I Wonder – Song and a Chat

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Episode# 133: I Wonder (Song starts at 4:34)

I finished a nice gig outside this week with the song featured on this week’s podcast episode.

I Wonder, song #689, came up as I flicked the pages of my repertoire book. A very generous fellow, who I’d noticed was sitting listening and relaxing had just come up to the piano, gave me a nice tip and said “one more song please?“

I include some audio again on this episode. This time I made a quick recording when I got back into the car after his gig- to try and catch the sense of…. satisfaction. That’s what I get from performing my songs live for people. It’s blissful – especially playing outdoors…

Bliss would be a good word to use to describe how it feels to be lost in the middle of composing a song like ‘I Wonder’.

With this song, the words and music came at the same time. Sometimes I’ll just have “blah blah mumble mumble” for a line, but if I don’t dismiss this (and lose the energy and flow), a strong clear image might come to me for the next line….like “like a crystal slipper from a scene of a movie” – which was the first phrase that gave me an idea as to where the song lyrics were heading.

Quite often it’s not a linear process, as the words and music come into being. It’s a mystery… almost like how Michelangelo said “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to release it”

It’s a bit like that, it’s almost like listening to a conversation in the next room, you feel like you’re being delivered a movie, snippets of scenes at a time. And it’s up to you as an editor as to how you put it all together…which elements you choose to emphasise, which then leads on to other decisions about where the song may go…

There’s lots of information here, about how I write a song, sure, but also on offer is the essence of a songwriter, me as a person, I guess.

While I analyse the lyrics, I find deeper meanings. A sense of myself, my thoughts and feelings come through.

It’s all good fun. No it’s not, it’s great fun. There’s plenty of humour here again on this episode.

Enjoy.