He set out a challenge for people to make this line actually make sense, and suggested a new category be formed on the site, Strange-Disco which somewhere along the line, became Strangle-Disco. "Ingredients: disco beats, funky bass, Beethoven samples, and TONGUE-IN-CHEEK sinister lyrics. Anagrams are optional but strongly encouraged."

As I write this, there are 13 versions of "Beethoven's Howlingly Melodious New Bass Guitar 'n' Strangle Disco" on the FAWM site, and several more pieces done for the Strange-Disco category. There's also a Myspace page and a Webpage, and it just keeps growing!

Anyway, after laughing so hard at work that my coworkers started to question my sanity, I decided that I simply must attempt Strangle-Disco. But how, HOW? I have no fancy mixers and samples and synths to my name, and those seemed to be a necessity of the genre. But I have achieved the impossible before (I mean, I wrote a novel for godsakes!) and so set my sights on a new mantra, "Rise above your limitations."

Here is the result of 12 hours of work and two absolutely splitting headaches. I spent all weekend on this puppy, and everything is played on my keyboard at full volume so the computer mic could catch it. I have also felt the insatiable need to wrap since FAWM started, but I assumed that wouldn't happen because it would sound ridiculous. I've now done that too, and I'm proud to say that every single voice you hear on this track is mine. Don't tell me you aren't curious!

Beethoven's Howlingly Melodious New Bass Guitar 'n' Strangle Disco (XII)
(Warning: Mild profanity and suggestive language; probably not work or kid safe)

P.S. I sound like a man.

Into the second week of FAWM already, and what I am really wishing for is time...time to just sit at the keyboard, turn on the mic, play whatever comes into my head, and see if any of it will turn into anything. Unfortunately, there isn't much time and with another choir concert next week and lots of practicing to do for that, there probably will not be time. But there really isn't much time, although that didn't deter me from spending more time than ever before recording this next song.

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When I posted White Walls, I mentioned the Weekly Challenges. Week Two's is not a lyrical challenge, but a musical one: "Write a song using only two chords." The idea is that it forces you to put more weight on the melody, lyrics, and harmonies as opposed to using chord changes to drive the song. Coincidentally, the verse music that I had already completed for this song happened to use only two chords, so I wrote the rest of it accordingly.

This song marks my first attempt at creating a something using a music program on the computer. And I must say that the frustrations were almost not worth it. The program (Audacity) kept shutting down on itself every few minutes, and toward the end it was so overloaded by the number of tracks I was laying in that it wouldn't let me add anymore harmonies to the places that needed them. Two full evenings later, I think it's time to let this one fly, hope for the best, and appreciate what I have learned.

Weekday Lament

Following in the Nano tradition, I'm already one song behind! That's okay though - as it seems that two days per song is quite a decent pace for me, at least for certain kinds of songs.

What I've learned over the past couple of days (besides the fact that my keyboard's memory function is useful even though it's only 2 minutes long) is that it's really hard to work on multiple songs at once. At work on Monday I wasn't sure where I where I wanted to go, so I put down bits for a few different ideas to see if one would take off. The result was that my mind got incredibly jumbled, so it was essential that I clear a song or two so I could focus. I decided that it would be this one because the first song took a lot of energy and I didn't feel up to tackling something darker. Also, it helped me fight off the blahs on one of the coldest days of the year so far.

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On a Saturday morning a few months ago, I was sitting at the glass table in the kitchen having a very late breakfast, and for some reason I looked out the sliding door and thought the words "Sunny-side up." I don't think it was particularly sunny at the time, and for the record, no eggs were involved). As I filed the phrase away, it informed me that it was going to have to be a jazz song if it was going to be anything at all, which I found odd since the subtleties of jazz chords generally elude me.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure where this song came from, or why I'm suddenly capable of something this exuberant (virtually all of the scribbles I've done are much darker). Most of the lyrics came through effortlessly in one morning; the remaing few lines bogged me down horribly for over a day until I wanted to hit my head against the virtual rhyming dictionary. The music wrote itself before the lyrics were complete and it makes me hear all sorts of weird things like Nintendo midi and Disney music. I truly had a blast recording this, proving if nothing else that I have a crush on jazz.

