Wild Card: Assignment 4

My assignment for Parker is the following:

Write a song in a style or genre that is completely different from what you usually write.  You are encouraged, but not required, to write using a different instrument than usual and/or for someone else to perform.

My assignment from Josh was to write a song using a simpler harmonic rhythm that incorporated bass notes into the chords, while providing rhythmic contrast in the melody and lyrics.  This was challenging for me based on my limited experience with guitar, but I think it really opened up possibilities for my writing.  I really like the sound of the bass notes, and have realized I've only not included them before because I would just focus on vocals and find whatever simple guitar part would fit.  This assignment has inspired me to try to focus more on the guitar part, and to find creative and interesting ways for the guitar part and vocal part to interact.  The following is my song for this week, called "Sally"

Lyrics [written with each word capitalized, as instructed : ) ]

I Saw Sally By the Side Of the Road

Searching For Her Head

Said I Don’t Know Quite Where It Goes

But I Hope It’s Getting Fed

And I Don’t Know Where the Hours Went

Must’ve Melted In the Sun

Along With Cars And Money Spent

And Prayers For Everyone

Oh, And Take Your Time

Under the Moon These Knots Unwind

I’ve Got Boxes On the Sides Of My Mind

And They’re Filled Up To the Brim

With Thoughts and Dates and Dreams and Plans and Things

And the Lights Are Getting Dim

Sally’s Spinning and She’s Spilling Her Load

It’s A Purple-Yellow Goo

She Said Let’s Walk Right In the Middle Of the Road

So I Emptied Mine Out Too

Oh, And Take Your Time

Under the Moon These Knots Unwind

Rickety Reason, Skip Down Yellow Lines

I May Be Insane, But You Don’t Seem To Mind

Sally’s Lookin’ For the End Of the Sky

With a Flashlight and a Chord

She Said I Know It’ll Be Alright 

‘Cause I’ve Seen This All Before

Writing Someone Else's Bridge: Assignment 3

Rosalind and I were paired for this assignment, so we exchanged songs for the other to add/change the bridge.  The song I gave to Rosiland is called Lovely:

Writing a bridge for Rosalind's song was an interesting experiment. Rosalind's song has a very specific style, and I wanted to maintain the continuity of her style through the bridge while still making it distinct from the rest of the song. I ended up using some chords that she used previously, and trying to incorporate some new chords, such as a B natural.

Adapting Melodic Structure: Assignment 2

I chose the jazz standard Cry Me a River  to analyze its melodic structure and mimic aspects of that structure in my own composition.  Below is a photo of the chart I made of the song structure, along with some of the elements that stood out to me that I sought to incorporate into my song.  (Unfortunately, the image is appearing backwards...  I haven't found a way to fix that, sorry!)

            

Some elements of the structure that stood out to me, and that I sought to incorporate into my song, were the following:  The piece starts on the supertonic above the "ceiling" (tonic); it travels from "ceiling" to "middle" (dominant) and then to "ground" (tonic), then lingers in the "middle;" it incorporates a lowered second; it ends by tonicizing the mediant, implying that the key has shifted to the relative major.  

For my song Counting On Tomorrow, I tried to keep the general structure of movement of the melody.  I started on the second and had the song move from ceiling to middle to ground, then from ceiling to middle, and end by tonicizing the mediant.  I also played around with the tensions created by both the second and the lowered second that are used in Cry Me a River.  

Counting On Tomorrow

Chords:  am   C   G   D

am   C   G   D

am   C  G   D

F     G   C--

Who can change if just they will

Optimism in a pill

Close your eyes and just lay still

Counting on tomorrow

 

The monster in the mirror speaks

Says I know what makes you weak

Don’t think I have any say

But it’ll be okay some other day.

 

No peace

Don’t go, please

No, stay

Don’t go away

See it’ll be okay some other day.

 

Some other

Some other day

Some other day

Some other day

Cover Song: Assignment 1

Me and You

My song Me and You is a cover and mix of three different songs:
Sweet About Me  by Gabriella Cilmi, The Whole World by Outkast, and Whatever You Like by T.I. I got the idea to combine these songs as I was playing one of them, Sweet About Me, and added an extra chord. As I was playing the chords over and over I just started hearing other songs fit with the chord progression and experimenting with them. I eventually chose these three songs because they mesh together well and in interesting ways.

I like that each of these songs has a simple four-chord pattern that repeats over and over again. What changes, then, are the lyrics, melodies, and the ways in which the vocal rhythms interact with the harmonic rhythm. As I was brainstorming with the chords of Me and You, I found myself really enjoying both the simplicity of the repetition and the hypnotic effect it seemed to have. Thus, in terms of their repetition, each of these songs worked well. None of them had the same chord progression as any other, but it was interesting to find ways to work them into the chord progression of Me and You and I think harmonically they all fit with it very well.

