This has been quite the summer so far. First off, I have the best job in the world! I get paid to dress like a pioneer every day and make music with some amazing people and sometimes even get paid to go to things like Fantasy Con and promote the park (hence the picture). That was particularly interesting since I even got to add the make-up factor to my costuming. And the people watching. The people-watching at Fantasy Con was quite good and I was impressed with how open and comfortable everyone was. Unfortunately some of the girls got particularly comfortable at the store located next to our booth that sold bustiers and corsets. No comment.
Then, just to underscore how cool the people I work with are, we had a big murder mystery party, with costumes and all, and had a little too much fun figuring out why our co-worker was dead. I love murder mystery parties!
Well, I suppose there is one thing, but it's just that sometimes I get so fatigued from being out in the sun all day that I have very little energy when I make it home. That reflects itself in the fact that I haven't posted in a very long time, especially with music. I try, but it just doesn't happen sometimes. Because of that I sometimes feel like I've completely neglected this blog which is sad when the whole reason I started it was to force myself to step out of my comfort zone and compose things frequently. Sigh.
But I've finally finished another piece! Originally it was supposed to be a choral piece but I recorded it as a string piece and it's going to be for my musical I'm writing. It's only about half of the song, but something is better than nothing right now and at least this time I fiddled and actually wrote my fiddlings down which means I'll be more likely to come back and finish it later.
Again, please let me know what you think and I hope everyone is having an absolutely awesome summer! (Despite the heat. Horrible, horrible heat lately in Utah. Ugh.) :)
It's hard to believe sometimes that summers are never quite so long as you would like them to be. In some ways I'm excited because the closer the school year comes the closer I am to finally being a college graduate. But in others I wish it could continue indefinitely.
At least I can't really say I haven't done anything interesting this summer. It's not often that you have a group of friends willing to do highly unusual activities in public, such as going to movies in your work clothes (it doesn't sound weird, but when you consider I work at a pioneer park it raises the peculiar factor of it all a few degrees). The only thing I wish I could do more of is write music, but with a computer completely down and an overarching laziness that makes me unlikely to notate the good old-fashioned way, it doesn't really happen.
And so instead I guess I should probably start trying to actually write the book/libretto (music training in me begs that use the formal word) of my musical. Not that I'm so far advanced in writing the music, but that I should at least get an idea of the sequence of events so that I can figure out where musical numbers should be placed. Mostly the show, PRIDE, is going to be loosely inspired off events in my life since I'm only ever good at retelling and satirising true stories.
Speaking of stories, does anyone have a story in their life when you didn't feel as though you were being true to yourself or had lost all confidence in you or your abilities? I would love some input and other ideas to possibly incorporate into the book. Granted I don't actually know how many people actually read my blog. I feel a little like Amy Adams in Julie & Julia when she wonders what her audience really is on her blog. Am I currently watching that show? Yes. Does it make me want to cook and blog? Very much so. Anyway, comment or email or what have you if you want to help at all. Maybe here in the future I can even post rough drafts of the script! ;)
Sometimes I feel like I have the most active social life when I'm sitting at home alone on the 4th of July because the person I thought I had plans with told me otherwise with one days' notice. Ever have that happen? Don't get me wrong, I have lots of friends, but when you have not much time it's hard to make much plan (yes, I know how that sounds). I decided to at least be a little productive and actually post at least twice in a single summer month! Look at me being all wise with my time (I say after having just turned off Food Network following a three hour stint)!
To those who actually read and comment on things, that really helps me out a great deal. Obviously if my goal is to write a musical, even if it never hits broadway, I want to at least know what people are thinking of the rough drafts I develop. I still wish I could actually get some live recordings with vocals of some of this stuff so it's not all so lackluster, but c'est la vie ("La vie!" :))
Earlier in March I posted a rough draft of a song I named "Call Me" from this same musical Pride I've been working on. I finally got around to playing around with some ideas for lyrics. I mentioned in the original post that the song idea and melody came to me when I was half asleep, well that included lyrics as well. Unfortunately even the next morning I forgot nearly all the lyrics that had come to my head. They may not have even been that interesting anyway - I was half unconscious at the time, for crying out loud! The only things that stuck were the first two lines of the chorus, which is why they repeat. Keep in mind also that this is a rough draft, so don't be too harsh.
