Words and Music By
Posted December 5, 2006This is not the update I wanted to post today. I began work on another update yesterday, and the topic I chose was far too interesting (to me) for an 500 word note about it. I started to do some research, and of a sudden the update became an essay. I’m working on that now, but this can only mean one thing: I miss writing essays!
I wrote a lot of essays in college, since my literature classes required them. But I haven’t had a writing assignment in six months, and that’s just weird. Writing is too much fun not to do. I have written many other journal entries on my computer, about my day and my thoughts, entries in which nothing actually happens, which is why I don’t post them here. They are excuses to write, reasons for me to exercise my writing muscle. So when I caught myself doing research last night for the update I was working on, trying to find sources and marking various citations, I realized just how much I miss scholarly writing. (That is not to say that whenever I do post the essay I’m working on it will be scholarly, but that it reminds me what it was like to be an academic.)
I’ve spent the last few days living and breathing guitar. I had some inspiration this weekend, and wrote music for the first time in a long time. Song titles came to me, and sometimes that’s all you need for the music to begin writing itself. I sat down and wrote out music, and I’ve got a list of songs to work on now.
In addition to new music, I finally got around to arranging Take Five (Dave Brubeck Quartet) for two classical guitars, an idea I’d been toying with for a couple of weeks. I wanted to keep it in its original key, E flat minor, and actually use the low notes, which is tough to do on a guitar since your lowest note is usually an E. I solved that problem by tuning only the low E a half-step down, resulting in a nonstandard tuning of Eb-A-D-G-B-e. This changes all my chord shapes, so I had to use some inversions and substitutions. But I finally found an arrangement I liked. I’ll practice it later today, and then give a guitar lesson.
Take Five rhythm guitar tab.
Guitar lessons, by the way, are so much fun! My student is an Egyptian friend of mine, Sarah. She’s an apt pupil, and the best part of the lessons is watching her understand something, eyes gleaming with satisfaction. I’ve giving her a lot of music theory, and after only a month of lessons (or so) I’ve introduced her to the modes. She catches on quick, and knowing that theory will be invaluable for her later. Today we’ll start building chords. I think I’ll show her this video.
Sarah clearly not practicing guitar. Photo shamelessly stolen from her.
All of the music I've been working on recently only makes me want to actually be a musician. I need to find good people to play with and put together some songs. When I return to the States, perhaps my brother, Eric, and I can make something out of the setlist of covers we developed last summer. We'll see how these songs I'm working on turn out before that, I suppose. And be on the lookout for the essay I'm working on! Let's hope these creative juices don't dry up just yet.
