Published on
March 23, 2009 in
My Life.
I spent much of my weekend helping friends and family out with music. Saturday was a rehearsal for an upcoming wedding and the second was a gig for my father, playing in his rock ‘n’ roll band. Neither are paid. I just enjoy music and will take any opportunity I can to fit it in to my life.
One thing I have learned through the years is that not everyone who performs is like this. Some are in it for the money, some for the competition, others just like the attention. My Dad (a musician for over 40 years) put it best when he said, “True musicians either play for lots of money, or no money.” I would add to this by saying they would play to thousands of people, hundreds of people, one person or to no one.
Not many people know this, but I have tried to give up music a few times. In the past I have, more than once, declared to myself “that’s it! I need to concentrate my time on something else“. Shortly after this Music, in a round about way, has always responded with a stern “Na huh!“. The most recent example of this was after my daughter was born. I decided it was time to “grow up”. Following this, I went from 0 upcoming gigs to 5 – in less than a week! You win again, music.
Here is a basic rundown of my relationship with music so far:
- » I get severe stage fright and hate being in the spotlight, but continue to do so gig after gig.
- » I look forward to rehearsals as well as gigs and I am willing to keep practicing all night if needs be.
- » I constantly perform freebies for friends and family, whenever asked. Much to the frustration of my very understanding
roadie wife (who often refers to herself as a “musicians widow”) .
- » At paid gigs, the last thing I care about is how much I money am making. The first is how I can put on a performance I can be proud of.
- » I continue to write songs that barely anyone will hear, as if they will be played for millions.
- » I will be recording my next CD this year and I am not worried about how many people buy it.
A work / family balance is presumed to be just that – 2 areas of your life evenly proportioned to ensure you don’t get too much of one and not enough of the other. However, things are much more stable when built on a base with three corners. I choose to selfishly add a third element just for myself. Sure, it would be great to be a singer / songwriter as a career; a dream come true. For now, I just feel fortunate to have music as the counter-weight in my life.
Song writing has been around for a long time. Probably longer than that! Recently I have noticed an increase in lawsuits in the music industry relating plagiarism of one form or another (ie Red Hot Chili Peppers vs. Tom Petty). As a song writer I have started asking myself, how many more combinations can there be for the 12 available notes in music?
My Dad (another songwriter) often says, “You can’t write anything new any more, everything sounds like something else these days”. In some ways, I believe this to be true. However, if you look at the simple Chord structure the “12 bar blues” and how many songs have been constructed over that form, it is obvious to me that the slightest change in rhythm or melody can make one song seem totally unrelated to the other. Look at it this way: 99% of the words in all the worlds books are contained in the dictionary.
Last year I set myself a huge challenge. For the first time ever, I announced that I was going to write a song – and what it would be about. It was a tribute to my new daughter that I would play at her Christening. Everything was organised and ready to go except for one minor detail – I had no song. Most have my songs come “out of the blue” either from a melody in my head to something I work up on guitar. By pre-planning my song I was effectively timetabling inspiration.
I obsessed over this song for a good couple of weeks trying to find that “new” idea. People talk about a flash of lightning, for me it is more like a spine tingle. I got the sensation whilst buying coffee for my wife and I one Saturday morning. I thought up the title: “Welcome Home”. In an instant I knew this was the exact message I wanted to send to my daughter through her song. I also like the way it directly links to the wedding song I wrote for my wife in which the last words are “With you … I’m home”.
The resulting song came soon after that and I class it as one of my best. I played it for my wife who loved it instantly. I have yet to record it but will do so when I release my new CD (hopefully later this year). I have decided that just because writing brand new and original songs these days is hard, it doesn’t mean we should give up.
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