(Note: The piano "solo" and the scat bit are placeholders for "much improved piano solo by someone who can actually play jazz" and "hopelessly cool sax solo," respectively *whistles innocently and looks in disgruntleddave's direction*)

Here's Sunny-Side Up!

So...FAWM.
I can already tell that this experience is going to be a roller coaster of feeling, unlike Nano where it was a constant build toward the end punctuated by days of hilarity and terror. During these first two days, I've been anxious, surprised, giggly, empowered, content, bash-the-stupid-keyboard-tear-my-hair-out frustrated, relieved, and right now, completely freaked out of my mind.

I had a *why the fuck am I doing this* moment as I saw the clock strike midnight as of February 1st. Luckily I was busy and tired, and so I knew that nothing was going to happen that night for me. I went to bed quite calmly. Of course, it helped that the site was still in preFAWM mode because the webmaster lives in another time zone.

The next morning, I clicked on over and was amazed to see that there were actually songs up. This is only a few hours into the thing! After I stared at the computer screen in shock for a few minutes, I started listening to them, and they sounded damn great! Many of them were mixed all fancily too and really did sound like songs you'd hear on the radio. At this point I remembered that I was supposed to be writing one myself. I prowled around the site came across an announcement that the Week One Challenge was to write a song about colour. I felt a little better because I actually had a concept floating around in my head, and it fit the challenge exactly. I opened a Word Document and started on lyrics.

Two days into FAWM, and right on schedule, I have my first song. My first true, completed song. Sure, it's crappily recorded on my MP3 player and I'm paying more attention to where my fingers are than actually singing, but it's here.

I'm elated...and I've never felt so scared in my life. Believe me when I say that's really saying something.

phoenixuprising said it quite articulately: "exposing your art i find is like being naked in front of someone else for the first time...its beautiful but scary because everything about you is laid out for someone to see."

Hello, everyone.

After a very successful first NaNoWriMo experience back in November, I'm taking it up to the next level. In 10 days, I'm going to be attempting to complete FAWM, that's February Album Writing Month, where each participant aims to write 14 songs in a month. This often involves some demo recordings which can be posted on the website for others to hear.

It goes without saying that I'm terrified in a way I wasn't for Nano. I had never tried and failed to write a novel, but I have tried and failed in songwriting. Sure, there are snippits of ideas and good lines here and there, but no songs I'm comfortable with. And, unlike Nano, the idea is not to incarcerate your inner editor, but to produce the best material you can.

Soo...the reason I'm posting is two-fold: (1) I think there are some people on my friends list who might be interested in trying this out for themselves, and (2) making it public makes it harder to crawl into a hole and abandon the attempt at the first sign of trouble, though I may still do that.

I spent just under 4 hours commuting today. Not cool, especially coming off two days where I've gone downtown straight after work. That's about $13 for those who are counting - 5 tokens/tickets, 3 bus rides, 2 subway rides + a subway transfer.

Mostly because I had to get up extra early to get a ride to work, I arrived at our first choir rehearsal this year looking and feeling zombielicious and hoping that we'd do something simple to ease into things. Of course, the opposite happened; I was confused when she started splitting us up into two choirs and then looked down at the page and realized that the piece was composed for two choirs (that's 8 parts and in a choir of under 20 people, you know what that means!). It's gorgeous though and I don't blame her for being excited to start with it.

And...oilsdragon and brassfire both came out to rehearsal today :D I took off pretty quickly after though (sorry, you guys! I'm always in a rush to catch the bus from Finch because they only come every 1/2 hour). Also, if you want to get together sometime to catch up on the Orbán Mass (we sang it back in Oct), I'm totally game!

And now to sleep. Oh ya, gruberman, I have the CD of our last concert for you!

My goodness, I'm sleepified. I'm in these wonderfully bland "I don't care who sees me" pyjamas and intend to stay in them all day.

So...the choir concert last night went extremely, extremely well. Amazing for me, actually, because it generated a lot of connection as so many people came out to see it. The last choir concert (in London when darling_diva and I sang with the Broadway Singers and did a costumed performance of For Good from WICKED) was in May of '05, so it's been a while.