I hadn’t thought about it initially, but both Sweet About Me and The Whole World have the same strong, driving rhythm in the harmony as well. This rhythm emphasizes beats two and four. I liked how this rhythm interacted with that of the vocal lines of each of these songs, so I kept that same rhythm for my song.

Trying to find ways to combine the melodies and corresponding lyrics of the three songs was the tricky part. I did not want to just present elements of each song separately with jerky transitions and no flow or mixing, but I still wanted to keep some distinction among the songs. It was equally challenging to make the different sections of the song (verse, chorus, etc.) sound distinct against the repetitive background while still providing an easy flow between them. I’m still not sure I achieved this, and will be interested to hear the class’ feedback. In the final product (thus far), I ended up introducing the elements of each song pretty much separately, and once each had been introduced, I started mixing elements of each together. To some extent, I also relied on the lyrics of the songs to try to create a more fluid product.

The lyrics and messages (if any) of each song did seem to have little to do with each other, but I worked on making some vague connections. I first examined some apparent themes or general ideas produced by the lyrics of each song. In Whatever You Like, T.I. assures “you” both that he wants to have sex with you, and that he can and will buy you “whatever you like.” The overarching idea of Sweet About Me can be summed up by the chorus, which states that there is “nothin’ sweet about me.” Though the lyrics of The Whole World could be read more deeply, for my purposes, I interpreted the section that I used to represent a circus-like feel, which includes this sort of paranoia or self-consciousness that focuses on oneself and one’s seemingly strange and uncomfortable relationship to the ever-watching eyes of “the whole world.”

What I liked about each of these songs—and how I tied their lyrics and ideas together—was that they each incorporated different pronouns. Sweet About Me was more directly about “me.” Whatever You Like was about “you” and all the material things I could get for you. The Whole World was about “them”: everyone else outside of you and me. The seemingly shallow message and means of wooing of Whatever You Like fits well with the idea of “nothin’ sweet about me.” The “me” of Me and You, then, is perhaps crass and unsympathetic, yet still self-conscious about how “my” relationship with “you” is seen by “the world.” Aside from this, though, I do like the sense of randomness and meaninglessness of the lyrics of Me and You, which then produce a sense of apathy juxtaposed to the paranoia and self-centeredness. Furthermore, the sweet and mellow sounding quality of the song as I perform it adds an irony to lyrics such as “you can have whatever you like” that may initially seem selfless without closer examination.

Overall, it was fun and challenging to combine these three songs in a way that made a unique product. I think this will prove to be a work in progress, though. It needs work, and I am eager for suggestions and comments. It might also work well if it were recorded—I can picture layering and overlapping working well with the different compatible melodies.



Chords:

Whatever you Like
i VI III VII


The Whole World
i III VI V


Sweet About Me
I III bVII I


Me and You
I III bVII IV (A, C, G, D)




Lyrics: 

(key:  bold=Sweet About Me; Italics=The Whole World; normal=Whatever You Like)

Sweet about me, nothin' sweet about me, yeah

Sweet about me, nothin' sweet about me

Yeah I'm afraid, like I'm scared as a dog

But I got a new song and I want y'all to sing along, sing along

This is the way we can walk on a sunny day

When it's rainin' inside and you're all alone, all alone

'Cause the whole world...

Tell you something that I've found

'Cause the whole world...

The whole world's a better place when it's upside down

But oh-- you can have whatever you like

You can have whatever you like, yeah

Oh-- you can have whatever you like

You can have whatever you like, yeah

I want your body, need your body

If you stick with me you won't need nobody, see

Nothin's sweet about me, yeah

'Cause the whole world loves it when you don't get down

And the whole world loves it when you make that sound

And the whole world loves it when you're in the news

And the whole world loves it when you sing the blues

Oh-- nothin's sweet about me, yeah

Rainin' inside, but you can have whatever you like

Oh--you can have whatever you like

You can have whatever you like, yeah

Stacks on deck, Patron on ice

We could pop bottles all night, and you could have whatever you like

Said you could have whatever you like, yeah

'Cause the whole world,

Tell you somethin' that I've found:

You can have whatever you like....

Whole World,

Tell you somethin' that I've found:

You can have whatever you like....

'Cause the whole world,

Tell you somethin' that I've found:

You can have whatever you like....

Whole World,

Tell you somethin' that I've found:

There's nothin' sweet about me