One Day, One Night

When I came to Brown, I was afraid that I would stop writing songs. By the time I left, it had been almost three weeks since I wrote a song, and I was afraid that with the new workload and social life and all that, I wouldn't have the time to write a song.

But somehow I managed to write one.

It started, I think, two days ago. I was taking a break from my work and I sat down at the keyboard in my room and I decided I wanted to play piano. I played a couple songs - probably Tragic Story, because I'm pretty sure I play that whenever possible and Morgan said she heard me play it - and somewhere in between or after them, I just kind of started fooling around, not looking at the keys, seeing whatever my right hand played. And it hit this interesting rhythm/chord on Eb Gb and Db, and I thought, yes, I'm writing a song! And I was very happy.

I don't think I wrote any more of it right then, but later that night [after fooling around for a long, long time with the Alumnae Hall keyhole], I was able to get into the piano room. I remember it being dark, but this time there were lamps on all over the hall, so I could write on the little lyrics sheet I brought. I think I finished the first verse that night. It took me a while - longer than I expected with how loose and easy the melody was to write around - but I got it done. I think I may have finished the chorus then, too. Actually, I think I finished all the chorus except for one line, which came to me as I was walking out. I wrote it in later, I think. It was the line, "I've got how long?" ...Yeah you'll hear it later.

And that was all for that night. I played through it a couple of times and then went home.

Yesterday I went back. I can't remember exactly when it was, but I don't remember it being too late... I'm pretty sure it was light out. I can't remember if I wrote the lyrics while I was in the hall, or if I wrote them the night before when I came back, but in either case I played the song a couple times and timed it [to see if it was a reasonable length]. I had a lot of different ideas for it, which maybe I'll explain sometime if you're interested, but you can hear lots of them in the song easily. I was basically just afraid it would turn out too long. It ended up being 4m48s, which isn't too bad, but is pretty long.

Anyway, tonight I came back to write the final section. Actually, I had written four lines during Math 0180 with Professor Sergei Treil, but I couldn't think of everthing I wanted. So I went back tonight at about 8:30PM or so, after my math review session, while all the kids at home were at band and the kids here were getting ready to go party. I played through what I had, including what I had written in math class, and tried out some new lines for the next stanza... and I left the hall feeling pretty good about it. I don't know when it happened, but somewhere in the walk back to my dorm, new lines came to me, and I liked them better and so I stuck with those.

I got my camera and my power cord from the dorm and then back to Alumnae Hall. The door is getting easier to open by now since I know how to do it. It was very, very dark, and I was afraid that someone could be in there and I wouldn't see them and something bad would happen.

But it was actually a pretty beautiful scene, I think. Alumnae Hall is a very large, open building with a beautiful ceiling and hanging lamps and a wooden floor and beautifully designed windows. This was at about 9:15, so it was dark, and somewhat chilly. The piano /9ft Steinway/ is over in the corner, and the window beside it is always open, so there were gusts of wind blowing in over me as I played. And it was so dark that I couldn't see words on paper, so I didn't even bring my lyrics sheet. This is actually the first time I've ever recorded a song without finishing my lyric sheet first...

Anyway, I started trying to record it sometime around 9:30. I took a few samples just to make sure I got my balances right, and then [between text competitions from Joe and Gina, and news that the band stopped because of the rain, the last set sucked, and Chloe had gotten a kitten], after about five takes, I was able to get a recording that I was actually happy with.

Having to record this way is good and bad. The bad side is, when I want a song to be perfect - and I wanted this one to be perfect - every little mistake means you have to start again. You can stumble over your words or stutter or use a wrong word or hit a wrong note or anything. And if that happens to happen 3 minutes into the song, well, you just lost 3 minutes. Try again. So it took me a long time - I used wrong words a lot, since the verses are somewhat similar in structure/idea - but I finally got it.

Also, as for my "lyric sheets..." When I start writing a song - like, five minutes after I decide "Okay, I'm going to put effort into this," I get a piece of blank white 8.5 x 11 inch paper and write down, with my mechanical G-2 Force .5mm lead pencil, whatever lyrics I have. Usually, when I make a mistake or write something I don't like and decide to change later, I cross it out so that I can see it later... kind of like history or record keeping for myself or something. And I try to align everything left... just because that's how I like it. As for the chorus, I only write it once, and I put a big bracket around it that says "Chorus." I'm not sure why, I'm pretty sure I know where my own choruses are... but yeah, that's it. And when I'm done, usually, I take a couple minutes and write out the chord progressions... but sometimes I do that before I'm done, and they change as I'm going through... but I usually don't end up changing them.

So basically, if you wanted a book of my sheet music, you'd get that. All the words, the words that used to be, and the chords that might still be there, but maybe not. I should work on that - for my own sake - but... I don't know. That's just how I do.

Peace out!