One thing I've noticed is that I'm not that good at creating stories (unless they're stories like Lewis Carroll would write, because I'm really good at nonsense stories - maybe one day I'll post "The Adventures of the Peach and the Apricot"), however I'm decent at satirizing my own life or reworking experiences I am highly familiar with. Lyrics sort of follow the same suit. This is one reason why it can be hard for me to share things because, when it comes to stuff for this show, it's automatically kind of personal. I just want to help others out from the things that I've learned, and this song is meant to give the sort of advice I received from many great friends in my life.
When life hits us hard we often just see all the bad.
It leaves us so frightened, bitter, so angry and sad.
Sometimes when that hits
It's easy to give up,
To throw in the towel,
But, buddy, please don't shut me out.
I'm reaching out.
Call me, call me when the sun goes down.
Call me, call me when the lights go out.
I know you're feeling alone,
You're feeling lost and depressed,
Just know I'm here by your side
And that I'll never rest
To see you safely home.
No, you're not alone.
I've watched you so long, I've seen you have courage, be strong.
To see you like this, I have to admit - it seems wrong.
What happened to joy?
What happened to laughter?
Denying yourself,
Ignoring our pleas and our shouts,
Please just reach out.
Call me, call me when the sun goes down.
Call me, call me when the lights go out.
I know you're feeling alone,
But that's so far from what's real.
You have your friends by your side,
And if you'll just kneel
And ask Him for that peace,
You'll feel that happy release.
Call me, I'll be there by your side.
Never surrender.
Keep smiling through.
Call me.
These are a few pictures of some of my amazing friends who have given this sort of advice to me in the last couple of years. Yes, I'm aware the pictures aren't the greatest, but I suppose that can also protect the identities of the innocent! :)
I know I have so many avid readers that were sitting around wondering in their spare time "I wonder why Jordan hasn't really posted anything lately" and becoming very concerned.
Now that I've put my lame attempt at ego to rest, I will still apologise that I haven't tried hard enough to keep writing. One of the reasons I started blogging was to push myself to write and produce things more frequently and actually get working on all the projects I've been making for myself, and yet that hasn't happened. Oh, well. At least I'm trying to get on it now.
You always tell yourself that summer will be the time that you will work on all the things you don't have time for during the school year, and yet I personally get so busy during the summer that I don't want to spend my free time doing anything except lying on a couch and vegging out after work. I can't complain though since I love my summer job and wouldn't rather be doing anything else!
So here's something very rough I put together tonight. I found I had some free time and finished plucking out a crude melody and accompaniment on the piano and just wanted to see what some of you thought of it. It's going in the show "Pride" I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post and will be sung by the female lead to the male lead who is offstage. After some tweaks I think it will be pretty good. Thoughts? Musings? Concerns? Awkward moments to comment about? :)
Someone to Watch Over You
This is the point where I'd usually share some interesting point of my life to tie it into what I'm planning on sharing with the world, but to be honest not much has really transpired. My life is ever so interesting.
Anyway, I have another song that's fairly new. Just as I was heading to bed a couple weeks ago a melody came in my head that I've tried really hard to remember. I think I still have the majority of it there, but if you've ever been in that situation you know how annoying it can be when inspiration strikes as you're falling asleep. I'm of the opinion that God does that just to make you frustrated that you were almost really awesome automatically and then takes it all away whilst you slumber. Oh, well.
