Tenderness

Episode #113: Tenderness (Strongest Memories) (Song starts at 5:17 )

This song came along when I was sitting at the piano, letting my hands wander on the keys. Some nice chords came through. I opened my eyes, looked up and saw the seascape painting hanging above the piano. 

On this episode, I read an excerpt from an old diary. I thought for a change I’d try it. The very page I opened to happened to be the week I recorded my first podcast episode. Bizarre. 

And it includes my statement where I say I’m going to be publishing my how I paint, write songs, play piano, draw cartoons, compose videos and ebook, etc… And I will. I have these things underway. It’s just taking me a while.

I also recorded myself having a chat as I sat outside having breakfast with my cat… A bit of fun. It’s all a work in progress. 

There’s a lyric in this songs ‘Loves roulette wheel has no favourites’, which I like. Speaking of ‘Strong Memories’, the roulette wheel reminded me of an evening some years ago, when I took my daughter into the big city for the evening. That’s the beauty of art and music – all sorts of me memories are brought to the surface.  The strongest memories – and they’re the ones that seem to get stronger over time, each time they are recalled. 

By the way, my daughter wanted to see the city lights, see fireworks.  And meet the queen! How did We get on? Check out the podcast to find out…ha

The lyrics come to me very quickly. I have to scribble them down very quickly. Sometime the next line comes to me before I’ve finished the one I’m writing. But most often I have time to pause briefly and the next line then comes through. 

As I write, I look for cues from the previous line or lines.. Keys words that will need to be rhymed, or concepts that need further discussion, etc. it’s a fascinating process.

With the music, there’s a lot going on. Muscle memory is guiding my fingers. The theory of what I’m doing is coming through like a horse race commentary, I guess…although it’s very subtle. But it must be there.. ” ok I’m in C, I can see it’s going up to C# now and into G with a D bass…” All the while, you’ve got this …door open to ..the muse or whatever wherever it is.. the source of ..unlimited beauty… 

It’s a privilege to be a songwriter, it really is. Had I managed to write 20 songs in my life that would’ve been great. As I happens, I now composed about 800 – all done for the pure pleasure of writing them. 

This song can be found on my piano vocal album ‘The Long Haul’. You can stream it at www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com 

The painting can be found on this week’s blog post, along with the lyrics to Tenderness (on my blog, I include the lyrics to the song featured on this podcast every week).

It all ties in together. I do have sheet music for this song. It’s not online yet but it will be. My students enjoy playing this song as a piano solo piece. 

I have a stack of sheet music of my compositions in various stages of completion. About 12 songs are available online, I hope that figure is in the hundreds within a year or two. 

Ok. In the meantime, join me for breakfast and then: back in time, in the CBD of Melbourne. And oh yeah, well dive right into having a look at the lyrics and the music of Tenderness (Strongest Memories). Here we go….