Song-A-Day 2021

Posts from the 2021 Song-A-Day Challenge

Stalking the Aleatoric Whales

Yesterday I wrote about randomization and chance as compositional tools, and they show up again today, but in a very different way. And with a very different result. I was in a different mood today. Darker. Sadder. As gravid and grey as the sky. As has become usual, I had no ideas as I sat down to write. While I should now be used to this as a common starting point, it’s never comfortable, though I have become slightly more resilient and capable of just starting something. Quite often, it’s a sound itself that sparks the creativity, but my brain … Continue reading

Dagian

Pastiche. Nearly every time I’ve heard that word used in conversation or read it in an article, it’s used at least partially as a pejorative. It’s a French word, which came from the Italian pasticcio, which came from the Latin pasta. Which means “paste.” (Which makes the Italian pasta interesting, because the dough for pasta is essentially paste – just wheat flour and water – before being shaped and cooked). But in this sense, it’s paste as in “copy and paste,” which is apparently not a positive trait in music or art. Or is it? Where is the line between … Continue reading

Locus Alienus

Occasionally during Song-A-Day, someone will throw out a challenge of some sort. The standing one is that February 22 is always cover day, where we’re challenged to cover one of the other songs that have been posted during the month. The most direct challenge I’ve received was from Derek Greenberg who challenged everyone during the wrap gathering in 2017 to get out of our comfort zones and try writing things we’d never done before. I took that on and 2018 was definitely a strong year for me. There were hits and misses, but it was definitely an inspirational assignment. But … Continue reading

Kef

As you listen to this track, you’re hearing what giving up sounds like. Not in a bad way, I suppose, but I’ve decided that I’m just stressing myself out trying to force “songs” this month. Both A Tiny Thing and Pigeonhole were surprise appearances, more so than my normal level of surprise when an idea for a song shows up. But there was no lightning strike today, so I was in the studio for about an hour trying out different sounds and textures and ideas, when finally I just decided to start recording what I was doing. Kef is a … Continue reading

Pigeonhole

Ok, here we go, another song with vocals. I had been in the studio for only a short time when, for some inexplicable reason, I started singing the old “The bear went over the mountain” song from my childhood. That started morphing in my head and I fired up the text editor. I think I may have a genetic ability to rhyme couplets. It’s something for which my mother had a strong talent, and she was often asked to write new lyrics to popular songs for community or school functions. Couplets are a weird thing for me. I’ve never really … Continue reading