So, back to my story, I hurried and put together something on the piano and recorded it so I could remember it and get something solid I can have faster than what it would take to notate. Long story short, here's a new piece for my musical that is still a work in progress, but this gives the general idea. When inspiration strikes at my bedside again, maybe I'll finish lyrics for it. Ha ha! In the meantime, enjoy and let me know what you think! (But no comments about the playing - I was improvising and kept second-guessing what the next chord was supposed to be. :))
Call Me (Preview)
I'm sure a lot of people have looked at the title of my blog and wondered "What the heck is 'musique fierte?'" It's a little snooty of me, but it's French for "Music Pride" - I chose French mainly because I decided that any English title sounded a bit mundane for music purposes. :)
I chose "music pride" for two main reasons. First: as I've mentioned before I've always wanted to write a musical. I've attempted two other times, actually. The first one was to be called "Nichola & Garredd" and I was writing it with a friend; that's the show the Overture I posted came from. It never made it very far, but my second attempt fell apart even sooner since I hardly had any songs written before I gave up on it. It was meant to be a story of a bunch of young single adults living and learning in Logan. Clearly that worked. It went by the wayside when I felt impressed to write something else, something I'm trying to work on now.
Which leads me to reason number two: this other musical is meant to address something I feel all music could, should, and more often than not does do and that is heal. I think just about any music can be a source of healing for a person, but especially when it's written to that specific intent.
Today, since it's my birthday (yay!), I wanted to post something different. These are "lyrics", for lack of a better term, for what I would like to be the opening number of the new show I'm working on. I have no idea what the music will sound like, but these words put into words how I feel about life sometimes.
"Life is always full of surprises.
That's a common fact, but if there's one thing we need to learn about those surprises, it's that they can completely ruin our plans.
You know those plans, right?
You've had them since you were little.
Your parents have, too.
In school, they had you call those plans "Dreams".
They taught classes on Dreams.
They always started with the same questions.
'What do you want to be when you grow up?'
'Where do you want to go to school?'
'What do you want to study?'
'What do you want to find in a girl or boy?'
'Want'
It's always about 'want'.
They teach you that Wants and Dreams are the same.
Life has something else to say about that.
Life says that Dreams need to meet Reality.
Funny thing, Reality.
It's very unforgiving.
Before too long, Dreams find themselves in tatters on the floor.
Your dreams, usually.
But sometimes your parents' dreams, too.
That's when Pain rears its ugly head.
But I've found there's one thing - the only thing, really - that can ban Pain from Life and reshape Dreams, and that's
Pride.
Not pious, not ego-driven.
Just sustaining, courage-breathing, self- and God-accepting
Pride."
You, whomever is reading this, may have different ideas, but these thoughts get me through my day sometimes. I want my music to have this sort of effect on people so that more people can find that "Pride" for themselves and realise that life is good and they can make it. I guess that's kind of my whole point to this blog. I'm not doing it for selfish reasons, that's not why I want my music out there, I want to make a difference in even a few lives and then it's all worth it.
For the longest time I've had this dream to one day write a musical. I've attempted a few times but nothing has ever really made it off the ground and that's why not only is my name not up on the marquee but I'm also a poor starving college student. Something tells me such wouldn't be the case if I had made it big. Maybe . . .
This song was really my first attempt at songwriting at all. Well, I did some before my mission, but that hardly counts when it was bad. I mean it: those tries were terrible! But this one actually kind of worked. I just sat down at the piano one day and this is what came out. It was meant to be the overture to a musical idea I had that has since died out. Whenever I think that I can't write anything I pull this out and remember that surely I must be able to write something of note if I pulled this off with only a basic knowledge of harmony.
I'm not going to lie, this is all rather nostalgic for me. Do you ever have those moments when you reflect back on where you were x-number of years ago and ponder on where life has taken you since then? I wrote this three and a half years ago. If anyone told me then where I'd end up three and a half years later I don't think I would have believed them. I know, everyone says that. It's not a terribly unique thought, but it still makes you wonder.
Try it yourself. Do you think you're happier now than you were three and a half years ago? Would you change anything? Any major regrets? Anything left unsaid you wish hadn't been? Have you grown? Have you learned? I can say for myself that, though I never would imagine in a million years life would take me where it has now, I'm happy. I don't think I would change one thing in my life now, not one person, not one experience, not one heartache, because it has all made me better in some way and I appreciate that.
Okay, I'm done with my soul-searching ways for today. Everything just got me rambling! On with the song!
Overture in C minor