It feels good. Concerts are a good way to see where I am, and I know I've come a ways since I sang with Penthelia that first year (7ish years ago?). I remember being really intimidated, singing down a lot because the music was much harder that I was used to, and also feeling awed because everyone else had so much control and flexibility. Even a few months ago, I mentioned feeling intimidated by being placed in the Soprano I section. I'm still awed, but I don't feel intimidated anymore. I didn't sing down yesterday, and my sound felt really solid (to me). Singing the donated solo (from Susie - thanks, girl!) on the fly and hearing it bounce around the walls of the church clinched that feeling. And yes, the Jewish girl did sing the most Catholic solo of the 7.


There are traditions that have carried on since I started singing with choirs. I love that my family sits in the front row all the time. I love (well, like) that my parents take pictures - distracting, but after years of it, I've given up asking them to take less. I love that my brothers always come when they're around even though it's probably not their thing. I love, and think it's hilarious that my dad knows my body language so well that he can tell when I'm about to solo in the moments leading up to the fact. Thanks for coming as always, and continuing these traditions. It wouldn't feel right without you.

I love that my friends come out time and time again, although I don't know why it should surprise me but I never expect it. It's like discovering I can breathe the air of a foreign planet. Thank you for grounding me, and loving me. That's for every single one of you who is reading this, regardless of concerts.

( Here are a couple more pictures for the road )

I'd like to extend an invite to my upcoming choir concert this Friday! We're singing at the 4th Annual Fall Festival. It's an arts festival put on by the Rosedale Presbyterian Church where we rehearse each week. We'll be singing some really interesting stuff including works in Hungarian, and Latin. This will also help us practice for our appearance in the Women's Choral Festival in Montréal in a couple of weeks.

Who: Us, the Penthelia Singers! We're a women's choir, 16 strong, and we sing in 4 part harmony most of the time.
When: 7:00 PM on Friday, October 20th, 2006.
Where: Rosedale Presbyterian Church (site contains map). It's a short walk from Sherbourne subway station; that's one stop east of Yonge on the Bloor line. From Sherbourne, walk west along Bloor Street, and make a right (north) on Mount Pleasant. The church is on your right.
Admission: Free!

It should be quite good, and it would be amazing if anyone could make it out; we're not sure how much publicity the festival is getting although we've all been emailing our asses off, and we'd love a nice audience.

P.S. The artwork on our website is by our own sarcasm_hime. Nifty!

Hi All,

Well, there is no way around paying for internet anymore, and unlike in Peru, it does not cost 33 cents an hour...suckage! So I am really not going to be on much now, but I guess that is probably the best thing for my french.

Tonight is laundry night...blah! I have to lug it down the main street. I will not complain though because it is still easier than lugging it on and off buses in London!

Other than that, I am excited for Friday's big cabaret and talent show thing! I am singing with a friend who is an absolutely incredible singer (she has taught me a few things) so it should be really fun!

Miss you guys, stay in touch!

So...in choir today...

Sylvia (conductor): Sue isn't here. we have to find someone to do her Les Mis solo for the concert this Sunday.
Deb: I'd do it except I'm scared of having to hold that high F in Bring Him Home for ages.
Sylvia: Hey Deb, that's a good idea, you do it!
Deb: o_O Oh...kay...

(sings with some trepidation at appropriate time which is just after my regular On My Own stuff)
God on high, hear my prayer.
In my need, you have always been there
[...]
Bring him Home....
Bring him....Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooome!!!!!

(Later:)
Someone: Deb?
Deb: Huh?
Someone: That's you again. Susan does that bit too.
Deb: Oh crap, where are we?

Come with me, where chains will never bind you.
All you grief at last, at last behind you.
Lord in Heaven, look down on him in mercy.

So...the concert is on Sunday, I've tried this once, and for Bring Him Home there's a male counterpart and he wasn't here so I didn't get to try it with him. I'll get to sing it a second time (and the first time with him) in the actual concert on Sunday. Can you say yikes!?!?

My concert is tomorrow. I don't think anyone who reads this is actually coming, but oh well, go me!

Oh ya, and I goddamn love Les Mis.


Edit: from autumns_lioness

You scored as Sloth. \n\r</td> Sloth 75% Wrath 44% Lust 38% Pride 38% Gluttony 31% Envy 25% Greed 12% Seven deadly sins created with QuizFarm.com Well that's not surprising. When you live alone and spend a lot of the time trying to deal with the "blahs", what the hell else would you do?