Music Nut

I wish I was as talented as this girl. This is an original song, and this is her voice and guitar playing! I’m a tad bit jealous, to be honest. I really like the song! I’m angry that it’s not an actual song, because if it was I would most definitely buy it and put it on repeat. I only put my most favorite songs on repeat when I’m scrolling through my iTunes library. That’s a compliment to her.

It sometimes amazes me how deeply music touches me. Writing and music are almost tied on my I-like-this scale. Writing is closer to the top, only because I’m a better writer than musician. I like to sing; I’m not going to lie. I also like to write my own songs. They don’t always make much sense, but that doesn’t matter much. I always write the lyrics first. But those lyrics always come with a melody. One of my favorite parts of writing songs is finishing the lyrics, memorizing the melody for each part, and then just singing it. No, I lied. My absoulute favorite part comes right then. I love changing words and phrases around to better fit what comes out of my mouth. I don’t always follow what’s on the page, but usually I like that much better than what I initially wrote. Of course, after that comes chording the song, which I haven’t exactly mastered yet. But I’m working on that. I’ve been practicing piano a lot lately, and at some point I’ll probably learn how to play my guitar. Eventually.

I don’t ever think about writing songs. I don’t just get up in the morning and say, “I want to start writing a song today.” Usually I’ll be walking in the hallway at school and come up with a string of words in my head. The melody of those words gets so stuck in my head that it starts to drive me crazy, so as soon as I can I write them down. Those are usualoly followed by more words. Usually I end up writing the chorus of a song first, then the verses come later as I try to put in words and notes that fit. A lot of times (in the shower, for instance), I find myself improv’ing a lot. I just sing whatever words and notes come to mind. That’s where a lot of my songs come from. Sometimes if I have a good chorus going I record what’s in my head so I can play it back and get the lyrics written down. It’s really an amazing process. I’ve never really analyzed it before. Hm.

I think I would be a really awful music major in college, despite my love of music. I don’t have a lot of ear training. I can take notes in my head and eventually play them out on my keyboard, but I haven’t been trained to hear a note and name it off the top of my head. With a lot of training I know that can be learned, but at the moment I wouldn’t be able to tell you if you were playing a Bb or an F from across the room. In other words, I don’t have perfect pitch. How awesome would that be?! Dangit!

I’m really good at hearing different intervals, though. You know, like 3rds vs. 6ths, etc. For choir auditions at my school we have to sight read, among a million other things. I’m not that good at sight reading either. But I pick up on melodies and phrases really fast. I can usually memorize a song in a short amount of time if I hear it a couple times over. This proves that I’m a follower rather than a leader.

I’m going to go play the piano some more. This is what starting your homework at five o’clock does. I like it.